Week 16

First of all a note about donations: For anyone using WePay for recurring monthly donations you have probably received an email saying they will be closing. I know this is really annoying but we had to switch to Paypal. You'll see the button to the right on here and it's also on our website's 'Support' page. They said the last day they will process payments is March 12th, so you'll have to either cancel your WePay subscription or wait until after the 12th and sign up for Paypal recurring payments. It should be really easy but we apologize for the inconvenience!

So on to our week!

We had a surprise call from the realtor Monday morning saying a guy was going to come look at the property sometime that day. Well that resulted in a 2 hour frenzied clean up! Just because of the painting and stuff going on the yard and beach were a bit messy, but we got it looking nice in time :)  The guy said he really liked it but we haven't heard anything else.

The rest of the week Joel worked on on hammering all the boards on the lodge's south side that had pulled away where we could see outside.

He also worked on painting the rest of the blue we had left on the first level under the deck, and when he ran out he did the trim. He got to fishing a couple times too and we ended up with a nice meal of snapper :) 

Thursday we got to go to our friends house for the day. It was so fun to go somewhere different. Joel went to work on a backhoe but Sage and I got to enjoy ourselves all day!  We hadn't been up the river before, it's really cool, check out that color:

Sage even had fun on the boat:

 Joel worked on this backhoe all day and it's finally up and running. They had to take the whole thing apart, as in pull it in half, to get at the parts they needed to.To add to the fun after they installed the clutch it didn't work the shop that worked on it adjusted it all the way in to work on it without informing them. So after they put the whole tractor back together they had to start all over just to adjust a few screws out on the clutch. On the upside they were good at it by then and almost got it apart and back together before dark. Our friends were able to finish the rest on their own in a short time a day or two later. 

We had a lot of rain the end of this week, we're glad to have all the tanks full before it quits raining altogether. 

We enjoyed a nice visit from some other friends yesterday for a few hours, it's so nice to have people here that care about us :)

We've had an invasion of large red ants this week too, they only come out at night and they're a lot like the army ants and we're still trying to find out where they're coming from. That and the rat, hopefully we'll pick up a rat trap this week and get rid of that problem.  

Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Week 15

This week was all about prepping and painting the north side of the lodge. This is a big project. So Joel started out by bleaching the top section and then painting it:

Then came the fun part. A LOT of the wood on the bottom section was rotten, as in so rotten a paintbrush would go right through it. So after he tore out all the bad stuff it looked like this:

NOT a fun project! But it sure looks nice now! He also made a new shutter for the window and stained it. 

And he made new flashing for under the windows like he did on the front to keep the moisture from dripping down again and took down and put the gutter back up so it's straight now.  

Now it's ready for more paint! Unfortunately when he caught a ride to Dangriga yesterday to get paint they were out. They said several other people were painting their house the same color. Guess we started a trend ;-)

Sage and I are always doing little projects, this week we made a path the the orange cabana where there was none before. We also planted some trees and things that were in plastic pots and replanted some of the nicer pots with flowers. It's fun to make things look pretty :)

Week 14

Happy Sunday!

Well this last week we had winter again. There were several days of 'cold' - I'm not complaining at all but we were actually quite cold! Remember we pretty much sleep outside and it was rainy and in the 60's. Apparently we're used to the heat because we were so cold we were wearing layers of long sleeves, sweatshirts, socks, and shoes, it was really strange! It also made showering impossible without the heater so I'm really glad we had that option. And now it's over. For now anyways, I suppose it could get cold again.

This week was a lot about painting. So here's what it looked like BEFORE:

And now the top front (the deck area) is done, check it out:

We call it Maxwell House Blue with Cream (creamer?) trim ;)  Ok so it's not exactly (or at all) the color we thought we were going with, but it's really growing on us and the fact that the nice oil-based paint makes it look so much newer really helps.  There's a LOT left to do. Joel had to replace a bunch of boards and clean a lot of the wood before painting it:

Of course before working up there he had to fix the ladder (there's always something). The guide that keeps the 2 parts of the ladder together was missing on one side so he had to make a new one. Out of an aluminum gas tank.

He also refinished the front door, it looks awesome:

Along with getting all this painting done Joel also spent a couple days fishing with some guys from the village. He loves this because he gets to do one of his favorite things, help someone out, and of course get to have church all day on a boat :)

Yesterday he went to our friends house and worked on taking his backhoe apart because it needed a new clutch. Well this was right up his alley and made him feel like he was back working in Georgia :)

Looks about the same too ;)

So if you hadn't noticed yet, a friend of ours gave us a camera to use! I'm super excited about this, what a blessing :)

So since we've been here we've had a parrot. We don't know much about him other than his name is Jessi (or it may be Jessica, no one seems to be sure since there were two). Recently we had been talking about taking him to a bird rescue place in Belmopan since we know he's not happy in a little cage, and especially without his friend. A couple days ago our pastor, Kenny, called and asked if we would give Jessi to Belize Bird Rescue .  His brother-in-law works there (or knows someone who works there?) and had asked him if he knew of any parrots that might be surrendered. So he called us! The timing was just crazy. So the next day they came and picked him up! I saw on their facebook page he is doing great, eating a lot and making lots of noise :) If he does well at rehab (lol) he may even be released into the wild! He was really fun but we are so happy that he's going to be happy :)

They didn't have lifegroup (the new name for house church) this week because the hosts were both sick with the flu :( But they will be back to it next week!

There is a team coming the middle of February and we got a lot of their details so Joel spent a day in the village with Kenny figuring out all the logistics of what everyone will be doing and eating and how to transport them etc. There's a lot to do to get ready for a team, I can't imagine doing it every week or every other week like they used to! We still have bunch to do but they got a lot figured out already. That should be fun and gives us something to look forward to. Also my parents are coming to visit soon after that so we're all (especially Sage) really looking forward to that!  

Week 13

Well we've had a nice week. Joel started out the week concentrating on the shower upstairs. The third floor of the lodge has 2 rows of bunk beds and a shower room and a bathroom. The shower floor has been leaking for awhile, since we've been here anyways, and whenever people stay up there and use it there's a huge puddle in the 2nd floor boys bathroom. Here's what it looked like before, not that it was bad, the leak just needed to be fixed:

Sorry the pictures are really bad, we're using our video camera for pictures lol.  Anyways he tore out the tile and shower floor and moved the plastic floor against the wall. Then he put up a new wall on the left side and covered all the walls with vapor barrier:

He put cement board over the vapor barrier and covered that with brown polymer grout. The floor in front of the shower was leaking too so he poured a little cement pad and put a drain in the middle. Then some stained wood to hold up the shower curtain and new paint and it's a beautiful functioning shower!

The pictures don't do it justice, it's really pretty :)  

He also made a boat ramp for the small aluminum boat. This makes it take like 5 minutes to get in the water if we see birds/fish out there or for when people come here to fish. He's going to paint it yet but here it is:

So the boat just rolls right down the ramp and is super easy to pull back up.

In his spare time (lol) Joel's been prepping the lodge for painting! We went to Dangriga this week and got paint (and visa's and groceries and supplies and car parts etc.) so we could start working on it. A big problem was the windows on the lodge condensate and drip down the wood so there's mold under all the windows. He made flashings under the windows so the moisture won't drip any more and bleached and cleaned the wood underneath. Here's what they looked like:

  

He made a break to bend all the metal the right way:

Then here's them installed under the windows:

So the front of the lodge was all prepped so we started painting!  Basil and Vera let us pick out the color (this was rather stressful lol, especially since when we went to get the paint all they had were primary colors....ok I'm exagerrating a little but pretty much there were light and dark of each color and nothing in the middle) so you'll have to stay tuned next week to see the color we ended up with!

Joel went to bible study on Wednesday and there were a lot of people like 20, that is so cool. He is really enjoying getting to know people and share in their lives and walks with the Lord. Pray that people continue to come and encourage and pray for each other.  

The dogs are doing great, if you read last week they had an encounter with a wild animal that left them pretty tore up but they are back to normal and gaining weight again :)  And hopefully they learned not to do that again!

Sage's baby chicks are doing great too, the one loves her and climbs up on her shoulder when she plays with them, it's really cute.  

Joel has had the chance to go fishing a couple times this week so we have some fish for meals which is great.  Thanks to the new ramp it's even easier when people from the village come out to fish for them all to just get in the boat and go. 

We have been talking lately about how much we've learned since we got here. I am so thankful for the opportunity to live here. We get to spend time every morning in the Word. We are together as a family almost all the time. We have endless opportunities to teach Sage. Sage and I go for walks on the beach whenever the weather permits and discover new things, make stuff out of nothing, learn about sea life, the things that wash up on the beach are all potential toys. We'll discover something then go google it to see where it came from and what it is. I am continually amazed at God's creation. The way a coconut can drift out in the ocean and grow wherever it comes to shore, same with all kinds of seeds and nuts...Not to mention what we're learning about living with less, making things stretch, fixing things when they are broken instead of throwing them away. Appreciating things like long showers, being away from bugs (even if for a few hours), food....I could go on and on. I don't get to spend a lot of time with other people right now being at the base all the time so I try and make the most of any opportunity to talk with people and learn from them. It makes me appreciate that even more too. I've learned more about cooking, preserving, using every part of everything for something, buying in bulk, things like that. I believe that is exactly why God gave us the gift of creativity - to make things out of nothing when you're low on food or finances or materials or toys or whatever. There are endless ways to use that creativity! 

Week 12

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

We had a nice day, of course it wasn't the same, and it didn't feel Christmasy, but I think that is really ok. In the couple weeks before I had had times when I was feeling sad about missing family and all the traditions. But on the actual day I was so struck by how great it felt to really live the way we believe. Although all the hype around Christmas is fun (and often stressful), it always took my focus off of what we were really celebrating. And this year with nothing else in the way we could really focus on Jesus.

Sage was super excited to open gifts in the morning, when we got up she said 'I was excited for presents and I got out of my net then I saw it was dark out so I went back to sleep.' My mom and Grandma sent us gifts and Joel made Sage a barn for her animals :)  Around noon some friends of ours who live on a lagoon arrived by boat. They brought Sage 2 baby chicks as a gift which of course she loved.  We had a nice meal and they stayed until almost dark. It was a wonderful day, even if completely different :)

We had a nice relaxing week. Sage and I made a bunch of food for Christmas Day and made cookies for Christmas Eve.  Joel made a buoy out on the sandbar for Bill (and whoever else needs) to tie off the boat. He mowed the whole lawn and cleaned up the beach which was a mess after like 5 days of wind. The wind was actually amazing because we had that many days without bugs also!

Obviously I haven't been able to figure out how to put pictures from our tablet on to the computer, so I've just been uploading some to facebook.  We did have hope to get our stuff back last week but it's been another week and still nothing so we're starting to consider ordering a new computer and camera since it will take awhile to get here. It's hard to know how long to wait.

We did have an incident this week, Joel Sage and I went down the beach on the small boat and the dogs followed us. Joel had found this huge rope he wanted to get out of the sand.  On the way back 3 of the dogs took off after something in the woods. One came back right away, and the 2nd that night and we noticed the next morning he had big punctures in his head.  The 3rd finally came back the next night and he had punctures in his head as well. We're guessing they got in a fight with a wild boar. They looked kinda rough for a couple days but they look much better this morning and seem to be back to their normal selves. It was just a strange thing to happen!

This week we will be going to town one day and our next big project will be painting the lodge (!!!) We'll get paint this week and Joel will start the prep work.  He's also working on the shower upstairs that leaks really bad for when the team is here in February.

Hope you all have a great week!

Weeks 9-11

Happy first day of winter!

Well a lot has been going on. We are so sorry we were unable to update the blog for the last 3 weeks, we tried to keep everyone up to date through our facebook ministry page.

Well first of all I'd like to share about the showing of the property. It went really great. There were 4 men that came, 3 from a large ministry organization, and one from a smaller ministry already in Belize. We had a wonderful visit with them, they were so encouraging it was a blessing just to spend time with them.  They seemed to enjoy their stay here and when they left they went to explore other areas of the country, just trying to figure out where their ministry would fit in best. They have let us know that they are more than likely going to purchase some land and build housing etc from the ground up, closer to a city. We were a little disappointed but we are sure the Lord has the exact right person/people lined up for this place :)

They left on Friday and we spent the day relaxing with some friends who came out to stay for the night. Sunday we went to church in the village as usual and when we got back we saw the window on the lodge was broken. We went in to find someone had stolen our computer and camera. We also discovered they had broken into the directors house and had taken another old computer and a cd player.  I have to admit I was really sad, mostly about all the pictures I have on our computer, and the one's still on the camera. BUT they are just things. They can be replaced. We were safe, no one was hurt, and as my mom told me when I had something stolen in high school, they must have needed it more than us. We have peace about this whether they are returned or not. Please join us in praying for the men who are in jail, that they come to know the Lord through this.

'Don't store up your treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store up your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do no break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.' Matt 6:19-21

So this was the reason we were not online much. After a couple days Joel remembered we had a little tablet and we got that working so we were able to be online and even skype, so that was a blessing. However it was a challenge typing on that thing! Now some friends of ours have let us borrow a laptop, another blessing!

Another thing this changes is that we cannot leave the base unattended. The break in was a planned event, they knew we would be at church. We can hire someone to come out here however everyone we know goes to church also so we can't really ask someone to do that.  We tried to get house church to come out here but with such unreliable vehicles in the village and just having it be a bigger deal we struggled to make it work. We decided that Joel would go in on Tuesdays and I'll stay here.  It's not ideal but we know this is temporary and it's more important that house church keeps on.

So after all the work we did getting ready for the showing we took it easy for a week. Joel worked on a present for Sage, Sage and I made Christmas decorations, we all decorated the tree we found in the lodge.  Joel is always doing something of course, he can't just sit around lol.  He replaced and added a bunch of lights all around the lodge, got the boat ready for inspection to register it, made us a water heater for our shower (yay!!!), fixing a toilet, along with regular things like keeping the beach clean etc.

Last Sunday we had Cindy Kidder, a missionary who lives in the village, bring out her group of teenage girls for a 2 night retreat. It was really fun, the girls were super nice, and Cindy did a great job planning activities for them, especially since it rained the whole time.  I sure appreciate her and what she does for the girls. They made it so easy to have them here, they did all the cooking and cleaning, some of the girls even played dolls with Sage which just made her so happy :)

On the way to house church (finally!) this last Tuesday Joel was driving the truck and it literally broke in half in the middle of our (looooong) driveway, about half way to the village. As in the frame completely broke and the bed was sitting up on the back window. After asking what the Lord would have him do he found a ratchet strap and strapped the frame back together. He decided since Satan was obviously trying to keep him from going on that he would try and make it to the village and figure out how to get home later. He made it! The amazing thing is our pastor had a truck he was going to sell but thought of us and our almost broken truck and decided to keep it in case we needed it. So he gave him the truck, someone else gave a gallon of gas, and he was good to go!  And it was worth it because house church was amazing that night I hear :)

Last Thursday Joel and Threnton went to Belize City to register the boat and go to the post office. They did some fishing on the way there and back and caught plenty for Threnton to take home and one nice jack for us for Christmas dinner :)

Today Joel is out there mowing, he worked on the truck we're using to get it running better this morning and worked on the boat to make it easier to get up the ramp. I'm trying to catch up with everything while Sage is sleeping but my time's about up and all I did was the blog lol. We'll both continue trying to catch up with emails and messages as well as working on replacing documents we've lost.  I want to get out receipts for donations this last year but of course everything was stored on our computer. So I appreciate your patience as I have to go through bank records and online donations to figure it all out again.  We can take pictures with our tablet so I've been uploading some to facebook and will try and get some in the blog next week.

Week 8

Winter hit Belize! Here's proof, our coconut oil solidified!

We've had a whole week of 'cold' weather, most of which was 60's at night and 70's during the day. It was sooooo nice to have a break from the heat, especially with all the work we've been trying to get done. It was cold enough at night for blankets and it made for super cold showers, I even skipped a couple days because I just couldn't bring myself to get in that cold water. 

Last week was all about cleaning. That's pretty much what we did the whole week. Joel spent 8 hours cleaning downstairs of the lodge. Check out what he found under a bed down there:

And we had been wondering where that smell was coming from...... Anyways it looks usable down there now, we were all too creeped out to be down there before.  

 

We took the day off for Thanksgiving and drove to our new friends Bill and Stacy's house. They and another couple own land on the lagoon north of here. They have a beautiful place!

We really enjoyed our dinner of grilled and stewed armadillo, turkey, apple pineapple salad, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli salad, cookies, lemon bars and pumkin bars. Yeah we were stuffed. It was a really fun day of fellowship with them and the other couple (who are from CO), a couple from Vancouver, and a man who lives nearby from England. It was very interesting conversation!

Then it was back to work. Joel got a tool shop set up in the container, it looks great:

Sage and I worked on cleaning the lodge and directors house most of the week, along with all the regular things like laundry and cooking.  

So why all the cleaning? Well Belize Mission and Retreat is for sale. As you can tell there haven't been any teams lately and there are only 3 scheduled for this next year. There used to be teams almost every week throughout the whole year!  Once the economy slowed down the teams tapered off and now there's hardly any. We had the opportunity to skype with the owners a couple nights ago and they shared with us what it was like when they first came 13 years ago and all the ministries they started and were involved in. It is seriously amazing. I know they are so sad that this chapter is coming to an end. We did know this coming here and decided to come anyway because we felt God was telling us this was the place for us. So there are a group of people coming to look at the mission tomorrow. We've known for several weeks so we've been working really hard to make it look as good as it can.  This is another ministry looking at it and I think we would all like to see a ministry purchase it and keep it going.  So please be in prayer for the whole situation and that the right people find it.  It is so beautiful and amazing here I don't know who wouldn't want to buy it!  So where does that leave us? Exactly where God wants us, completely relying on Him and not always knowing what's coming next. We are concentrating on where He has us right now and that's it. 

We'd also like to share that we were involved with starting a house church in the village. This is super exciting for us because as many of you know we went to house church back home and absolutely loved it. We found out there were some people in the village who wanted to start a bible study so Joel talked to them about doing house church like we had and they loved the idea. We've been meeting on Tuesdays for over a month now and we are loving it so much. We've been enjoying getting together with other believers and just sharing what God's doing in our lives, studying and praying together.....it's really really great!  So also keep this in prayer if you would :)  

So that's why the blog was late this week, between using all our download allowance skyping with the owners, being home late from house church last night, and all the work we've been doing there hasn't been time! Thank you so much for keeping us in prayer, hope you all have a great week :)