Mission Highlights: Belize
By Jason Pfingsten, Founder of Thirst Missions
A sugarcane farmer with a sixth grade education lives near the Mexican border with his wife and six kids in a tiny house made of sticks and dirt and tin. They use an outhouse and cook simple meals over a fire.
A teacher earning $6,000 annually works 11 months per year with few resources and too many students in a rundown school on the edge of a small town in Western Belize.
A concrete mason bikes to church and back home 8 times per week, a 20 mile round trip. He travels through the mountains south of Belmopan, sleeping in a hammock in a back room of that tiny church when it’s raining too hard or is too dark to make it back home safely.
A security guard who commutes four hours a day, 6 days a week, to earn $3/hour during his 12-hour shift, who works many overnights so he can be at church in the evenings.
A Day in the Life of a Belizean Pastor
Who are these people? Belizean Pastors. People who love the Lord, who receive little training or support, virtually volunteer their time, and give their lives to the church. People who lead three services a week, lead evening activities, perform weddings and funerals, visit the sick in the hospital, and visit people in their homes. They are Godly men who truly give their lives for Jesus Christ, setting an example of service and selflessness.
Partner and Encourage
Our Belize mission teams partner with these pastors and dozens more like them. They are pastors who need encouragement and training. They need a break, a laugh, a friend, a word of thanks, and resources.
When teams serve in Belize and minister alongside the church and pastor they also minister to the pastor. We encourage teams to do this on an ongoing basis once the team returns to the US.
More than once we’ve had a pastor tell us he was days away from quitting before the mission team arrived. The loneliness, long hours, stress, thanklessness, and lack of support had worn him down. When the mission team came the partnership breathed new life and passion into him and he stayed the course, with renewed passion, effectiveness and support.
On behalf of the many pastors in Belize who don’t yet have 2018 teams we invite you to come, serve, and encourage these incredible people who minister in the most challenging of circumstances without earthly rewards.
Jason Pfingsten is the founder and CEO of Thirst Missions. He has loved Belize ever since going there 25 years ago on a short-term mission trip in college.
