Wednesday to Friday

Greetings from Belize. Here is a summary of a typical day so far.
6:30 wake up
7:00 breakfast (there about)
8:00 our harrowing drive through Belize city, our Vaseline slicked bus as we squeezed through city streets to get to the work site.
8:45 our site leader Harry coordinates our jobs with Manuel and we begin hauling blocks one by one up to the second floor with a pulley.
Some are laying block, some pointing, some mixing mortar, sorting wood, pulling out nails, hauling stone and rebar. Some have been spending time assisting in the class since this is government exam week.
We've been making great progress!
We stop for our lunch of rice and beans with a bit of coleslaw and either chicken or beef then back at it.
We work till around 4:30 when our bus comes to take us back through the tight streets of the city.
We bargain for the much needed shower and relax out on the porch and enjoy the breeze off the ocean which is only 30 feet in front of the house.
Our supper comes around 7:00.
We've had Buritos, Enchiladas, chicken, rice and beans. We chuckle at the plastic spoon we get with our lunch, no fork and no knife to eat rice, salad and meat. It's wonderful.
We appreciate it so much!
After our evening devotions we play games and head to bed.
We see such a huge contrast between things we aren't familiar with, the rich homes and the squatter homes where we work. The school is surrounded by a squatters village. All of them are built up on stilts since the area is a swamp. There is one faucet for several homes. They throw their garbage right out the window. Apparently it's "landfill". Laundry is all done by hand and hung out on rope or wire or whatever is handy. The children are wonderful! They are full of fun and love to spend their break times with us.
Tuesday we celebrated Hank's "special" birthday and on
Wednesday we celebrated with Pete the precious new granddaughter born to Mike and Nicole.
Thursday we had turkey at lunch celebrating American Thanksgiving.

Tuesday, our first day!

After a safe trip to Belize, we were thankful that everything went very smoothly. Our fears for our boarder crossing were absolutely needless because all three vehicles crossed the boarder within 10 minutes. We were all amazed!
Pastor Betson drove up in a dilapidated old school bus that was built sometime in the 60's.
We were blown away by his enthusiastic, warm welcome with big hugs, "I love you's" and "You are special". He is wonderful and incredibly passionate for the ministry at Unity school, and for the well being of the youth in the community.
He took us immediately to see the school where we met many children and staff. We were awestruck with the surrounding "squatter's" homes all around the school. It was shocking for us to see garbage and waste and such poverty here. Housing is indeed in the swamp!
The school has been built up about six feet above ground on a type of stilt or pier system. It is like a beautiful flower growing amongst thorns.
was a a long tiring day. We arrived at the pastor's house where we settled in, had some dinner

UNITY PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL - BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

UNITY PRESBYTERIAN SCHOOL - BELIZE CITY, BELIZE

Our work for the next 12 days will be to work alongside local construction workers to complete the last three classrooms on the second floor. Our stay there is not only to work, work, work but also to interact with our hosts, the school children, community and perhaps even participate in some classroom activities.

We look forward to meeting Pastor Ernest & Carolyn Betson, this is the couple who minister to the people and started a church plant in a poverty stricken area of the Capitol. They saw that many children did not attend school, perhaps because of lack of money but mostly it was not important to parents,so in 2007, the Betson started Unity Presbyterian School where Carolyn is now the principal. The growth in enrollment has been phenomenal, hence the need for more classrooms.

Belize, the smallest of the 7 Central America countries only has a population of approx. 335,000 people and is bordered to the north by Mexico and the west by Guatemala, and to the east by the Caribbean Sea. There is much to be said about Belize’s history, government, natural resources and economy but the combination of natural factors---climate, Belize Barrier Reef, the many islands, fishing, boating, jungle and wildlife reserves that the government has deemed tourism as its second development priority after agriculture.

2 days to go---------hank

One week to go - Departure for Belize Nov. 21 2011

Hello everyone

It's hard to believe after months of preparations, prayers, meetings and fundraising, here we are, one week to go before we fly out from Buffalo to Belize to continue the work so many teams before us have started. Our desire is to go in His Name and I pray that we go in humble service, to be blessed and to be a blessing as much as God has blessed us. Pray that we will be good representatives, faithful to Jesus and the gospel and as we work along side, listening to their stories and spending time with our hosts and in their communities may all this help us to discern what is our role even when we return home. Pray for safety, strength, good relations. Pray that patience,kindness, goodness and faithfulness will guide our path, that all we do be to the glory and honour of His Name. 

My name is Hank Stronks and it has been my privilege to lead several teams from Community CRC to El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and now Belize. Our team, this year consists of thirteen people, all from CCRC, they are

Pete & Joyce Douwes, Bernie & Linda DeJonge, Pete Hansma, Sandra Krammer, Harry Oudman, Leo Veenstra, Janet Barry, Dick Oldenburger, Jonathan Oldenburger, Samara Douwes & Hank Stronks, half of whom have never gone on a STM trip.

We go under the auspices of Edu.Deo Ministries but are thrilled that Jesus has invited us to the greatest adventure ever, John 20:21 says, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you”. What a privilege! What a opportunity! We thank each and every one of you who have so generously supported this endeavor, your passion for supporting a Christ-centered education and wanting to pass this on is the same conviction our forefathers had when they arrived in Canada. Thank You so very much. We thank also those who so willingly have volunteered to drive us to and fro from Buffalo, Richard & Barb Krammer, Clarence Damsma & Sid Klooster.

We hope you keep in touch, via this blog and we will do our best to update daily with pictures and comments of our activities.

hank