The 2009 mission trip was very eventful, to say the least. The trip began with flights to Cancun, Mexico, instead of Belize City. The savings in airfare and car rental made it well worthwhile to undertake the longer drive from the airport to our work area in Northern Belize. Slow rental car paperwork, slow dinner service and heavy rain during part of the drive added to the adventure. We arrived late Monday night but safe and sound.

It was fortunate that we had chosen to travel through Cancun instead of Belize City. While we were traveling, regional cane farmers were blockading the Northern Highway in protest over a new piece of equipment that had been installed at the sugar factory south of Orange Walk. It was giving inconsistent sugar content results that caused wildly varying cane prices. From news reports seen during our visit, a caravan of cane farmers on foot and in vehicles were passing the entrance to the sugar factory that was guard by a line of Belize Defense Forces (BFD). At one point, whether provoked or not, a BFD soldier fired his weapon on the caravan. This caused the cane farmers to turn toward the BFD, on foot at first, and then followed by a charging cane truck. In the melee that followed, several Belizeans were injured by gunfire and two were killed including Antonio Gutierrez of San Victor village. This incident occurred almost exactly at the same time we would have been passing the sugar factory entrance had we flown into Belize City. The team restricted some of its normal activities in San Victor the first few days in sensitivity to a village in mourning over the tragic lost of one of their own.

As part of the mourning process, several of our team members attended the wake for Mr. Gutierrez on Wednesday night. Our three pastors (Mike, Seth and Tim) and Matt were able to visit with the family to pray with them, sing to them and anoint their six children. The body of Mr. Gutierrez arrived late Thursday and a funeral service was held on Friday that all team members attended. Due to the nature of the incident that caused Mr. Gutierrez's death, a large number of Belizeans estimated as high as 2,000 attended the standing room only funeral held outside the San Victor R. C. Church. A procession followed to the cemetery where Mr. Gutierrez was laid to rest.

The construction team had planned to address the chaotic conditions in the primary school library. Typical of mission planning, plans were changed at the request of the principal to build a play set for the pre-school children. This was required as part of a certification process for the pre-school. The completed play set included a sliding board, two swings and two teeter-totters. Many children eagerly christened the play set. Luis Escalante, a Belizean electrician, was hired as planned and Luis and a team member assistant rewired the electrical service within the pre-school. Some things do go as planned.

Luis also completed the process of installing ceiling fans in all the classrooms. This program had begun in May 2007 and continued during our February 2008 trip. Now we can say that all school buildings and the R. C. Church have good electrical service, adequate lighting and ample ceiling fans.

Also planned for this trip was the presentation of diabetes health videos to the school children and village adults. Diabetes has become the number 1 cause of death among Belizeans. The adult video included at 20-minute segment in Spanish on diabetes followed by a "big screen" movie for entertainment. We were unable to present the adult video in San Victor but were invited to make a presentation in a church in San Narciso. This was done and those attending the presentation responded with such gratitude that it was almost emotionally overwhelming. This confirmed that we were doing something that was badly needed and the right thing to do.

The children's video met with a similar response. The video was taken from the Eagle Book series discussing how children can watch their diet and exercise to help prevent diabetes in later years. The video was first presented to the teachers at a meeting after school on Thursday. Their response was wholeheartedly positive and they immediately requested more of the same on future trips. The video was presented on the following Monday to 157 teachers and children in three sessions covering eight grades and pre-school children. The last segment of the video discusses healthy "everyday snacks" and unhealthy "sometimes" sweet snacks. To set an example, vegetable strip snacks were presented to the children following the video presentation.

As an adjunct to the diabetes videos, the team carried 200 sets of diabetes literature to distribute to the 200 families in San Victor. The brochures discussed prevention, care and treatment of diabetes. The self-imposed restrictions on activities throughout the village of San Victor limited our distribution to 25% of the families. The hope is that the balance of the literature will be distributed next year. This program also gave our participating team members an opportunity to meet additional villagers building additional relationships and increasing our credibility with the residents. It is clear that this pilot program on health education was an unqualified success and will be continued on future trips.

Several powerful worship services occurred during this trip. The first one was in the Church of God in San Narciso, a church started by Alfredo Avilez, a long time supporter of our mission efforts. This bi-lingual service was the prelude to the adult diabetes presentation in this church the following night. On Friday morning in the San Victor R. C. Church, Pastor Tim began a rousing mass for the school children by singing several songs. Pastor Tim has a strong and quality singing voice, to say the least. One of the children read the scripture lesson, Pastor Seth delivered the message and the children responded with several lively songs. The service then moved outside where Matt, assisted by some of the older children and Maestro Filiberto Teck, reenacted the story of the Good Samaritan.

Our last group dinner was held at our old mission headquarter at the home of Delta and Urbano Campos. After an excellent dinner, we were blessed by songs from three entertainers. The first was a group from the San Narciso R. C. Church that sang several songs in Spanish. Then, long time supporter of our mission, Rafael Cob, and his 7-year old daughter served up additional numbers. Pastor Tim concluded the singing with more songs delivered in his powerful style. The evening concluded with an emotional testimony from Alfredo Avilez about how our mission, his church and God have changed his life. Previously plagued by drinking problems, he is now alcohol free and his life is devoted to learning and bringing the word of God to many people. His enthusiasm for Christian service has carried over to his oldest son who wants to become a minister. Demonstrating our support and love over the years for Alfredo and his family assisted the change in his lifestyle.

We can only conclude that this was another successful mission trip in spite of some unusual circumstances.