We got to touch and bless so many different peoples lives and vice-versa were blessed by so many different people of various age groups in the one large family community of appox. 500 people living out 35 miles on a bumpy dirst road from the nearest town, in the Jungle and farming community of Blue Creek. Beside is a photo of the house we lived in while we were in Belize it was very nice to live here with only the sounds of the insects
and birds to bother you, people here liked their space so the next 
neighbour was about 50 yards away. Seeing creatures such as frogs, toads, lizards, Ghecko's, snakes, spiders and ants was common-place.This photo was taken after Daniel kindly removed this fellow from our bedroom and placed him outside on our doorstep (how he got there in the first place we dont really know) we guess he 'hopped in'!
We had many great friends throughout our time in the community, whom we will never forget.
This friend of Daniel called David Friesen worked in one of the small shops where petrol could be bought and a few small items and DIY. Daniel would sometimes go there just to chat with him about bible verses and life in general. He was equally a blessing to us, bringing some food round in a time of financial hardship and being a blessing with his friendly warmth and smile.
Another good close friend during this time was Maria, a lady from the USA who sometimes came for sleepovers to our house. Daniel would give up his place on the bed and go and sleep on the floor in the lounge so that Rhoda and Maria could talk and pray till late in the night and then sleep head to toe style on the bed !! We had some great prayer warrior times together and often talked about our hopes and dreams and visions for the time there in Belize and beyond.
Pancho was a great support to us both and we would often go round his house and yet again you guessed it - pray till late at night - for revival and renewal of the holy spirit in the community and for peoples hearts to be softened to the full truths of the Word of God and for greater hunger for the presence of God. We were able to have many laughs and times of warmth and joy together, he was like an older brother figure to both me and Rhoda for our time there in Belize along with his wife Lisa, and children Rhonda and Michelle.
Cornie and Mary were some special friends to us who always seemed to have time for any problem issue or concern. They often partook with many of the other people mentioned here in our all-night prayer meetings at our house. Once, when Cornie broke his rib during a rough football match, Daniel with excitement jumped at the opportunity to meet up with Cornie on a continual daily basis to read the bible together and pray and listen to worship music until Cornie was more full recovered. On one occasion Daniel prayed for a long time for the cells and bones to come to alignment in Cornie's body and for the Lord to touch and heal, after which Cornie declared he had felt a tightening in his back and less inflamation. Daniel had an even bigger smile on his face for the rest of that day concerning the healing power of our Lord and Saviour ! 
Pastor Darrell was the leader of the local church that we attended. When he had free time Daniel would sometimes meet up with Darrell, whether to just hang out and chat at the pastor's new papaya farm.....or to pray for the pastor and his ministry. Pastor Darrell also introduced Daniel to the "steps to freedom in christ" process (Neil Anderson) which Daniel was very keen on during this time. Daniel followed through the steps to freedom in Christ with Pastor Darrell in his office, and thereafter Daniel enthusiastically shared the steps to freedom in Christ with members of the local youth group as well as some of our other friends to help bring greater freedom to their lives also.
A nearby community called "Shipyard" was where the more traditional style mennonites (who used horse and buggy and shunned driving vehicles for instance!!) lived. The pastor of the free church in that area called Diedrich was another friend of Daniel. This photo was taken the day Daniel gave Diedrich a copy of the book "One Holy Fire" by Nicky Cruz. Daniel remembers it to this day because of the joy Diedrich had on his face to receive the book. As there were no bookshops in the area, and books were expensive to come by via the internet and postage e.t.c this was one of our many ministries in the community, to supply people free of charge with appropriate reading materials.
Daniel had planned to take whatever work he could get in Belize, but due to the nature of this community being so rural and nearly all agricultural this wasnt really possible. This car shown in the photograph was special provision of the Lord, as after Daniel preached at church on the need to share resources with the poor, a young couple came up and offered us the use of this car for a number of months - free of charge ! God is a good God. The most exciting thing to Daniel though was not actually having the car, but getting to see the following week after his preach (based on the book of Amos) that this young couple had actually made a change in their daily life - sacrificing the car - in response to the sermon in a practical way to help us. As we did not have any vehicle because we were saving some money for our next move this was a very real help to us to receive this car for some time. We were also loaned a different pickup jeep by a Canadian couple who were friends of ours and went out to Canada over easter. They were able to bless us by lending us a jeep for a couple of weeks, and Daniel was able to bless them in a small way in return by taking them to the airport and then picking them up again upon their return!! Its so fantastic when we are able to help one another in love and encouragement. If we follow the kind of selfless love the Christ Jesus depicted for us walking and talking on this earth, it will at times call for great sacrifice. However, when we make sacrifices for God, we can rest assured that the bible teaches that God is no man's debtor. Sometimes we may not see rewards until later in our earthly lives, sometimes we may even have to wait for heaven, but thats ok. Because the bible teaches that where our hearts are, there is our treasure also. We want to have hearts that are focused with an eternal persepective, giving when God calls to give, and if we go through times of less riches on this earth, then those times can just remind us that our real reward is in heaven still to come for all eternity. We were deeply touched and moved by all the things people have helped us with, and give God all the thanks and the praise.
and birds to bother you, people here liked their space so the next 
neighbour was about 50 yards away. Seeing creatures such as frogs, toads, lizards, Ghecko's, snakes, spiders and ants was common-place.This photo was taken after Daniel kindly removed this fellow from our bedroom and placed him outside on our doorstep (how he got there in the first place we dont really know) we guess he 'hopped in'!Out here there existed one main store (about the size of a Spar here in the UK) for food shopping and general bits and pieces, this was also the site of the Bank, and where you could pick up your mail (there was room for everyone to have their own box). There was one other even smaller food store a mile down the road where we would buy from the man his home grown Sour-sop fruit. There was 2 restaurants, one which Daniel helped out in for a few months before Christmas, serving at the till and taking food orders (usually the Belizean famous 'Rice and beans with chicken'!). The other restaurant is where the whole community went for their social life on a Friday evening where you could get a slightly more exotic dish of fried shrimps with hot sauce (very nice). Then of course there was the school where Rhoda taught (it accommodated for Kindergarten to Grade 12), and the church where we attended. Daniel was the youth leader for 3 months, and had the opportunity to preach on 2 different occassions, as well as taking some pastoral training as the current pastor of 4 years was leaving to return to Canada, and another man from the community was being trained up. 
Above is a picture of the Lagoon. THE place to be at the weekend (we enjoyed it as you can see during the week when the kids were not there and it was very peaceful and quiet!) We would ride our bikes out on the 3 mile jungle track to enjoy this beauty.
Above is a picture of the Lagoon. THE place to be at the weekend (we enjoyed it as you can see during the week when the kids were not there and it was very peaceful and quiet!) We would ride our bikes out on the 3 mile jungle track to enjoy this beauty.
The people who lived in the community in which we were in were called 'Mennonites'. They were very tradtional style Christians who (in very short) came originally from Russia, they then migrated to Canada and some then to Mexico and Belize about 50 years ago. Those in our community were more free than the very traditionalist ones in communities about 20 miles from us. Here they refused to drive pickups and chose instead to stick to their horse and carts even up to this day to get around in. They wear traditional dress as you can see also from this picture which was taken from a pick up we were in at the time. The language of even our community (although english as well of course) was actually primarily low German (an old original form of German kind of equivilant to Shakespeare English). Every other Sunday the church service was held totally in -Low German so we would require a translator. We did recognise some words as we both studied modern German at school and Daniel's grandparents live in Germany so we have used it there with them sometimes when we have visited.
We had much fun driving around the community in a large van which we had for the first few months untill Christmas...then after giving it up inorder to save a bit of money for our flights to Ecuador..very kindly a young couple in the community gave us the use of their car (and a very nice one indeed!) to save us walking and cycling so much which we were doing instead. This was excellent because although we enjoy
ed the exercise it was nice to not always be out in the hot sun of the day on the dusty roads. We would often just hitch rides like the local Mayan coloured people who worked with those in our community on the back of what everyone seemed to drive - a pickup! Our life was packed to over flowing of many adventures out here and a life totally different to that of living in London. Beautiful scenery, friendly people, a farming community, a big family, traditional 1950's style English life, basic, simple but fun! Here Rhoda is at her desk in our house, preparing school work.
We had much fun driving around the community in a large van which we had for the first few months untill Christmas...then after giving it up inorder to save a bit of money for our flights to Ecuador..very kindly a young couple in the community gave us the use of their car (and a very nice one indeed!) to save us walking and cycling so much which we were doing instead. This was excellent because although we enjoy
ed the exercise it was nice to not always be out in the hot sun of the day on the dusty roads. We would often just hitch rides like the local Mayan coloured people who worked with those in our community on the back of what everyone seemed to drive - a pickup! Our life was packed to over flowing of many adventures out here and a life totally different to that of living in London. Beautiful scenery, friendly people, a farming community, a big family, traditional 1950's style English life, basic, simple but fun! Here Rhoda is at her desk in our house, preparing school work.
This picture was taken by Rhoda sitting at her teacher's desk in her Grade 2 Classroom. As you can see
the children were very well behaved and a pleasure to teach (honestly!).
the children were very well behaved and a pleasure to teach (honestly!).
We had many great friends throughout our time in the community, whom we will never forget.
This friend of Daniel called David Friesen worked in one of the small shops where petrol could be bought and a few small items and DIY. Daniel would sometimes go there just to chat with him about bible verses and life in general. He was equally a blessing to us, bringing some food round in a time of financial hardship and being a blessing with his friendly warmth and smile.
Another good close friend during this time was Maria, a lady from the USA who sometimes came for sleepovers to our house. Daniel would give up his place on the bed and go and sleep on the floor in the lounge so that Rhoda and Maria could talk and pray till late in the night and then sleep head to toe style on the bed !! We had some great prayer warrior times together and often talked about our hopes and dreams and visions for the time there in Belize and beyond.Pancho was a great support to us both and we would often go round his house and yet again you guessed it - pray till late at night - for revival and renewal of the holy spirit in the community and for peoples hearts to be softened to the full truths of the Word of God and for greater hunger for the presence of God. We were able to have many laughs and times of warmth and joy together, he was like an older brother figure to both me and Rhoda for our time there in Belize along with his wife Lisa, and children Rhonda and Michelle.
Cornie and Mary were some special friends to us who always seemed to have time for any problem issue or concern. They often partook with many of the other people mentioned here in our all-night prayer meetings at our house. Once, when Cornie broke his rib during a rough football match, Daniel with excitement jumped at the opportunity to meet up with Cornie on a continual daily basis to read the bible together and pray and listen to worship music until Cornie was more full recovered. On one occasion Daniel prayed for a long time for the cells and bones to come to alignment in Cornie's body and for the Lord to touch and heal, after which Cornie declared he had felt a tightening in his back and less inflamation. Daniel had an even bigger smile on his face for the rest of that day concerning the healing power of our Lord and Saviour ! 
Pastor Darrell was the leader of the local church that we attended. When he had free time Daniel would sometimes meet up with Darrell, whether to just hang out and chat at the pastor's new papaya farm.....or to pray for the pastor and his ministry. Pastor Darrell also introduced Daniel to the "steps to freedom in christ" process (Neil Anderson) which Daniel was very keen on during this time. Daniel followed through the steps to freedom in Christ with Pastor Darrell in his office, and thereafter Daniel enthusiastically shared the steps to freedom in Christ with members of the local youth group as well as some of our other friends to help bring greater freedom to their lives also.
A nearby community called "Shipyard" was where the more traditional style mennonites (who used horse and buggy and shunned driving vehicles for instance!!) lived. The pastor of the free church in that area called Diedrich was another friend of Daniel. This photo was taken the day Daniel gave Diedrich a copy of the book "One Holy Fire" by Nicky Cruz. Daniel remembers it to this day because of the joy Diedrich had on his face to receive the book. As there were no bookshops in the area, and books were expensive to come by via the internet and postage e.t.c this was one of our many ministries in the community, to supply people free of charge with appropriate reading materials.
Daniel had planned to take whatever work he could get in Belize, but due to the nature of this community being so rural and nearly all agricultural this wasnt really possible. This car shown in the photograph was special provision of the Lord, as after Daniel preached at church on the need to share resources with the poor, a young couple came up and offered us the use of this car for a number of months - free of charge ! God is a good God. The most exciting thing to Daniel though was not actually having the car, but getting to see the following week after his preach (based on the book of Amos) that this young couple had actually made a change in their daily life - sacrificing the car - in response to the sermon in a practical way to help us. As we did not have any vehicle because we were saving some money for our next move this was a very real help to us to receive this car for some time. We were also loaned a different pickup jeep by a Canadian couple who were friends of ours and went out to Canada over easter. They were able to bless us by lending us a jeep for a couple of weeks, and Daniel was able to bless them in a small way in return by taking them to the airport and then picking them up again upon their return!! Its so fantastic when we are able to help one another in love and encouragement. If we follow the kind of selfless love the Christ Jesus depicted for us walking and talking on this earth, it will at times call for great sacrifice. However, when we make sacrifices for God, we can rest assured that the bible teaches that God is no man's debtor. Sometimes we may not see rewards until later in our earthly lives, sometimes we may even have to wait for heaven, but thats ok. Because the bible teaches that where our hearts are, there is our treasure also. We want to have hearts that are focused with an eternal persepective, giving when God calls to give, and if we go through times of less riches on this earth, then those times can just remind us that our real reward is in heaven still to come for all eternity. We were deeply touched and moved by all the things people have helped us with, and give God all the thanks and the praise.
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