Guillermo (Billy - top left) spent 10 days in Belize and really saw God move in incredible and unexpected ways. "I think the coolest thing I learned in Belize is that God is interested in every single part of our lives. Pastor Ron Braaten (PR) and his wife Linda, run the Oasis Ministry full-time. Oasis really shows love in an incredibly holistic way that reflects the overwhelming love the Lord has for all His children.
Oasis has a mobile library ministry that allows children to borrow from a trailer full of books they regularly bring to local schools to encourage reading. They also find people to sponsor Belizean children's education. In Belize, there is no free public education. So families must pay for all levels of their children’s schooling. Most families can afford the relatively inexpensive primary school tuition, but the large majority cannot attend secondary school or pursue higher education because it simply costs too much for them.
Apart from Oasis, PR founded a church for the local Belizeans that provides a lot for the people's spiritual and social needs. The church is like a little community spread throughout the nearby towns. PR and his workers use two school buses to pick up the entire church body before every function, which was just remarkably cool the first time I saw it in action. God moved powerfully through their Monday night worship services, where there are no live musicians and the people literally sing their hearts out with recordings off an iPod! Despite this major difference in the set-up of their service, it was awesome to see the Spirit invade our space and help to renew and restore all of his broken children, both Belizean and American.
I really cannot say enough about how impactful this mission was to my life and my faith. I learned an incredible amount about myself and about God’s heart for all of humankind around the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment