In early March I headed off to the Cayo district of Belize with 8 other amazing human beings to support the Dewbury and Neufeld families in their mission. Annie and Kent Neufeld are friends of mine from Edmonton. This past year they made the decision to move to Belize and be part of the work that the Dewbury family has been up to. So of course I jumped at the chance to see first hand what God is doing in Belize. But I also wanted to the opportunity to lend my service to this mission and glean experience from the Dewbury’s on how I can create a similar ministry with the Safe Families movement here in Edmonton. The mission they have developed and the amazing things God has done through them is an amazing story that I will let them share with you…but for today here is what me and my team from Central Baptist Church got up to in our 12 day trip.

If you want to jump to the slideshow click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wja7PzoQqgE

There are so many highlights to share with you from this mission trip and so many ways that God grew me personally (and it such short time) that it’s hard to narrow down just a few to share…but I’m going to try. I was not a huge part of the bakery expansion, I’m sure most of you are not surprised to hear that I am not handy in the least and was of very little help in that area. But, at the same time that many were building the bakery and relationships with Belizean tradesmen, another group of us were ministering to women and families in the community. Even in saying that I feel a bit self-conscience because “ministering to people in Belize” doesn’t sound as tangibly productive as “I built a bakery.” But the work here was heavy, messy and so incredibly Spiritually fulfilling! Here are just two of my favourite experiences from Belize.

The first was while we were serving one of the foster families from the Missionaries foster family network. Bethany and her husband were foster parents with two young biological children. Recently one the infants that was placed in their care passed away. The details surrounding this baby boy’s death and the condition of his teenage mother are very hard to hear, but God chose to break my heart even more for Bethany who was suffering from the trauma of the event. We were supposed to go over to Bethany’s home and help paint the upper part of her home where their foster children stay. It needed to be cleaned out and Bethany had a sense that if the space could look new, then she would be able to go upstairs without reliving the trauma. In five months she had only gone upstairs a few times and her boys were afraid of going up where “they could sometimes hear the baby cry”. The work started joyfully in the morning but during lunch break, when we heard her story and she graciously allowed us to pray over her, the real stuff started to happen. She told us about her guilt over not doing more, about her anger with God for “bringing that little boy to her only die” and about her fear of fostering more children in the future. I had an overwhelming sense that God wanted to free her from the pain she was feeling and that He wanted her to know that He walked with her during every second of that event. We prayed these specific things for her and prayed for the children that were still coming. We prayed for the release of guilt and the burden of trauma. Yes, I cried and was a hot mess the entire time. I don’t often feel truly empowered by the Spirit when I pray, but I did that day.

When we went back upstairs after praying for her, we prayed over the walls of the room and claimed that space back for Christ. We sang worship songs and laughed as Bethany’s young son rubbed paint on our faces. The room filled with light, it became lighter and brighter in so many ways. The act of physically covering the walls mimicked what we were doing spiritually in such a perfect way. I was left stunned by how much joy I experienced by being part of redeeming that space but also burdened by the amount of grief and emotional stress foster parents in Belize go through with every case. Yes, the same can be said for fostering parents in North America but child protection services in Belize are so much more overwhelmed due to the shockingly small amount of resources they have. Consequently, children are often only apprehended when extraordinarily sever cases of abuse and neglect are present.

The second experience that I want to share is from the opportunity I had to speak at a little Creole church in the nearby village. The first thing that stood out to me about this church was the warmth we all felt. We were greeted by nearly everyone, they shook our hands they hugged us, they sat beside us like we had always been a part of their congregation. I had been so nervous about speaking in front of this group of women because I thought I would be perceived as an outsider who didn’t understand their culture or had not earned the right to share with them…and yet the minute I got there I felt very at home. I’m sure this was not just their hospitality but the work of the Holy Spirit, who I believe guided my every word that evening.

I spoke from the book of Ruth and shared my belief that this Scripture is significant for its focus on the relationship between women. I shared that while we see Boaz as the guardian redeemer, ultimately God used the commitment these women had to each other to reconcile them back to their community. I asked, “where would Naomi have been if Ruth had not cared for her in such a radical way, and if God shows us this example in His word then how is He calling us to care for our sisters?” I connected this to some serious mental health challenges that I had learned so many of them were experiencing, teaching that social and emotional isolation was a huge component of these struggles. I finished my teaching by inviting them all to participate in a prayer activity. I had the women all write on themselves with washable markers the words they say to themselves, then I invited them to pray for one another, wash these lies off of each other, and replace them with words of love and affirmation. There were a few things that shocked me here. First was that almost every woman I saw had written “bad mom” on herself. Turns out “Mom-guilt” is a universal experience.

 

Most of the Belizean mothers I encountered had become pregnant as a very young teenager and carried the heavy weight of being unable to provide for their children but what’s more, is that they all seemed desperate to break the cycle. Written also on their arms were words like “ugly”, “stupid” and “useless,” so while they wanted better, their indescribably lack of self-worth seems to keep them in abusive and destructive relationship patterns. I learned this while praying with these women and hearing their stories. Later, I realized how similar this story is to the women I have ministered to in Edmonton. I feel that this one of the main lessons that God has for me. If I can share this message of fellowship and Christ like compassion for one-another, with women in Belize, in a church I have never been and a culture I am unfamiliar with, why should I not be able to share it with and person in Edmonton? I came away feeling so much more equipped to minister to women and families in crisis, here in Edmonton.

 

I didn’t know at the time how radical the vulnerability displayed by the women that evening was until I later debriefed with Alicia Dewbury. She said how uncommon it was to see Belizean women be vulnerable with one another and to pray openly. The fact that almost every woman participated, allowed me and my other team members to lay our hands on them and pray was counter cultural. So imagine everyone’s surprise when at the end of the night as the Pastor prayed us out, women began approaching the pulpit, sharing what Jesus was telling them about His love for them. At least three women professed their belief that they were first and foremost daughters of God and that they desired to help other women in their community believe this. Praise the Lord for the ways he moved in that little church!

Throughout the trip I made a point to spend as much time as possible with the women who worked in the Village Cooperative Bakery. I wanted to know them, hear their stories, gain their trust and discover ways that I could truly make a difference in their lives. When we arrived, I felt like the walls were sky high! The initially referred to me as “Mam”) which is cringy even when North Americans call me that.) A week in I was being called “Miss Brittany.” But the day after I spoke in their church, a beautiful young woman named Sharifa approached me and said “Brittany, I wanted you to pray for me last night, but I was too shy to ask. Will you pray for me before you leave?” What a privilege it was to be invited into this woman’s life and trusted in this way. It felt so obvious to me as Sharifa was sharing her story that God was not done with me in Belize. that these few weeks had just been building blocks for my ministry with the Belizean women and with Safe Families in Edmonton.

By the time we left Belize, substantial work had been done on the bakery extension. Some of my team members were able to purchase some much-needed appliances for both missionary families. We delivered some much-needed supplies to local missionaries. We hosted a Foster family retreat weekend where we were able offer practical seminars to the families as well as Spiritual rest. We got to witness Kent and Annie receive three foster children from a very hard place and help them prepare their home for them. And along with some many other amazing things that God blessed us with, we were able to get to know Kent and Annie Neufeld and the Dewbury family better. I think I speak for everyone on my team when I say we fell in love with Ben and Alicia’s seven children. Ultimately, I feel like how all missionaries tell me they feel…like God has poured so much more into me through this experience than I put into others. I feel like He blew open the parts of my heart that were growing for orphans and families in crisis and He provided me some incredible mentors in Alicia and Ben, for which my work with Safe Families will certainly benefit.

Thank you again for loving and supporting me through this. If you want to hear more about my ministry or follow along with what Annie and Kent Neufeld are up to, or the Dewbury Family, let me know and I will hook you up.

You can see more photos and videos of the trip here: