Settling in to a New Year of Ministry

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind as we have settled into a new house, a new community, a new church, and our new ministry at LOL. We have been overjoyed by the warm welcome we have received from all who we have met.

Sarah has been busy with learning the logistics of managing the short-term mission teams who will come to LOL this year. She has also been creating and consolidating information about mission trips in an effort to make them better used by incoming teams, and is getting involved with communication for that aspect of the ministry, freeing Melissa to focus on other areas.

We both have begun to help with the after school tutoring program that happens Monday through Thursday each week. Currently we are rotating days and have begun to work with two of the older children.  We help them with their daily homework as well as to study for upcoming tests, and when they don’t have an assignment or test, we work with them in their areas of greatest need.

Mark is in the process of getting the garden started. He has done much research, including a visit to a local organic farm, to learn what does and does not work well in this area. Mark has been gathering materials to start a compost pile. We don’t have the convenience of running down to the Home Depot to pick up peat moss and compost. If we want these things we either will have to make them ourselves, or find an acceptable alternate available in the area. For instance, instead of using peat moss Mark is looking at using coco fiber, which is made from the husks of coconuts.

Mark has also joined the worship team at our new church. They have been in need of a guitar player and quickly asked him to join the group.

The Jeep is holding up. When we flew into Belize City we discovered that our alternator had seized up. After replacing it, and after an extra day in the city, we were able to make our drive south. Mark also was able to save us a few hundred dollars by rebuilding a safety switch on our transmission, rather than replacing it. Now the Jeeps starts every time we turn the key, plus the back-up lights work again. There are a few more parts of the suspension that need rebuilt from the wear and tear last year, but we have the parts and it shouldn’t be a big deal.

Finally, Avi is settling in too. She really enjoys going to the children’s home and playing with the other kids. Just like last year, everyone quickly gets to know Avi, and it is usually her name that is being called out when we arrive.

Again we want to thank all of our financial supporters. We could not be doing any of this without your generosity towards us and confidence in us.