A small delay--updated (Galatians 6:9)

A quick check-in from the Belize team.

We've made it as far as Atlanta.   We were late leaving Birmingham (held by air traffic control due to heavy air traffic into ATL), and we hurried through the subterranean bowels of the busiest airport and got to our connecting gate for as our flight was boarding.

Frazzled, but with everyone safely aboard our Delta MD-88, we were just getting settled into our packed airplane when the pilot announced there was a mechanical problem that needed to be fixed before we could depart.  With that, we all retrieved our possessions and filed out the plane to wait out the delay.

There are three large mission teams from Alabama on our flight, all wearing distinctive t-shirts like supporters of different football team. We're wearing our gray MTW shirts with blue and green accents; Gracelife Baptist Church of McCalla is sporting optic orange shirts;  and the First United Methodist Church of Montgomery is quite stylish in their slate gray tees.  Here's a picture of our team members Olivia and Ali are standing with representatives from the other two mission groups on our flight.

With that many Christians on our flight (with the t-shirts to prove it), we were obligated very nice when told we were going to be delayed for an hour or more and we needed to get out of the plane to wait it out.  We may have been gritting our teeth and sighing inside, but everyone from all three churches did a remarkable job of being winsome and modeling Christlike behavior.

At our commissioning last Sunday, Pastor Lowman told us that Satan would put roadblocks in our way.  We've got a lot of spiritual firepower heading for Belize on our plane.  An hour or two delay won't stop us.

Anticipation (Matthew 6:34)

Less than 12 hours from now our team will convene to begin our our journey to Belize. All the work and preparation has led to this. We're going to try to bring you along with us every step of the way and tell our story in words and pictures.

 Right now team members are going through the final stages of getting ready to travel. They're packing, running through their checklists, putting their passports in places where they won't be forgotten early tomorrow morning, and taking care of all of the last minute chores that need doing before going "away."

 There's a lot of nervous energy. There's excitement, but, if we're being honest, there's also a bit of worry and doubt. What if things go wrong? What if we don't accomplish all that we hope to? Jesus had something to say about that when he told us "...do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

 Wish us well. A prayer on our behalf would be greatly appreciated.  Feel free to leave comments on these posts to let us know you're thinking of us.  We are so excited about showing and telling you what happens on our EPiC Belizean adventure.

How to find us (Luke 15:32)

This is pretty cool.  Want to see where we'll be working? Just click on this link to  Google Maps  and paste thesecoordinates for the Prince of Peach Church in Corozal Town (18.399793,-88.391334) into the search bar.The green arrow will mark where the church is and you'll be able to zoom in and out.

Meet our pastor (Romans 10:14)

This is Juan Patt the pastor of The Prince of Peace Church in Corazol Town, Belize, the church where we will be working over the coming week.  Like many pastors in Belize, Juan is bi-vocational, meaning he has to work outside of the church to support his family.  Also pictured here is Juan's wife, his wife Maria and their daughter Stephanie.  Juan and Maria are expecting another child later this year.

Here's a picture of some of the members of Prince of Peace Church.  We can't wait to meet them in person.

The warriors at home (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

For weeks, our team members have been handing out latex bracelets to friends and family members who promise to pray for us while we're away.  They're multicolored versions of the yellow wristbands made popular by Lance Armstrong; at least those bright yellow bands were popular until Lance Armstrong proved himself to be just another flawed and fallible human like the rest of us instead of some kind of Superman.  

Here's a picture of one of  our wristbands.

The prayer bracelets are a visible reminder for us that people are praying for us and for the success of our mission trip to Belize.  We might be doing the construction or evangelism and the actual physical travel on this trip, but they're our prayer warriors.  Our prayer partners are in the trenches and fighting alongside us every step of the way, and we couldn't accomplish very much without them.

Recently, one of our missionary team members was passing through security at the Birmingham airport, when he was approached by an elderly gentleman he didn't recognize.  "Chuck, where did you get that prayer bracelet?" the man asked.  "It looks just like mine."  Sure enough, the band on the older gentleman's wrist was the twin of the one Chuck had on his own wrist.  Since the design is unique and the initials of our church and a verse of scripture are engraved in each wristband, there was no doubt the man was one of our group's prayer partners.

Chuck was taken aback and prepared to be embarrassed for not knowing this person, especially since the other man knew his name.  Moments later, the ambush complete, one of the other members of our mission team appeared and introduced Chuck to her father. Teri and her dad were at the airport to catch a flight to Iowa together for a family gathering.

Some of our prayer warriors are wearing wrist bands, marking themselves as partners on our journey.  Others will be praying for us but won't be wearing that physical reminder of their bond with us.  It might be because they don't think much of the wristband as a fashion statement or maybe it's because we've run out of them.  We began with 300 of the wristbands to distribute to our prayer partners, and they've all found good homes.

It feels wonderful knowing that more than 300 people are committed to praying for you on every step of your journey.  No, it feels better than wonderful--it feels powerful.

A work in progress (Mark 12:10)

Here are a few pictures of the church where we will be working and worshiping when we're in Belize.

As you can see, like all of us who will be going there to serve, the building is a work in progress.

Packing light? (Matthew 10:9-10)

Taking inventory

Nothing says you're going on a trip more than the act of packing your bags.

When you go on a missionary journey, you're going to bring baggage along with you.  There are a couple of different types of baggage.  First, there's the physical baggage such as your clothes, toiletries, your Bible (mustn't forget that) and perhaps a camera or blank notebook for recording your experiences along the way.

Then there's that other kind of baggage--the kind that you should try to leave at home if you can.  That baggage includes your preconceived notions about people in other countries, the idea that the way we do things where we come from is the only way or at least the best possible way, and other such thoughts.  It can be surprisingly difficult to leave that kind of baggage behind when you're coming from a relatively wealthy place to "help" people in a place where the people have less access than you do to wealth, physical resources and educational opportunities.

When the traveler is able to put aside that second kind of baggage, something amazing can happen.  He or she can learn to see the world in a different way.

Here's hoping we can all learn to travel travel light and be open to the insights that are waiting for us when we get to a new and different place.

We weren't packing light at Evangel Church on Saturday night, that's for sure.

A bunch of us gathered to prepare Vacation Bible School materials and pack crates of supplies that are coming with us to Belize.  Into the crates went power tools, soccer balls, Frisbees, bags of candy, cans of powdered Gatorade, Sunday School materials, craft items, musical instruments, work gloves and a host of other things that will be needed and very welcome where we are going.

Here are some pictures of our packing adventures.

Olivia works on VBS materials

Alex stands on a scale and does some mental math to weigh a full container.