Good Friday

Greetings in the Name of our Lord,
On this Good Friday, I will simply report and reflect a little bit on the activities of the last 24 hours. We held a moving foot washing service up on the second floor patio-balcony at Ruby's last night with all of us plus Francis and Vernon Wilson. This followed a delightful dinner at the Sunset Grill overlooking the bay and spectacular pink cloud sunset. At the foot washing, we used three buckets and several communal towels, and, patterned according to the Compline liturgy as well as the Prayer Book of the West Indies, we heard the passage from John's Gospel in which Jesus washes his disciples feet and then commands us to wash each other's feet. For most this was a new experience, to request that another allow a fellow missionary to be their servant through the symbolism of foot washing. After all had finished, Francis and Vernon presented each one of us with two gifts--the first, a 2007 picture calendar of Holy Cross School, and the second, a Holy Cross Anglican Cross necklace made from the jewelry shop that Vernon established in Belize City. This jewelry shop was established as a trade school and training center for Belize inmates. In December, Vernon asked each student to design a cross for the school--after researching the appropriate Anglican symbols that might be used. The winning cross was chosen from many good designs, and, by about Christmas time, more than 200 had been produced. This experience was one of the most important and influential for three of the inmates whose sentences were reduced or allowed out on early release. Extra sets of crosses and calendars will come back to St. Michael's as gifts to those contributors to the project that could not physically be here with the team.

Today was our last day with the children, and our last day with construction. The large wooden cross we made yesterday was processed into the parish hall/church and stood at the back during the Good Friday service, which began about 9:30 after the students arrived. The service began with singing and the Gospel reading for this Good Friday by John Gibson. Fr. Gibson then delivered a simple but poignant homily in which he explained Jesus' self-sacrifice on the Cross on our behalf. After the homily, Fr. Gibson read a series of collects while the Cross was processed forward by Ellen Currin, Madeleine Campbell, Hannah Waddell, and John McHenry. After each collect, the large wooden cross, adorned with the children's prayer-art work, was stomped against the wooden floor, making a loud sound symbolic of Jesus falling with his cross on the way to Golgotha, and, later, the nails being driven into Him by the Roman soldiers. As the Cross reached the Altar, all the children were invited to gather round. There, Fr. Gibson recounted the great acts of God from the Baptismal Covenant, and then blessed both the Cross and the children gathered around it. We then sang a song that we taught the children this week and that they have come to love -- "All God's Critters Have a Place in the Choir". The service concluded with a closing blessing and children's hymn, "This Little Light of Mine."

This evening we will have Stations of the Cross. Fr. Gibson has laid out a route around downtown San Pedro, and at each station we will recount the journey and crucifixion of Christ on this day. We will then share a simple supper with Francis and Vernon Wilson. This promises to be a wonderful and moving evening of remembrance, sadness, joy, and celebration. God's blessings to all. JohnnyMac.

Maundy Thursday at Holy Cross

On this Maundy Thursday, we've posted images of the San Mateo community adjacent to Holy Cross School, and other images around the school as well. As we may have mentioned earlier, San Mateo is a community of about 1000 people that live on top of a swamp, with no sewage system, no road system, little running water, and homes that provide only the barest of essentials in terms of four walls and a roof. Most are elevated to get the living quarters out of the swamp, but most people have to trek across long thin boards at near swamp level to get to their "front" doors. Of course, today is the day we recall the actual passion of Christ on the Cross as it followed closely after the Last Supper. At VBS today, each of the 70 students made a coloring of a prayer that was important to them, and then we nailed them to a large wooden cross that we constructed out of scrap wood at the School. The cross is now decorated with all the prayers, symbolizing the joining of our prayers to the offering Christ made for us on the Cross. We also held a Maundy Thursday service for all the children and adults, with John Gibson celebrating, and later in the day construction resumed after VBS concluded. Our construction team has been working on five different projects. Nancy Atkeson has been painting interior bathrooms with heavy oil paint which doubles as a preservative. Kathy Smith has been working on staining desks and other wooden furniture, Rev Winfree and John Eick have been sheetrocking a bathroom, Phil Lambe has been working on railings, and John Gibson has been working on exterior painting. The whole crew has also worked on and completed a substantial amount of decking. The work is slow because most lumber and sheet rock has to be cut specially to fit out-of-square locations, but all in all our construction is going well. Tonight we will celebrate with a foot-washing service together with Missionaries Francis and Vernon Wilson, while we reflect on the meaning of Maundy Thursday, and I can't think of a better place to be to have this service, on this particular night...... JohnnyMac

New day, new pix!!

Hello All!!

We've had another fantastic day at Holy Cross School!! We are posting a bunch of new pics with a little bit about each one. Today we had 85 kids at VBS, and accomplished a lot at the construction site as well!! OK, here are the pix!! From bottom up -- a view of the awesome Mayan ruins at Altun Ha (Sunday). Leaving Belize City harbor on the water taxi bound for Ambergris Caye (Sunday afternoon). View from Ruby's beachfront hotel balcony... we have seven rooms there (Sunday afternoon). Holy Cross Anglican School -- about a 30 minute walk through the streets of San Pedro to a swampy area on the other side of the island (Monday). Rev Winfree and John Eick installing concrete-based sheet rock in a bathroom at the school (Monday). John McHenry (w/ guitar), Hannah Waddell, Ellen Currin, Madeleine Campbell, and lots of kids at VBS (Monday). John (Jr) and David Eick on playground with VBS kids (today). David Eick and friend (today). John Gibson and "Destiny" (today).

A word about Destiny. Destiny is a little girl just 6 years old. Destiny's height and weight are those of a three year old. Destiny lives with her three siblings, her Mom and her Dad in a 10 ft by 10 ft "home" made of very thin wood. There are no windows and only one door. She has a tin roof that covers all of their heads as they try to sleep together. To get to her house you have to walk into the San Mateo community on a thin walkway that keeps you out of the mud and muck where there are no sewer lines and drinking water flows only about half the time. There are about 1000 people living in this community, all in extremely substandard housing. Once you near Destiny's house, she has to walk across about 100 ft of elevated 1x6 planking that is suspended a foot about the water level by shoddy supports. Once she nears her front door, she has to climb up a ladder to reach it. She cannot step back down out of her "home" safely--she has to be carried, as do the other younger children. Not only this, but Destiny has been plagued with numerous medical problems. Francis and Vernon Wilson, the Episcopal Church missionaries who are in charge of developing the Holy Cross School, have overseen spending about $15,000 in Destiny's medical care. When she first came to the school, she was a very sick child. Once she was taken to a private doctor, they immediately hospitalized her where she was diagnosed with double pneumonia and tuberculosis, worms, and a number of other maladies. She has been successfully treated for all of these and is not contagious, but she still struggles and the concern is that, though very rare, she may have cystic fibrosis. Destiny comes to VBS every day and loves to be held. She does not want to go home at 11:30 in the morning when VBS ends. Nor do most of the other kids that come from San Mateo or other nearby homes that are crowded and hard to live in. They cling to us like babies cling to their mothers, and as soon as we put them down they want to be picked up again, even some of the older 10 and 11 year olds that are coming every day. Holy Cross is a beacon of hope in their lives, and we are now a small part of that light of life. Tomorrow we will all celebrate a Maundy Thursday service for the children along with the team, the Holy Cross workers, and members of the Anglican community here. We will sing songs the kids know and love, and they will receive a blessing. We know you will be with us in thought and prayer. God's blessings to all. JohnnyMac

A couple of pix

Just had time to upload two pix tonight....these are from the first couple of days of VBS .... here's Madeleine literally surrounded by some of the more than 75 kids who came today.... and here's

one of those little ones holding one of the crafts he made on Monday .... more later!!

Michael's Missionaries Thriving in Belize!!

Greetings to all at St. Michael's!
This is JohnnyMac, Hannah Waddell, Madeleine Campbell, and Ellen Currin checking in on behalf of our whole team!!! We have had an awesome and fabulous experience so far -- and the trip isn't even half over!! After touring the awe inspiring Altun Ha Mayan Ruins on Sunday, we took a very fast "water taxi," well , giant speed boat is a better way to explain it, for the 30 mile trip from Belize City to San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye!! We checked into Ruby's hotel and then on Monday started our work at Holy Cross Anglican School -- about a 30 minute
walk from our simple but adequate beach front hotel!! Hannah, Madeleine, and Ellen have been busy snapping pictures and working with the wonderful children of Holy Cross in our first two days of VBS, and they are going to post some pictures and tell you about their experience so far ..... but, before they do, we have also been busy with the construction work, helping to put up guard railing, floor decking, sheetrock on interior bathrooms, woodworking on desks, painting, and numerous other things!!

Missionaries Francis and Vernon Wilson are truly grateful to have us to the whole congregation at St. Michael's for supporting us in this eye opening mission -- for, despite the very pleasant surroundings of the hotel, the Holy Cross school site is truly a beacon of hope lying right next to one of the poorest "neighborhoods that I have EVER seen -- and I've been on 40 or so of these mission trips!! Many of the children from this neighborhood are being served by the school, and as Vernon reminded us, we are not only in the business of constructing the school, but the real mission is constructing the kids by giving them hope and love, as well as good nutrition, medical care, and all those needs that cannot be met at home. And, our wonderful priest John Gibson helped celebrate Palm Sunday at the altar with Dean Neal of the Anglican cathedral of Belize City, and will be celebrating children's Maundy Thursday and Good Friday this week...... OK -- here are the youth!!

On the outside of Holy Cross is the construction site but on the inside is a room of 65 of the most wonderful children we've ever met. After just two days, we have fallen in love with all the kids of the Holy Cross school. Despite coming from some of the poorest homes miles away from the school, they continue to come often by foot to VBS. We have quickly realized that the Holy Cross serves as more than just a school, but as a safe haven from sometimes destructive home lives. Upon arrival to the school, they are smiling from ear to ear ready to sing, play games, make crafts, and learn about God. Truthfully, today was total chaos with more than 75 kids running around the school, but being with the kids brought us so much joy that we undoubtedly had more fun than they did. We can only imagine what's to come in following days. Now back to you JohnnyMac!!!

That's it for now, but we'll be back soon to post those pictures!!!!

Love in Christ,
John, Hannah, Madeleine, Ellen and the whole team!