Sunday, December 30, 2018

The post that I've been hesitant to write

Good News, Great Joy, to ALL people

If you read our newsletter this past Tuesday, I shared some of the spiritual things that we come against in this area.
The back area behind Koinonia


As I became more and more aware of the fact that a lot of the Jehovah's Witnesses live on our street, I was overwhelmed. They seem like there are so many of them. Their building is huge. They seem to have different concepts on if helping hurts.  (in other words, they seem to spend a lot of money on it and a lot of the people who go locally have a good amount of money)

hanging around before Bible study Friday night



As I stated in the newsletter, Nathanael reminded me that we have more on our side.  I would also like to mention that in the same area of street, we have 2 Christian churches. (one Spanish speaking and one Kreol). It is comforting to know that in the physical sense, there are more buildings devoted to Christianity than JW's.
an intense game of "kings" on a Fun Friday


All of this to say I was personally challenged. It is not my responsibility to convince or persuade. It is my job to do what I'm called to do.  I have felt that calling in the way of doing prayer walks on our street. This is where the title of the post comes in. I haven't done the prayer walking yet.  I am hesitant to post this because then I need to hold myself responsible.
Thanksgiving time at Koinonia, everyone brings things to share and we pay for the treats. The funds go to the church's mission trip to Central America


I will be starting to prayer walk on Jan 8. I am hoping to do it every Tuesday, 7am our time.  If you would like to pray with me, please sign up for the prayer emails. (which yes I also need to take more responsibility for!) I hope to share short snippets of the prayers and pictures of our street so you can picture it while you are praying.

we went to Corozal with Koinonia as they did baptisms. Nathanael helped as people were baptized



Thanks for joining with us on this journey. Thank you because without you we would be unable to do what we do.

Happy New Year!


Spring

PS please be praying for us as we prepare for the New Years party, our biggest event of the year.

Saturday, December 15, 2018

Library fun

I have failed in my advent weekly newsletter. I have a pretty serious subject coming up next week for both the blog and the newsletter. ( I let it set in for a little suspense) :) I am still planning 4 weeks of letters, we will just have missed this week.
Zion and Zephaniah at the Library

I have written in the past about the library. It is actually in a building that was formerly a hospital. It was expanded by a man named Sandy Hunter (thus the name of the building)




The younger 3 kids were able to attend a library program over the summer. They learned about how oil was discovered on Belizean soil. They designed a shop with cardboard and other recycled materials.
Zion with the group project she helped make this Summer


We don't go to the library as often as we would in the states. Only the kids have library cards and they are currently allowed only to check out one book per card.  The other issue is that I am still not skilled at driving the three-wheeler. (I stink at it and my carpal tunnel kicks in, leaving my right hand numb; needless to say, I don't really drive it at all)
a rice dinner on the lawn in front of the library


We were blessed to be still invited to the Christmas program for the library.
The kids watched a movie then sat on the lawn for a lunch of rice and beans.

Abigail enjoys her cookie


They were given cookies, candy canes, grapes, and an apple to take home with them.  I consider ourselves blessed to be a part of the community.
rice and beans and plantain. The kids won't eat the plantain or the potato salad


How else do we get books you wonder?  We use our cards from Bucks County library to access them online.  Abigail uses Hoopla a lot (it has a wide selection of graphic novels). Selah and I use Overdrive which has books and audio books.  There is also RB digital which offers magazines.

Selah's cookie


I have to say I am very thankful to be alive during the digital age.  There are occasionally books that aren't available in both the library and electronic form.  I actually haven't figured out why this happens especially with a newer book.  I totally understand preferring the "real, physical" copy. For us, it is about access.  We are thankful that we can have access to books in whatever way is best for us.


Hope you enjoyed our fun and interesting library excursions.




Monday, December 3, 2018

Finding a better way

Nathanael took a Statistics class this fall.  In his "spare time," he is working towards his bachelor's degree. He has one class left, we are all so proud of him.


Zion peeling veggies for Friday night


For his class project, he was to collect life applicable statistics.  Nathanael decided to research the eating habits of the people we work with.  The research was astounding to me.  Most of the people he asked admitted to never eating fruit or vegetables.
Fun Friday night



The main issue for people sums it up to have cost. A lot of healthy foods cost more. In addition, they often aren't filling.  One can buy a plate of rice and beans for 7$ (which includes rice and beans, stewed chicken and coleslaw as the veggie) Buying vegetables is just as expensive or more and it doesn't fill the stomach.
Wednesday Ladies night after eating Taco salad. We played Apples to Apples pictures


We struggled with what this could look like for us. We aren't equipped to be a feeding program. We decided to initiate change in the way we can.

Geneli and Elizani on a Friday night. Chicken Chili is a hit!



We have chosen to use veggies on Friday nights instead of high-calorie non-nutritive snacks.  Both the adults and the children are given veggies. The children are also fed a meal of chili or dirty rice. Wednesdays we changed the menu also. We had been feeding hot dogs. This past month we did taco salad. (we repeat the meal weekly for a month since it's a different group of people that comes each week). We are open to different suggestions. Since most Belizeans eat rice and beans just about every day, we aren't too worried about variety.

Nathanael peeling oranges



Sundays Nathanael thought the best solution would be oranges and bananas.  Oranges are not easy to peel here. They require a knife to peel. We aren't that talented at it. Nathanael asked people how to do it. Next, he's been practicing weekly. In no time he'll have it down to a science.



Thanks for learning a little more about our quest!

Spring