Happy Belated Thanksgiving everyone!  Even though I am on a small island off the coast of Belize, I was still able to have a great turkey dinner; homemade pies, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, the works!  Kathy and her husband Collin are a wonderful couple who live here in Belize now.  They moved down here from New Orleans 5 years ago and Collin helps to clear land on the island so homes can be built.  Kathy cooked all week and we are still eating leftovers, thanks be to God! 

I was also able to get away for the weekend and go visit Benque on the border of Guatemala.  I finally went to my first Mayan ruin with my friend Ann as well.  I figured since I have been here for over two months, it�s about time I saw something historic! 

Anyway, I am back now with less than two weeks to go before we leave the island.  We are going to Mexico City for the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12^th.  Following that on the 15^th we head home for Christmas!  It will be a nice break, despite the shock of adjusting to the cold!  I hope everyone has a Blessed Advent, as you prepare for Christ�s birth on Christmas.  May this Advent be a time of watching and waiting for Christ with joyful anticipation as John the Baptist did.  Just like lent is a time of purification and cleansing, so is Advent!  For me that's easy to forget when I see all the Christmas lights up and the Christmas carols playing all the time.  This past Sunday (the first Sunday of Advent) marks the New Liturgical Year for the Catholic Church as well!  Happy New Year everyone! 

Ann and I at the Mayan Ruin...

Confirmation!

So, the opening Confirmation retreat happened this past Sunday, and classes started the very next day! The theme of the retreat was ‘Out of the Jungle’; coming out of the Jungle and into life with the Holy Spirit. What do you do when you’re in a third-world country and have to set up a room looking like a jungle? You walk outside with a pair of scissors and you break and cut-down palm branches and leaves until you have enough to decorate the place! It took me at least 3 hours! The things they forgot to mention in my college classes… Did I mention that communication is horrible in Belize and the people who let us use the room for the retreat forgot to tell the janitor and he came in the morning of the retreat and took all the decorations down and threw them in the dumpster? Oh, the things you do for ministry and the things that go un-noticed… So Sunday morning I found myself taking branches out of the dumpster, and thank God Ann and Alison had some time to hang some up again!
Having over 50 kids from 10 – 12 years old can be a little overwhelming, but overall the retreat day went well. We started in the morning with a bunch of group games and ice breakers. We had a break for lunch consisting of beans and rice (as always) and then the afternoon consisted of two different sessions: one on the Existence of God and the other on Scripture and the importance of reading the Bible. We’re using a confirmation program that Lifeteen put out in the states. Jim Beckman compiled 20 years of experience leading Confirmation programs into this book, and shares with us what works best! It really is an amazing program. Sunday afternoon we challenged everyone to make a decision for themselves to follow Jesus Christ and to put God first! Yes, He created us in love, and God sent His only Son to die on the Cross for us! He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, but at the same time He has given us Free Will! We can choose to follow Him or choose not to! He is always waiting with open arms, but the decision is ours to make, and I know that I have to choose to follow Him everyday!
The Scripture session went very well too. We talked about the importance of reading the Bible, and had everyone go through their day and see how much time they spend doing different things. When kids look at a chart of their day and see that they spend 3 hours watching TV and 9 hours sleeping and 2 hours eating and NO TIME in prayer or reading the Bible, it can be a pretty powerful witness! How are we to know who Jesus is and what He thinks and wants, and how much He loves us if we’re not reading the Word that He has given us or if we do not spend time talking with Him and listening to Him?
Weekly Confirmation meetings have already begun this week as well! The topic for this week is on the Sacrament of Reconciliation! Yesterday, Ali and I led a class of 18 boys. They are going to be a lot of fun, that’s for sure! We talked about the importance of going to the Sacraments that Jesus gave us. We read in the Scriptures where Jesus gives his apostles (priests) the power to forgive sins in His name (John 20:21-23). We talked about how Jesus is really the one who forgives in this Sacrament and the miracle that takes place! Our sins are completely wiped away, and our souls are made clean in this Sacrament. We are given grace and strengthened to go forth and not sin again. We then had all the boys go over to the Church, spread out and while looking through an examination of conscience we had them write down the sins that came to mind. When they were finished, they all came forward to the Cross and to Jesus, ripped up the index cards that they wrote their sins on and threw them in a basket at the foot of His Cross. We told them that this symbolizes what happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. No matter how bad our sins are, if we are sorry, God completely forgives us! The sins are gone! I was almost moved to tears to see a 12 year old boy ask me for more paper and take such careful time to write down his sins. When it came time for him to go forward, he took his index cards and ripped them to shreds, one at a time. He made the sign of the Cross and went back to his seat with such a smile on His face, such a sigh of relief! You could see in the look on his face that he understood what we were trying to teach them. We have been working hard in the past week to get everything going, and I know that even if one person comes to know who Jesus is, and comes to understand the Sacraments, then all this work is worth it!

All Saints Day!

On Saturday we attended an All Saints party at the primary school. This is something that the Church just started doing last year on San Pedro. Many of us know Halloween as a time where people dress up in all sorts of costumes and go trick-or-treating. This is still done in Belize, however many do not know how Halloween started. Believe it or not folks, it started as a Catholic holiday, and in many ways became a pagan holiday. Halloween comes from the term "Hallows Eve". The Church celebrates all Saints Day on November First and 'Hallows Eve' is the eve of all saints. This is what Halloween got it's name from. On all souls day (the day after all saints day) the poor went door to door and begged for food. In return they promised to pray for the dead. They called the cakes they received "soul cakes" which isn't the biggest stretch from today's trick-or-treat candy. The soul cakes were a doughnut with a hole in the center making a circle, which represented eternity. Some cultures today still visit the cemetery on All Hallows, not for spooky reasons, but for the same reason others do on Memorial Day. Now today we see devils and witches running around and more evil being done than prayer being said for the salvation of souls. In an attempt to re-claim this holiday, the priests asked that we celebrate it with an all saints party. It was post-poned because of all the rain here. Instead of dressing up as witches and clowns and devils, we had all the children dress up as their favorite saint. There were games, face-painting, music, great food and awesome costumes. We had a contest too with prizes for the best costumes. Let me tell you, when you say costume-contest, people here go all out! It was great! We had many kids dress as Mary's, Saint Peter's, Saint Therese, St. Paul's and St. Benedict. We even had someone dress as Jesus on his way to Calvary carrying a huge cross! Yes, we ourselves even dressed up! Ali was Mother Teresa, Ann was St. Gianna, I forget who Alison was, and I was Blessed Kateri Tekawitha, the first Indian Saint. The pictures are below!

 

Our Holy Father and Our Lady of the Immaculate Heart with their own Mom at the All Saints Party!

Some of the Blessed Virgin Mary's at the All Saints Party!

Belizean Wedding

I would have to say that this past Saturday was a big cultural day in Belize. Ali and I were asked to sing in someone's wedding. It turns out that here on San Pedro there is a set group of people that usually sing at the weddings, so the two of us were added to their number. They decorated the Church so much, you couldn�t tell it was the same Church. Here is a picture of Ali and I along with the woman we sang with at the Church.

 

I know, it's been a while since I've posted, but things have been busy!  So, Kathy is a wonderful woman who moved here from New Orleans with her husband.  She lets us go to her house any time to use the internet and even has a phone number that is from the states so sometimes I can call the U.S. for free.  I go there a couple times a week on my bike, which is our means of transportation.  Who would have ever thought?  So, I'm leaving Kathy's house and what do you know, a monkey is swinging from the roof of a house next store.  I've seen him at least 3 or 4 times since and his owner has even let me pet him.  Pretty cool, huh?  This is just an example of another random day in Belize...the things you see...

So one thing I love about Belize is that no matter where you are it's almost an insult not to hold or play with the children that are nearby.  A typical example would be just 2 weeks ago.  The girls and I were on the water taxi running away from Hurricane Wilma.  The water taxi stops at Caye Caulker just 30 minutes away and then goes another 1 1/2 to Belize City.  A woman gets on the boat holding twin babies that are only 3 months old followed by a 2 year old, a  4 year old and a 5 year old.  Now we're on a water taxi that holds about 30 people and there's at least 60 in this boat by now.  So I get up so she can sit down and move to the floor where I'm sitting on a suitcase.  It was the least I could do, since the boat ride was like a rollercoaster with the waves we were getting.  Immediately she hands off one of her twins to Alison and then the other three kids of hers come and sit on our laps; the 2 year old with Ann, the 4 year old with Ali and the 5 year old jumps on me.  We gave them some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had made (it was obvious that they were pretty hungry) and needless to say the rest of the taxi ride passed pretty quickly.  If you know me at all, you know I love kids, so it is quite a blessing to have them sitting on my lap and jumping in my arms on almost a daily basis!