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.