Read About The Belize Mission Teams

WE'RE BACK HOME!

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All of the mission team members have arrived safely back in Cincinnati now. Jesus spoke to us throughout the entire mission and it's incredible how God has filled our hearts as we have emptied ourselves during this last week or so. We all feel very blessed to have heard from Him in different ways.

Although we have mixed feelings about leaving Belize, many of us are planning to come back next year. Until then, we say "adios amigos"!

Over the last several years, River Hills has developed and nurtured a deep relationship with the people of Belize. February 18-25, 2010, marks our third mission trip to this Central American country. Thank you for your continued interest and prayer for our 42 people in five mission teams. Each team has its own blog area and we hope you'll take a look at our most recent journal entries and post comments below . . .

Village Medical Team

The trip to our last village on Tuesday was almost as adventurous as our day at the Village of Chunox (pronounced Chinush), population of about 1,000. The ride there was approximately 1.25 hours on long bumpy roads and entailed crossing 2 rivers by “hand cranked” ferries. Yes----we gave the workers a rest and hand cranked ourselves to the other side!

One of the first things we did when we arrived was to do a home visit for the Santoya family. They have five children, three of whom have a debilitating disease that affects their eyesight and motor skills. By about age 1 these children start to lose their eyesight and their arms and legs begin to contract, until eventually they are confined to a chair or bed. The oldest, Clary, Aroni and Mari (ages 15, 12 and 9), respectively) are all affected. The two youngest, Jenny and Melli do not have the disease. The father is not at home very much as he works at San Pedro Island to send money back home. Their mother, Melva, is a woman to be admired, as well as prayed for. She works tirelessly to take care of her 5 children, basically on her own.

The team does what it can to take care of this families ‘physical needs as much as possible, but most of all we continually pray for them and lift them up to God and come back each year to love them, as God loves us.

While the story of the Santoya family is much more difficult than most others’ many of the people in Belize or other countries with similar situations don’t have a lot of the basic things that we take for granted. They don’t have some of the basic food and shelter needs met or the availability of medical care that we do. We served over 230 people in this village today, bringing our total patients to about 1,000 over the four days that we had the medical clinic open.
Later, as we reflected about our trip , it is easy to see that even though there was lots of hard work our week here was very rewarding and provided a way for us to give back to others’ some of things that God has blessed us with.

This team is led by Julie Hall and includes Anita Anderson, Amy Black, Greg Brokamp, Nancy Brokamp, Lana Caney, Beth Frost, Carol Grimm, Elly Grimm, Tom Grimm, Alex Leary, Doug Moore, Ann Morency, Karen Mullins, Will Mullins, Susan Phillips, Joe Rosen, Kathy Rosen, Irene Tackett and Jo Ann Videtto.

San Pedro Outreach

The San Pedro Team finished the plumbing, painting, windows and doors on the new house and dedicated the home to the Mutul family, who will now take residence there. It was great to see their thrilled faces as the toilet flushed in their new bathroom.

In the village school, our team conducted MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel training in the computer lab they setup. Now all of the children have been through the lab and learned some Windows basics. Soon the local telecommunications provider will provide free Internet access to the computer lab and these kids will experience a whole new online world. How big is that!

This wraps up another great mission in San Pedro, and although it’s hard to say goodbye, we have strengthened many friendships with the people of our adopted village . . . and we’re already talking about our return next year.

This team returns each year to the village of San Pedro. With a deep love for the people there, the team strives to help improve village life anyway they can. They build houses, plant gardens, set up computer labs, and help locals learn business and finance practices.

This team is led by David Ahuja and includes Amanda Cook, Dan Cook, Danny Dane, Jim Down, Janet Down, Dawn Ficorilli, Jan Huitger, Larry Huitger, Joni Oakley and Greg Sargent.

Dental Team

On their final day in Orange Walk, there were 5 people on the Dental Team again and they saw 37 patients. This brings the grand total to 140 dental patients for the entire mission – that’s a lot of teeth and happy smiles!

Dr. Bob was able to remove a granuloma that prevented a woman from wearing her partial. The team was also able to restore a teenage boy’s two front teeth and they did an extraction on Lupita, a local Belizean woman who has been very instrumental in helping our Dental Team in Orange Walk. Thank you Lupita!

When the day was done, the team packed up their instruments and left their trailer for another year. Muy bueno Dental Team!

Dental care is not readily available in Belize and some patients have been waiting years to see a dentist. With two dentists, one hygienist, and one assistant, this team is kept busy from morning until evening, and they still don’t get to see everyone who needs treatment. “We are hugely blessed that we can help so many,” says Nancy Cheatham, “but heartbroken that we can’t treat everyone. Our hope is that as we visit each year, there will be fewer emergency cases.” This team is led by Nancy Cheatham and includes Bob Bertsch, Chris Leary and Christine Miller.

Screen Team

On Monday, the Screen Team visited the Village of San Jose, the largest village we have visited yet at just under 2000 people. They screened a record number of windows, 150 on 38 houses. The team was led around by a local who was very organized and had their entire route planned out for the day—very efficiently!
The team has also been taking pictures of the children in the village and printing them out in their van so they can keep them. Many times, this is the only picture that the family has of their children. They are so excited to get them! The team has taken and handed out about 50 pictures through mid day on Monday.

On Tuesday, in the Village of Chonux (pronounced Chinush), they were still working hard on screening the homes of the villagers, completing 83 windows on 19 houses. A local villager, named Reggi who accompanied the team gave them a history lesson for South and Central America. He was a teacher, principal and beekeeper, although not necessarily at the same time.

One of their lessons was the history of how the word “gringo” came to be. According to Reggi, it refers to the American troops who wore green uniforms and were taunted with cries of “Green go!” According to another who researched this term, their research says that most sites viewed this idea with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Another site with a question-and-answer column called The Word Detective, offers a more compelling explanation of "gringo" and its origin. The detective says, "The most likely source of 'gringo' is the Spanish word 'gringo' itself, which means 'foreigner' or 'unintelligible gibberish.' The root of 'gringo,' in turn, is thought to have been 'griego,' Spanish for 'Greek,' often applied as slang to any foreigner."

If nothing else, the origin of this word clearly has some controversy.

This team led by Mike Hall, this team includes Bill Cheatham, Todd Morency, Jerry Phillips and Brian Stover.

Administration/Tech Team

The Administration/Tech Team logged over 300 miles again delivering team members and more patients to Orange Walk Hospital for additional care.

Like every night, the work wasn’t done when we returned to Tony’s. There were more arrangements, logistics and of course, writing this blog!

The Administration/Tech Team team handles all the logistics and arrangements for the trip including planning itineraries, hotels, meals and transportation. This team will also document the mission trip by shooting still photos and video, while delivering drinks and supplies to the other teams. Finally, the Admin/Tech Team will be maintaining this blog so people back home can follow our activities and be updated on prayer needs.

This team is led by Linda Root and includes Tim Root and Amy Black.