Transformational Times

Another night in the jungle...an ocean of stars, the buzz of life amongst the trees and a carpet of twinkling fireflies all remind us again of our beautiful Creator and His breathtaking handiwork! We have asked another two team members to share their hearts with you tonight.

Please know that your comments and words of encouragement are a treasure to us here...please keep them coming!

Here are some thoughts from Kristen Weber and Dallas Pelly:

Kristen

Hey mom and dad!!! i miss all of you guys so much and i think about you everyday! Guess what, i'm not even scared of the bugs!.. well maybe a little but i'm not even screaming at all and i even killed a cockroach!. God has been so amazing and has been so awesome, My eyes have opened so much to so many things! the Children's home is amazing, I have held so many amazing kids so far, they always have a reason to make me smile and so far i have had two babies fall asleep in my arms and it has been so awesome and life touching. God has shown me that you don't have to have a lot of things to be so happy because every time I look into the children's eyes I see happiness and love and it is just so amazing to see that. Waking up to God's beautiful creation of the jungle and the noises from it is so uplifting and awesome, even the howling monkeys.. Im so excited to come back and show you what God has showed me and taught me and just share this amazing experience i'm having here! Tell zack, nick, dominic, dawn and nevaeh i miss them so much and love them! see you guys soon i love all of you so much!!

Dallas

Some of my FAVE things about Belize:

• Drinks in glass bottles
• Cholis (pronounced CHO-lees) which is a yummy drink
• All the kids asking for a piggy back at KCH.
• Seeing the new home come together. SO MUCH BIGGER!
• Being IN random parades in the capital city with all the soccer kids.
• Singing God of Wonders under the stars at YWAM.
• Being cold at night in 20 degree weather.
• Getting to hold a dead Iguanas.
• Hearing the kids at KCH yell "MAM"
• Trying to sound like the locals: "Back-weh Bwoy! "fih TRU!
• Playing carpet pool with kids on the YWAM base.
• Hearing howler monkeys in the middle of the night

Seriously this is the most amazing place in the world. There is officially two types of people in the world. Those who have been to Belize and those who should come. Before coming here I have heard countless stories of the people here, especially the children of "Kings Childrens Home".

While in this country we are spending quite a bit of time at the new home for the children. Our first day the first place we went was the Childrens home which they have been in since 1992. Their old home is so tiny compared to even the standard home in Canada. It is hard to imagine that this place is home to over 80 children, but sadly this is the place that they call home.

Today we ventured back to the work site. After a full day there we headed over for a Cholis and a picnic before walking to KCH. Tonight we were allowed to stay for worship time in the house. All the kids 10 and up got dressed up and headed to church. We stayed with the younger ones and headed into their tiny living room.

I was sitting there while all the children and our team found seats in the room. All of a sudden Josiah with his husky deep voice tells the kids to quiet down. I waited to see which adult was going to step up and lead the worship time, but none stepped forward. Instead Josiah and another boy led the entire room in a prayer and then a few songs and finally a reading from a bible story from yet again another child less than 10 years old!

This challenged my view on a lot of things. How could these kids lead themselves. Its as if some Lord of the Flies senario has played itself out. These kids were singing, and shooshing others from their own family even when an adult was not there to guide them. They were timid at first, but I heard such authenicity in their tiny voices when they prayed. I was totally amazed.

Before worship time we set aside a room for kids who has specific sponsors who had sent the kids a gift. So many of them were so happy and overjoyed to recieve such a small gift. Some kids got candy, others toys, whatever the gift big or small, all the kids were so happy.

For those of you that know me and my wife Shalisse, we have a child who we have the grace of sponsoring: his name is Edgar. Edgar is also called Papito or Papi. He is a little bit different from all the other kids. He is always pulling up his pants, today he even ripped a pair playing hide and go seek. Edgar is very kind a considerate, he is quite a gentleman. He is kind of a loose cannon and can be distracted easily and he LOVES to laugh and play games. He likes to scare people and he has the cutest giggle. Words cannot describe how amazing it was to finally meet him.

Thanks a lot for all your prayers and encouragements from back home. You guys mean a lot to us. We definitely need you to keep us in your prayers. The enemy wants to make us weak but it says "His power is made perfect in our weakness"

I love you all and miss you!

Back-wei!

Dallas Pelly