The last two days of our trip have been very emotional, tiring, but extremely rewarding. We finished placing everything in the brand new resource room today. The children were extremely excited to have a dress up station, chalkboards, and a reading corner complete with pillows and stuffed animals. It was then we realized that not all the animals were stuffed. As we were finishing up the last touches to the bookcase, a rat decided to scurry out from the box. The children found this incident very amussing, the "Americans" on the other hand, not so much. Then it became time to say our goodbyes. So many of the children asked when we would be back, and it was so hard to tell them that we might not. So many of the children could not believe that the room was for them. Several asked "Is this for me?" or "Do we get to keep this?" It brought a tear to your eye when you realized that not many of them had stuffed animals to love at their own house. We made our way back to the place where we were staying to grab a bite to eat, complete some last minute shopping, and pack our belongings. Off to St. Luke's we were! The drive through Belize city was quite different than a drive through Anderson. Traffic was ridiculous and no one stayed on their side of the road. We finally arrived safely to the Black Orchid. We checked in, unpacked, and a handful of us went out to alert the principal of our arrival. After a long and bumpy drive down a dirt road, we came to our stopping place. No, it was not the school, just a big ditch we didn't think the van could cross. So we walked. While walking several children came out to the road to greet us. All of them remembering Dr. Meg from her previous trips and greeted her with a hug and saying "You came back!" This showed us what an impact we could have on a small village with a population of around 100. We talked to the teacher and she said that some painting needed to be done and we decided to bring them lunch and dinner for the next day. We also found out that the older children were having their first ever baseball tournament! So gathered a few things at the store and after a long transition day, and some award winning driving by Kelly, we went back to the hotel for some rest.
This morning we woke up at about 3 or 4 in the morning to some kind of monsoon. It was pouring rain about as hard as it possilby could and Elizabeth and I were consistently praying that we could make it to the school and that rain would not hold us back. God is so good because not only did we make it, the dirt road was a little less bumpy this morning! We knew that today was going to be a long day, but it was well worth it. We started out the morning just getting to know some of the younger kids, because all the older ones were at their baseball game. We organized some of the supplies we bought and fed them hot dogs for lunch. After lunch, some of the team played soccer with the children, some read to the kids, and the others painted the chalk boards in the classrooms. The whole day really just revolved around getting to know the kids and showing them the love that we have for them. After the baseball team arrived back at school, we all ate PB&J, Watermelon, and ice cream together. Once all the bellies were full, we brought kids, two by two into a room where we set out a lot of the things that we brought for them. The kids came in and got a pair of flip flops, a pair of tennis shoes, some clothes, a bag, and a sports jersey. You could tell just by the look on their faces how much it meant to them to have some new things to call their own. This mission trip is all about touching lives and leaving eternal finger prints and our team is showing Jesus to these children through the love that we have for them. There is no way to describe their smiles and big brown eyes when they see you coming to their school. Every person on this team can see what keeps Dr. Meg and the others coming back to help these people.
After a long, but exciting, day we all headed back to the hotel to eat dinner and rest. We are all excited to head back to St. Luke's tomorrow and work for one more day so that we can show more love for these families and help make the school a little better!
And Zach played cricket...
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