02/12/2012

THE GOLDEN RULE HEARD ONCE AGAIN ROUND THE WORLD

Herman Friesen Declares It from His Mennonite Farm in “Little Belize”

God often intervenes in unplanned-for ways when on a mission trip. So it
was last year when we were site-seeing in a Mennonite community known as “Little Belize.” On a rough unpaved road and with our team packed in a pickup, we had a breakdown. Three of us walked in the pouring rain to a farm house about a half mile away it see if we could find help.

We came upon the Friesen family who just happen to be in the truck mechanics business. They spoke mostly German, but knew enough Spanish that we could communicate through one of our host family members who had come along. Working hard at building relationships, we saw amazing barriers break down, so much so that the Friesens allowed us to take their picture for the first time in their lives and invited us back for an authentic Mennonite dinner this year.

Yesterday we returned to sit down together at a holy meal. Everyone introduced themselves, including Herman’s three boys, Jacob, Abram, and Johan, and his very shy 11-year-old daughter, Maria. Also with us were Herman’s wife, Maria, and his mother, Aganetha.

I shared at the table that we had been talking, envisioning, and praying about this day for a full year. That we are called to be of one faith and of one God and Father, who is over all and through all and in all” (Eph 4:5-6). I remember holding up Herman’s hand and emotionally saying that “We are now forever friends!”

His response was to say that our moment happened because we are called to do to others as we would want them to do to us (Matt 7:12). It’s the Golden Rule held true in every religion of the world. Knowingly or not Herman again quoted Jesus by saying we are to “love our neighbors as ourselves” (Matt 22:39).

What a heavenly banquet was laid before us, including a red fruit soup that was to die for. We exchanged gifts and made plans for next year. Most of the guys were also fitted for bib overalls that Maria will make for us. As we waited in line for our turn to be measured, Herman would bark out, “Next Mennonite!”

02/10/2012

HIS LIFE IN SAN VICTOR IS A LETTER FROM CHRIST

Before Turning 16 Benito Pantin Was Teaching in His Native Village

He grew up in one of the poorest villages in the Corozal District of Belize. He was 9 years old in 1965 when San Victor School officially opened. Six years later Benito Pantin was a Pupil Teacher making $26 per month. He had to work in the sugar cane fields at night in order to make ends meet. Four years later at age 19 he obtained his 2nd Class Teaching Certificate and began earning $62.50 a month.

Last month Benito retired after teaching and being a principal at San Victor Elementary School for 38 years. He never abandoned his calling to serve Christ through educating the people of his village. San Victor has been the main mission site of our February teams to that part of Central America. They are no longer on the bottom of the educational rung and have even become regional winners in spelling and soccer.

The professional road for Benito has been as hard to travel as the actual road leading out of the village (one year when our team was down the road was closed because the pot holes were large enough to swallow a bus). For two years at age 27 Benito would get up at 1:30 a.m. on Mondays to walk 6 miles to the main highway in order to catch a 4:00 a.m. truck that would take him to Teachers College in the capital Belize City, a 4½ hour trip. He rented a room during week and returned to San Victor on the weekends to be with his wife and children. All to follow his call.

Several years ago our mission had a church built for his school. Three years ago a bathroom-shower facility. Another mission team is building a kitchen for the school this year. The handprint of Christ is to be found everywhere, but never any clearer than in this retired educator (one of his daughters, Hilda, now teaches 7-8 year olds at the school). His life has been like a “letter from Christ, written not with ink or on tablets of stone, but with the Spirit of the living God on human hearts” (2 Cor 3:3)… like mine.

02/10/2012

ARONI’S PRAYER TOUCHES OUR HEARTS IN BELIZE

Never Has the “Our Father” Meant So Much

It’s a prayer we’ve memorized since childhood, but one not readily recognized when given choked-up and in Spanish with heads bowed.

So it was with Aroni when our mission team gathered in a large circle around him in his front yard before leaving Tuesday. We had traveled at least 1½ hours over rough roads and two hand-cranked ferries to find his family in the remote village of Chunox in northern Belize. 14-year-old Aroni and his 8-year-old sister, Mari, suffer from an undiagnosed genetic neurological disorder that leaves you incapacitated and blind before an early death. Their older sister, Clarissa, died a year ago at age 14. The two youngest girls seem to have been spared.

The Santoya family also live outside the reach of the nearest electrical pole and do not have a bathroom or shower. I would travel the world over for Aroni’s smile and his heart that beats so strong for the Lord. His world is now dark in so many ways as he waits the progression of his disease. Sister Mari is not that far behind and yet shares his radiant smile.

Our team will fight to make sure electricity flows into the home before we leave (pray for this) and that a bathroom/shower is well under way (to be finished by local labor). We “loved upon them” in the best ways we knew how Tuesday before that circle of prayer.

I asked Aroni if he would start our time of prayer together. Not until later did we know what he had actually prayed, but we knew it was full of passion. I continued the best I could when he was finished, working my way through my own tears. Then as we hugged and kissed, Aroni was burying himself in his mother’s arms crying to her in Spanish that he didn’t want us to leave.

When Jesus taught us to pray, he said, “Do not heap empty phrases.” But rather say, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your Kingdom come, your will be done…” (Matt 6:7-13). We were relinquishing our will for His. Oh how hard a task at times, except to know that Tuesday we were rehearsing a scene “as it is in heaven.”