Money Changers in the Temple

It has officially been one month in Belize, and what a wonderful month it has turned out to be!!

So I had a little bit of an embarrassing moment yesterday morning. It's been raining like crazy here all week and pouring throughout the night. My bedroom is right above the roof of the church, and the roof is tin, so the last few nights have been sleepless at times when the rain starts to pour. Yesterday (Saturday) I slept in a little. I took my time getting ready for the day....which basically translates to mean I lazed around in pajamas for longer than I normally would. Had some breakfast and spent a significant amount of time on my morning devotions. All was going well, and then I heard someone calling for me and walking up the stairs to the rectory. Definitely wasn't expecting anyone, didn't want them to have to wait, but was definitely still in my dark blue penguin print pajama pants. What to do, what to do? I walked outside, in my pajamas and met the woman on the stairs. Everyone who rode or walked past the rectory couldn 't help but stare at me and my funky pants. The woman was a Mayan woman in Independence from Punta Gorda going to Placencia to sell some of her jewlery and homemade baskets. She asked if she could visit me. I said sure, but told her I needed to change my pants first, I asked her to wait for me by the church and we would sit in there and chat, I've been warned not to allow people up on the veranda or in the rectory. So I quickly changed, popped a piece of gum in my mouth (I hadn't brushed my teeth) and headed for the the church. Turns out the woman didn't really want to talk to me, but she wanted to show me all of the stuff that she had made with the hopes of me buying something from her. As she pulled out all of her goodies and tried to get me to buy from her, the story of Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers in the temple in Matthew started flashing in my head. What was I supposed to do with this? I let her show me her stuff, asked her questions about how long it took her to make the baskets and the necklaces and then took the opportunity to affirm her and reassure her of the gift that she has and not suggesting that I would buy anything from her at that moment. When she noticed I wouldn't budge, she told me that she sold this stuff in order to support her family and put her children through school, in trying to avoid buying anything I started asking her about her family. "How many children do you have? How old are they? What are their names?" After about a half an hour, I convinced her I wasn't going to budge. I thanked her for showing me her things, and assured her that I would find her in Placencia and buy something from her before I left for the summer. And then told her if she is ever in town again to stop by, and that I would love to visit with her again. I couldn't help but chuckle afterwards!!

I led two services this morning. This weekend is one of the weekends that I spent inPlacencia. Once again my evening was super relaxing, I lazed around in an incredibly comfy chair and read an incredibly good book for the evening while I listened to the rain fall on the tin roof of the house beside me. It was basically amazing.

I then led the service in Placencia, and boogied back across the lagoon to St. Michael's. The one thing I'm getting used to here is the lack of people that come to the church on Sundays. Today Miss Lorna and I were the only two at church (for a while) so we decided that instead of having communion we would do morning prayer together. It was simple, and so spirit filled. Half way through the service another parishioner came in. He sat near the back and just listened, he can't read so rather than following along in the prayer book he just sits and listens. But when it's time to sing, he knows the words to hymns because he's memorized them. It was so wonderful to be able to hear his voice as we worshiped together. I was filled with joy as I heard him sing his heart out the words of the scripture that the hymns we sang were saying. And it was at this moment that I truly knew what it felt like to the be the body of Christ. As I sat in the pew with Miss Lorna and the other parishioner I couldn't help but realize that we were all from different walks of life. Literate and illiterate, Caribbean, Canadian and Belizean, young and old, but that didn't stop us from worshiping together, worshiping the God of love as the one body of Christ. It was a pretty amazing moment for me...God is good and blessed us abunantly in our worship this morning!!

Tomorrow is my day off. I promised Shanton a trip to Placencia to swim in the ocean, but from the looks of it I don't know if the weather is going to cooperate. Hurricane season officially began today and will be upon us until November 1st. Haven't heard what the forecast is for the summer in terms of tropical storms, but I'm not worried!! All I know is that if I had to choose between being too hot, or wet......I choose being too hot!!!

Chelsy