Skipping town to the Land of the Free by the Carib Sea

So, I'm skipping town. No, check that: I'm leaving on a jet plane. On December 26, thirteen of us from Refuge (the Christian fellowship that I pastor for my “real” job) will be flying out of Chicago for a two week stay in Belize (well, most of the group will be staying two weeks; I'll be coming back after 10 days on account of responsibilities here.) It is what is commonly referred to as a “missions trip” but for all that our main purpose for going is to visit some of our Belizean friends.

Pablo (center), Ezekiel (2nd right) and Elber (on right)

As most of you are aware, this past year ABC Truss brought in twenty-five foreign workers to work at the plant here. Of that group, five of the guys ended up fellowshipping with us at Refuge. Over the course of the past six months they were in town, they were regulars at our worship gatherings, came to a few grad parties as well a pizza party we threw for all the crew and participated in nine-week Sunday evening course on following Jesus. This past fall, a large number of landscaping pavers were donated to us and these guys, along with some of their Belizean friends, came to our aid and were key in laying down our new side walk simply out of the goodness of their heart. It looks glorious.

Getting acquainted at our pizza party this past summer

Dalton is another
friend we hope to see

All of them have returned now to their homeland and are reveling in being reunited with their families. And now some of us from here are going to visit them in their towns. Belize is a small country in Central America – from top to bottom approximately 180 miles long or the equivalent distance of a drive from Bloomer to Madison – and of the guys who worked here, hardly any of them came from the same village. Elber lives in the north in the town of San Narciso Corozal and is Our Man Flint on the ground there. Working with his pastor and coordinating with our team leaders, David & Paula Holmbeck of rural Chetek, our itinerary is still very much a work in progress. But for most of us this is not our first rodeo and we are accustomed to having our plans a little bit (or a lot) in the air.

The finished product

Ezekiel, Elber & Pablo

For me this will be my ninth trip abroad (but my first to Central America) and if I learned anything in my travels is that despite our differences in culture, in language, in cuisine, and in history, people are pretty much the same the world over. We all live in a place we call home. We all have the necessity to eat and to groom ourselves. We all prefer it if people make nice and get along. And we all like to grouse about the weather and the “uppity-ups” - whoever they may be – who seem to like coming up with rules or laws that make our life more difficult instead of less so. Frankly, as altruistic as his comments are, I totally agree with what Robert Fuhlgum once opined in his classic All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, “Think what a better world it would be if all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap.” Better yet, if we could do this with an Palestinian on Monday, a Russian on Wednesday and someone from Minneapolis' near south side on Friday. We'd all gain a little perspective on how the other half lives.

San Narciso here we come

So your sympathies not withstanding that I will be forced to celebrate New Years in “the Land of the Free by the Carib Sea”, I'm looking forward to seeing my friends who I enjoyed getting acquainted with while they lived around here. If you're a person of faith, I'd appreciate your prayers for traveling mercies for my team and I. We all hope that we can be as big a blessing to them as they were to all of us.