14 members and friends of the Grant City Christian Church went on a mission trip to Belize recently and did God's work. Grant City Christian Church has adopted a sister church, Living Waters Fellowship, a non-denominational church there that attracts 150-200 worshipers every Sunday. Pastor Dirk Buffington and wife Janelle have taken regular mission trips down there and the pastor there is a long-time friend. They and several members of the team which went gave a talk about their recent trip Sunday night at the church.
Many of the things we take for granted here in the US are not guaranteed in Belize. For instance, after the 8th grade; education is no longer free; students are normally prepared to transition into a vocational field after that and only a select few get to go on to high school. Freedom of movement is not always a guarantee there either; in some parts of Belize City, gang activity is so widespread that certain parts of that city are walled off to prevent it from spreading. And public support of roads and bridges, something else we take for granted, is not there either; potholes are huge there. In fact, the people from Grant City Christian Church had to fix up the potholes so that they could transport people to and from the women's retreat that they organized.
Pastor Dirk Buffington said that the support for the trip was great and that they had a lot more funds than they expected. One person who went, Teresa Staton, had her hair braided by one of the women there. The church was filled for worship services. There was a 50 year age difference between the people who went, with Linda Phipps, the oldest person who went, well able to keep up with the younger folks. Among other things they did was put on a dinner for the graduation from the school that Living Waters runs, put up mosquito netting on the windows, and organize and lead a women's fellowship and transport people from nearby Valley of Peace Refugee Camp, which houses women refugees from neighboring El Salvador. Transporting people eight miles, the distance from Sheridan to Parnell, is something we take for granted here. However, it was a job getting the women transported given the roads and the fact that there were not a lot of vehicles there. Many people use bikes for transportation; in fact, each of the boys who graduated from the Living Waters School got a bike as a graduation gift. Dallas Monticue and Cole Buffington were on the crew that repaired the roads; they had to borrow wheel barrows in order to complete the task.
Graduation is at least as big of a community event at Living Waters as it is here. At Worth County and Northeast Nodaway, the annual graduation ceremony for seniors brings several hundred people to the school. At Living Waters, which graduated 10 boys from their school this year, they planned on feeding 200 people at the graduation dinner. Around 300 people showed up; however, Janelle Buffington said that they were able to feed everyone.
While there was a lot of work to be done, there was plenty of time for fun as well. Swimming, basketball, and arm wrestling were among some of the more popular things that were done during the mission trip. Dallas Monticue served as one of the pranksters, putting a lizard in Cole Buffington's bed. But he learned a lot as well. "I learned that we can live without a lot of things that we have here," he said. Internet is pretty rare in Belize; only a very few people had it at Living Waters. There was also the time when Linda Phipps found a snake in her room and Will Buffington, who is an expert on reptiles, came and took it out and killed it. It was a common rat snake. They had time to go to the beach and a banana resort. And Cole had the time to mimic everyone he came in contact with, something he is really good at.
While school is free, it is not a guarantee in Belize. At Living Waters, they have 45 applicants this year and they have to weed them down. Students take three years of classes there; the purpose of the school is to prepare them for vo-tech careers. Students have to pass a test in order to get a chance at placement; they can only take it twice. They are solely funded by outside sources and the people grow their own food there. By their third year, they are placed with someone so that they can learn their profession on the job. The school gets political pressure to accept reform students; however, they would have to totally change the way that they teach in order to take them.
The people have a lot of things going for them. They have a strong work ethic; for instance, they make bread three times a day and grow their own food and raise their own animals. They are very generous; for instance, Rhonda Richards recounted that she admired the beautiful skirts that the women wore and that one of the women gave her a skirt. Richards said that one woman makes handmade bags so that she can put her daughter through college so that she can have a better life. For Dirk and Janelle Buffington, who have been there many times, the people are like family. One guest who went on the trip, Alexis Goff, said that she had never seen Pastor Dirk smile so much.
High school education is a right that each child has in the US. However, that is not the case in Belize, where students have to pay tuition and transportation to high schools. Out of around 12-15 students who graduate from schools like Living Waters, around two move on to high school.
Teresa Staton, who taught at the women's conference, said that there was a real hunger for the gospel among the women that she taught. There were around 20 when the conference started; by the time that they finished, there were almost 50 coming every night despite the extreme heat. Indoor temperatures were as high as 124 degrees. The theme for the conference was learning how to pray and give problems over to God. Many of the women there had been exposed to Christian teaching; however, a church that had served the refugee camp closed several years ago. Everyone insisted on going forward with the conference even with the extreme weather. The refugees from Valley of Peace have no water source; they live on ground corn and tortillas every day. They are very small, around 4'7".
Living Waters was founded in 1984. In 2010, they became independent but are now totally dependent on outside funding for their needs. Pastor Dirk said that even though they were very poor, they never ask for anything from their sister church in Grant City. However, he said that the needs of Living Waters are growing. He said that among the other needs, the church was falling into disrepair, the ceilings need painting, the chairs are rusty and need sanding and painting, one of the basketball goals on the court is in need of repair, the cement on the court is also starting to wear out, the fans are broken, toilets are not bolted down, and the pastor works without pay.
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