Belmopan Church of the Nazarene
Well, my squad and I are almost 4 months into this crazy missions trip called “The World Race” and I can’t tell if they’ve felt like 4 days or 4 years. My team has, unfortunately, had to part ways and split off to work with others on our squad. Expecting more time together made it hard for me and my team mates to separate for this next chapter of the race, but we all knew that it needed to happen in order to more effectively love on and pour into the other brothers and sisters that make up our squad. If you want a more in depth look into the life changing relationships of the team I’ve been working closely with so far, check out this blog that my brother, Jonathan, wrote about the team: December 2016 Missionary Spotlight: The Comeback Kids.
His words do far more justice than my own as to who I’ve been living with these last few months.
So what am I doing this month??
This month is what world racers generally call MANistry Month! It’s basically what you’re thinking. This month all the men of the squad come together for the month and do ministry together to pour into each other like only men can as well as become more unified in the ways the men of this squad serve the women we have the honor of working along side.
THIS month, however, is different. This month we got the surprise of adding an extra country to our list of 11. Belize!!! In Belize the ministry we are pursuing is calling “Unsung Heros”. Essentially, UH means our team is going into Belize with no place to stay and no specific ministry plan other than to find and reach out to as many missionaries and ministry opportunities for future World Race Squads. We are given a list of some contacts to start with and sent into Belize with a very low budget to live off of. We’ve had to trust God to provide everything from the day we left Guatemala and He’s been ever so faithful to provide everyday since!
We are currently living in a small place known as the Capitol of Belize, or, Belmopan. This country has a population of roughly 300,000 people. Yeah… not many people filling this country. But God has brought us to safety everywhere we’ve gone in order to lay our heads down each night knowing that we’re right where He wants us to be.
As we were contacting potential ministry hosts we were wondering where God was going to provide the commitment we needed in order to host an entire squad (7 teams) in the month of July. (Oh yeah, we need to try to find at least 7 new ministry hosts for AIM all within the few weeks we have here in Belize.) As we worked towards making as many connections as possible our gracious host for the week asked us if we’d like to go with her to church on Sunday Morning. She was hoping we could meet her pastor and talk with him about future partnership with AIM. Four of us decided to go while the rest stayed back to make more efforts to reach out to various local ministries.
Time For Church!!
Now fast forward to driving up to Belmopan Church of the Nazarene on Sunday Morning. We could already hear the whole church loudly filling the building they met in with praises to God. As we walked in we instantly felt immersed into the caribbean-ized culture of Belize. It was about as close as we could get to Jamaica without actually being there. Pretty soon we were shaking the pastor’s hand and yelling over the praise and worship where in the States each of us are from. Next thing we knew we were raising our hands, lifting our voices, and clapping along to what I can only describe as a raggae version of How Great Is Our God and How He Loves (along with other praise and worship songs). We instantly had big smiles on our faces as we shamelessly worshiped with people we’d never met before.
After our lively time in song we all sat down and I was pleasantly surprised when the excitement for God’s love and grace was only beginning. The church then arose together in taking turns giving testimony to what God has been doing in their lives this past year. Never before have I seen a church yell, clap, and “Hallelujah!!” over the simple truths that they clung to.
Some simply said,
“God is a god who saves. It is by his grace that I am here today!”
Others confessed,
“I felt an overwhelming peace overcome me and I knew right then and there that I needed to come to church this morning. And here I am!”
“I’ve been involved in this church for a very long time and my heart for the youth here has never ceased to pray for them. So I challenge you youth! We serve a God of power and grace, so you too can pursue this world with power and grace! That is the testimony He has given us to pass on to you!!”
I could go on…
This church is unified. This church knows how to rally behind what God has given them instead of divide because of their preferrences on how to remain comfortable as a church. Just a few nights before, they had a rally in Belize City where people shared their stories and testimonies. They worshipped in song and prepared skits to reach out to the people of Belize City. They brought Christ into that dark place. Belize City is currently very dangerous and there are people and gangs who are fighting over territory there. Since the new year, 6 people had been murdered in 6 days. Did that stop this church from taking their youth there to spread the Gospel?? NO!! I was amazed by the vision of this church. They spoke of love and service to the poor and hungry. They spoke of the church functioning as the church should always function… They spoke of the imperfect reaching out to love the imperfect because The One Who is PERFECT desires them to do so.
Soon we were singing again and there was not a single man, woman, or child who wasn’t singing with all of their hearts. Absolutely beautiful.
Wow. What a church. After that, Pastor Louis Wade gave a passionate sermon on being chosen by God EVEN when that means being hated by the world as well as by the people closest to us. He then opened the floor for those who wanted to accept Christ into their life. He shared the Gospel in it’s entirety and challenged anyone and everyone to come forward and humble themselves before the Lord and seek His mercy and Grace. That day, many men, women, AND children came forward and gave their lives to Christ!!
This was Sunday morning at the Belmopan Church of the Nazarene in belize.
To some of you this church may sound completely radical and uniquely set apart compared to what you know the church to be. To others this church may sound completely normal. But I can tell you this:
This church know’s it’s role in it’s community AND country. This church not only reaches out to it’s neighbors, no, they reach out to wherever they see Satan working and charge in to completely deny him any part of their home in Belize.
As Pastor Wade reminded the church, “If we lift Him up, then He will draw people unto Himself!!”
Folks, I want you all to see and celebrate with me the work that the Lord is doing through these people. They have youth ministries, Children’s ministries, Evangelistic outreach, rally’s, etc. Heck, Pastor Wade has a nation wide news station that reports political news, sports news, weather, etc. and is actually a powerful voice towards the political and spiritual condition of the country! Folks, this church is only getting started! If you talk to Pastor Wade, within the first 10 minutes of speaking with him he will tell you that they need a lot of prayer. He’s a humble man and this small church of maybe 100 or more know they aren’t perfect. Yet they run hard after God anyways.
This is the type of ministry that the Lord chooses to use powerfully. This is the type of ministry that God uses to revive entire countries. So please join me in prayer over this church, the city of Belmopan, and this country as we boldly seek the Lord’s Kingdom here.
Prayer Requests:
1. Please pray for the people of Belize. Specifically for the people of Belize City. There’s a lot of danger and darkness in that city and the Christians who are here need prayer to be emboldened and protected as they go out to share the Gospel.
2. Keep in your prayers the Belmopan Church of the Nazarene and Pastor Louis Wade! These brothers and sisters in Christ are in a good place for sure, but also have plenty of growing to do. Pray that God continues to provide their every need as well as use them powerfully to bring about revival and redemption to this country. Because of the ways that they have so boldly stepped out to further the Kingdom in Belize, they also attract a lot of attention. So prayers for their physical and spiritual protection are importnat!
3. Pray that God prepares the hearts of future hosts for future teams here in Belize. We need to find enough ministries to host 7 teams this July. It’s only going to happen by God’s grace and provision, so pray that He goes before us to prepare ministry hosts for AIM.
4. Pray for our team. This team of men is awesome! I am so blessed and challenged by their action and zeal for the tasks ahead of us. But please pray that this team continues to dive deeper into Christ and doesn’t forget to look for the “easy to miss” opportunities God gives us to share the Gospel while we’re here.
5. Lastly, Pray that God keeps us healthy and safe as we continue through this month of asking the Lord “What’s next?” and “Where?”
As always, thank you so much for your love, prayers, and encouragement! God bless you all!
-Daniel
