Missing Belize

This morning it's really hurting.  I'm missing the team that went to Belize.  I'm missing the people that lived there.  I'm missing the community that we made for a week.  Withdrawal might be a little dramatic, but it seems like the best word to describe what I'm feeling.  When community is strong and the Lord is at work and good things are happening right in my face, it stings a little when it is over.  Not that those things are not present here, but it was different.

For six days, I left my children and my husband and went with Patty and Ben and 11 teenagers to Belize.  This trip has been working in my heart for a few years now, and soon after Fern was born, I talked to Ben (youth leader) and we got the ball rolling.  Short term trips to third world countries are my jam.  There is so much goodness that happens there.  

We went to play with kids, fix a roof, do some painting, and run a vacation Bible school.  That's what we would say before the trip if someone asked us, "so what are yall doing down there?"  Now that the trip is over, the answer to that question is different.  Instead of a list of things that we did, I would sit down and try and formulate an explanation of what happened there.  If I had to sum it up in two words, then I would choose two words: encouragement and community.  If I had to sum it up in one word, then I would chose love.  Love happened down there.  

There are so many things that love did down there.  Out of ten trips like this, I can say that this one was the best.  I can firmly say that I experienced God down there, and when that happens nothing stays the same.  So much is different.  As I transition back to my normal life, I'll be talking about the changes here.  I've got to.  It's all I want to talk about now.