July 28, 2017: Today we are back on MOVE campus. Everywhere I look says WORK. More work than a body can process. The Dodge has a blown rear tire. The Admiral needs insurance and license renewed, but not before a repair job for the backup-lights and brakes. My watermelon plants have disappeared, and the spinach vine is clinging to life, some of which is detrimental to its own existence. My yard is a loud green snarl that’s downright scary, although underneath the bluster is just a cry for a little TLC. Our resident iguana that lives in the driveway culvert, however, seems to be enjoying the thicker levels of nature that accrued in our absence.

I find it an excellent metaphor for our ferocious, sin-infested jungle of a world. The harvest is passing and everywhere I look I see untended fields and that despicable dragon lording over them with a smug smile of satisfaction for our negligence. The harvest is passing, precious fruit is lost daily.

The large Chinese population here in Belize is virtually untouched with the gospel. The Mennonite communities may have their religion, but many are unhappy and unsatisfied and long for the joy and hope that only comes with the pure, unadulterated truth. According to our district pastor, 40% of male youth in Belize are in prison.

I have this burning sensation slowly gaining ground in my soul. Oh Lord, teach us to love people as you. May this accumulating sense of urgency translate into ceaseless action in the field of duty. May we stop waiting for opportunities to press themselves upon us, and learn to make them appear, and see them everywhere.

Tonight at supper in the cafeteria, Julliette was all that Keila, Keren and the rest of the girls could talk about as they recounted one conversation after another that they each have had with her over the last four days.  Juliette is a globetrotter from France, hitch-hiking her way through Belize. Somehow she met Keila somewhere on the road between here and Chetumal, they got to talking, and Keila brought her here where she stayed four days and absolutely devoured everything Biblical and spiritual. She wanted to know everything about everything: God, the Bible, the Sabbath, healthful cooking, and gardening.

In her own words, “I was tired of living the ‘normal’ life of go to school, work all week, dress up nice and go out to party with friends on the weekend and then do it all over again. It felt so pointless.” So she has been traveling, trying to find the meaning of life. Praise God, it seems like she found it here! She called her mom back in France: “Mom, I want to be a missionary!” she announced. Later she told Keila she wants to come back here and take the missionary training course.

How many more are there out there like Juliette, disgusted with the emptiness of the world, looking for something worthy of investing their short life in? Must we wait for them to show up on our door and beg to know the truth? Lord, please teach me to be a real missionary.

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Kody & Lyli Kostenko