Please Pray for this Family!

Scotty and Amy Scott, Pastor Rick Evans and his wife Melanie, Patrick and Heather Spence.

They have lost a son, grandson and nephew this morning. As they were all at a celebration for Amy's birthday, they noticed that her son Tre (3yrs old) was missing. After searching for some time, Scotty and Patrick noticed a murky spot in the pond near Scotty and Amy's home. Scotty waded out and located little Tre. Details of all that they have been through this weekend can be found on the website for Dalraida Baptist Church where Amy's father Rick is pastor.

This is a very close knit family as they spent nearly five years living in a camper trailer touring the country as gospel singers. Patrick, my first cousin, married Heather in December of 2004. That is when I got to know them a little. These are precious people. Please remember them during this tragic time in their lives.

Accomodations!

Well, the week has flown by for me. As you can see, I have not had time to post. I have just finalized to reservations for our last night in Belize. This is one of the most relaxing and rewarding experiences of the trip. You never really know how to appreciate a pool of chlorinated water until you have been a week without the AC and hot water. You can check out the digs HERE.

This is a different location from the previous years, but these people were really good to work with and very professional. They will also be handling our Banquet needs completely in house. I will be posting the proposed menu later to get your selections so that we can give them some numbers to prepare.

Also, anybody curious about the Mission House in Sand Hill can check out the link to the Belize Mission. Bro Don and Ms Pat have posted some pictures of the work team that recently worked on the roof of the house.

As promised this is a picture of the San Lazaro MP School where the men made their home for a week last year.
Just Kidding! This is actually a picture of the Parsonage at August Pine Ridge. I do not know if anyone is staying there now, but the last pastor and at least six of his kids lived here full time.

Some of you may think that is a Red Dodge Pickup Parked at the front door, but it is actuaaly a Belizean Scaffold. Notice in the pictures below the thing that looks like a Blue Dodge Pickup backed up to the side of the school. If you will scroll down to the Teamwork post the real use for these items becomes apparent. I imagine this one was being used to pull something off the roof that a kid had thrown up there!


This is the new building with four new schoolrooms that we helped paint while we were on the Blitz last year. Previous work teams and the locals worked to build the structure.

Here is a shot of the old part of the school with our paint scaffold backed up to the location that we painted the school sign.















Since it was about 40 degrees here this morning, just looking at these pictures makes me ready to leave today. Whoever came up with the myth about global warming was obviously delusional! Hello all in Belize! I am wishing I was there with you today!

A True Gem!

Just found out yesterday that one our most revered Team Members, seen here "shimmying up a coconut tree" is having a lot of trouble with her knee. Now anyone who has been to Belize with her knows that she is not letting this knee trouble slow her down. Unfortunately, to slow down and rest that knee is what she needs for it to heal. Surgery has even been mentioned.

Her participation in the Blitz this year depends a lot on this knee. That is why I am posting and requesting your heartfelt prayers that her knee will get better. A Lot Better!

For those who don't know her, let me just tell you a little about her. She is over 80 years old and has been on the Blitz for the last three years. She cooks for the crowd at San Lazaro. She is the first one up in the morning and the last one to bed. Her dinner rolls are truly manna from heaven!

One new team member last year wanted to sit by her on the plane because his Mom had told him, if the plane went down, and he survived, he would want to be stranded with this Jewel because she could make a meal out of anything. He would not go hungry as long as she survived. She regularly attends Pleasant Grove MP near Clanton.

Pray that she gets better.....the Blitz would not be the same without her!

VBS Materials

It has taken me most of the day but I think I have figured out how to get you a link to some information that I purchased about the materials that we will be using. I purchased the VBS Ideas CD and saved a couple of the documents in a format that I could upload and post. It sounds so simple, but so does the idea of bathing a cat!

Anyway click on Crafts Ideas to see the ideas that the publishers have for correlating crafts. I have not studied them so PLEASE let me know what you think about them. I have asked the folks in Belize for their input on this sort of thing also, so anbody in Belize that wants input Here is your chance!

Click on OVERVIEW to see what the lessons will be about.

I apologize for ad content on these pages. It was the first free web hosting page I found.

By the way....IF this actually works, I can assure you that there is One True God and He is on our side!

Teamwork!

The Key Ingredient for a successful Blitz!

Left to right - Kojak(used to Pastor Wimberly), Picture Man(Wimberly), Babbie(Springfield), Nemo(Springfield), Jebbie Dean(Springfield) and Bama Blitz(Springfield)

With the exception of Kojak - all of these folks will be 2006 Team Members 

Accomodations

Here is a shot of the Mission House that housed 20 people for the week last year. Arkansas Bunch upstairs and Ladies working in San Lazaro and August Pine Ridge downstairs. The men stayed in the school rooms. (I'll Post that picture later.) The large green tent was the roof for the downstairs dining room. This tent is owned by the Church there and they rent it out around the village for different things during the year. If you look closely someone is posing for this shot, but I cannot make out who it is for sure.

Notice the tree to the left of the house. Last year on Sunday afternoon, I was relaxing under this very tree when I got a call from the states. Dear Hubby (DH) was missing us already. At the time he called, the heat index here in Alabama was @107 Degrees F. He was wishing that he had made the trip with us, when I told him it was about 80 degrees there and a nice breeze was blowing!

Uncle Nascar who was with us there in Belize was suffering withdrawals from not getting to watch a race that afternoon, instructed me to ask DH how the race was going. DH had to report to him that Nascar had learned that he was out of the country and canceled all events for the weekend. In other words "what race". 

Favorite Blitz Stories

I know there are only a few of the team members who actually check out the blog, but for those that do, I am requesting that you recount some of your favorite stories from years past. The following is one of mine from last year.

Last year was my daughter's first trip, we'll call her Dabba, since that is what her big brother nicknamed her when she was very small. Check the "Mischief" picture below for visuals.

Anyway, Dabba had a wonderful trip and never once appeared to be the slightest bit homesick. However, I noticed when we landed in Houston she seemed extremely excited. She talks slightly loud anyway, but she seemed to yell everything she said, and she could not be still. She jumped, she twisted, she flew, she slid, she ran, she did anything but be still. Our layover was short, so we pretty muched walked right onto the connecting flight without waiting.

Now you and I both know that sometimes the Lord gets a good laugh off of us occasionaly, and this day was one of those days that he needed a belly laugh. Right as we taxied out to the tarmac a line of thunderstorms rolled through the airport and we were delayed about 30 minutes there in the sardine can version of an airplane.

And, you guessed it, Dabba was bouncing around in her seat like a super bouncy ball dropped off the Empire State Building. I asked her at what point somebody slipped her the Brat pills during the last flight, but she could not hear me over the din of her own questions that were fired like a submachine gun. Really fast and in all different directions.

We finally got out of Houston, but her condition worsened. The closer we got to home, the wilder she got. I thought I was going to have to "tranq" her. I was really feeling sorry for the guy seated in front of her, but then I noticed that in a previous life he must have been a mother, because he came prepared. He had earplugs. I sort of relaxed when I saw that and turned on the Mom tuner that shuts out all but the really important babble, and started reading a book.

Just before landing, Dabba was browsing the skymall magazine for the 786,453 rd time, when she suddenly slammed it shut and rammed it back into the seat pocket. At that point she turned to me and declared in her louder than life voice, "That stuff in there is just too expensive, if I want to go shopping, I am going to go to Belize where they have that 50% off sale all the time."

The currency rate in Belize is $2BZ=$1US, so most everywhere you go the price is actually 1/2 of what it is marked in US dollars. Dabba considers this 1/2 off sale to be one of the best reasons to go to Belize.

Anyway, we finally landed in Mobile, where she proceeded to shout at everybody in front of us "What is taking so long!" "Open the Door, let's get out of here!" Believe me when the door finally opened, nobody wasted any time getting off that plane. Dabba flew out of it and up the hallway and did not stop until her arms were securely around her Daddy's neck and her face was buried there. That little girl was glad to be back in Alabama.

Hello First MP Church of Vicksburg!

Just got a call from Vicksburg and they will be trying to get a team together to go with us this year! Hope all the team members out there will welcome their effort!

I will making a trip over on April 2 for the Sunday Evening Service to make a slide presentation about the Blitz. Please come by a see it! The presentation is very informal and questions are encouraged!

We all have something in common.......

In this case its slightly large listening devices!

This picture was taken during last years Blitz while these two buddies made use of a favorite seating spot. The front steps of the mission house in San Lazaro. 

Updated Flight Schedule

They have changed the flight times on our trip. Mobile and Jackson will still depart @ 9:30 AM on July 20, but there will be a slightly longer layover in Houston and we will not get into Belize City until a little after 3:00 PM. This is about an hour later than usual.

On the trip back they have moved the departure time up to 11:00 AM, and we will have about one hour and fifteen minutes to make the connections back to Mobile and Jackson. That puts us back into Mobile and Jackson @ 5:30 pm, instead of 8:30 pm. Most of us will be home before dark!

I have had some questions by prospective team members regarding the possiblity of arriving or leaving on a different date than what we have established. The only inconvenience that this causes is that sombody has to make a trip to the airport to pick them up. I don't think that will be a problem as long as we are not making daily trips to the airport. If you need to set up a different arrival date, please contact me so that I can try to get the alternate arrivals on the same flight. I would expect that this alternate would be more expensive than what we have, but probably not cost prohibitive.

Sunday Service at Sand Hill

Hurry up and take the picture so I can go smack John! 

Great News from Mississippi!

Pastor Max and his wife, at Royal Chapel, called and let me know that they plan on making the Blitz Team this year. This will be their first trip. Any team members that run across them, please be sure to mention that you are going also. They have a lot of questions, naturally, and I hope that you all will reassure them!

Just who is going? Thus far we have about 15 showing interest from Springfield, 5 from Wimberly, about a dozen from Arkansas, 2 from Royal Chapel, 1 from Divide, and 1 from Monticello. If there is anybody out there that is thinking of going beyond these, I have not heard.

Be sure to spread the word about the Blog. Email the link to everyone who will pray for our effort!

He called a little child and had him stand among them.