Manistry month in Belize! As I am sure a lot of you have realized this past month has looked a lot different than the first three months. For this month, all the men of my squad were put on a team and asked to go to Belize while the rest of the women stayed in Guatemala. Hence, MANistry month! Now this also wasn’t a typical month of ministry either as we had no assigned ministry that we were going to be working with. Instead, we were asked to spend the month in a lot of prayer and seeking out ministries in Belize that the World Race could partner with and send teams to in the future.
Now when we arrived to Belize City we still had not found a place to sleep that night and everywhere in Belize City was either too expensive or not safe. But Lord had already gone before us like He always does, and a mission base camp that was in Belmopan, the capital of Belize, contacted us saying that they had an open cabana for us to stay in which was just a huge blessing for us as we were all just tired and cranky from are long travel. And the basecamp their offered us to stay as long as we needed. That was just the beginning of God’s provision poured out on us this past month.
We stayed in the small town of Belmopan for about a week and a half and the Lord blessed us with making about 10 new ministry contacts to partner with in the future which is truly amazing, But what’s more amazing, are the ministries themselves. This place small town is so full of excited believers who want to see the Kingdom of God furthered not just in their town, but in the country of Belize! This small town has an amazing network of Christians, ministries, and churches who all live in one accord and are united in the truth of the Gospel.
Almost every single church or ministry that we got to spend time with was so on fire for the the Lord and His plans for their country and they almost all partnered with each other in some capacity. Yes, they all had their own purposes and differences, but they all had own goal in mind, and that was to bring Jesus to their people. And so they put their differences aside and come together whenever they can for that goal. They don’t “step on each other’s toes” or barge into each other’s ministry. They respect each others individual mission and vision for the people around them. Yet, whenever there is overlap they choose to come together and combine forces to more effectively fill their community and city with Christ. I shouldn’t have been, but I was blown away by that. I was blown away by that because I feel like a lot of American churches and ministries do not do well in this at all, which is so sad. A lot of the times we are too prideful and set in our own ways to come together as one to further His kingdom together. America! Please! Let’s put our differences aside and come together as one as Christ called us to do and bring the saving grace of Christ to our nation.
The second half of our time in Belize, God called us to a little town in the southernmost part of Belize called Punta Gorda. Now we didn’t make very many contacts here, but I believe God didn’t have us there for contacts, but there for us. God blessed us with staying with this absolutely amazing, spirit-filled rockstar couple John and Lisa at the camp they run in the jungle. They also run a coffee shop out of this Christian owned hotel that they also pastor a church out of. Needless to say, they are awesome!
In just our short week spent with them, they poured into us more than I would have thought. They showed us what it was like to really live a spirit led life in boldness and what it looks like to step out in that. The led us in anointing the community in prayer and even praying with the city council. And then John had a guys night with us where he just poured into us his wisdom of history and the Bible and being a man of God and loving our future wives well. We were just very blessed by their love and passion for each other and the Lord and their people.
I found a lot of rest this last month with the Lord and community with the men, and for that I am very grateful. And that came in great timing as we prepare to go back into brand new coed teams and head to a brand new continent and culture in Asia where I fully expectant of seeing God in big and mighty ways.
Blessings,
Andrew
