Lessons from Belize

A brief look into the beginning of my time in Burrell Boom...

On one particular day of one particular week three July’s ago, I have a vivid memory of sitting on a worn blue/gray bench and pulling my ankle-sock down to find I had either developed an impressive (yet poorly placed) tanline, or my legs were so severely caked in sweat and dirt that they only mimicked the actual darkening of my skin. It had been two days since we had traveled to Burrell Boom, Belize. I was told by some veterans of the trip that we would be uncomfortable without any air conditioning in the hot and humid weather, without cold water or actual coffee to drink in the mornings awoken by the sun from sleeping on makeshift cots on the floor of a dirty classroom, without any kind of bug screens to protect us from mosquitos at night except the ones we crudely strung up and tied around our individual sleeping areas. I was warned of these material things, but no one could have prepared me for the growth of my heart and widening of my perspective by the end of that exhausting week.

I could point out many lessons here, but I want to focus on how that week sparked an ongoing desire for me to develop a more compassionate and mindful way of living. My primary purpose in Belize was to help put together a Vacation Bible School program for the local kids, and then to begin and foster friendships with them by playing with them and listening to them and encouraging them to share their culture with me so they know I am genuinely interested in their lives and well-being. Once I immersed myself in this challenge, I fell in love with it. The challenge to love and understand people with entirely different circumstances than my own, who had never known warm showers or nice clothes or a wide food variety, yet walked or biked each morning with the biggest smiles on their faces just to come play with us and continue to know us.

I go back with my church to the same place every year, July 2018 being my fourth return, because I strongly believe in the necessity of maintaining those relationships and the importance of outreach and continuity. Nothing can compare to the first step into that warm air, thrilled from not knowing how I’ll get to serve others and grow myself this time.