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.