This past weekend we had spent in Blue Creek which is a mennonite colony in upper Belize. It felt like a town in Manitoba, like Niverville or Winkler. It was somewhat cut off from the rest of Belize but it was so much fun. We left Belize City with a bunch of different youths from all over the city, around 20 people in total, give or take. The drive was long but loud and fun. When we reached there we all were dished out and handed off to our hosts who were hosting us. We all got split up into two or three people to each host. We got to know our host family and spent time with them during the weekend and hanging out with them. We had gone to Blue Creek as a recuritement for the youths there to come help out with summer camps in the city and we took out youths from Belize City who had meet some of the BC (Blue Creek) kids and was curious on their way of live since it was different than the city, so they were given a treat to go out there for the weekend. The girl Morgan and I were staying with was named Regina. She was very bubbly and a lot of fun to get to know. She took us all over BC and we interacted with a lot of the youths there because she was friends with them all.
We got to do a bunch of stuff in our free time. I can’t explain what everyone else did cause I actually don’t know, but I can explain some of what Morgan, Jessie and I did since we were together a lot of the time. We talked a lot and since we had Saturday morning off, we went touring around BC and seeing the layout of the town. It’s became a private area and they feel very secluded from the rest of Belize. They even had private roads funded all by the towns people and the roads had no rules, which the crazy thing is, accidents are very rare there. We went to an auction, had food and got to know new people. Even went horse back riding for a bit. Later Saturday afternoon we went on a hike. Which you would think a flatten path in a bit of a tree covered area or a foot path leading through a pretty area. Sadly we did neither but the pretty area. A hike here, meant climbing through barbed wire fences just to get to the start, then climb down crazy steep slippery rocks into a dry riven and then follow it. It was crazy. If there actually was water in it, there would have been tons of intense rapids and lots of waterfalls. We climbed down these rocks. We then followed the edge of Alligator Lake, where there was no path and you were just guessing. Once you got to the lack of trail, you had to climb up a crazy steep 36.3 degree sloop. It was sooo tiring and steep. Jack climbed it without holding onto anything but by the time I went up I was exhausted and dehydrated. There was a rope someone let down and I ended up using it to get all the way up it was way to steep for me. I finally finished that really long climb and I was about to collapse. I was so exhausted from it. It would have been such a fun time if I could have actually looked at my surrounds instead of watching the ground trying to prevent myself from injuring more than just myself and attempting but failing to prevent falling into needle covered trees. We relaxed at the park after that and played some games.
Photo Credit; Jack
These are pictures of the jungle we hiked through.
In the evening we went to a program about Belize Camping Experience and working as a counsellor there. We had a worship hour, and even every different church that was at this program introduced themselves and did a special number. Jack told a camp testimony and we watched a video of camp. The night ended after some of the youth had told of their experiences from camp. Some of the camp testimonies people shared were so touching that it had made me want to come to Belize to do camps here and share my love with the kids here who are under privileged. The night was very good and gave a good description of camp and how it would be a good thing to work at camp. We spent the rest of the evening talking and discussing camp with the youths.
Photo Credit; Jack
This morning we went to church and the church here is an EMMC church so it felt so much like the church I regularly go to when I’m home except they had german incorporated into their service. It was cool having the service in two different languages and going back in forth. It was really cool to see that so far away from home, people worship the same God and sometimes even the same way as we do back in Manitoba. Even experiencing the churches all over Belize has been great to see the things we have in common and the things that people do differently. Everyone worships, everyone prays, everyone has a sermon but they all do it differently. No place has been completely the same and some of the churches have had the same layout but an entirely different way of doing it.
So that has been our past weekend. It’s been crazy but it’s been a good time learning and experiencing Christ in new ways.
Taylor
