well friends, this has finally become real and i’ve left the states.
here i am, sitting in Belize, trying to come up with how to even put this new journey into words for you. let’s just say it was not a subtle change – we landed in Belize and were immediately fighting to stay afloat with very limited money and a long way to go in taxis and buses to get to our final location for the month.
this month, my team was given the ministry of ATL, which means Ask the Lord. simply put: my team will be asking the Lord for all things this month. we were told before we left that we need to find somewhere to stay in a specific town with a specific budget, and then once we got to the town where we were staying, we were not going to be partnering with a specific ministry or have a host to tell us about the town or the culture or what faith looks like in this place. ATL consists of intense intentionality within ourselves and together as a team. spending time with the Lord is a must daily, but ATL calls for this at a much more intentional level. being in tune with the Spirit allows us to really be guided in where we go, what we do, who we stop and talk to, etc. even after only 4 days of ministry and getting oriented with the town, we have seen some incredible things.
a theme that i have noticed within this town is spiritual warfare. some believe that it exists, some do not; some have seen it first hand, some have only heard of it. this past week i have felt it.
our first full day here in Belize, we just decided to walk around – go to the market and get groceries, meet people, get to know the town. we had fasted during the day, and then we went to get tacos from a street vendor and hang out in the welcome center, which is kind of like a town common area. at the welcome center, we ended up meeting two teenage twin boys. two of my teammates ended up sharing the Gospel with them and they both accepted Jesus as their Savior, which is incredible. when my whole team was talking with them afterwards, they started telling us about one of their friends who was sacrificed just a few days earlier. all of us were kind of stunned at the fact that they used the word sacrificed…but they were 100% serious.
sure enough, on sunday (10/7) a boy was found in the ancient mayan temple called Cahal Pech. there were a group of teenage boys that had made a pact with the devil. we learned that boys in the area are doing this for fun and thinking its a game, when in reality kids are losing their lives over it. i will spare you all the details that we learned about the boy’s body, but it was in hearing this story that i began realizing that spiritual warfare is real and being seen in this area.
the same night we talked with the twins, another team member of mine spoke with a woman. we were all sitting and talking together, when Rashad (my teammate) looked at this woman across the center and he said the question “what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned in life” came to his mind. so i encouraged him to go ask her! he did and they ended up having close to an hour conversation. he said her answer was “always follow in obedience to the Lord”. her family has seen many dark and scary things relating to evil spirits. again, relating to spiritual warfare. Rashad’s new friend made a statement saying “if it weren’t for the missionaries that come to town, this town would be a dark, dark place”.
there were two mornings this past week that i woke up and just felt blah. it could have been from the ridiculous travel days, from the new environment, adjusting to life on the race, but i really felt like i was feeling the heaviness of the darkness here. yesterday morning was really rough, so when i got up i listened to worship music, journaled, and just spent some still time with the Lord where i was just feeling His presence and making sure He was there. (as if he ever left LOL). this rejuvenated my spirits and allowed me to have the energy to start my day and not be a grump.
account after account with people and hearing stories, we keep running into the theme of spiritual darkness in this town. we’ve found great ways to bring the light and are praying continuously that the Lord stirs in hearts all around us. join us in prayer for san ignacio, belize and the people who live here – for their hearts and their souls and that all things that are not of the Lord will flee in Jesus’ name.
much love, homies. xoxo
i am still accepting donations even though I am already on the field! i have a few thousand left to go to be fully funded, and would love for your partnership and effort in keeping me on the field for these next 11 months.
