We've Moved!

We are almost three weeks here in Belize. Last week was a very busy week for us which was a welcome change to our previous one! We had a busy week cleaning and moving into our NEW JUNGLE HOME! God has been soooo good! This is how He works in wonderful ways. To make a long story short we found a home to rent that is bigger than we had anticipated, on a property better than we though we would land, and in the budget we needed to be. It was a long string of contacts that lead us to find this place that started a year ago when friends from our church in Canada mention that a friend had parents living in Belize. Since we really don't know anyone here we contacted this lady (Belen) the week we arrived and paid a short visit at her 500 acre citrus farm. A lovely lady and just so happened to mentioned someone that was looking for a house sitter a few weeks back as they were needing to go back to Canada. We proceeded to contact this home owner only to find she had a house sitter already but her daughter's house on the same property was available for rent. Our not so busy schedule allowed us to go visit the house the next day....and what do we find? Hmmmm, the pastor of the church to which we have been happily attending is the housesitter. The property is 15acres of thin jungle with a 4 bedroom home, a play set, a shaded yard, and it's the home of a mission team facility. Wow! From the outside it was too good to be true....and so we walked in the house. Welllllllllllll, the glamour for a few moments was gone! The home had not been lived in for some time and we needed our eyes to see past the dust and dirt. The space and set up was great and we knew a little elbow grease would put this place in working condition.  6 days of cleaning later and here we are. Moved in today! We had mattresses delivered and we get a couch tomorrow. What a great feeling of "home" we have now. We are so excited to be here. A safe, convenient, kid friendly location. We are now on the east side of San Ignacio. Closer to the coast, airport, church, and Spanish Lookout (the mennonite community where we do most of our hard goods shopping).

We have some organizing in our home to do yet this week. Should keep us busy unpacking bins and getting set up. We are starting to meet people and in a country this small it seems we are already "bumping" into some familiar faces. This Sunday Chad invited a couple from church over to our new place next Sunday after church. "Great", I said....."Guess that means we need to buy plates before Sunday, eh"! The church has a pretty even mix of Gringo's, Belizeans and Mennonites.

Saturday we did the local market and got a few more comforts of home like home made yogurt, cheese, and butter and picked out some new tropical flavours to try. We've now had breadfruit a starch similar to potatoes but softer and a bit sweeter and a dragon fruit. I'm getting my crafty fix by experimenting with new produce!

In closing, here's what we are learning and resting in. REST. This is a completely different pace and schedule that what we ever could have had in Canada. It's amazing! Both Chad and I are so thankful for time to reorder our days. We pray and do a devotion with the kids every morning, we work together with them....we pretty much do everything together! I know it may not remain like this as we will need to work on our business plan but for right now we are thankful for this time God is giving us to put Him and our family as the focus. It's so peaceful and laid back and refreshing and FUN! I am finding the quietness and slow pace of life giving me a great awareness of what fulfills me. I find I desire more and more prayer time and it's just easier to live each moment in the Holy Spirit.

A truth that rings close to home that I read this week. "Challenges keep us well seasoned, but to be profitable our struggle must have purpose. Once our life gets a little difficult we get consumed with trying to make it comfortable again. But by doing so we miss a great spiritual opportunity to grow". (Gary Thomas: Sacred Marriage)

I see the truth in this and I'm marvelling in growing and trusting more as we walk this unfamiliar path!

 

Things are going great here in Belize.  We certainly hope all is well back in Canada as well.  We keep trying to share some of our warm weather so we hope it reaches Canada soon! 

 

 

A Weeks Worth

It's been a week. Our weekiversary is today! We actually have a good little routine going by now... not one that will likely stay for too long but for now it works really well for us.

Here's what we've learned in a week living in a third world country. (Side note...before we came here Chad would often refer to Belize as third world and I would slightly contradict him saying, "it's a high class third world though....are you sure it's actually classed as third world"? How quickly I had forgotten from our September trip here....yes, it is definitely third world!)

1.Ok, I've learned a stove is a nice perk but not necessary....we don't have a stove where we are so we use our three burner stove top or eat  a fair bit raw. Thankful for my rather experimental culinary skills we have had some pretty stellar meals the last few nights!
2. We only actually want to go out side between the hours of 6 am and 8am...after that, she's a scortcher! 95 deg not factoring in about 80% humidity.
3. Due to bullet # 2 I learned that I can sweat profusely while doing something as easy as cutting fruit.
4. We have learned the value of showering with cold water twice a day!
5. We have been able to use fresh allspice leave from the tree outside our house to make tea and season sea bass.
6. We had the most glorious tasting mango yesterday EVER!
7. Don't covet  your vehicle .....it's going to get ruined by the roads here anyway!
8. We have learned that living in 521 sq ft of house is possible and quite fun. Ok, one closet or shelf would be really helpful though.
9. Living off grid requires some conscious effort, but we are doing great! We eat by candle light most nights and we are super water conservers because raining season is proving to be not so rainy.
10. It was said to us on day one that North American's living in Belize have to be a bit "different".....AGREED!
11. Going to town every day to the market and doing school work is now our form of entertainment.
12. Having a new routine and lots of time together is feeling amazing we have time to do family devotionals several times a day...this I won't get tired of!
13. chia is super cheap here....it's grown locally in Spanish lookout
14.Flour is super expensive here...it's imported. Like 6-8 dollars US/kg!
15. Thanks dad for the HFH swiss army knife, it's our best knife in the kitchen.


Apple bananas in our backyard!

The papaya tree outside our house....that's a lot of papayas when they're ready!

An almond tree in our yard

Oue cozy kitchen, living, dining, entry of our house! No room for visitors yet!

*** Note  - correction to my last posting: the scripture reference is John 12:20 not Romans. Sorry.

Relentless

So we are here! I have so much to share about what is happening....nothing ground breaking but at this point we just need daily confirmation that we are on the right track. So here we go! I'm going to recall as best as I can our adventure in the first 5 days!

Wednesday August 6th
The Father said, "these are the things I WILL DO FOR YOU"! Now let me share them with you....
1. I will prove a customs official wrong when she says,"relax, there is no way you are going to make that flight but don't worry we have lots going to Houston".
2. I will have a luggage personel come and ask to assist the last person in line (Chad) to see check our carseat so he somehow bypassed the 4 people in front of him.
3. I will help those 3 little kids to run as fast as there feet will take them to the gate!
4. I will get you to the gate 20 min after take off time but in due time to reverse the order from the gate attendant to remove the family of 5's luggage and have them (ok, 4 out 5 luggage bags made it to Belize) put back on the plane and the "family of 5" as we were referred to WILL make their flight!

What providence. We seriously got on the plane and filled the only 5 seats remaining and took off withing 10 min. I now know what glaring stares from waiting passengers feel like!

Next providence.....they let us enter the country! We've heard mixed comments about entering with a one way ticket but we had a favourable customs guard and duty attendant who also was going to ask us to pay 400 Belize dollars (200US) for good like laptop and tablets etc that we were bringing in to the country but somehow after chatting with him for a few minutes he chuckled and send us on our way without paying.

Thursday August 7th
Our first day here. 95 degrees without humidity! Thankfully we had lots of driving to do which is great because the car is the only place we have air conditioning! We bought a Ford Explorer from people we met a year ago and it seems to be a good vehicle so far so thank you Lord for providence of a car! We did some driving around to the local market to get some food and the insurance companies. Just before we left our shipper had asked us who our broker in Belize was. Broker?? We had no broker at the port and no connections. However, true God fashion when we picked up our car from this friend here he said no worries, I'll call Russel, he's handles all my stuff at the port. So, Russels did our broker stuff and we only had to pay  400BZ (200US) for that 1000 lbs of goods we brought in! Wow, that should have cost us WAY more. God is sooooo good.

Friday August 8th
Today was the day our shipment was supposed to be delivered at  4:00pm. We did a few more errands in the morning and stopped at the Macal Rio (river) for a refreshing dip and some fun for the kids who have been doing amazing! True to Belize life Paige's luggage that was left in Toronto had arrived 2 hours later then they told us in the town 2 miles from where we live so Chad and Keaton headed out to meet them and retrieve it. Meanwhile us girls waited at home and had just prayed the shipment that was supposed to arrive at 4:00 would still come even though 2 hours late so that while Chad was in town he could lead them here. And so it was, God heard our prayers and 15 min later we heard the hum of our truck and a big while delivery man behind him. We were able to invite the driver in for dinner before he headed on his 2 hour drive back home. He helped us to correct our 10 Spanish words we learned  for this week and then headed on his way. Really, a lovely interaction!

Saturday August 9th
One more day of errands to collect some pantry goods from Spanish Lookout. The Mennonite town about hour away but hey have a much better supply of raw goods. Ah, the store was about 20 x 14 but I felt at home with flours, vitamins, grains, essential oils.....some of you will understand that comfort! Anyway, we had a very moving conversation with the clerk there. God new we needed some confirmation that even though we still don't know what we are doing here we are not alone. Her story so similar to ours about how they moved here following God's direction but not yet knowing what their exact purpose was. It gave us goose bumps as she told her story so parallel to ours. We see that God is gathering people from across the world to come to Belize for a purpose. This gave us hope and a reminder that we will need to persevere.

Sunday August 10
A day of confirmation. We headed to the church we attended in Sept since it was familiar and we really like it. They played Rend Collective...what more could we ask! Beyond that for those of you who heard the prophetic word spoken over us in our church the Sunday before we left you will understand the providence of God when I tell you that the pastors message was that EXACT scripture. Roman's 12:20-25......unless a seed is dead and buried it can bear no fruit! God is revealing to us every single day that he is here with us!

Today's word was "RELENTLESS"  for me. I feel like God is relentless in showing us that we supposed to be here. It's so overwhelming that I told him today I need an emotional break ....I get it, no need to prove it to me any longer. We are where we need to be!

Love to you all until I can write again.
P.S. I'm not editing because I'm paying for internet time here, so please excuse my type o's!

Some Geat Prayer Time

As we head to bed for our last sleep before our early morning plane ride we do so on a high.  High from the great prayer times we have had over the last couple of days. 

On Sunday our church (Wilmot Centre Missionary Church) had a time of prayer for us during the service.  It was so uplifting and encouraging but also gave us some words to help keep us on our toes.  We are so thankful to our church body for all of their support.  We have attended there for 14 years and we have grown so much over the years.  We want to say a HUGE thanks to EVERYONE and encourage you all to follow the plan that God has for you.  Pastors, Elders and friends; you will always be our church family.  The Sunday school gave us a group photo as well as a picture with a lighthouse on it with a scripture verse.  It is pretty cool because our favourite new song is My Lighthouse by Rend Collective.  Check it out if you haven't heard it, it's a pretty catchy tune.  Then Chester V spoke a word over us.  We were warned that the first 6 months will be hard, that satan will try to discourage us on our journey and that there will be things in our lives that we love that we need to put aside for now, but that amazing things will happen by following God's lead.  There was a promise that when things get difficult God will be there.  The word also said that we are laying a path for many from our church to come to Belize to reach the nation for Christ.  We left church on Sunday pumped for this journey knowing that God is in control.  Still sad to say "see ya later" but full of joy that comes from following the Lord's leading.

Thanks Wilmot Centre Missionary Church.  We love you all!!!

The theme of prayer continued with a great family prayer time tonight.  It was great to have many family members together, even my brothers family via Skype. We all shared, we encouraged and we brought our joy and our sadness to the Lord.  There were tears and there was laughter.  We are so thankful for the amazing family we have supporting us.  We also shared 2 words that have been spoken over us, one from Pastor Rob and the one from Sunday spoken by Chester.  We wanted our family to understand how they can pray for us by hearing these words.  When things are difficult in the beginning we don't want to be encouraged to come home, but we want to be encourage to live in faith and trust that God will provide.  What a great time it was. 

To our surprise our family also had some parting gifts for the kids.  So, back to packing and fitting these new amazing gifts into our bags.  I just finished that task and everything fit perfect!!!

See you later family and friends, this is where the blog finally starts to get interesting and exciting and we hope you follow along.  Please also share with us what is going on with you and your family back at home.  Keep us in the loop, let us know how things are going and certainly let us know if we can pray for you in any way.

See ya later

Chad
and the
 4 other little monkeys ready to swing to Belize

Nuestra casa en Belice (Our Home in Belize)

We are madly jamming in all the last minute details, plans, packing, laundry and good bye visits in our remaining 2 days. It's feeling really good....at moments and torturously emotional at moments when give our last embrace to those we love. Everyone asks, "How are you really doing" and so I'll answer it from my (Stephanie) perspective. It is so very hard to give the last hug and to those we love and who have put watermarks on our life. I will am sad to say goodbye and I will cry a lot in the next two days. However, that does not impede the fact that I have such great excitement for what we are going to experience! Fear can creep in so easily if I dwell on the possibilities of loneliness, extensive heat and big spiders but as soon as I go the God's work I have immediate peace. "There is no fear in love"....and my God love me!
I do think we ought to live like we are leaving the country every day because I find myself desiring such meaningful conversations with everyone we say goodbye to. I find I'm listening better and really wanting to find words of encouragement for those we talk with. Why don't I live like this all time? Why, do I not ALWAYS engage myself in purposeful conversations and not be afraid to share what is on my heart for that person I'm talking with?  A challenge for myself I guess to continue to be vulnerable and bold to share my heart. Often that means speaking in boldness about what God is doing. God has and is doing amazing things daily....truly, daily in our lives and I want to share what  a marvelous, miracle working, loving, faithful God we serve.

So, now to show you were we are heading and what our little....oh, so little casa (home) will look like.  We have been offered to stay in a Lee's ( a "virtual" women to us until Wednesday!) guest house. Her property is for sale and she was looking for a rental place for us but she also while looking for a place for us offered her guest house. So, we though it was a great opportunity to land our feet there and gain some knowledge from a someone who has lived in Belize for 8 years. Lee sounds like a wonderful women and has been very helpful in getting us on route to a great start. So, I've attached a link to the property and some photos. I believe only the bottom three photos are of the guest house. You can also scroll over to the "property history" tab and hear more about Lee's story. Also, a map to give you some idea geographically where we will be in the country.

God has been good to provide even those things that we didn't specifically pray about. We have a vehicle line up to buy from a family that we met there in Sept. He is selling us his Ford (sorry dad) Explorer to us at a great price and right on budget what we had allotted to spend on a vehicle. We have a car rented just for two days to get us to our casa and to get ownership changed. Thanks you Lord for saving us a weeks worth of rental!

If you pray, you can pray that we have a sweet departure from our family. Pray for strength and faith to know the hope to which God has called us to!

http://jeremylavender.com/love-light-ranch/property-gallery

We will be a few miles west of St. Ignacio 

                                                ^   Just above the red arrow is a clearing with a little house.....that's where we will be. It's about 2 miles on a gravel road outside of Bullet Tree.