God's Green Earth

Belize is astoundingly beautiful. We're supposed to be in the middle of dry season which i'm told is usually unbearably hot but recently the weather has just been amazing. 10 minute rain-showers followed by brilliant sunshine and an ocean breeze.

Every place you look is teeming with life. At Machaca pineapple grows wild and the jungle is exploding with a million shades of green. 

And; just so you don't think all we do is here is kill, steal and destroy, one of the sheep gave birth to twins Sunday morning! I was mentally prepared all week for the delivery; running in my mind for hot water and towels Michael Landon style but as it turns out I slept through it. Apparently it was quite uneventful. 

Espresso, Leaves and Slain Turkeys

First off let me begin by profusely apologizing for the delay in this post! Let me also apologize for the random bullet point nature of this post. Things here have been as crazy as a snowstorm in Belize. Life is moving along at quite a fast pace even by American standards (which in Belize time is roughly between light-speed and warp-speed).  

The big project right now is getting the coffee shop in town open and we are almost there. Last week we started working on the menu, different recipes and the like. The building that Machaca has in town is used for the Monday night bible study, a hip-hop dance studio (one of the staff guys teaches the class as an outreach) and eventually as a cafe. The building is so obviously from the Lord as it is literally right across the street from the University of Belize campus in P.G.! The entire crew spent a day last week demo-ing the whole place, ripping out walls and then Lewis Scheer and I spent another day painting while some of the plumbing was being worked out. There's still more work to be done but we hope to have it up and running by March 18th so keep us in prayer!

2 of my roommates - Brian and Doyle - taking a lunch break.

Also in unrelated news.. the new Machaca logo is done!

CAUTION: GRAPHIC IMAGES AHEAD - NOT INTENDED FOR TURKEY LOVERS 

Last week we had an early/late Thanksgiving Dinner built around one of the 3 turkeys that John's been raising here. As the guest and newcomer I had the distinct honor of slaying the bird. Actually I just didn't want to look like a wuss in front of my roommates or John so I grabbed a machete and went for it. Fredrick snapped the shutter at the perfect moment to capture my terrified, turkey-killer face.

Despite how it began for the turkey (and myself for that matter) the dinner ended up being a really great time. All the staff, interns and the Gotz family - 15 people in total - sat around a great meal enjoying one another's company and then finished with communion.  

So things are well. Thanks for all the prayer, I can definitely feel its effects! Please continue to pray for the coffee shop opening and that God would daily be working in and through me for the rest of my short time down here.

In Him,

Chris