Waking up around 5:30 am to catch your 6:30 am ride into town to a cafe you have only been to once (albeit for the whole day) with people you met the day before to help out is how I spent my first full day in Punta Gorda. I went to help bake and with whatever else was needed. Two nights before my team was dropped off on the side of the road 1.5 miles from Machaca Outreach Center.
Just hanging out on the side of the road in Belize
We had heard about Machaca from one of our squadmates who knew people there at one time and from some of our contacts on Ambergris Caye. Everyone raved about the work they were doing. Lisa Gotz, kindly picked us up from the side of the road in her four door Ford truck. When she dropped at us at our cabin, she gave us a tour, a short orientation (watch out for snakes, scorpions and bright animals), and prayed for us. I’m pretty sure we were ALL ready to submit them as Unsung Heroes in that moment.
‘An unsung hero is a person who makes a substantive yet unrecognized contribution; a person whose bravery is unknown or unacknowledged.’
So this month, as the first team in Belize, we are looking for new contacts and organizations to potentially partner with Adventures in Missions and The World Race. And it has been a BLAST! I think I can safely say we have fallen in love with the country and what God is doing here.
Punta Gorda is a different beautiful compared to YWAM Destination Paradise, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It seems to be a smaller town, a different pace, less tourists. After waking up to a gorgeous view from our cabin, we headed to breakfast. While we were visiting with Mr. Richard (Machaca Staff) and a sweet missionary couple, we discovered we could get a FREE ride into town right then. One the Race, we love FREE, so we scrambled to get ready. Our ride took us to a different paradise from white sandy beaches with ocean views and breezes. We found our new paradise in coffee and ‘American’ food at Boneville Cafe.
This is a cute cafe run by the Gotz family and students at Machaca. It quickly became our hub, with wifi, coffee, ice cream, animal style fries, and baked goods. The Machaca students were on outreach so they were a little short-handed at the cafe. When I went up to pay my bill, I overheard Kat say they didn’t have any brownies that day. As I looked at the display case, there were no desserts. 🙁 Sad because I enjoy dessert but I also know that you can’t make money if you don’t have anything to sell.
That’s when I offered to help, barely knowing the Gotz family, staff or what I was getting myself into. So, when things were a little slower and my team had a plan, I headed to the back of the restaurant to bake brownies.
Kat shared her recipe with me and I took over (and they were pretty delicious especially with mint chocolate chip ice cream on top.) Before we left that afternoon, I asked if they needed any help the next day with whatever. Both Kat and her mom said sure, and they would pick me up at 6:30. And that’s how I came to ‘work’ at a cafe for my 3 days in Punta Gorda.
My experience those mornings were awesome. Both women were really chill and half asleep that early before coffee. We would put on worship music or a podcast, make coffee to wake up, and get the cafe ready for the day. We would talk some or just sit and drink coffee together. I really enjoyed my peaceful mornings!!! Later, I would head to the back and bake.
Katarina is John and Lisa’s daughter who manages the front of the cafe, is a barista, and the baker. Kat wanted to try something different and I was just there to help, so one day we made apple pie spice caramel cupcakes. (Not sure the correct name but that covers all the ingredients.)
Deliciousness
I’m pretty sure I didn’t help much and might have been in the way a few times, but just sitting in the presence of these two ladies allowed my spirit to rest. You can definitely feel the presence of God in the cafe. People are prayed over and don’t even know it, when food is cooking or coffee is being made or if they just stopped in to say hello.
