by Axel Santiago Jhaveri, EM Summer Staff in Belize
We were excited. We were going to build up cinder block walls for the rooms in the Convention Center! But let me give you a little background on that:
Experience Mission has been working in Belize for the last four years with our community partner, Pastor Nelzon, the leader of Family of God Church, or as known in Spanish Iglesia Familia de Dios. Family of God Church started about 30 years ago with a small group of preachers. They didn't have a building, money in their bank accounts, or land. All they had was a strong calling in their hearts to save people through Christ and a lot of faith to follow Him. After 30 years of fervent faith Family of God has planted over 30 churches throughout Belize. From north to south, you name it, there is a church there. It has been an intense journey filled with adventurous testimonies. But this amazing growth raised the need for a place where all the churches of Family of God could come together and worship the Lord together and increase their knowledge of Him. So that's where the Family of God's Convention Center comes in.
As part of the Convention Center, currently a work-in-process, EM mission trip teams have been helping in the construction of a guesthouse, including a kitchen, dinning room (for the hundreds of people that assist with the conferences), and rooms on the second floor for the participants of the conferences since they take place for whole weekends.
That being said, I'll go back to the beginning. We were excited; we were going to build up cinder block walls for the Convention Center! It was Monday and it rained—Oh how it rained. That didn't stop us from working, but it did stop us from building the cinder block walls. So we prayed that it wouldn't rain the next day. Because of the cement holding the blocks together, the walls wouldn't hold if they got rained on before drying. Then it was Tuesday, a perfectly sunny day! "Answered prayer!" we all thought. But after a couple hours of progress, we could see and hear from far away that rain was coming, and it was coming in heavy. You could hear many people start to say, "Well, that's it, it's coming in this direction." "It's going to rain so much. That sounds like a storm." All the sudden, I heard one of the pastors, Pastor Abraham saying, "No, it is not coming!" He continued, "Do you believe it? It cannot rain. I believe God can make it go away." I joined him, and told him I believed it, and we started praying while we worked. Someone said, "Look, it's coming," but I decided not to look and continued working and praying.
The rain reached us with a clap of thunder, and everyone went quickly to the ladder looking for cover downstairs. For a moment I felt tempted to do the same, but then I saw Pastor Abraham. He stood firm and said, "This is just going to pass through quickly." Not a minute later, the rain stopped and the sun came back out. The two of us looked around the second floor and realized we were the only people left on the roof.
This is what Pastor Abraham told me when the rain stopped: "It is easy to say I have faith or to tell others that they need to have faith. But when the moment comes, so many times we forget to put our faith into action. We need to believe that God is our Father, and he hears us and knows what we need. If we are following His will and we desire to serve Him, we need to believe that He is the God that will answer our prayer."
There is not much more to be said, so I'll just say this. I pray for you to be encouraged to live a faith that leads to action. Whether in big or small things, in the events of your daily lives, even when you think you have the outcome figured out, believe that our heavenly Father is powerful and is always with us; he loves, he listens, and he acts.
LEARN MORE | Mission Trips to Belize
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