My Belize Story

By Robert Schmoele, New Covenant Academy

If you were to ask just about anyone in the United States what they knew about Belize, the most common answer would be the beaches. Before going to Belize I was exactly the same. I knew that Belize had beautiful beaches and a multitude of other tourist attractions, but after going to Belize I can see that it is so much more.  When someone asks me about Belize now, the things that come to mind are the open and inviting people, the absolute need for the gospel, and the powerful ways that God is working.

Dirt Streets in Yo Creek

One of the first things that our team did when we arrived in Yo Creek, the small village where we were staying, was to split off and just walk the streets meeting people. When we first started we were all way out of our comfort zones because here in the US that’s just not something you do. You don’t start conversations with people you don’t know and you especially don’t ask them about their lives. But as we met people in this little village in Belize, we learned that meeting strangers is exactly what they do. I can’t really describe how amazing it was to hear people’s life stories after knowing them for less than five minutes. What stuck out to me the most throughout the entire morning of meeting people was that, of the fifteen or so people we talked to, all of them had something they wanted us to pray for and all of them wanted us to pray for them.

God’s Greater Plans

The way that the people of Yo Creek desired our prayer was very similar to the way they desired the Gospel. The main focus of our team while we were in Belize was a Vacation Bible School. We expected to work our way up to about 80 kids by the last day, but God had much greater plans. We had over 120 kids on the very first day and we just kept getting more throughout the week. Our early experiences with VBS were repeated throughout the week—God always did more than we expected. Whether it was 50 to 60 kids showing up in the middle of the afternoon to hang out with us or the one-on-one time we spent tutoring, God was always working and changing lives.

Frankie

I saw firsthand the powerful ways that God is working. Throughout the week a teen named Frankie kept showing up to hang out with us. Frankie would listen to the sermons from outside the church but never actually step into the building. The last night we were there, my friend Ian came over to me and told me that we should go talk to Frankie about Jesus, because he wasn’t sure if Frankie was saved.

When he asked me I suddenly got extremely nervous so, like any teenage boy, I decided that it was a good idea. We went over to Frankie, and even though his English was not very good, we were able to (with a little help from a translator) lead him to the Lord. After we walked him through salvation Ian went to grab one of the Spanish Bibles we had brought while I walked Frankie through the first steps of living a Christian life.

As excited as I was, I was also a little concerned that he had only done this to make his “American friends” happy, but as we were talking he got very serious and looked into my eyes. He told me that “Everything is going to stop. The drugs, the alcohol, the stealing. It is all going to stop now.” When he said that I realized that this was a real change in his life and I was awestruck that God had allowed me to be a part of it.

I could go on and on and on about all the ways that I saw God move over our trip, but I hope that what I’ve mentioned here gives a good idea of how God is working.  I would ask that anyone reading this joins me in praying about Belize, and if you are able I definitely recommend going there. It really is a truly life-changing experience.

Robert Schmoele just graduated from New Covenant Academy in Springfield, Missouri. He served with Thirst Missions in March 2016.