By: Susan Doughty

I spent a day in paradise painting an outhouse green! What a day!

Dirty work clothes, rebar cuts, sore muscles…we had a perfectly wonderful time on our recent mission trip to Belize! Working beside our friends, we made a plan for each day, setting goals and working together to accomplish all the relevant tasks required to make a church building a reality. By American standards our goals and accomplishments were humble, but we were working on Belizean time and in the culture of a place that is far removed from the hectic pace of our everyday lives.

 

We made progress! The sun was always shining. There was a breeze on top of the roof. It was shady under the trees and in the cool recesses of the semi-roofed church.

The local guys arrived on our last day when it was time to tote 120 pound buckets of concrete to top of the roof. Hefting that weight, in three rhythmic movements, to the tops of their heads, balancing the buckets as they climbed handmade ladders and then continuing up the steep slope of the roof , through a rebar maze, to add each contribution of concrete was truly amazing to watch…when we weren’t shoveling sand and gravel! What an amazing week! We bonded as a family among ourselves and with our Belizean friends.

 

The block and concrete structure that we’ve been working on for almost seven years now has all four walls and a concrete roof. It will serve as a house of worship, a community gathering place and a shelter from the storm when hurricanes blow in from the Sea. At the moment one finished room also serves as the home for a family with three small children. It isn’t quite finished. Arturo Mendez, the pastor of the church in Calcutta, still has plans for a glass block cross behind the alter. It’s only a hole in the shape of a cross in the back wall at the moment, but it serves as a constant reminder that this is God’s house for His family in Belize.

While some of us were working on the construction of a building, others were building relationships with the children and teachers at the Presbyterian School and with the families in the Presbyterian congregations in Corazal and Calcutta. “Paradise” has another side. The harsh realities of poverty are very much a part of daily life. Families in the congregation and in the community are in a daily struggle with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence... the same economic and social struggles that plague individuals and families in all cultures. Arturo and Esther Mendez serve the families there with courage, perseverance and faith. Pastor Arturo hasn’t been paid for several months, but he continues to serve with enthusiasm for the work and compassion for the people in his congregations and his community. His wife is the headmistress of the school. Many of her students’ families struggle to provide basic school supplies. In Belize, where everything is scarce and consumer goods often of marginal quality, the people work, dream and pray for better opportunities for their children.
 

Mission trips give those who participate a time to step outside the realities of our own lives and, for a brief moment, the opportunity observe and share in the lives of others. They are retreats from our own worries and a time to build…buildings, friendships, partnerships, ideas and faith. What little we give is returned many times over. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve and to be served.

Participants for the 2009 trip: Mike Baron, Alice Christian, Danny Dotson, Susan Doughty, Emily Eberle, Haylee Greer, Scott Greer, Bruce Ramsden, Sandra Randleman, Pamela Reed, Tom Van Pernis.