Love for Libertad

Hello everybody, trip #3 is finished and I can’t wait to update ya’ll on the amazing
 ten days I've had! (All three of my groups have been from the south so far…I had to
 throw 'ya’ll' in there at some point J)

It is going to be hard for me to truly express what a difference this last week and a half
 has made on my life. I have been in Belize for over a month now (woah!) and I think it’s
 safe to say that this trip is the one that will change the way I live and what I live for, forever.
There are too many stories, personal breakthroughs, and memorable moments to fit all in one
 blog post so I am going to post more about it later, and if I you want to know more after
 reading, please ask me about my trip to Libertad when you see me next. We can get coffee,
and I could talk for hours. J

We picked up Christ Covenant Church from Tennessee from the Cancun airport on Monday, June 25^th and made the five hour bus trek back to Belize that night. Traveling went well and upon arriving at Libertad Methodist School late Monday night, we set up our air mattresses and fell right asleep, anxious for tomorrow to begin this trip. When we awoke Tuesday morning, the light of the day allowed us to get a much better understanding of our surroundings. The school we stayed in/worked at was a two story high cement building, with a big field out front for recreational purposes. There was a little church across the field that the students attend, and the surrounding village consisted of small, cinderblock or tin/wood houses with lots of pretty greenery in the middle of everything.  Libertad Village has a lot of poverty. Libertad has a LOT of need.

Christ Covenant spent five days, Tuesday-Saturday, putting on an absolutely amazing VBS for the kids.There were different stations, tons of crafts, snacks, sports camp, and stories, etc. and more children showed up for it each day. We probably had about 100 kids by the last day!    

They also did some work projects, such as tiling one of the classrooms in the school, a bit of painting, cleaning up the church, and yard work for many surrounding houses. They even got to use machetes and cut the grass just like the locals do around here, it was pretty awesome.

Other than my little two-day slip up in the beginning of the trip where I had to rest because of that infection, which is going away very slowly but surely (the joke of the week was "there's a fungus among us!" ha...ha..), I was able to return to work and had a great time for the rest of the week. There would be days where we had a few hours of free time so we would go out in groups and do home visits around the village to meet the locals. One day we passed out toothbrushes to homes in the village and they were all pretty grateful to receive them. It’s crazy how something that seems so small to me at home can mean a lot more to a family in a village struck with poverty.

So that was the basic schedule of the week, with lots of little random memories in between (like the day where it rained so hard that a bunch of the boys put on their shorts, brought their shampoo out and showered in the rain hahah).

 But it wasn’t the physical aspect of this week that left such a lasting impact on me, it was the relational. I made a lot of close relationships with people in Libertad Village and even with some of the girls in the Christ Covenant group (miss you already Lani!). These relationships I made led to a change in my heart for many different reasons. I am going to save a few of those stories for the next couple blog posts, otherwise this one would be ridiculously long and I know none of you want to strain your eyes looking at a computer screen all day. ;) I will post again this week about my stories from Libertad.

I hope everyone had a wonderful 4^th of July filled with fireworks, bbq, music, and all things American!! Kelly and I are on break now so yesterday we took a 30 min. boat ride from Caye Caulker out to Ambergris Caye to spend the day in San Pedro…probably the most lively/touristy place in Belize. It was sooooo fun and beautiful. J   

Well, be looking out for my next post because it will definitely be one worth reading. I love you all!

-Shan

P.S. Oh yeah, unbeknownst to me, apparently you have to pay a LOT to receive packages here in Belize. I just spend over 50$ US on two packages that came in for me. :/ So thank you for the sweet gestures but please only send me letters from now on (those are free to receive). Bummer I know... but thank you!

p.p.s. To all my friends and family.... I officially like pineapple now. I know, unbelievable. I feel like I've lost a part of my soul in this conversion... oh well!