Police, Passports, Lent

Sunday, February 10 was a baptismal Sunday and there were lots of kids who stayed in church for the the service. Two babies were baptized. The sermon by Rev. Barb on the transfiguration involved everyone, including the kids.

Sue and Chris Harris took us with them to Belize city Tuesday, February 12, so we could put in our applications for replacing lost passports. They were going to the hospital anyway and kindly took us to the Canadian consulate and their lawyer's office who is the same one the Prime Minister uses. Beautiful new offices. So different from the rest of Belize City which is mainly unkempt looking. The high crime rate (apparently different ethnic gangs in drug related and territorial wars) is keeping a lot of locals and tourists away from the city. Economic growth is therefore slow.

With official police report, passport photos guaranteed by the lawyer and forms filled in correctly, eventually, with Canadian long time friends verifying our identity and $400 US out of pocket, the process is in motion for new passports. Only 3-4 weeks they tell us. If not, then we go through the emergency processes, pay more money and get temporary passports just before we are due to leave March 12.

How did we ever lose our passports? Maybe at the farmers market when Gloria bought a new backpack to replace hers which was falling apart? Whatever the case, it has shown us that you don't want to be in a jail in Belize. The holding cell we sat near in the police headquarters smelled of urine and the cement walls were barely tall enough for a man to stand up. Standing up is the only way you would want to sleep if they kept you in there for 3 days which they are allowed to do without any charge. To our amazement, 6 men came out of that small, dug out looking holding cell, hanging around the area we were being questioned about our lost passports. The 6 were eventually ushered along outside to a vehicle to be taken to jail. We thanked God that we only had to deal with lost passports!

ASH WEDNESDAY! Starting out lent in a far away land, for us, has made our journey with Jesus and His sacrifice all the more precious. Again we are reading "The Purpose Driven Life" by Rick Warren as our Lenten discipline as a couple. Again we are being blown away by what God is trying to teach us. For Gloria who is also reading Brother Lawrence's "Practicing the Presence of God", so often God is echoing the same thing so the message gets through loud and clear - "Yes, Gloria, that's what I mean when I tell you your heart is to be filled totally with love for Me." What we read in PDL today was based on SURRENDER. Amazingly, in a coffee shop today, what did the title of a poster of an upcoming event say? Surrender....... God sure is getting His messages across to us, loud and clear. And with a wonderful sense of humour!

After a lovely noontime Ash Wednesday service, went next door to St. Ann's Anglican School to see the principal, Sidney. We let him know that he will have a laptop computer, which he desperately needs, after we leave for Canada.

The school had a fundraiser lunch for Valentine's day. Most everyone wore red - except Gloria who didn't think to. While Stephen was madly programming an Access database for the church, Gloria was at the school and read a couple of books to the kindergarten age class after lunch. Then it was back to the hacienda to rest and get ready for the evening class at the church. Through prayer and nettle tea and echinacea, Gloria felt well enough to lead the class. Enthusiasm, involvement and information continues flow through the Lord's presence at St. Ann's.

Stephen and Gloria Van Gough Casita

At first when Sue Harris told us about the little one room apartment with shower and toilet and how small it was and that it was still being worked on, Stephen and I shyed away from it. But trying to find a furnished place for $600 US/month or under in Belmopan was a daunting task. We started out at the El Ray Hotel which we learned about from Hilberto in San Pedro when we stopped in at his family's furniture store. He was from Belmopan, where their furniture is manufactured, and wanted to help us, especially because we were Christian missionaries. He lined us up with Shannon, his relative and owner of El Ray with her husband, Nick. Shannon was so kind to us. Again because we were Christian missionaries, she gave us a discounted rate and because we had so much heavy luggage and there is no elevator in the hotel, we stayed in an updated room on the main floor still at the discounted rate of $35 US/night. After 3 nights there, they moved us into a little house they are renovating, for the same rate! Costs were quickly piling up so we decided to go and visit the one room apartment before we checked out a rental possibility with the mission "In His Will" which is a 30 minute ride outside Belmopan.

We were pleasantly surprised at the size of the room compared to the hotel room with a king-sized bed and barely room to walk around the bed. The room has space for a little table (made from scrap material and covered with a new piece of green linoleum) 2 chairs, a bed-side table with scraps of brown linoleum which were left over from covering the cement floor in the toilet area, along with space for a metal double bed with a bookcase headboard. There is a cold shower, as well as a toilet. No sink. But when you think about it, you don't absolutely need a sink, just a bowl which gathers the cold water and doubles as a sink on the table! It works for us.
As I am writing, the university students below us are blaring their music again. No problemo! I have my trusty earplugs. I wonder what Van Gough had to contend with in his one room Petite Maison? With the brown painted door, the light blue on 2 1/2 walls, medium leaf green on the other walls and shower area, Gloria has a strong sense of Van Gough in southern France in this room. We asked our potential landlady, Alexandra, if there was any chance to have a fridge? She replied, yes, she had one she could loan to us for only the charge of $7.50 US/month for electricity. We knew we would have to buy a hot plate to cook but having a fridge would be a real bonus. We'll take it we said that Sunday afternoon.

So dear Alexandra (pronounced Alehandra) and her husband Leal (which is actually his family and useful for getting some of the little work there is in this city) worked like busy ants. Don't think leaf cutter ants which can strip a tree in a day or so. Think worker ants which can carry many times their weight to supply the needs of the nest. The 2 of them with the help of Alexandra's brother Jimmy finished the apartment (our little nest) in 2 days. We moved in on Wednesday! Bless them!!!

Feb. 3 - 10

This was originally written as a status update to SAMS Canada.

Sunday, February 3 we attended St. Anns, Belmopan. It's amazing how quickly we have come to feel at home at St. Anns. February 3 was only our second Sunday there and we are getting to know some people by name and others just by their welcoming smile. We have come to a deeper knowledge of what "the body of Christ" is by being welcomed and befriended by the people of St. Anns. Every first Sunday of the month a healing service is part of the eucharist. It is a time for prayer, stillness, and anointing and laying on of hands. Many people from the congregation, including Gloria and Stephen, went up for anointing and laying on of hands.

Stephen is seriously working his way up the learning curve of Microsoft Access 2002 programming. It's not exactly like riding a bicycle (you never really forget how to do it). The task is to convert the existing parish list from a Microsoft Word document containing a large table to Excel so it can be loaded into Access, which is a desktop database. It's not exactly the image that springs to my mind when I hear the word "missionary". It is what the church here wants Stephen to do. It is a way to use our gifts in a way that meets a practical need of the church here. We give thanks that God is present, honoured and glorified in every moment of our lives - not just in church or in devotions. Stephen went into the school that is associated with St. Anns and was asked to try to boot 5 desktop computers that were all thought to be useless and were waiting to be junked. One by one conb webs were removed and he tried to boot each one. Only 1 successfully booted. However, that means that the school now has 2 computers instead of 1.
When we came to Belize we brought a couple of old but still working (that sounds like Stephen and Gloria) computers. We have been asking God to how us with whom we should leave them. We feel very strongly that one of them will be left with the St. Ann's School's principal. He works many extra hours to get his administrative work done. He makes sure that the classroom teachers get first crack at the computers. When we leave behind one of our computers he will make very good use of it.

Gloria has conducted her first of the 4 Thursday evening classes on self massage, seated massage, stretching and various accupressure and alternative health approaches, etc. this second week. As she does with each of her clients who agree, Gloria started the session with a prayer in Jesus' name. The 12 or more of St. Ann's parishioners who attended, seemed very keen to continue the next week, especially getting more hands-on massage from Gloria. This will be her challenge for next week. When Stephen visited the principal, Sydney, at St. Ann's Anglican School, Gloria went along to see if she might be of service. Dear Sydney was trying to teach and keep the lid on a Level 3 class while performing principal duties as well. He let Gloria fill-in for him for a couple of hours before lunch while he did his other duties and directed Stephen regarding their computer needs. It was great fun and learning for Gloria who has taught Sunday School but would never have considered herself a substitute teacher.

We took a day away from Belmopan on Friday February the 10th and went to a resort called "Black Rock Lodge". It is south of the city of San Ignacio which is the second largest city in Belize. We decided that we would take the bus just like regular Belizeans. At the bus terminal we lined up with everyone who wanted to go to San Ignacio. When the bus arrived and the gate opened everyone pushed through pushing us out of the way so that we didn't get on the first bus. We took stock of our situation and got in strategically unassailable positions and handily got on the next bus, just like regular Belizeans. The bus ride to San Ignacio was very pleasant. For a very small country Belize has a great variety of natural beauty. When we arrived at San Ignacio we got a taxi to take us the last 12 miles to the resort. The first 6 took us 8 minutes and the last 6 took us half an hour. The roads defy description!.

The resort offered various activities including a bird-watching canoe ride down the Macal River. We chose this less thrilling outing because of our advanced ages. However, we were only in the canoe for 5 minutes before we found ourselves out of the canoe and into the water as we were in some mild rapids. Fortunately our guide had forced us to wear life jackets and told us to make sure that if we capsized we oriented ourselves in the water so that we were headed feet first. The latter advice is because there are lots of big rocks just slightly under the surface. If you go fet first you just bounce off them. If you go back first the bouncing is much more painful. The water was not cold and the life jackets were huge helps. Eventually got to the bank and the rest of the outing was uneventful. We saw lots of tropical birds.

All the bureaucracy has been done for our replacement passports has been completed and now we wait and pray for speedy processing so we don't have to use the emergency processing.

Love and hugs,

Stephen and Gloria
from Punta Gordo, Belize.

A Lesson Learned Using Peppers in Belize

Gloria has considered herself, off and on, to be a pretty good cook, a very good cook or a so so cook.

market scene

Presently she would put herself into the pretty darn good cook (a special category for more successful cooking experiments than not).  So, it is with amazement that I have to tell you that Gloria didn't know what she was doing when she bought some lovely little, colorful peppers, but not too little, like habenero peppers, which are extremely hot.  Actually the peppers reminded her of the lovely, little, colorful organic peppers she bought in Calgary co-op a few months back.

When Gloria and her sister Judy were figuring out how to make salsa with habenero peppers safely, they discovered disposable, surgical gloves in the kitchen of their rented condo by the Carribean Sea, near San Pedro.   Everyone knows that if you cut a habenero pepper and then touch your eye, WELL, if you didn't know how to jump up and down very  quickly while trying to remember choice 'expletives deleted', you did now!  So Gloria wore a disposable,  surgical glove on her left hand while cutting half a tiny habenero pepper for a delicious tomato, onion and lime salsa. No problemo!   We didn't even dispose of the surgical glove. We just washed it for the next salsa -- the four of us LOVED the homemade salsa!


In Belmopan, the planned (because a hurricane in the 1960's all but destroyed everything in Belize City) capital of Belize, Gloria bought purple, red, orange and yellow peppers from a little market stall. Perfect for the salad she was going to make for supper.  There in their little one room casita, Gloria cut up the peppers while she was having a conversation with their landlady, Alexandra.

our landlady

As Alexandra sat beside the peppers Gloria was cutting, she asked if they were hot. "Oh no!" replied Gloria "they are sweet - for the salad!" 

'Are you sure?" Asked Alexandra.

'Yes, I think so," replied Gloria as she brushed back some hair strands from her face. "Oh, oh. My cheek stings!"

"I thought the peppers smell hot," said Alexandra.

As Gloria is madly removing all the pieces of pepper from the salad, Alexandra is reminding Gloria  not to rub her eyes. No surgical gloves here in Belmopan, just bare hands trying to stop a disaster.  Too late. Another hair strand in Gloria's eye and automatically her hand goes up to remove the strand of hair.  Ouch!  The eye is starting to burn. Alexander tells Gloria to wash her hands in sugar water.  SUGAR!!! We dont have sugar!  That's like poison to Stephen who has Type 2 diabetes. Xylitol yes, sugar no.

"Honey," said Alexandra.  "Do you have honey to put in water?"

"Yes!  We have honey,"  said Gloria.

Gloria tried to wash the heat off her hands with honey water then dried her hands in a paper towel. How was she to know that even wiping her drippy nose with THAT paper towel would cause PAIN?!  Her eye was smarting, her nose was smarting and even where she touched her lip was smarting.  But that was nothing compared to her hands, especially her left hand and under the nail of the thumb. A burning sensation would rise up and last for a few minutes at first. It really was like her hand or nose or lip was on fire!  The frequency and length of time lessened over a period of 4 days.  Yes, that was 4 days.

LESSON LEARNED:  Always ask whether or not the peppers are hot, and how hot, when traveling in a foreign country!!!

MISSIONARIES? Stephen & Gloria Ford? REALLY?

St. Ann's Belmopan

Well, Gloria maybe, but Stephen?  You see, for a number of years Gloria had hoped to do missionary work in a warm climate during the winter months once she had retired. Stephen had no such desire.  So the fact that Stephen even went with Gloria, let alone with enthusiasm, is a real miracle. Mind you, tacking on the missionary work to the end of 2 weeks vacation to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary might have helped. Also Stephen wanted to work through an Anglican  organization and having someone on the board of SAMS (South American Missionary Society) who goes to their church, St. Andrew's Anglican, Calgary - Don Bryant - made everything that much easier.

Gloria had for a few years this sense that she was to go to Belize. Why?  Who knows? Maybe the fact that it is warm (during Calgary's cold winters).  Maybe the fact that it is beautiful. Maybe the fact that it has a barrier reef second only to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Maybe the fact that it has fresh papaya and pineapple and noni and bananas and coconut AND vegetables from what we would call organic farms. Or just maybe it's because God wanted her to come?

Goodness gracious it's not like Belize needed another missionary or couple of them!   Time and time again Stephen and Gloria would speak to strangers and they would be glorifying God in all the say and do. Gloria thinks Belize is one of the most if not the most evangelized country in the world. As Stephen and Gloria go on one of their many walks - no car - Belmopan is a small planned city - it's  easy to get around and doesn't take very long - often there are 2 churches on a street.

Our dear contact person, Sue Harris, Companion Diocese committee  chair, says she gets at least one request a week and often more, for missionaries to come to Belize.  Stephen and Gloria are an odd couple in that coming to Belize to volunteer for 6 weeks is something new to the Anglican church in Belize.  Not short term and not long term they consider themselves 'middle of the road'  volunteers.  Stephen is volunteering his computer programming expertise and Gloria is offering her various massage and alternative health and nutrition skills.

Gloria the substitute

Just today Stephen helped the principal of St. Ann's  Anglican School with his computer problems. And Gloria filled in for an absent teacher for those couple of hours. Great fun.  A little boy named Henry was being made fun of because he was playing with a toy truck and then his toy car.  In order to keep the peace, Gloria took the toys away until lunchtime and didn't let the boys trap her into thinking she was making Henry cry. After going through the answers on the board for the test the principal had given them, Gloria talked to Henry privately. She told him it was obvious that he was a very smart boy and that he could probably handle playing with the toys while still listening and learning but others could not - so be considerate of those kids. She encouraged him to be like Henry Ford who invented the assembly line for making automobiles.  Belizian Henry could do great things with his interest in cars!  Before leaving school for the police headquarters, St. Ann's had 2 working computers instead of only one. Stephen had tested 5 computers that were thought to be dead and found that one actually worked.  Police headquarters?  Yes, more on that and our missing passports later.