A lot has changed in the past week at Belize Faith Missions. Newman Milhollin, the son of the couple that founded Ontario Village and BFM resigned from his position of running everything and gave the duty to his sister. Without notice his sister and her husband showed up at the Children’s home last week and declared that they were moving in upstairs (the house that lived in over the summer).
She also informed Kristy that she was no longer the manager of the home, and she was solely the children’s supervisor. This is actually somewhat of a blessing, meaning that Kristy will have much less responsibilities such as purchasing food and supplies for everyone, making sure the bills are paid, and paying the employees there. This leaves much more time to help and love the kids!!
Many of the kids though have been showing more aggression than usual as they are all worried that Kristy will be asked to leave. One of the boys even got his passport ready with his belongings and is bond and determined to go where ever Kristy goes.
There are many other issues going on with this that I cannot disclose at this point in time, but please pray for guidance and wisdom for all those involved in this transition.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Friday, December 19, 2008
The Return
after 4 long months... i shall return to Belize. I'm returning with a team from Dordt. this year it's not an all girls team. Plus... my favorite prof is the leader!! Yay for Dr. Christians!!
We leave from Dordt at 1am Dec 31, fly out of omaha at 7am... and will be in belize by 4pm!!!
80 degree weather wounds wonderful right about now!!!
We leave from Dordt at 1am Dec 31, fly out of omaha at 7am... and will be in belize by 4pm!!!
80 degree weather wounds wonderful right about now!!!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
What You've All Been Waiting For... Pictures!!!!
This is the picture of JR from my last post... he is so cute, how could I leave this???
This is the Belize Faith Missions sign
My House!! The house is actually the upstairs portion of the building. The bottom floor is storage rooms, the computer room, and the office. 
Some of my girls cooling off in the river that I wrote about when I first arrived in Belize. Swimming with all our clothes on and people of all ages do it!! It feels great :)
Ms Kristy and I... Please keep her in your prayers as I left her all alone :(Saturday, July 26, 2008
My time in Belize has come to a TEMPORARY end
So I am back in Iowa now... and I miss all my children, and rice & beans, and Belize in general. It is cold here, just gonna throw that one out there.
But I need to tell you things that I planned on posting a long time ago.
First is my experience at Miss Mary's wake. I expected it to be much like a visitation... alas, it was not. It was held at her mother's house, she was in her coffin which was held by a chair at each end. This was in the front yard. The entire front yard was covered by a tent advertising Belikin Beer... The beer of Belize. The family was mostly inside the house, then the backyard was also full of people, all of which were intoxicated. Not all of Miss Mary's family are Christians, so it was interesting to see how they all were coping differently. I stayed in the front yard.
JR who is 3, and Jazmine who is 5 were both at there as well. Kristy and I caught JR poking Mary's face and trying to open her eyes cause he wanted her to wake up. Then he got very upset by the fact that she wouldn't wake up. He also told us that even though her body was there, she wasn't there. When we asked her where she was, he answered the States. So we took him away from the coffin, to be told that someone needed to get Jazmine away as well. She was also trying to get Mary to wake up, and had gotten the mouth to open a bit on one side. After some convincing that she needed to be left alone, we got her to come sit with us as well.
The next interesting experience was the funeral. There were over 300 people in the church, it was packed!! There were several people who fainted during the service. Then at the internment, Pastor led the service, and when they went to push coffin into the tomb, it wouldn't go. Men from the church made the tomb, and it was lovely, but they had been given the incorrect measurements of the coffin, and the coffin was too big!! So they had to chisel away the inside so that it would fit.
Saying goodbye to my friends and kids was hard. Some of the kids became very clingy my last days in Belize and wouldn't leave my side, others tried to stay as far from me as they could and some refused to say bye. Then there were others that hid until I was getting into the car and they ran out and gave me a hug. JR was possibly the cutest though. I was trying to get a picture of him, and he refused to smile for me because he was mad at me for even thinking of leaving and I was not allowed to go. So I left him alone for a while, but I went and picked him up as I was getting ready to leave for the airport, and he put his hands around my throat so that I would "Wake up dead" and then I couldn't leave.
I attempted to add pictures to this post, but it's not allowing it, so stay tuned and they will be added in the next couple of days. Then you can meet my kids and see the beautiful Country of Belize :)
But I need to tell you things that I planned on posting a long time ago.
First is my experience at Miss Mary's wake. I expected it to be much like a visitation... alas, it was not. It was held at her mother's house, she was in her coffin which was held by a chair at each end. This was in the front yard. The entire front yard was covered by a tent advertising Belikin Beer... The beer of Belize. The family was mostly inside the house, then the backyard was also full of people, all of which were intoxicated. Not all of Miss Mary's family are Christians, so it was interesting to see how they all were coping differently. I stayed in the front yard.
JR who is 3, and Jazmine who is 5 were both at there as well. Kristy and I caught JR poking Mary's face and trying to open her eyes cause he wanted her to wake up. Then he got very upset by the fact that she wouldn't wake up. He also told us that even though her body was there, she wasn't there. When we asked her where she was, he answered the States. So we took him away from the coffin, to be told that someone needed to get Jazmine away as well. She was also trying to get Mary to wake up, and had gotten the mouth to open a bit on one side. After some convincing that she needed to be left alone, we got her to come sit with us as well.
The next interesting experience was the funeral. There were over 300 people in the church, it was packed!! There were several people who fainted during the service. Then at the internment, Pastor led the service, and when they went to push coffin into the tomb, it wouldn't go. Men from the church made the tomb, and it was lovely, but they had been given the incorrect measurements of the coffin, and the coffin was too big!! So they had to chisel away the inside so that it would fit.
Saying goodbye to my friends and kids was hard. Some of the kids became very clingy my last days in Belize and wouldn't leave my side, others tried to stay as far from me as they could and some refused to say bye. Then there were others that hid until I was getting into the car and they ran out and gave me a hug. JR was possibly the cutest though. I was trying to get a picture of him, and he refused to smile for me because he was mad at me for even thinking of leaving and I was not allowed to go. So I left him alone for a while, but I went and picked him up as I was getting ready to leave for the airport, and he put his hands around my throat so that I would "Wake up dead" and then I couldn't leave.
I attempted to add pictures to this post, but it's not allowing it, so stay tuned and they will be added in the next couple of days. Then you can meet my kids and see the beautiful Country of Belize :)
Friday, July 11, 2008
Sorry Mom, you probably won't like this post so much...
I held a boa constrictor... Mr. Edwardo and 2 of his sons were working in the garden yesterday afternoon and found it. It was really a beautiful snake, and it was just a little guy... only about 6 feet long, no worries, I didn't let him squeeze the life out of me... and I didn't put him around my neck. It started getting mad, so I put him down, and no one held him after that. So unfortunately i don't have the moment of my holding it documented in photography, but we have pictures of it :)
And to top it off... there was a tarantula in the shower with me... Paul came and took care of that for me...
And to top it off... there was a tarantula in the shower with me... Paul came and took care of that for me...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
It's Been a While
Sorry that it has been so long since my last update. The computer at the children's home was infected with over 50 viruses, and Herman fixed it for a few days, and not it's not working again. And I don't have much free time at work since summer school is going on this week. With that being said, today was the last day of summer school and just finished (we let them out early today). Yesterday I corrected 74 English evaluations, let me tell you, it was EXCITING!!! not really, it took me 3 hours. But that's ok, I shouldn't have given up the math evaluation, cause that only took her an hour and a half. This is my last week of working, so really all I have left is tomorrow of work, and I'm not really even sure of what I'll be doing since all the evaluations have been corrected now and summer school is done.
The past few weeks we have been playing a LOT of volleyball at the home. The best night of playing volleyball was when it started raining and then it turned into mud volleyball. The ground was muddy before but then the downpour made it even better. While we were playing, our clothes only had a few mud splatters on them and our legs were covered. Since I am much whiter than all of my children, I appeared to be the dirtiest, when in reality I was probably the cleanest. After we finished the game, we used the hose to clean one another off. Then there was a huge pit of mud (it was way beyond a puddle) in the driveway, (and it smelled like a hog pit) that the boys decided that it would be fun to throw it at each other, then throw one another in it and then wrestle around. Then the girls got in on the fun, and I just stayed back and ran the hose to clean them off. Then my lovely children all got out of the mud and I were standing around waiting to be hosed down... or so I thought. But the next thing I know Moses and Tevin are throwing me into the pit. Then I have about 10 kids in the pit with me everyone is covered. I had mud EVERYWHERE!!! I think the worst was the mouth full of mud... cause all night I was spitting out gravel. But I must admit it was fun :) But now the volleyball games are a little more serious. Last night a bunch of guys from the village came over and we had a serious match going on. The match lasted just under 4 hours!!! It didn't rain yesterday until after we played so then the ground wasn't as nasty, and we didn't slip around so much.
If anyone thought that there was a chance that I would have nicely tanned skin when I come back, I won't. Because it's the rainy season we don't spend a lot of time in the sun, thus, the tan that I had a month ago has faded drastically.
Now, an update on Miss Mary. On Tuesday, we took her to the airport from the hospital so she could go to Tennessee for the surgery. The surgeon in TN offered to do the surgery free of charge and all hospital fees in the US would be free!!! But, she had to fly commercially because an air ambulance would have cost $36000 US, so double that for Belize dollars, and she needed to have the surgery about 2 weeks ago. She made it to TN without any problems and she made it to where she was staying the night before going on to the hospital for surgery in the morning. This is where I do not know exactly what happened or the sequence of events that occurred. She did not have surgery Wednesday morning. At some point in time she had a seizure and a stroke then went into a coma, and passed away this morning.
Please keep everyone here in your prayers as they deal with the loss of this amazing woman. She worked at the children's home for over 30 years, but she is now it a better place.
The past few weeks we have been playing a LOT of volleyball at the home. The best night of playing volleyball was when it started raining and then it turned into mud volleyball. The ground was muddy before but then the downpour made it even better. While we were playing, our clothes only had a few mud splatters on them and our legs were covered. Since I am much whiter than all of my children, I appeared to be the dirtiest, when in reality I was probably the cleanest. After we finished the game, we used the hose to clean one another off. Then there was a huge pit of mud (it was way beyond a puddle) in the driveway, (and it smelled like a hog pit) that the boys decided that it would be fun to throw it at each other, then throw one another in it and then wrestle around. Then the girls got in on the fun, and I just stayed back and ran the hose to clean them off. Then my lovely children all got out of the mud and I were standing around waiting to be hosed down... or so I thought. But the next thing I know Moses and Tevin are throwing me into the pit. Then I have about 10 kids in the pit with me everyone is covered. I had mud EVERYWHERE!!! I think the worst was the mouth full of mud... cause all night I was spitting out gravel. But I must admit it was fun :) But now the volleyball games are a little more serious. Last night a bunch of guys from the village came over and we had a serious match going on. The match lasted just under 4 hours!!! It didn't rain yesterday until after we played so then the ground wasn't as nasty, and we didn't slip around so much.
If anyone thought that there was a chance that I would have nicely tanned skin when I come back, I won't. Because it's the rainy season we don't spend a lot of time in the sun, thus, the tan that I had a month ago has faded drastically.
Now, an update on Miss Mary. On Tuesday, we took her to the airport from the hospital so she could go to Tennessee for the surgery. The surgeon in TN offered to do the surgery free of charge and all hospital fees in the US would be free!!! But, she had to fly commercially because an air ambulance would have cost $36000 US, so double that for Belize dollars, and she needed to have the surgery about 2 weeks ago. She made it to TN without any problems and she made it to where she was staying the night before going on to the hospital for surgery in the morning. This is where I do not know exactly what happened or the sequence of events that occurred. She did not have surgery Wednesday morning. At some point in time she had a seizure and a stroke then went into a coma, and passed away this morning.
Please keep everyone here in your prayers as they deal with the loss of this amazing woman. She worked at the children's home for over 30 years, but she is now it a better place.
Monday, June 30, 2008
3rd times a charm
This would be my 3rd attempt at updating you on the belizean happenings. The first novel I wrote was cut off when the power went out for 3 hours. So I tried again a couple days later and wrote an even longer novel, and when I pushed "Publish Post" I lost everything because the internet was shutoff upstairs.
So I'm trying again now. First off... to update you on Miss Mary. She is doing much better than the last time you heard. She is sitting up, talking, carrying on coherent conversations, etc, but is still in the ICU. She needs to have surgery, but it's very expensive, and they need the money upfront to have the surgery done. Another problem is that the technology and skill is not here in Belize, so she is going to be taken to the states by Helivac to have the surgery done. The surgery can be done here in the case of an emergency, but it would be done by satellite, and personally... I would prefer surgery done by someone who knows what they are doing and not by satellite... but that's just me. I don't know how much the surgery or Helivac costs, or where she will be having the surgery done. There has also been talk of sending her to Guatemala City for the surgery, but she has family in the states.
My time here has gone by SOO fast!!!! Last night after church 5 of the kids talked me into playing monoploy with them... It was the most intense game 5 hour game of monoploy I have ever played. every piece of property that is allowed to have houses or hotels, had them. Every hotel was on the board... including on Boardwalk and Park Place. Luckily I never landed on either of them!!!
I have also realized... that since January , 2008, I have been at my house in Redfield, IA all of 11 days. I was in Belize longer in January than I have been at home. Just a random thought for the day.
Since school has ended for both the high school and primary school, some of the kids are going home for the summer. This past weekend, 3 of my favorite boys left to go back to their mom in Guatemala. It's great that they get to spend time with her since they live here for the rest of the year, but they are such sweet kids it makes me sad that they had to leave!!! :(
Then it reminds me that my time here is coming to an end... for now... but I will be back!!! Sorry mom, I just like it too much here... i'm kind of attached.
But I need to be getting off the computer, so I will hopefully get on sooner. I definitely wrote longer novels the last 2 times I tried this.
Some Prayer requests to keep in mind:
Miss Mary- that the proper funds are raised so she can get the care she needs
Belize Faith Missions- (combination of the Church, high school, primary school, and children's home) is going through seriously financial problems right now and the children's home is in danger of being shut down, leaving several children without a place to live.
So I'm trying again now. First off... to update you on Miss Mary. She is doing much better than the last time you heard. She is sitting up, talking, carrying on coherent conversations, etc, but is still in the ICU. She needs to have surgery, but it's very expensive, and they need the money upfront to have the surgery done. Another problem is that the technology and skill is not here in Belize, so she is going to be taken to the states by Helivac to have the surgery done. The surgery can be done here in the case of an emergency, but it would be done by satellite, and personally... I would prefer surgery done by someone who knows what they are doing and not by satellite... but that's just me. I don't know how much the surgery or Helivac costs, or where she will be having the surgery done. There has also been talk of sending her to Guatemala City for the surgery, but she has family in the states.
My time here has gone by SOO fast!!!! Last night after church 5 of the kids talked me into playing monoploy with them... It was the most intense game 5 hour game of monoploy I have ever played. every piece of property that is allowed to have houses or hotels, had them. Every hotel was on the board... including on Boardwalk and Park Place. Luckily I never landed on either of them!!!
I have also realized... that since January , 2008, I have been at my house in Redfield, IA all of 11 days. I was in Belize longer in January than I have been at home. Just a random thought for the day.
Since school has ended for both the high school and primary school, some of the kids are going home for the summer. This past weekend, 3 of my favorite boys left to go back to their mom in Guatemala. It's great that they get to spend time with her since they live here for the rest of the year, but they are such sweet kids it makes me sad that they had to leave!!! :(
Then it reminds me that my time here is coming to an end... for now... but I will be back!!! Sorry mom, I just like it too much here... i'm kind of attached.
But I need to be getting off the computer, so I will hopefully get on sooner. I definitely wrote longer novels the last 2 times I tried this.
Some Prayer requests to keep in mind:
Miss Mary- that the proper funds are raised so she can get the care she needs
Belize Faith Missions- (combination of the Church, high school, primary school, and children's home) is going through seriously financial problems right now and the children's home is in danger of being shut down, leaving several children without a place to live.
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