Day 6
August 7, 2014
10:45 PM
Our basketball camp in
Belize has been completed!
I am so incredibly exhausted
– I enjoy being with kids, but there is something about them that makes you
more tired than normal. We had the most
kids we’ve had a camp this week – a total of about 100 kids in the younger and
older group. We also ended the week with
a joyous amount of new believers! A total of 38 kids gave their lives to Christ
their week!!!
The younger kids are always
more of a challenge than the older kids.
There are often more of them and many times we have kids younger than
the age of five; the reason for that is because either parents consider us to
be a free daycare OR older siblings want to come and play basketball but they
are supposed to be babysitting their sibling so they drag them along to
camp. There are also a lot of young kids
who don’t speak English yet, so I had to dig deep and speak what little Spanish
I knew so that the kids would understand and obey instructions!!!
At the end of the camp
today, since it was the last day, we sent each kid off with a new basketball at
the end of camp. There were a lot of smiling
faces that left camp.
During our lunch break,
Stewart drove my mom, Ronnie (one of our team members), and I to Marla’s
House. Marla’s House is a home that
takes young girls out of bad and under privileged home lives to live for at
least a couple months and the goal is to eventually reunite them with their
families. It broke my heart to see such
beautiful girls who had to be taken out of their homes or were abandoned but I
was so blessed to be able to spend time with them.
I almost started crying as I
watched a little five-year-old girl, who had never even seen my mom before, run
up and give her a hug! Her name was Jaylee and she wanted to sit in my mom’s
lap, hold her hand, and play with her hair.
Jaylee told my mom she was beautiful and she loved her hair. It was honestly one of the coolest things!!!
My heart is overwhelmed with emotions just thinking about that moment!
After spending about 45
minutes there, we headed back to the gym and began to check in the older kids
for camp. I have gotten to know some of
the older kids really well and they have been such a blessing this week to me
with their beautiful, loving hearts. Two
young men in particular were GREAT basketball players but what impressed me the
most was the respect they had for all of the girls who had clearly never
touched a basketball before this week.
Another little boy told me
he never wanted camp to end and he thought it would be best if I stayed in
Belize and my parents and I lived with him from now on – he had a very
extravagant plan as to how I would now go to the University of Belize and play
basketball, he would feed the three of us every day and he had room in his
house for us to sleep. I told him I
could leave my three siblings at home so, “No problem,” he said, “they will
love to live in Belize, too!”
As much as I have loved my
time in Belize, my plane ticket is still scheduled to bring my parents and I
home this Saturday so prayers are appreciated as we travel home!
The rest of this evening was
spent at the Cayo Deaf Institute where our construction team has been working
all week. The Mennonite family, which is
in charge of the institute, wanted to have us all out to eat so they cooked us
dinner that consisted of chicken, tortillas, potato salad, (the best) pineapple
(EVER!), and brownies! On our way home
though, about an hour and a half ago, one of our vehicles got a flat tire so it
was quite the adventure as the men were changing a tire in the dark – driving
in Belize is nerve wracking enough in the daylight so to have to be on the side
of the road with no hazards made for a few close calls. We did make it home safely and we now have a
lot of laughs and good stories to tell!
So tomorrow is our last full
day in Belize which will be spent packing up and preparing to leave, as well as
having some fun in Belize City!
Day 7
August 8, 2014
9:30 PM
Today made me thankful
beyond words that we had an indoor basketball court to play on this whole week.
It was the first day that we spent all day outside in the Belizean sun and it
didn’t seem to matter how much sunscreen I put on, I am still fried!!!
Having said that today was
an absolute BLAST!
We left from the Baptist
Training Center this morning around 8:30 and we arrived to Belize City around
9:30. We loaded onto a boat that took us
about an hour into the middle of an ocean to an island where we were going to
eat, hang out, and go snorkeling.
Now, I have been snorkeling
before, but never like this – the coral reef was beautiful and multi-colored
fish were swimming everywhere! We had
two guides and I stayed with the guide, Stacy, in the back; she found me lots
of animals to hold, among them being starfish and the biggest hermit crabs I
have ever seen! I also had the chance to swim with some nurse sharks,
stingrays, and a barracuda. It was one of the more adventurous things I have
done.
We ate lunch at this outdoor
restaurant and they had great kabobs and coconut shrimp. There was a shopping strip down this island,
but we didn’t purchase anything, although we did stop at an ice cream shop
where I ordered Chunky Monkey ice cream, which is chocolate banana ice cream!
After hanging out for
several hours on the island, we took our boat ride back to Belize City. I was looking out into the ocean and I was
amazed at the largeness of the ocean – how I could see where the sky and ocean
touched and the earth seemed to drop off, but you know that it continues to go
on and on – and I thought to myself, I can’t believe I serve a God that is so
much bigger than the ocean, His grace is an ocean we are sinking in, and His
love is relentless as the crashing of the waves.
Day 8
August 9, 2014
12:30 PM
My time in Belize is ending.
I am currently sitting in
the Belize airport, waiting for my plane to take me back to the States. There are a lot of emotions running through
my head as I think about this week. I am
sad to be leaving behind a number of kids.
I am going to miss my team members immensely. I am excited to be home and to see my three
siblings again.
Our plane leaves from Belize
City at 1 pm. We should land in Minneapolis, MN around 9:30 pm. From Minneapolis, we have a 2 ½ drive to our
hometown, where I am very excited to fall asleep in my own bed already! Prayers
are appreciated for safe travels, not only for my parents and I, but also for
the other team members heading to their homes in Texas and Alabama!
In a couple days, I hope to
have posted a video about our time in Belize as well as some closing thoughts!
Thank you so much for
reading updates and supporting my team and I in prayer!
-Courage, dear heart. C.S. Lewis
Lexi
