Punta Gorda!
As we have moved on in our travels through out Belize, our team has felt the Lord’s calling to spend our last week in Punta Gorda. Believe it or not, it’s even smaller than where we were initially (Belmopan). This small beach town is run down in most areas and mostly consists of locals who actually live in villages outside of town.
We’ve enjoyed the various ministries we’ve come in contact with and God has continued to bless our travels and provide for our every need. As much as we try to encourage and uplift the local church and surrounding ministries, I feel as though we walk away more poured into by them. Once again, God’s grace upon us is overwhelming.
Miss Rose
One day, during our time in town, myself and a couple of the fellas decided to go explore the area and see what Punta Gorda had to offer. I, Keaton, and Carson decided we were hungry and found a small shack on the literal edge of the ocean selling lunch. A wonderful lady named Rose and her daughter ran the place and gave us a warm welcome as the three of us asked her, “What’s for lunch!?” She cooked us up a generous serving of rice, beans, tomatoes, and Hot Wings with our choice of soda or coffee. This woman was so kind that I felt like my own mother was making me lunch on a warm summer Monday back home. We had a great time talking and laughing as we ate before we said goodbye and went back to exploring the town and linking up with the rest of our team.
The next day we were back in town to (once again) work on linking up with potential ministry host contacts for AIM. Once lunch break came around I felt the Lord prompting me to go back to have lunch with miss Rose. So I grabbed Keaton and our buddy Michael and said, “Let’s go see what miss Rose has for us for lunch today!”
As we strolled on into her corner of the beach she looked somewhat surprised to see us again.
“What’s for lunch miss Rose??” I asked.
She said, “Well, all I have for right now is rice, beans, and pot chicken with my homemade lime juice.”
So that’s what we ate! She served us up and eventually sat down near us and we talked about why our group of guys are in Punta Gorda, Belize, of all places. We told her that we were missionaries traveling from country to country to find ways that we can come alongside local ministry to spread the gospel within each community we go to. She was floored when she heard that and said that she goes to a local church as well. So we asked her how long she’d been going to church and she said that she’d been there since she was baptized. We asked her to share some of her story on how she came to know Christ and then just sat and listened.
I was so encouraged to hear her talk of a humble upbringing in a small village outside of Punta Gorda. She had known about God, but had no relationship with Him. One day they experienced the first earthquake that they had ever felt in that area of Belize and it was no small tremor. Their whole home began to shake violently and a neighbor who was with them at the time instantly responded to the violent shaking by dropping to her knees and praying passionately to God to deliver them and protect them. This profoundly impacted Rose at that time and eventually drove her to leave her community to seek Christians who would spiritually challenge and pour into her within town.
She has been through quite a bit since then, and she chose not to go into too much detail, but here she is today running her own local business with her daughter (And occasionally a little grand daughter who runs around and “keeps her young.”). She spoke of some of her struggles with evangelism in her neighborhood. She talked about how hard it is for her to look at the beauty of the world around her and imagine there being no Creator… no God. She recalled to mind and shared Biblical truths that she clings to through out each day and blessed us in our journey. We couldn’t help but stay and pour into her and the hole in the wall “restaurant” she calls her own.
We told her not to give up and related to some of the common resistance Christians will find when they try to reach out to strangers with the truth of the Gospel. We left her with a challenge to see her lunch shack as her own personal mission field. People love to come by her place for lunch because of her hospitality and joy and that alone can be used powerfully to pour into peoples’ lives. She smiled and thanked us for spending part of our day with her and her daughter before reminding us in a Belizian version of, “Y’all come back now y’hear?!” She made it very clear that we weren’t allowed to leave the country without saying goodbye to her first.
Why This Story?
This story I’m telling y’all isn’t anything supernatural or outside of a normal, humble, local business that just happens to be owned by a kind Christian woman. I don’t expect this to change your life or convict you of anything in particular. But I have an oddly special place in my heart for miss Rose. That’s why I’ve taken the time to share her with you all in hopes that you might lift her up in prayer! She needs encouragement and a good group of brothers and sisters in Christ to rally behind her and pour into her well. Whether I ever see her again or not is something I’ve come to terms with, but I want her to know that she has a number of prayer warriors who are lifting her up before our Heavenly Father today.
As always, thank you for your prayers and obedience to love and support me well. Ministry and missions often times isn’t flashy. Nor is it a constant string of healings, miraculous signs, and out-of-this-world “God moments”. (That’s not to say that we don’t pray for those opportunities.) It’s often the moments that can be all too easily passed up by Christians looking for “greater” opportunities. Never be too proud to seek God in the most humble of places, because I guarantee you that’s where you’ll find Him.
God bless!
-Daniel
