FPC Youth in Belize: Never Been Sweatier

FPC Senior High Youth Mission Trip

On May 29, 2010 the Senior High Youth Group from Farragut Presbyterian Church, accompanied by four adult advisers, will travel to Belize with a group from New Providence Presbyterian Church. We will return on June 5.

While we are there, we will stay at the Jaguar Creek Mission and Conference Center. Jaguar Creek Ministries is a project of PathLight International a Christian non-profit organization that was founded to serve children at risk.

Their goal is to provide services and projects that will benefit children especially in the area of education. They not only build classrooms, but also enable volunteers and student teachers to work side by side with the local village teachers. Their high school scholarships are giving many children an opportunity to attend high school that, without help, they would never be able to do.

The facility, located on 700 acres of rainforest, is a special place that beautifully reflects God’s incredible creativity. Volunteers enjoy not only an opportunity to do good works, but also a time of spiritual growth and renewal. Visit their website pathlight.org/jaguarcreek to see pictures and get more information.

We hope to update this blog frequently while we are in Belize so you can experience our trip with us.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Never Been Sweatier

The Days of our trip are sadly winding down. With one more day of work and a fun filled day of cave tubing, we are running short on time. In all seriousness, though, we are actually ahead of schedule and only have to a half day tomorrow. This should hopefully give us extra time to play with school children or just relax. Since tomorrow will be the last day we visit the school, we will be handing out the various toys that Anda and everybody else sent.This morning we were unfortunately not awoken by howler monkeys. When we did wake up, however, we headed to the lodge for an GENUINE BELIZEAN RIVER coffee cake and oatmeal. While eating, we were met with some very sentimental cards that made us all want our mommies. After enjoying our refreshing breakfast, we headed on out to the work site. Thankfully, the predictions of it being ten degrees hotter were not true. We started off by mixing gargantuan amounts of cement.We divised a new system of carrying the cement by loading it into Tono's trailer. Then carried buckets through the treacherous marsh which was a devestatingly horrible idea of Mark's. For a couple gruesome hours, we were rotating bucket brigades. This effectively prevented death as far as we know. Around noon, we encountered another Belizean delicousy for lunch. We ate meatballs and rice and that crazy awesome sauce stuff. Post-luncheon some of the boys, including ourselves (Graham and Deacon), played a super intense game of BBall ( basketball for you old geezers) with the local children. Of course myself ( Deacon Manning) won in the game of basketball. Then we finished up pouring concrete into holes and placed poles in them. Graham was working so intensley that several adults had to hold him back from going back out to work. However, Graham used his super awesome agility and speed to evade all of the adults and continued to work. Thankfully, with Graham working, we were able to finish pouring and setting all of the concrete today. Thank God we were done for the day and able to retreat to our respective vans. We came back and took a relaxing dip in the creek. After our dip in the creek we enjoyed a fantastic dinner consisting of Belizean hamburger helper but exponentially better. Meanwhile, during dinner, a steamy romance brewed. We also celebrated Caroline's (one of the adults from New Providence) 60th birthday. The cake was just as good as Kaylor's cake or even maybe better. Then Graham and I went to the office to blog and it just so happens I am writing this sentence at this very moment. And this one as well. But we are afraid to say that we must stop blogging so we may go participate in our devotional meeting. We thank you and really enjoy all of the comments you have posted and are awaiting to read more.
Thanks, I love you mom and dad (and Lily)---------Deacon manning
Thanks, i love you mom and dad ( and Rover) more than Deacon does---Grahanimal Wright

5 comments:

NancyJune 2, 2010 at 10:21 PM
You guys have me laughing out loud - so glad you are enjoying it! Prayers will keep coming!
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MelodyJune 2, 2010 at 10:32 PM
Way to leave us hanging guys! Steamy romance?????? We miss you all and hope you are taking your malaria pills......
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Chris WrightJune 3, 2010 at 7:17 AM
OK, now we know who should be writing together on a school newspaper! That will be great to get to know the children at the school more Thursday. I hope everyone is working, and as hard as Kevin! Christoper got home safely from Pennsylvania, he had to stay longer because he hurt his back lifting Natalie in the surf (is better) and had to get the car steering checked out. We love you Graham, more than Rover does. Love to all, Mom
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MarkJune 3, 2010 at 8:04 AM
You all are so awesome! While the time went by fast for you guys, I think it is safe to say that your families back here in Knoxville have missed you all very much and are looking forward to your return. I pray the couple of days you have left there are productive and fun, and I'm sure they will be rememberable.
Mark
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AnonymousJune 3, 2010 at 10:52 AM
Oh, how I love to read these blogs!!!

After reading Samantha's blog, David and I were a bit concerned about Deacon due to his "love" of arachnids. Maybe there are enough other people around to "take care" of any spiders Deacon encounters!

Also enjoyed reading Deacon and Graham's blog (I'm with Melody, though, I want to know more about the steamy romance at dinner!) Sounds like you all are really working hard but also enjoying your time off - a perfect mission trip! Be safe the next couple of days and know that we continue to pray for you daily. We can't wait to see you all, but especially Mer and Deac - the house is unusually quiet! Love to all, Catherine
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