We started the day with morning personal devotionals followed by breakfast at Samuel’s Sanctuary. After a brief planning session, we loaded into the van and drove over to The Country Barn for the bible study with the Sammuel’s Sanctuary and Country Barn staff. We read John 3:22-36 and everyone shared their favorite verse and what it they liked about it. We headed back to collect all our camp supplies and make a final game plan, then drove to Saint Margaret’s school in the village for the first Frontier Camp-style day camp in Belize. The kids were told to come for lunch at 11:00, but many of them trickled in early as they saw us setting up around the school compound. We set up an archery range on their central soccer field, volleyball in the gym pavilion, and crafts and cup knockdown under shaded awnings. While the cooks in the feeding program finished preparing the meal, we entertained the kids with soccer, frisbees, and volleyball. Lunch was announced at noon and all the kids ran to line up for a good meal of rice, beans, and ground meat. The Country Barn staff brought us a delicious lunch of vegetable spaghetti, and even better a giant bucket of vanilla ice cream for all of the kids (we got some as well)! After everyone finished their cups of ice cream, we gathered all the kids into the gym and split them into four groups: older girls, younger girls, older boys, and younger boys. Will explained a Belizian version of the “Frontier Camp” call that we use to quiet the campers, with the call being “Saint Margaret’s!” and the response from the kids: “Praise God!” Each camper group got to come up with a team name and cheer, we ended up with lions, jaguars, dragons, and eagles. We split the groups off to the four activities to rotate through each station. We had bullseyes in archery, cup towers toppled, many rounds of volleyball, and most importantly all the kids got to hear the story of the Philippian Jailer and memorize Acts 16:31 after their craft. At 3 we gathered in the pavilion to pray and dismiss the kids for the day. One of the boys asked Mrs. Autumn where he could go to church and she was able to introduce him to pastor Wilson, whose church we went to on Sunday. We headed back to Samuel’s Sanctuary and most of the team went down to the river to a brisk and relaxing swim. After dinner, we were invited to a Pentecostal church for their Tuesday night worship service and were treated to a clap and stomp-style of worship with many Alleluias and even “I have decided to follow Jesus” in English. We’ve just finished a debriefing meeting and are about to head to bed after a long and fulfilling day. We appreciate your prayers!
Catherine Russell for the Belize 1 Team
