Made it to Belize!

It really was beautiful

I am SO sorry I have not been able to post sooner!  We thought it would be easier to do video blogs for the past couple days, and well then the video would not load and then you could not hear it well...anyway so that just did not end up working well.  But I hope that all yall were able to see on facebook that we arrived safe and sound here in Belize this past Sunday night.

one of the cities we went through

Mexico was truly an experience!  As we left the border on Friday we were very much going into a situation where we were not going to know anything.  We woke up at 7am to get ready and get all of our car stuff situated, but it turned out we had to wait until noon to actually be able to leave because our paperwork had still not been processed.  As we were pulling out, let me tell you, driving a 15 passenger van while towing a car is a very different feeling and a lot of pressure!  It took a couple hours to go through the process of crossing over.  We had to get our vehicles checked, get insurance, check ourselves through, get our cars sprayed, and so much more!  It was a time where we almost laughed the entire time because of the fact that we do not speak Spanish, we were almost completely unable to communicate with anyone.  For example there was this one guy who was saying to us "Teeps? Teeps?"  We responded by saying we were so sorry that we did not know what he was saying.  I guess it turns out he wanted a tip from us! haha  So all that to say we believe that our lack was really able to help us in this part of the trip.

This is what i looked at for 48 hours:)!

bridge over some river

It was crazy after we reached the border, completely going through without any problems (all three of the people in our caravan), we stopped to exchange some money and the guys we were with and a little lunch.  Then we a man who is part of the cartel (which for those of you who dont know...they are the bad people who want to rob you).  And he offered to take us through if we paid him.  So our fearless leader Marconni decided that we should do that for the next 60 miles of the journey, where it is the most dangerous.  And let me tell you, I know it is not like this all the time, but the trip was literally like cutting butter! The Lord truly heard the fighting prayers for our safety going through because it was not even scary at any point!!!!

huge statue with man trying to carry oranges?

As we got past that first 60 miles we were pretty in the clear.  Now the details from here are a little bit more difficult because basically I was the only one who could drive, and we did some crazy hours on that road.  We drove from 12 that afternoon straight, until 11pm that night.  We had stopped at a hotel, but instead of staying in the hotel, we totally saved our money and slept in our cars! haha  The funniest part was that there was a dance party going on, on the opposite end of the compound.  We tried to get the most sleep we could and then woke up 3 hours later at 2am to begin driving again.  So in all reality I really think it was 2 hours of sleep! WHAT!  Then we were on the road again where we would drive, and drive and drive! We made some stops here and there for the bathroom, or to fill up on gas but we then literally drove until 10:30pm....now for those of you who are want to know how long that is...it is pretty much driving for more than 20 hours!!!!!!  I no longer will ever thing a trip to the ATL is long!!!!!

Jesus looking out over Mexico

We then found a gas station, we slept again in our car for another 3 hours and then woke up to finish the rest of the journey.  And of course there are always your little fun adventures here and there but the two that stand out the most was when we pulled over on the side of the road for a minute and our vehicles literally sunk into the soft tar.  We went to move our cars and could not.  We finally were able to get our car out but because the bus was so heavy, it was not budging.  So we stood on the side of the road in Mexico trying to wave down trucks to stop and pull us out.  Now let me tell you...it took about 15 trucks till a little chicken truck finally stopped offering up their services.  We got out! Praise the Lord.  And then the only thing that was tricky the entire trip was one time the military people stopped us at a checkpoint and started talking to us asking for a flashlight (I guess they like those).  We said we did not have anything in the little we could get across to them, but as this man was talking to us...there was a guy in our back car trying to open the door to see if there was anything he wanted.  Now here is the punch line....the only little bag he could get to was a bag with make up...haha jokes on you as we pull away!!!!

bus wheel stuck in the earth!

We finally arrived in the city next to the border of Belize later that night and was able to get a hotel room and get a good night rest and a shower!  We woke up early the next day again (6am) and started the process of waiting at the border to cross over into Belize.  This was once again a all day process where we had to wait for our paperwork at many different checkpoints.  Upon our last stop of giving a man 1000 bucks for bringing our car into the country we were home free!!!  Thank you Lord for your protection and making the way!

they are obsessed with white bugs in Mexico (even though i know this one is dirty)

we literally could not take any more to the point of delusion!

Our Fearless Leaders!!!!!

Later that night we arrived at Pastor Henrys house (a pastor I have known for a long time here near Belize City) and he welcomed us in with so much love!  This is where we still have been staying as we are trying to get some details taken care of with our car, my tooth (have to go to the dentist today), etc.

But since being here it has been great!  We have been able to talk to a couple pastors and leaders about the conference in March as well as Count Me In and they were very receptive to both!  We are figuring out details that might work for Count Me In, as well as we had an opportunity to meet with the Pastor who is "covering us" for the conference.  We are really excited to start meeting with more people and just be used in whatever way the Lord says!

Oh we also got our windows tinted the other day and our bumper but back on the car:)

I am so thankful that the Lord is at work in what is happening but also my heart.  It is crazy to literally feel like sometimes you are having open heart surgery in the middle of walking through life.  But it is good, it is really good!

So I gots to go get in the shower right now so we can meet Marconni to see about getting our air conditioning fixed in the car.  Check this out...so our ac broke and there are only 2 windows that role down in the car!  Now for those of you who have been to Belize before, you understand but lets just say it is like sitting in a hot box on wheels.  Please pray the Lord supernaturally fixes the ac/or the windows and it is for free!!! haha

Love you all lots lots and miss you so much!!!!!!