My first mission trip. So many feelings running through my head as I boarded the plane heading to Belize. Am I equipped? Do I even know enough about the bible to share with others in Belize? Can I even pray well enough? My stomach in knots, my mind racing. What do I even have to offer? So many nerves ran through my body as I was on the plane but excitement began to fill my heart and I knew I was ready. Ready to see God use me. Ready to be completely vulnerable. Ready to get out of my comfort zone and ready to help love Gods people who are in major need.
Belize was how I imagined when I arrived. Tropical, trees everywhere, green, and run down shops stores and homes everywhere. Their idea of an HEB was having a mini run down store with some fruits and vegetables outside. Definitely how I pictured a third world country to be. People walking around barefoot, people riding around in back of trucks, kids running around everywhere. I smiled and knew I was supposed to be here.
It took me a long time to come on this mission trip. Having a job and living pay check to paycheck definitely does not help. For so long I felt like I couldn't do anything for God because I was "stuck". I wanted a more fulfilling life and ever since I was 16 I have wanted to be a missionary. Not getting paid enough definitely has held me back from doing a lot but was an excuse for so long that I couldn't help people right where I was at everyday and I couldn't fundraise and go on a mission trip. My discouragement often brought me down because I always said "When I get a better job then I will be able to go on a mission trip". "When I start my career then I will be successful." "When I get to this point I will be happy in life." It was honestly just a bunch of excuses and God has shown me that he has you placed right where you are at for a reason. He worked on my patience, my attitude, my willingness, my strength and tested me for about 2 years. The truth is you will never be ready. Once you have the attitude that you are going to use what you have right where you are at, then God will use you. I always thought I had to "Fix" myself first. God uses the damaged, the unequipped the ones who think they have nothing to offer to change the world!
While on this mission trip we met a family named the Lopez family. There were about 11 children and Grandma and their mothers. Their fathers either left when they were young and have never met them or they work 6-7 days a week for their families. So basically they are all fatherless. This family we worked with for the entirety of the mission trip. They lived in a dump. There was trash that they were living by. Mud, fire ants, cow manure and chicken poop was what the children ran in barefoot. I watched them running through the mud barefoot feeling so sorry for them. Where was their bouncy ball, their bikes, their jump rope, their movies, their swingset, their shoes? My heart was shattered as I looked at their living conditions. Boards just randomly were placed next to each other with corn stalks as their roof. No closed walls so mosquitos and any storm or natural disaster could take it down in seconds. No beds or furniture to be seen. They walked miles to get lakewater in which they bathed in with small buckets. I was completely sad but then I looked around at all the childrens' faces. They were laughing running around and playing. They had no cares in the world and they were genuinely happy. They knew no different. This was their life they were born into and they knew nothing of a "better life". I asked three pre teens what they liked to do for fun and their response was "Play". Play was running around in mud chasing each other. They had to use their imaginations and they were perfectly fine with that. Made me think of kids in America. Spoiled rotten. Always needing to have an Ipad an IPhone, they can watch movies whenever they please, they get birthday parties and presents for Christmas, and they get to actually go in a toy store. Nothing is ever good enough for kids here always wanting more and more. And these kids were completely content with their life. They were more "rich" at heart then any other kids I have ever met.
I spent my mission days connecting with amazing people on my team. We spent most of our time with the Lopez family. We would eat breakfast every morning at 7:30am which was eggs, beans, and fruit. Then we would head out to the dumpsite where they lived. We made a beautiful pathway up to their house which was built by our ministry and we went to an awesome nursery and picked out beautiful plants to landscape around the house. If you don't know me I am the biggest girlie girl. I don't spend any time outside (My pasty skin may give that away). My idea of camping is a Hilton room with a heated pool, and I definitely have never gardened or landscaped or even dug a hole. It felt like 110 degrees every single day. The humidity was horrific and after 2 min of being outside your hair body and clothes were dripping with sweat. After they handed me the shovel and wheel burrow I took a deep breath and complained to God in my head, "What the heck am I doing here?" and I looked at the childrens' innocent faces and the grandmother sitting on the front porch with her eyes looking like she was tired. Tired of struggling everyday for her family for so many years. And then I remembered why I was there. It wasn't about me. How dare I even complain. This was just out of my comfort zone. Exactly what I hoped for before I left. And I rolled up my sleeves and started digging everyday. The kids faces watched us digging holes as if they knew their whole lives were about to change.
Sometimes they would pull me aside and beg me to take pictures with them and video them because they had never seen themselves on camera. They would steal my bracelets and sunglasses and I taught them how to pose like models. They would giggle and whisper to each other and ask me if I had a boyfriend. Then when I replied, "Yes" they cracked up for 5 minutes and teased me. Those were the times that made my heart full. Another time that was my favorite was taking them all to ice cream. They have never eaten any ice cream before. I am not quite sure if they knew what chocolate or vanilla was so that's why most of them ordered Kiwi because it was probably the most familiar to them. :) Their smiles and faces lit up the room as they ate their cones. SOO sweet! When I would arrive to their home everyday two little girls 4 and 6 years old would run up to me clinging on to my leg hugging me and laughing because we came back. It was the sweetest moment of my trip. Not that many people probably show their faces where they live and let alone come back. They probably get used to people coming and going.
Every night for dinner I ate beans and rice and the one thing that made it taste okay was the delicious hot sauce they had. But beans and rice everyday was definitely hard to do everyday. And then when you want to get comfy and go sleep in your bed after a long day, you slept on a wooden slat with an air mattress with an exhibit of geckos ear wigs and spiders sleeping with you too. I would joke with my roommate and tell her "Don't let the bed bugs bite" in which we would laugh but then curl ourselves in our blanket and sleep in paranoia all night. We also slept with cotton balls in our ears so the ear wigs wouldn't destroy us in which I was hoping I would still hear my alarm in the morning. Oh and you brushed your teeth with water bottles because they had no clean water. The showers either was burning hot to where you couldn't even touch with your pinky or freezing cold to where you would shriek.
We spent the night time having our own church service on our campus or going to a church. One night we went to church that I enjoyed so much. Looking around at many Belize people and then all the missionaries coming from America was overwhelming. Here I was in a church in Belize by myself traveling alone worshipping with my hands up singing songs about Jesus with everyone. The same songs we sing in America. The same exact God I worship too. God is such a big God he is everywhere we all know of His love and how wonderful and amazing he is and I could go anywhere in the world and we can all worship and know the One True God we all know. AMAZING and OVERWHELMING I tell you.
When we weren't at church we usually spent our evenings doing activities with all the kids in the village. People from all over the community would walk miles and miles to get to the church because they heard we were doing activities. We colored, performed skits, jump roped, did bubbles, did their hair, face painted, did a parachute and more. The kids had a BLAST! And so did we all. They never get to play like this. And learn about Gods love while having fun. I enjoyed meeting all 80-100 kids and playing with them watching their lives change and they heard about Gods love and talking and laughing with them and reaching out and encouraging the moms really was an example of how they saw Gods love. These families were not forgotten. They were cared about and loved by God.
The leader of the Missions Pastor Bill and his wonderful wife Kathy, really wanted it to be known to use that we want to make a lasting effect for these families. We don't want them to have temporary fun or see Gods love for a week or two we want them to be self sustainable and be able to progress and help themselves with Gods help. "God can do a lot with little things" was the motto we said daily to the families. Pastor Bill quoted, "You can give a man a fish and he can eat for a day, you can teach a man to fish and eat for a lifetime". Our ministry works with these families teaching them life skills and DCI (Direct Christian Impact) continues to go every week continuing to help the families and people of Belize just showing them the ropes.
One of the cooks I had a pleasure of seeing everyday named Stephanie was a former human trafficking victim and is now going to own her own bed and breakfast in her own home and watch her life prosper thanks to DCI for helping her get that started.
This mission trip was amazing and I grew spiritually and really learned about Gods love even more. I want to go on many more mission trips and spend my life loving Gods people.
I encourage you to step out and listen to the calling placed on your life and just GO!
With love, Kelsi
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