We all made it! Yay. First worry out of the way. We are all alive. Yay again. Second worry bye bye. But no seriously, it has been an incredible 2 days! Right off the plane we got a sweet opportunity to love on some Belizeans. Half of us went to the Dorothy Menzies Children's Home in Belize City and got to play with the orphanage children for a while. Kids are kids no matter where you go so basketball, kickball, cards, and hair-braiding were very popular. The other half of our group got to go spend some time with those, "more wise in their years" at Sister Cecilia's Home for the elderly. Crossing cultures is definitely tricky at first but if you just jump right in, people are people no matter where you go. Everybody wants to be loved and everyone is worthy of the Lord's love. To see relationships being formed in such a short time, stories being shared, lives truly touched! Later that night, we checked in at the Black Orchid hotel here in Burrel Boom, Belize. It is a really sweet place with a lush background. Bug spray helps us keep this place enjoyable too. We are drinking lots of water too because it's hot!

Today we went to Crooked Tree, Belize (by bus) for the first time. Crooked Tree Baptist Church is where we are serving this week. We had a wonderful Belizean lunch prepared for us by the lovely Miss Heldi. It consisted of black beans and rice (an every meal special pretty much), potato salad, bread pudding, and some type of moist delicious Belizean chicken. So good. Seriously. We split up into groups and went door to door throughout the Crooked Tree community to share with them all the happenings at the church this upcoming week. Just to clarify, the people of Belize are beautiful! Their skin tones run the entire gambit of brown often mixed with crystal blue eyes or other light-eyed affections. After door to door, we walked in our groups throughout the community and prayed for these people as well as for the Lord's spirit to go before us this week in all things.

Children started showing up everywhere so of course we played. Baseball and Futbol (soccer) rule over here. We eventually washed up, enjoyed dinner ("Johnny Cakes" biscuits, cheese, and taco-esque meat). Our worship service went awesome tonight! Justin from Grace in Cali spoke the word and the Lord moved in a little 10 year old boy's heart. He came down front at the invitation and did business with the Lord as tears ran down his face. So good. And on night one! Everything is going great so far and the team is in awesome spirits, they are such an awesome bunch to partner with!!

Thank you so much for partnering with us in prayer, we are honored by it and are seeing the fruits from it already. Please continue to pray for our VBS sessions tomorrow and that the children of the Crooked Tree community would come out of the woodworks for us to love on and share the Lord's love with. We are going to the schools tomorrow pray for that as well please. Internet is pretty scarce down here so I will report back as much as possible. Everyone sends their love!!! Please do make a note on the wall as I will be sharing with the group some of your comments to encourage them this week! Hopefully pics coming soon too...

-Jesse

We had the chance to lead the school devotion time yesterday! We had an amazing time then playing sports with them. Our afternoon was also spent at the school, painting one of the classroom buildings. VBS rounded off the day and we are back in the village to work hard again today! Thanks for all of your prayers, Praise God for amazing weather to do all of His work in!

First off, our sincerest apologies for not being able to update as much as would have liked to this week. The past few nights by the time we get back to the hotel from all the day’s activities at Crooked Tree, they have cut the internet access off. So today we made a special trip into a nearby city so that you guys could catch up on what’s been going on. We definitely want you all to know and thanks for your patience. The groups have been LOVING to hear your comments at breakfast every morning. It’s really been encouraging for them.------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------We have been hard at work for sure. We had a few major paint projects that we have been working on while in Crooked Tree. Pastor Rhaburn’s house has been a huge project that our Cali crew was getting to work on. The tropical weather down here really takes a toll on the siding and wood on these houses. Honoring these people by making their houses beautiful is truly ministering to their spirits. Our PA crew was hard at work at Mrs. Heldi’s house. This was a real treat because she has been responsible for feeding our team for the this week at Crooked Tree. The house looked SO good as they were finishing. Our Floridians and Washintinians were bustin’ it at the school. This project required some sincere diligence and they were up to the task. The entire outside of a major school building (probably 30 ft x 100 ft) was fully painted including trim. It looked stellar. We did some painting work inside on the classrooms as well getting them in good shape. We PPM staff were SO proud of all these teams and you should be as well. It was blazin’ outside and they fought through it with great attitudes and hearts of service. I was honored to work beside them this week. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Service projects usually encompassed our mornings and early afternoon. VBS ensued shortly thereafter. We rotated with 3 groups, the Littles, The Middles, and the Teens. Our team was ready at the Rec station, craft station, and teaching time. VBS at its finest. Of course as always our Cali crew threw down some seriously spiritual outcries like “Baby Shark”, “The Beaver Song”, and “Every move I make”. The kids LOVED this everytime. VERY spiritual. Our teams did such a good job sharing the love of Christ with the kids all week, usually after sweating it out in the heat for the previous few hours. Such a good job. VBS ran for about 2 hours or so then we wrap up with some good dinner. Either courtesy of Mrs. Heldi or an in-town restaurant. Our motto T.I.B. (AKA This Is Belize so roll with the punches) came into play. Like when some of us ordered plain baked chicken at a restaurant and it tasted like fire. It was all good though. Nothing a few ice cubes couldn’t fix. :] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yesterday morning our group went to a local tourist-ee spot known as CROCLAND. This was awesome. Giant pool, a trail to walk down and see caged crocs, jaguars, and monkeys, a volleyball court, a few blow-up Shamoos, and a HUGE blowup island thinger rental (courtesy of brother Joe Crawford) made for a really fun morning and a little break from the heat. While at CROCLAND the Lord to stir up an idea in our hearts for ministry when we got back to Crooked Tree. The government has given Crooked Tree 3 months to dig trenches to supply water for the entire community (a mildly daunting task) and so there are 60-70 men littering the streets outside the church and surrounding streets every day digging these trenches. So we gathered some funds, and went and bought waters for all the guys. A Belizean purified water packet costs only 12.5 cents American so it was relatively easy to provide a refreshing break for these men. We went into the situation praying that God would give us the opportunity to share about the living water of Christ. These waters were certainly well-received by the workers and a lot of our team even grabbed hold of the tools and went to work. Watching the teams work was so encouraging as walls to the gospel were being broken down everywhere. A huge futbol game followed (and believe it or not, the Americans won 4-2) and we even got a couple of the men to come to the service we held at the church that night. The team did an excellent job being so intentional with the locals and really meeting these Belizeans where they were. Just like Christ. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The service last night went awesome! Brother Brent all strappin 18 years old and shaved legs (we still try to embrace him) from our Cali crew brought the word. Brent had been prepping with prayer and just some serious time with Jesus throughout the day hoping that God would honor our service. Music was lead by Luke from Cali along with Henry (CA) on bass and Hunter and Alex working another guitar and kahon (FL). We had a full church for the service and we know that anytime the word of the Lord goes out, it does not return back void. Seeds were truly planted and watered, even a few harvested at Crooked Tree. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Justin from our Cali crew had a really cool opportunity to pray for a young man’s ankle at the end of the service outside the church as well. An older teenager named Reynard walked up, complained of a badly sprained ankle (he was limping and had severe trouble riding his bike to the church), so Justin prayed. Reynad’s ankle felt about 75% better he said so Justin started to pray again but sensed that the young man for himself needed to want Jesus to heal his ankle. So Reynard repeated after Justin saying, “Jesus I want you to heal my ankle”. “Jesus I believe you can heal my ankle”. “Jesus thank you for healing my ankle”. Amazingly, Reynard’s ankle was restored to 100% health. To prove it, he began to vigorously stomp his previously very injured foot into the ground repeatedly. Justin then got the chance to pray for the young man further encouraging him in his walk with Christ (after he had learned through conversation that the young man was already a brother in the faith). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Our entire crew is putting the finishing touches on their service projects right now as I type and they are really coming along beautifully. Thank you all again so much for your support through prayer and encouraging words on the website. Everyone sends their love!!