The BIG News!!!

Hi All

It's Chad again....Stephanie mentioned some big and exciting news in her last post.  Well, here it is...We are buying property here in Belize!!!  A prayer answered by a God that surprises and delights us constantly when we give our desires over to him. 

Several months ago our closest friend here in Belize who is a very experienced real estate investor who is from Belize told us about a 33 acre property 6 minutes down a bumpy gravel road heading towards a beautiful and growing tourist area here in Belize.  Close to zip lining, cave tubing, water falls, Mayan ruins, luxury resorts and lots of adventure!  So we headed out with our families and took a beautiful and challenging hike around the perimeter of this hilly property consisting of high hills, jungle, fern meadows (the ferns are 5-6 feet high!) and dry creek beds. (it was a dry time of year).  We did bush whack with our machete up a big hill and found we had a 360 degree view of the mountains in the distance.  So beautiful.  We were in awe of the beauty of what God has created! 
Our pictures just don't do it justice.

The jungle

 The beautiful house on the property!  Just kidding.

We were immediately excited but the plan was to wait until June when the listing with the real estate agent expired.  Our partner in this found out about the property through his many contacts and thought it best to wait to save a pile of money.  We were in no hurry so we decided to wait it out.  As we were partnering 50/50 with our friend we knew many factors were involved in bring this deal to fruition so we were not getting our hopes up.  We gave it to God and said whatever your will is we are OK with it.

While my brother was here for a visit I felt compelled to take him to the property to show him what we were thinking.  The original plan was for our partner and us to each build our homes on the top of the hill and severe 5 lots or so along the road frontage below our building spots.  During our hike we found that the property has many great hill top sites.  we immediately rethought our plan to included 10 lots spread throughout the property with a fruit tree/garden area at the front and a nature trail surrounding the entire 33 acre property.  But we still weren't getting too excited because although June was getting closer it was still a long way off and our partner seemed to be waning in excitement for the property.

To our surprise our partner called 2 days later to ask if we wanted to do this deal NOW!  NOW, What!  The owner was eager to do the deal and he would deal with the real estate company to eliminate commissions.  So in 5 days from the hike with my brother we had made a down payment on the property as partners and are going through the process of purchasing the property. 

Today was a big day as we started clearing/ under-brushing the land so see what the lay of the land really looks like so we can start identifying building sites and map out a subdivision plan.   This is done the old fashion way with machete in 100 degree weather.  And yes, this white boy was working side by side with a couple of Belizeans with my machete. We are so excited for this opportunity as property development had always been a dream of ours and God has opened the door for us here in Belize. 

So if a 1-3 acre slice of heaven sounds pretty good to you then stay tuned for more info in the coming weeks and months as our project progresses. 

With the thought of building a happened to stumble across a mahogany lumber sale at our local lumber yard.  I ended up picking up 4 skids of beautiful mahogany lumber for $450 US.  This stuff is beautiful, some of it is 2 inches thick and 12 inches wide!  I sanded a small piece after it was delivered and it came up amazing.  I am looking forward to building a few tables and maybe even a kitchen with this lumber.  I am sure I will post the cool stuff we are able to create with this bargain find.

Anyway, all that to say we are super excited with what God is doing right now and our days suddenly got every busy.  We will keep you all posted as things progress, in the mean time be thinking about the tough winter you just had and the fact that it was 80-90 degrees all winter long in Belize.  Who will be the first to contact us to purchase a great investment here in Belize??!!!

The Last of the Snowbirds

So many new things to tell about but I'm going to keep you all hanging until the next post! So mean but I wanted to take some time to first reflect on our latest and last of the snowbird visitors.

 

We just spent Easter with Chad's brother and his family. The kids were thrilled to have cousins to share beds, clothes, hats, shoes, hair do's, stories, adventure and laughter with. I'm going to do very little writing this post and let the pictures do the talking. We have a good story to tell for almost every picture which  made it a truly memorable and fantastic week.

For us it was reminiscent of our cottage vacations together so it felt very familiar which is always a welcomed feeling for me.

   We toured almost every day. We wore the kids out on hikes, zip lines, swimming and the bumpy, bumpy van rides! The fair skinned red heads who just came out of hibernation from a long deep winter did amazing in the  90+ degree weather we were blessed with. We were able to take our first trip out to one of the two main islands. We chose to spend a day at Caye Caulker, the smaller of the two islands and for me it was the highlight excursion. A small quaint island town where only golf carts and bathing suits are needed! The water is every shade of teal and turquois you can image! We had an awesome paddle boarding experience over pristine water filled with sting rays, tarpons, and starfish. It was a breath taking paddle! By now Mandy is laughing because the experience didn't exactly start out that way. But I'll loose my pride and leave you with a laugh to end this post so that you can all join the laughter.

 

So, we decide to rent two boards. First Mandy and I would go out and exchange off for the boys to go out while the non boarding team watched the kids. Mandy and I got the very quick briefing of how to paddle these things. After a slightly confusing discussion about how we were planning on just handing off the boards to the guys and returning the boards at the end of our two hour rental the guys realizes that Kyle and Chad filled out waiver forms but we had not yet. As he was contemplating making up get out of the water and heading back to the shop to sign a waiver a gentleman walks up to waters edge inquiring also about renting a paddle board. In true Belize form he looks at us and says, "Oh screw it, just go". They prefer business over policy! Anyway, all that so I give the guys an alibi as to why he maybe neglected to remind or explain it was very import to get on the board the correct way. It started out easy but I got rocked off and slid back on part way getting out of the rough water. No big deal.....unless I neglected to notice I was on the board backwards! Let's just say a few of us have erased the time span from then till Mandy pointed out that my board was backwards! I was  a tad bit frustrated and that's never a pretty sight, right Chad! Got her switched around and it was smooth sailing! So, yes. A rather funny moment that we call laugh at NOW.

 

Enjoy the pictures. And feel free to be the next lucky guests to be greeted with fresh coconuts and home made tostones at the airport! Our visitor schedule is now wide open!
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B8ccRnYNUhrxfmFueHZxMU4tek1GbkNuTTJNZGtzQmo0OEZ1WlBOZTNkXzNSMGRTN2M4ODA&usp=sharing_eid
 

 

To challenge your thoughts!

You gotta know something is up....two blogs posts in a week, eh!

Well, you see so much happens in life and it so often is on my heart to share what goes on, what amazing things we've seen God do in our day, what struggles we have etc. However, time and as well as my lack of love for writing usually gets the better of me and I let it be a passing thought. I know my mom has challenged us to write a little more personally about the spiritual things we experience and victories, challenges and miracles that we have experienced. You know she is right....of course she is...mom's are "mostly" right!

So I want to share with you. I want you to be open to something that you maybe haven't given much thought to. Or maybe you have but you choose to avoid the thought because it's scary or it seems childish or silly. Here's the word .....or shall I say "world"!

The spiritual world. The spiritual realm. The spiritual powers.

 

I want to share with you an experience from this week that really shook my day and hopefully my life. In Chad's posting he made a mention that we were feeling a spiritual attack in the last few week. For many of you who know me you're aware of the ongoing battle I've had with depression. With my focus remaining on God and keeping in constant communion with Him it's been a fight but I keep a float for the most part and find more happy than sad days for sure. However, the past 2 weeks I have fallen prey to the lies of the enemy. He fills my mind with self condemning lies that I convince myself of and I had slid quickly into a quiet, sad, and miserable introverted person again.

Now for some of you, this may already seem weird. Blaming this power or spirit for the way I think and act....most times I think it weird too but having had the experience we had this week confirms for me that,

 " Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

Ephesians 6:12

So, Chad mentioned that we had a snake and scorpion on two different occasion in the house. Not totally uncommon for Belize I know but the timing was to perfect. The kids were feeling scared on the first occasion and Chad went up and prayed with them. Chad has become very good at discerning and speaking with authority to satan lately as he definitely believes in the truth of the spiritual world. So, Chad prays with Keaton that any power of darkness or the enemy that is in the room, "leave!" He no sooner kisses the kids and turns to leave their room to see a scorpion running  out their room. For most you may think weird timing. We are coming to see it otherwise. Satan knew he wasn't welcome and true to God's word which says,

 

"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

James 4:7

 

 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. Matthew 10:1

 

"All the people were amazed and said to each other, “What words these are! With authority and power he gives orders to impure spirits and they come out!”

Luke 4:13

We know that satan was manifesting in that scorpion and fleeing the room. Chad killed it! He got smushed several times with my slipper!

Two days later was a similar instance when we found a yellow jaw snake in the living room. It too got machetted to death. It was after these two instances when my mom sent us a rather interesting verse that we had not seen before.

"I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you."

Luke 10:19

Wow, this was confirming that the enemy chooses to manifest in forms of snakes and scorpions!

Fast forward to this past Saturday. My sadness was as it's peak and our household was definitely feeling the effects of my defeat. As we lay in bed Chad prays. For me, for us and he prays full of hope. I however feel so defeated I can't even pray. I know if I just cry out He will come and rescue me but my chains are tight and I can't even convince myself to muster out a prayer. Satan binds us that way. But I want to be rescued from this darkness that steals my joy and hope so at the very least I cry out in my head. It's quiet outside but inside I scream, "LEAVE ME ALONE! SATAN LEAVE ME ALONE I DON'T WANT YOU HERE!"

I kid you not, immediately we hear a thud behind us. I wanting to ignore it and pretend like nothing is wrong but Chad who has so much better discernment than I turns on the light to find a scorpion in the window sill behind my head! I jump out of bed in tears and trembling fear. No, not so much because of the scorpion but because I KNOW what that scorpion is a manifestation of. The enemy.

 

We immediately prayed a quick prayer claiming authority over the enemy. As we turned from our quick prayer we could no longer find the scorpion. Ok, when I say we couldn't find him I mean we moved the bed the shipping containers which serve as bedside table the sheets the curtains the searched the closet the upstair and the downstairs. We looked everywhere. However, as were hunting for our kill Chad felt the Lord say to him that he wasn't going to find this one. He wasn't going to kill this one, this time like he had the last two. Why you might ask? Well, the answer is found in the verse following the one my mom had sent us earlier in the week.

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰ However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Luke 10:19-20

As we read in verse 20 God warns about boasting in OUR ability to drive out these spirits. Chad confessed that he was feeling a little to confident in his ability to squash satan.

Wow, is God's word not true and living for us each day!

So, needless to say it was an emotional night and I stayed up till 2:30 praying, listening to praise music and reading my Bible to get me to a place of peace enough to go back to bed.

One might think the story ends there. But the enemy does not give up that easy. He is out to destroy the work of God. The next morning, Sunday. Get to church for worship prep and our worship team leader starts mentioning about his awful night. He proceeds to tell me that at 2:30...yes, the exact time I felt peace in our home that at that exact time he woke to strange sound and he reached for his phone/flashlight he was stung twice by the scorpion sitting on it. Satan left our house and decided to move to the next member of the worship team in an attempt to discourage and take away the worship we were to give to God the next day. Crazy eh!

Well, I'm thrilled to say that God has the victory! Despite a numbed hand for our guitar player we had an amazing...actually our most moving morning of worship since the beginning of this church. Praise the Lord for the freedom and authority and victory he gave to each of us.

 

All this to say that my eyes have been opened to see the spiritual world a little deeper. It's there. We need to see it, recognize the enemy and claim the authority God has give us to drive him away! I told chad that it still feels funny to speak out loud to the enemy. It does. But it works!

¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷ I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit^[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. ¹⁸ I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. ²² And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church.

Ephesians 1:16-22

WOW, has it been that long?!

Hi All
Chad here.  Time for my first post on this blog!  Lots has happened since our last update:  Work permits, new sprouting system, my parents came to visit,  another visit to Hopkins, we slaughtered chickens, building a greenhouse, fending off satan's attacks, ordering 4000 pounds of seed, we prepare for the visit of my brother and his family.  WOW, when I write it all down  I guess we have been busy.

After lots of paperwork and many trips to the capital city of Belmopan our work permit, dependent permit for Stephanie and the kids Student permits have all been approved!!!  I am used to lots of paperwork and red tape having worked for a bank but this took it to a whole new level.  We were outright asked for a bribe to make things happen quicker but after calling their bluff we were issue the permits.  This allows us a temporary permit to work for a year and then we would have to apply again unless we were granted residency by then.  We are praising God for making this happen so smoothly.

Sprouting
Our test system we first build when we got here has been working well and has been feeding our 16 broilers and 13 laying hens.  But it was time to take things up a notch.  I have partnered with a friend from church to take our business to the next level.  He became interested in sprouting after we explained the idea to him, he did a lot of research and said "I am in".  Nery is his name and he has land and experience with animals of all kinds.  He is a very handy guy and has taught me to look for out of the box easy solutions for everything.  We have designed a new much larger sprouting system which we placed in a big concrete building he has on his property.  The system is capable of growing several hundred pounds of sprouts per day.  Our first batch of barley sprouts in the new system grew amazing well and much quicker than our system located at our house.  We are now is the process of ordering several thousand pounds of seed to start growing enough barley fodder to feed several different types of animals.  We are also importing seeds to grow micro-greens and other sprouts for human consumptions. To grow our micro-greens we are building a small greenhouse out of pvc pipe and some plastic and greenhouse mesh.  Everyone we speak with has given us positive feedback on our project so we are excited to get the new seed and get things into full production.  yeah, then we can make some money!!!

 

 

The start of our new greenhouse.  The design changed part way through as you can see by the pictures.  The pvc was not bending like I wanted!

  

I wanted to build the system out of steal tubing and plastic or stainless steal trays.  Nery convinced me that 1 x 3 pine and some steal roof panels for trays would work just fine.  And he was right!  1/10th the cost of my way!!!  Lots of room to expand this system with 3 more identical pods.

Our first barley harvest from the new system.  8 days, no mold and beautiful stuff.

 

The most amazing pepper plants I have ever seen.  Inside the greenhouse of our new organic vegetable supplier and friend, Abdias.

Skype and FaceTime is so amazing to see and be able to speak with family but there is no substitute for a visit.  My parents came to visit in February and we had such a good visit.  Just as it was for Stephanie's parents when they came to visit us over Christmas my parents had a quick peace about our adventure here in Belize once they saw the network of christian friends we have developed here and all of the great things God has us working on and helping with.  My parents were able to help us feed the kids at the local school which we help with once a week.  They were also able to come with us to the Learning Centre where we help kids with their homework, play games and draw pictures.  My parents also treated us to 3 days away at an amazing resort in Hopkins called Jaguar Reef or Almond Beach.  What a great time together as a family!  The kids played hard in the pool and nana and papa got some great sun burns in the hot Belize sun!  Papa was the lobster man he was so red.  Keaton, my dad and I also ventured out to the reef for some fishing.  Unfortunately fishing was not so good that day and we only caught a few small ones but it was a great boat ride and a beautiful day on the water.   Thanks mom and dad for the great adventure and wonderful visit.

The whole crew on a traditional Cacao farm tour.  What a great time with Edgar and Victoria. 

Stephanie, Nana and the kids at the top of the Mayan Ruins.  Dad and I don't like heights.

Nana and the kids reading at the Learning Centre

Papa helping the kids with their homework

Ice Cream stop along the Hummingbird Highway on the way to the resort in Hopkins.  7 ice creams for $4.75 US!

Jaguar Reef Resort.  A slice of paradise.

 

 

 

After 5 months of tender loving care it was finally time to slaughter our first batch of 16 broiler chickens.  Commercially grown chickens are ready for slaughter in 8 weeks but we grew ours nice and slow on our home grown sprouts.  Our broilers were getting so old that we discovered that 3 of them were roosters who began to show their stuff....at 2:30, 4:30 AND 6:30 in the morning.  So we packed up the chickens in our shipping bins and carted them over to our friends place for a Saturday morning chicken slaughter party.  As a banker I have never slaughtered a chicken before and Stephanie was a little rusty from here childhood so we enlisted the help of our friends Nery and Marien.  We had a great morning chopping off heads, dipping in hot water, plucking feathers, cleaning out gizzards and chopping chicken into pieces.  The whole family was involved and we were so impressed that the kids were right in there helping out.  Then we cooked up some chicken with onions and potatoes on the fire and had a little chicken feast.  It is so satisfying to eat what you raise.

 

 

Satan's many forms: God has been so good to us throughout this journey.  He lead us here so we certainly praise him for his provision, safety and health that He has provided.  But we also know when we meet with others that have a similar story to ours (yes, we are not the only crazy ones here, there are a tonne of us!!) that Satan wants to distract, deceive and throw us off of God's plan.  Just a few weeks ago we experienced this after a great night with 2 other families that share a similar story to ours.  we had a great night of singing, playing guitars and the kids playing together.  As the kids went to bed Keaton called down to us that he was scared as he recounted a story about scorpions that was told earlier that evening.  As I always do when the kids are having bad dreams we pray together and ask God to be there with them and we command Satan out of our presence by the authority of Jesus Christ.  Yes, God gives us the authority to tell Satan to "Go to Hell".  After we prayed Keaton said he felt at peace to go to bed and as I turned to leave the room a scorpion was fleeing from me from Keaton's room and headed to Paige's room.  I must say that we have only seen 2 scorpions in the house in 7 months so this was a huge surprise to see this.  Immediately a shiver went up my spin and that told me this wasn't a bug we were dealing with but an image of Satan who was fleeing because of our prayers.  I threw a basket over it and grabbed a shoe and beat that scorpion to a pulp.  We rebuked Satan for his attempts to discourage our family and told him we would crush his head if he came into our house again.  Everyone slept peacefully that night.  Fast forward two mornings and Stephanie comes running upstairs at around 6:00 am.  "theirs a snake downstairs".  Again, we have never had a snake in the house and have only seen 3 snakes since being here in Belize.  Again a shiver went up my spin which told me Satan was here again.  Before heading downstairs we prayed that God would stand with us and we rebuked Satan for coming into our house again.  We went downstairs and pulled out couches and chairs until we found a 2 foot long yellow jaw snake curled up in the corner of the living room. (you can do the research if you wish to know how dangerous a yellow jaw is!)  With machetes in hand we cut satan in two and tossed him outside.  Again we rebuked him for coming into our presence.    We know that Satan tries to throw us off of God's plan but this is the first time i have seen such a real likeness of Satan in my presence and it was a shivering experience.   But God is good, he protected us and stands with us and helps us to recognize when we are not flighting against bugs and snakes, but the evil one himself.  I encourage all of you to also pray for God's discernment and take God's authority to rebuke Satan for being in your presence.

As we work away on all of our projects we look forward with great excitement to our next visitors.  On Good Friday we will welcome my brother and his family for a 1 week visit to Belize.  We are excited for the kids to see their cousins again and show them the sights and sounds of Belize.  We have an action packed agenda ready and waiting for them!!!  We so appreciate our visitors and the sacrifice of time and resource it takes to come and visit us.  These truly are special times!

Well, I think I was much too long winded and I may get banned from writing future blog postings so I must sign off for now.

One last picture.  La Ruta Maya is a 4 day canoe race across the country.  Who wants to race with me next year??  There was another Canadian team in it this year. 


We love you all!

Chad

New

Happy New Year!
New...what a great refreshing word. "New". Maybe I'll focus on the 'new' today to give you a quick (ha, I always think it will be a short post) update in a few areas of life for us.
First off we are still marvelling in the wonderfully encouraging and fruitful and fun visit we had with my (Stephanie) parents over Christmas. Wow, God is good to have allowed them to come at such a time. Made Christmas so easy for us all the while we have many new friends here in Belize who have such a similar story to us and were unable to spent their Christmas with loved ones. Thank you Lord!

Loved ones. That will lead to my second praise that we marvel in almost daily. Our greatest prayer before coming was that God would provide good friends for both us and the kids to be surrounded by. He hears the prayers of his people indeed and he give us the desires of our hearts! We have several families that we get together with several (ok, about 4 or more) times a week! They are amazing believers in the same powerful God. We are each on a different journey in the same place doing life together and it's awesome to see God provide in so many ways. We learn an incredible amount from each others victories and trials. I feel that my heart will be forever divided and torn now. We have family and friends at home that we love and we now have friends that are as close as our family here. What a blessing they are!

New on the work front: Today Chad registered a business. Shoots Alive is the name of our company. That is the first step to getting a work permit which will allow us to sell product and hopefully draw an income sometime soon as well as bypass the need to go to immigrations every 30 days to get a stamp and approval for an additional 30 days in the country. There is a fee to this as well so we will be happy when we can apply as dependents under Chad's work permit. All in good or God's time though.

New also is the next phase of our business. We have had a great success with our mini sprouting system. We are feeding our 16 broiler chickens fresh sprouts several times a day and juicing barley grass for our morning wake up drink. So, now we are moving onto a building a second system with some modifications. We need to source as much as possible from here in Belize. The import fees are too high to make it feasible to sell the system without sourcing it here. Chad heads out tomorrow to see what we can get made here. The next system will be automated. Right now we are hand watering due to several reasons. One we have little plumbing expertise and second there are some parts that we are unable to get here that we need. They are on order for the next system and will be smuggled...I mean brought in with Chad's parents. (Don't worry Mom, I'm kidding!)

The next "new" thing God is doing is exciting for us. We have had a heart for the village people (locals not the YMCA singers!) since we got here. Through circumstances we have decided to leave the church we were attending and start a new church with the same pastor that was at our old church. Although we don't have a building in the village yet to host church we are hoping that in time that God will open a door to have the church very accessible to villagers. So, we went from a church with 300 + people to .....94! Pretty good for the very first Sunday! It's pretty informal yet as we have only had one Sunday together but you can pray that with all the pieces that need to come together yet we would all be spirit lead and the appropriate leaders would arise to fill positions. We are excited to see what God does.

New at home: We have new neighbours. Ok maybe we are the new neighbours still but the Canadian's that own the property we rent on are back. Chad picked them up from the airport on Tuesday and it was our first time meeting them. Lovely people that have been running several mission projects and teams here for about 10 years. We are also excited at the opportunity this may bring for us to learn and help out with missions teams.

New on our hearts: It has been amazing to see how slowly and surely God has been putting puzzle pieces together for us. I'm thankful He doesn't reveal things to us any sooner than we can handle. Amen? It has been through several different ways that God has challenged our thinking and broadened our thoughts on "this time we are in". We have been reading through the Bible from the beginning with the kids. I've actually never done that yet! True. So, we came across the teaching on Sabbath (or Shemitah) years in Leviticus 25 where God says to plant and work your land for 6 years but the 7th is to be a year of rest for the land. It was meant so that God could show how he provides for us. Then we were introduced to the Jubilee year. Where after every 7 Sabbaths/Shemitahs (each Sabbath is 7 years so 7 of those equals 49 years) is a Jubilee year, that being the 50th year. The year that all debt is repaid and all land returns back to it's rightful owner. In researching we been made aware of many significant world events that have occurred on these Sabbath years. Very interesting and thought provoking studying! I'm thankful that God has first showed us his greatness and providence in our life and we are now ready to expand our understanding and discernment in this area. This was part of our fruitful visit with my parents as well as they have also been studying the same topics without us ever have talked about it!
If you have interest in this topic and want to see how the world and NASA events and predictions line up with God's already spoken words here are a few links to get you started.
http://mikebickle.org/resources/series/daniel-studies-in-the-end-times
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iE3hqqdQt88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVCcZF2Yfn4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvn9cSHJLQk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsPyne-kjoA

Don't worry we haven't gone off the deep end! We are just opening our eyes and hearts to what God is showing us and seeing that He has ordered this world and He is in control!

My final "new" is the blessing of each new day and each day I have the opportunity to start afresh. And each day I have "new" mercies just for me. I need them. We all need them. I am thankful that in my imperfections God is doing a new thing and where I am weak he comes to make me new and stronger IF I let him.

We are blessed!
I will leave you with this song that comes straight from my heart. It speaks to me all day and I pray it does for you to. The words are powerful and so true for my life.

"Yet I am confident of this:

   I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

 Wait for the Lord:

Be strong and take heart and wait on the Lord."

Psalm 27:13-14

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQan9L3yXjc

Hopkins Retreat

A quick post as life this week and for the next week are very out of routine for us. Out of routine but not unwelcome.
Saturday was the day our family was anticipating for many weeks. We picked up Oma and Opa from the airport! What an exciting day and joyful reunion. They were met with hugs, smiles and so much excitement to show them around our new country. I'd like to share with you what they felt at first sight and first thoughts but it would be better shared right from the source. So, if you would like to follow my mom's travel blog for the next two weeks I know she is being far more diligent than I and plans to blog every day about our time spent together. Maybe it will you the itch to come visit too! So,  you can follow all of us at:
www.visitingour5littlemonkeysinbelize.blogspot.ca

Today we arrived in Hopkins. A coastal area south from where we live and we at a lovely small quaint resort. We will enjoy the sound of crashing ocean waves and cool dips in the pool here until Saturday and then return home for Christmas preparations.

Life is going so well for us, although in many ways it's still so much the same. I'm constantly reminded that life is what we make it. No matter where we are we still have the mundane tasks of living to accomplish. So, we can choose to do them reluctantly or we can choose to rejoice in them and make it a joy to do these tasks. In finding joy in the everyday jobs we can make our homes such a more pleasant place to be and teach the kids have fun doing them.  I've had the immense joy and pleasure of spending a lot more time in the kitchen with Paige. She is blossoming as a little baker and chef extraordinaire! She has helped to turn my tasks into precious moments together.

We continue to sprout our seed and it's going well enough that once our company and Christmas has passed we have plans to build our second and larger sprouting system. We will be making the next system automated so we don't have to water them 4 times a day. So, Chad now will get to put on his engineer hat to design this next unit. Interest in the sprouting continue to grow with each person we talk to about it and we are very hopefully for what God has in store as we move forward in this endeavour.

God is good, all the time and all the time God is good.
We wish you all a blessed Christmas season and pray, truly that you would celebrate the life and birth of our saviour.

Love to all.

GO TIME!

Today is an exciting day for us! No, not because it's 83 degrees here and snowy and white at home....we actually all lamented a bit about missing the excitment of waking to the first dusting of snow. No, we are building!

Last week we had 500 lbs of seed arrive with some trays. I'll back up the train to explain for those who are unfamiliar with our vision for employment here.

Sprouting for human consumption and for animal feed was a relatively new concept that we were becoming aware of  a few years ago. We started to grow and consume sprouts or micro greens in our home. The cows that were being raised on our farm before we left were also consuming barley fodder or sprouted barley. I won't go into details about the nutritional benefits of consuming spouted grains and seeds but we truely believe in it and it spurred a passion in us to bring it with us to Belize. It seemed a viable option because essentially you are growing feed hydroponically where weather and drought will never effect your crop and you can grow the equivalent of 700 acres in about a 20' x 50' space. Anyway, to not bore you with the details you could simply google "barely fodder" and "micro greens" to unleash a world of knowledge if you so desire.

 

We had in our mind upon coming, that this was where our passion lied and we saw it would bring benefits to  Belize too. So we (mostly Chad) have been doing research and seed sourcing since we've been here. See....we have been working, we just didn't have anything to show for it yet! 

We were taking it slow and not wanting to jump into a business too fast because we also were very prayerful in the "what" we were to do here.

You know when your passion lines up with God's plan it's an amazing thing! It was about two weeks ago when Chad said he really felt the Lord press upon his heart that is was "go time". Time to get to work and move quicker with this business plan. Chad was thrilled. Thrilled that what we desired to do was what God was ordaining for us too!

Here's the great blessing of walking of in His plan. We approaced the Ministry of Agriculture to seek their support and get a referral for a business license and work permit. There were several stipulations to getting a farm permit that we did not meet. One being that we needed to own land.Oh us of little faith for a day doubted a little that they would laugh at us and dismiss our idea. Further more in Belize these processes can take weeks! But, we are learning that when God says go, He paves the way. We had the Ministry of Agriculture visit our "farm" (we are not a farm at all and we don't own this land), write us a glowing recommendation for work permit, write a letter of referral to get import fees waved at the port where or shipment was coming into and had 110% support and excitement for the business the same day we contacted them !God is sooo good!

 

So, this week has us building our racks to hold 20, six foot long trays to move to phase two of our testing. We will be growing barley, tritacacle (rye and wheat), peas, and sunflower seeds.

 

We are alway thankful for things like this that give us new excitement. We are exstatically awaiting the arrivale of December 12th when Oma and Opa arrive! Our first guinea pigs to see what life is like in Belize. We are so thankful that both our parents are young and able to come visit. Our weeks are fairly routine now and we truck through 5 days of school work, house hold duties and volunteering with little time to miss home. It is on the weekends that I have found missing home creeps up a little. The good thing is we don't miss our house or our lifestyle or anything material....we just miss the company of our loved ones and friends. We couldn't ask for anything better to miss.

Hope to share some pictures of our crop soon!

Love to you all!