Belize Children's Home

My family had the Leblanc family over on New Year's eve this past weekend. At one point we were talking about a past missions trip that my dad and I took to Belize, along with Crystal Leblanc's experiences during her various times there. I wanted to record a few memories and comments on my blog about this.

My dad and I were involved with a DTS (Discipleship Training School) course at LGT when we first moved to London and joined LGT. That would be back in 1999, I think. The culmination of that course was a two week missions trip to the YWAM base in Belize in March of that year.

I've had the idea that I was supposed to be a missionary since I was a young lad. I went with the intention of seeing what the missionaries did there on a daily basis, to see if I could do something like that day and and day out for years at a time. In that respect, I found it to be an attractive experience, something that I wouldn't mind doing so long as I had my own source of income. (I'm rather wary of trying to be a missionary if I have to depend on support from a home church, which is something that I may blog about some other time.)

On that trip, I brought along a small walkman and tiny speakers so that I could learn a couple of songs that I had recently purchased as sound tracks. Since no one in our group could play an instrument, I inadvertantly ended up doing almost all of the music and worship ministry by myself. We visited a juvenile detention centre and a men's prison and I did solos in each place, which was pretty powerful. One of the songs was "What If I Stumble" by DC Talk, which I found fitting to both me and the audiences.

We also visited a children's home that took care of a large group of orphans and abandoned children. The main purpose was to complete various kinds of contruction work for the small home that they all lived in. I didn't do much except take several children to the park to play with them for the afternoon but it was fun. One of the men in our group became instantly devoted to one little girl and strongly desired to help her in any way that he could. Upon our return back to London we organized financial aid for this children's home through our church and our church sent another short-term missions team back next year. This web site was eventually set up as well.

Somewhere along the way, Crystal Leblanc volunteered and she went down by herself for several months to help out in the children's home. She tells a little bit about her experience here. It's the letter on the right side of that web page. She ended up making a couple of return trips as well. I have to say, that's something that I really admire. To invest yourself so passionately in God's ministry and in the lives of children, it's certainly inspiring to me.