| Mission
to Belize
Carin Shulusky joined 23 young people and adults on a mission trip to Seine Bight, Belize July 10 – 18. The trip was sponsored by St. John Lutheran Church in Ellisville, MO. Seine Bight is a Garifuna villageon the coast in Central Belize. This is a small fishing village and the people are very poor. Although they are mostly Christian, they have no churches and no sports facilities. The purpose of this trip was to conduct a vacation bible school for the children of Seine Bight and a sports camp. This is the second year St. John has sent a mission to Belize. More than 175 children attended last year’s VBS program. This year we had 180 childrent the first day but as the word spread throughtout the village our numbers grew steadily to over 300. The ages of the children ranged from diapered toddlers to teenagers. We served over 200 - 300 lunches each day. Vaction bible school was taught in and around the hurricane shelter, near the beach at the center of town. Sports camp was down the road in an open field. In the evenings, the youth leader took the young people back to the town to meet with older teenagers and adults. There is almost no industry in this part of Belize and the people have very little, but beautiful smiling faces and warm hearts. They welcomed us with open arms and an eaggerness to learn. We taught them many songs and they taught us to sing the Lord’s Prayer in Garifuna. By the end of the week we could hear our songs beign sung throughout the village. Many of us left much of the clothes we brought with us and shoes. Very few of the children have shoes. We made life-long friends with the people of Seine Bight and our fellow travelers. The images of the mission we stick with us forever. We would like to share some of those images with you. To find out more about St. John Lutheran Church and their many missions check their website http://www.stjstl.net/ Teaching Vacation Bible School |
