Glasgow Missions

We were blessed again this past December with another grandson. Last year on December 20th, our grandson, Eddie was born and I (Darlene) traveled to Louisiana to be with my daughter during the birth and to help out with the new baby. December 27th, 2011, our grandson, Evan was born, so I traveled to Louisiana again to help with the babies. After several weeks, I’m now ready to get back to Belize and back to work. Johnny hosted the Arkansas team in January and he is now on mission in Costa Rica for a week. We are excited about another very busy year of ministry in Southern Belize.

The Arkansas group returned this year. They worked in the Village of Trio this year for the first time. They were able to paint the church and begin construction on bathrooms for the church. They also conducted women’s Bible study and VBS. The team also went back to  San Roman/Santa Rosa for services and to do ministry. Thanks guys for all your hard work  in Southern Belize for many, many years now.

In 2011, Gary brought his group to once again work in Maya Mopan. They were able to paint the Pre-school in the Village this year. They visited in the homes in the Village as always and worked at the local Primary School to do repairs that were needed. They did services and VBS at the local hurricane shelter so they could reach people in the entire Village rather than just those who regularly attend the local Baptist Church. The group will return this June to work in Maya Mopan once again.

The group from Grace Life Baptist returned this year to work in the Farm villages again. This year they made it a “family” mission trip so several youth and children were part of the group. The youngest was only four years old but she worked hard handing out gift bags to the children. They did outreach ministry in six different farm areas.

A group from Forestdale, AL worked in the Village of San Roman. This was their first time to work with us here in Belize. They did children’s ministry each day in San Roman. They also helped with painting the storage building at the camp but their biggest project was an 11 hour work day in Silk Grass, where they poured the foundation for the new Education Center. Thanks guys for all the hard work!!

The team from Brinkley Arkansas worked again in Santa Rosa and San Roman. They were able to get the roof on the Sunday school building for the church in Santa Rosa. The ladies did Women’s Bible study in the Village and they also did VBS with the children of San Roman and Santa Rosa.

A group from Wayland Baptist University worked in the Primary school in the Village of San Isidro. This was a group of mostly Education majors so it was a great experience for them to work in one of the local schools. It’s such a blessing to be able to share the Gospel in the local schools. This is a freedom that we still have here in Belize but not sure how much longer it will be allowed.

We began a fund raiser a few weeks ago to raise $10,000 US to purchase a used vehicle for our personal use. We have been using the vans that teams use for over a year but it had gotten very expensive because of the price of gas and many times both vans were being used by teams and left us with no vehicle. We started shopping around and found this one in Belize City for $11,000 US. At that time, we had raised a little over $6,000 so we emailed our home church to get an update and they told us that a little over $11,000 US had been raised so that was perfect!! God is so good!!! Thank you all for your prayers and for your help with this fund raiser. We feel truly blessed to have a vehicle to call our own.

On April 27, 2011, devastating tornados hit our home state of Alabama. Several other Southern states suffered severe damage from these storms but Alabama was the hardest hit. The damage was wide spread with 38 counties being affected. More than 200 lives have been lost with 1000′s of others injured and 100′s of people are still not accounted for.

We are so thankful that none of our family members were harmed and none of them reported any serious damage to property. However, communities surrounding our home and our family suffered severe damage and many communities were pretty much destroyed. It was difficult to sit and watch via the Internet as report after report came across of tornados on the ground and then to see live footage of the storms and the destruction left behind. We began texting and calling those at home to check on them one by one. We were relieved every time we got the message, “we’re ok” from family and friends. Our heart breaks for the many that are not “ok”. We ask that you all continue to pray for those back home in Alabama and in other areas that were affected by the storms that passed through on April 27th.