Lifeteen and Little Antu

So, at least a couple times a week I go and take prayer time at the Church. It is guaranteed that at some point, while praying, I hear little footsteps in the back of the Church that eventually turn into running followed by a yell. Little Antu is his name, and he’s two years old. His dad works right near the church selling bracelets and other accessories to the tourists. With his hair-do he looks like he could have come out of the jungle. The girls I live with say that he looks like he could be my own child! Antu goes to work with his dad, sometimes all day, and just runs all over the place playing with whoever he sees. After running up to me and yelling, “hello”, (usually in Spanish), he jumps on my lap and we say a prayer together. I remind him to be quiet in the Church, and he immediately starts to whisper, says goodbye, tiptoes out and then within in 10 minutes is running in again yelling, and we repeat the whole thing; prayer, whisper, tiptoe out and then run in, yelling, once again. Last Friday we were having our life night for youth ministry from 7-9 pm. Little Antu was still there, and apparently heard us in the parish hall. As we are talking with the teenagers, I hear a little yell and see his face in the door. He runs through the teenagers and over to me. We were blessed with his company for the rest of the night!

Life Teen is meeting every Friday night for 2 hours. What is Life Teen, you ask? It is a youth ministry program that started in Arizona, and their mission is, “Leading teens closer to Christ”. The biggest thing we’re trying to get across right now is that it’s no ordinary youth group. We’re trying to get the teens to think outside of the box. There are nights that are all social, nights where the focus will be prayer, other nights there will be education and discussion on doctrines of the faith, and finally nights where we discuss the most common issues that teens struggle with. Everything we do is intertwined with fun and games, skits and prizes, music and food! We have fun and do everything we can to make sure the teens are having fun as well. Right now we are trying to transition smoothly out of the social nights and into our first issue night. Please pray for us as we do. We were all surprised and overjoyed to see that many of the participants showing interest are those teenagers who struggle the most. Most of them do not have God in their lives at all and have never gone to Church. God is doing something incredible here and we are extremely excited to be able to witness it!

Lifeteen Kickoff

As I said, the Lifeteen kickoff was a lot of fun.  Two teams competed in games for hours.  This one below was the M+M contest.  Who can get the most M+M's off the plate filled with whipped cream.  The trick is no hands allowed...  The things teenagers do for fun!  I was glad it wasn't me... :-)

Back on San Pedro!

Well after being back on the island of San Pedro for over a week now, I would have to say that we are officially moved in and pushing forward in plans here. We enjoyed an incredible week in Mexico City for the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe and then I was blessed to go back to the States for a couple weeks. I was home for Christmas and then to Florida for Katie Grabowski’s wedding. I headed back to Belize, stopping in Atlanta and Dallas on my way to visit friends. God is good! In some ways it seems like we never left…Christmas in the states with snow and ice skating feels like a dream as I am sitting here in 90 degree weather sweating and trying to prepare for next week’s confirmation class.

The date for Confirmation is April 9th and we have a lot to do to prepare. This is where most of my time will be spent in the next 3 months. Last week we taught on the Creed, on what we believe as Catholics, and this week we are teaching on Prayer. One of the recurring topics of Confirmation has been about God’s invitation and our response. Prayer is just that. It is “God who thirsts for us”, it is God who always initiates and prayer is our response to that. It is our response to His love through praises, petitions, intercession and just spending time with Jesus in meditation and contemplation. The whole concept of a relationship with Jesus consisting of a dialogue, just like there is dialogue with a good friend seemed pretty foreign to the 12-year old boys yesterday. Please pray for us as we help cultivate an atmosphere of prayer, that the Holy Spirit may teach them to pray from their hearts! Please pray especially that the Lord stirs up in their hearts a desire for prayer, a desire for Him; that they may personally hear His voice and respond to His call. They are the future of this place!

The choir has been such a JOY to return to here as well. Just last Sunday at Mass we had over 20 members ranging from ages 7 to 70 crammed into the area where the choir sings. As I looked up during one song, I just couldn’t help but smile as I saw children and adults singing so passionately with their eyes closed. I couldn’t help but do the same. It is so apparent that they are singing from their hearts, and I keep telling them that if they are praying what they sing, then that’s all that matters. The Holy Spirit is really moving within them and I am so blessed to witness it!

Also, just last weekend we had our opening kick-off for youth ministry. Yes, for the first time, Lifeteen has come to Belize. It was an evening of fun! After working all day to decorate the Lion’s Den, we had over 30 teens come for a night of fun, games and prizes. By the end of the night, the teens were giving us hugs goodbye and said “I’ll see you next Friday”. What an affirmation, that they are so excited for next week! I also ask for your prayers as we get this youth program off the ground, that they really are given a hunger for God Himself! Pictures will be coming soon …