He Is Worthy (Autobiography pt. 2)

Chapter One

Cast upon the Lord!

I was blessed at the peace of God that we had and the assurance of God's will, for this wasn't the first time to make this journey. It is 533 miles from San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico to Belmopan, Belize. The first part of the trip would be in the highlands of Chiapas, some of the most precarious mountain roads you can imagine. Then you come into the lowlands of Tabasco and Campeche; with long distances between towns and stretches of the jungle that almost form a canopy across the highway. It is not unusual to see iguanas or huge snakes slithering across the road.

The dodge van was a good transport for our family of seven children. Our youngest was Abigail who was ten months old. Of course we had our dog, named Oso (bear), and a very frightened cat. We were pulling a single axle trailer that was loaded with our few household goods and personal belongings. The roads of Chiapas had taken its toll on our tires; they were as smooth as your forehead. Our 1971 van had 16.5 inch tires that could not be purchased in the country of Mexico. Our Lord had made it clear to us that we were to make this move to the house we had rented a few weeks before In Belmopan, Belize. I knew when we launched out we would have difficulties, but I also knew our Lord would be with us. We had enough money for gas but that was about all.

It may seem strange to you that a man would put his family in such a position but after already being put in very similar situations for four and a half years, it was no longer considered a dangerous position, as we had learned the center of God's will is the safest place anybody can put his family. He had taught us not to look at our circumstances but look unto Jesus, our Savior. We had left Oregon for the mission field in April of 1972 and had gone through some very challenging times, which you can read about in our first book, Great Things He Has Done.

This episode takes place in October of 1976. Our Family is being led into a new place of service, that will bring us a little further into our life's journey.

We saw a huge snake cross the road and it was turning dark. Then it happened; a flat on the trailer. Oh, well, we had a spare for the trailer, but we didn't have a spare for the van. I wasn't in much of a hurry to get out there in the dark after seeing that big snake but I had a flashlight. I tied the dog up to the back of the van thinking, if a snake comes he will bark. I was jacking up the trailer when, sure enough, he started barking. I jumped and hit my head on the trailer. I looked around for a snake but I could not see one. I couldn't get that tire changed any too soon. I got behind the steering wheel and turned on the lights and sure enough, right there in front of the van, was a big snake.

We spent the rest of the night there alongside the road; there was not much traffic, just an occasional car or truck. I would turn on the lights when one was coming to make sure they could see us. This didn't give us a lot of sleep but by daylight, we were ready to move on.

It surprised us that we were actually close to a small village called Nicolas Bravo. We didn't have a spare for the trailer or for the van. I thought I would look for a spare for the trailer. In the process of looking for a tire, we met a very nice Mexican family. This family immediately invited us into their home and served us breakfast then helped us find a tire that was suitable for a spare. They were full of questions about our ministry, and our faith. We had a wonderful time sharing the gospel of Christ with them which was worth any little suffering we may have had. It was very encouraging to see this young family come to Jesus. On trips we made through their town in the following years, we found them still trusting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. It was obvious our Lord had prepared for this journey according to his gracious ways.

Soon we were back on the road, with hearts full of gratitude and praise for our Lord's provision of breakfast and a tire for the trailer.

Nevertheless, the fact that we had no spare for the van still hung like a threatening cloud over us. It wasn't long before we saw the cloud (tire) break. Everybody was quiet, looking at each other with a dismal look, all having the same unspoken question, “now what?” Dad, of course, had to come up with a plan. Prayer is always the first order of business. It is amazing how it can change the atmosphere; our Lord filled our hearts with love and courage. Dad would go look for a tire (not made in the country) and the rest of the family would wait in the van and pray.

The thought of leaving my family alongside the road was almost unbearable. Our Father takes these impossible situations in stride, and to walk with Him you find yourself doing what you thought you could never do. I caught a ride with a trucker and took the spare rim to look for a tire. Arriving in the City of Chetumal, I dropped off the rim at a station and walked around town praying. My heart leaped when I spotted a van like ours parked on the street. I quickly looked at the tires and sure enough, they were 16.5 the same size as needed. With a little detective work, it was made known to me that a Chinese man who ran a business there on the same street was the owner of this van.

I wondered if he could possibly have an extra tire, knowing how scarce they were, I knew it would only be the grace of God if he did. After finding him and enquiring if he was the owner he acknowledged that he was. Then I brought forth the all-important question, “do you know where I can buy a 16.5 in. tire?” He quickly responded, “no they don't make these tires in Mexico.” Then I asked him if he had an extra one; he said, “no”, I persisted asking if he might possibly have an old one that wasn't much good. At first, he said, “ no”, but then he remembered he did have one that was very old. He said, “ if you want it you can have it.” Until you are in such a situation it's hard to imagine how precious that gift of an old, bald tire can be.

It took some time to go to his house, get the tire, go to the station and have it put on the rim, then catch a truck headed back to my dear family. Believe me, I was doing everything as fast as possible, but it took a lot of time. Finally, I arrived where they were waiting. I expected to find them crying, but, no, they were singing, now I was the one crying - tears of joy for the grace of God which was being displayed. They had been sitting in a hot van, in a snake-infested area. Francille being the very loving mother she is, would not let the children out of the van for about six hours. But they were singing praises to God.

After quickly sharing with the family about my adventure and catching up with them, I began to mount the wheel on the van. A pickup pulled up and two gentleman came up to me. They were different, extremely polite and they were concerned for my family. They said they had some cold drinks and asked if they could give them to my family, I said “sure”. They brought fresh cold water, cold drinks, milk, and all kinds of treats and gave to my very astonished family. Nobody carries that much stuff that fresh and cold.

We all knew they were angels sent by our loving Savior. I think they were there all day but waited for this moment to show us God's loving-kindness.

Chapter Two

Belize Central America

The struggle we had in leaving Mexico only added to the eagerness of entering into another country to live; everybody was anxious to get settled into a house. The border crossing was interesting. For one thing they spoke English; however at first, we were not so sure how well we were going to be able to understand them, because about half of them spoke Creole. The Creole language is a very confusing language, most of the words are English but the sentence structure is bazaar. We learned later how the language developed. It dates back to the slavery days, when people were being captured in Africa. Bear in mind how big Africa is, and how many different countries it has, and that in each country they speak various languages. The slave traders would pick people up from any given place, bring them to Central America and sell them to plantation owners. In Belize most of the plantations were operated by English speaking people.

Belize was a colony of England, with full self-government under a system granted in January 1964. The official name of the territory was changed from British Honduras to Belize. It received full independence in 1981.

The slaves not having a common language were challenged with how to communicate amongst themselves. However, most Africans are very good at learning new languages and can speak three or four from childhood. Therefore they were learning English easily enough. People who can speak more than one language get accustomed to reverting to a second language whenever they wanted to keep their conversation private. Maybe it was a challenge or a sport but they began to deliberately speak English in a way that their masters could not understand. (Later my son Steve and my daughter April learned this “game” they could speak Creole very well.) For me it was difficult but I enjoyed trying.

We didn't have any problems at the border and we received a three-month visa, that could be renewed at the local Police Station three times; then you had to leave the country overnight and upon your re-entry apply for a new visa, starting the whole process again. The house we had previously rented was In Belmopan, which is the capital of Belize. Houses were readily available there because this was a new town built by the government. They had built it right after Hurricane Hattie all but destroyed Belize City in 1961.

Belize City was very crowded with no room to expand, situated close to the Caribbean Sea. It had grown in a haphazard way with no planning at all. It has an open sewer system which brings health issues and a very unpleasant and smelly environment. This didn't give much appeal for people to come and live in Belize. They certainly needed to do something to develop their poor, underdeveloped country that only had a population of approximately 150,000. Belize is 180 miles long and 68 miles wide. Belmopan was about ten years in building, completed in 1971 located in the center of the country. We arrived in 1976, at which time there still remained a great number of new, unoccupied houses. Most of the population in Belmopan is made up of government employees.

When I rented the house I met the neighbor; his name is Rogelio (Roger). He was quite friendly and he was fluent in Spanish and in English and a little surprised that we also were bilingual. We're hit it off right away. He hired a man to come and cut the grass around the house. This was a great favor as the grass was about four feet high, and it was full of all types of critters, mice, lizards, and a wide variety of greedy crawly creatures. We were grateful to have neighbors that were considerate and friendly. We were not so thankful for how most of these creepy-crawly creatures upon losing their habitat of grass, made themselves at home in the house. Now our cat had a completely different outlook. None of us had ever seen so many lizards, and it seemed every time you looked at the cat he was after one, or you would see the tail of an unfortunate lizard hanging out his mouth.

Rogelio became interested in the gospel and I was intent on teaching him the word of God. Rogelio and his family had an adopted grandmother, Mrs. Hyde. She was a nice, elderly lady who had never married and had been orphaned when young. Rogelio took her into his home and it seemed as if this was the way it was meant to be. The family all loved her and she in return loved them. Mrs. Hyde had been a Catholic all her life. She asked me what I thought about the Catholic Church; I explained to her, with respect unto her choice of belief, the many shortfalls of their doctrine. For example, that Jesus is the only one we should pray to, for He is the only mediator between man and God. We also discussed at length several other aspects of the Catholic doctrine verses the word of God. She seemed to understand but did not say too much about it after that.

Rogelio made a commitment of faith and we were having Bible studies in his home. Mrs. Hyde had come to the place of saying that she believed the Bible but bear in mind she had been a Catholic all her life, and it was not easy for her to give it up. I would get up about five in the morning to pray, and looking out the window, I would see Mrs. Hyde slipping by our house obviously hoping I wouldn't see her. This caused me to chuckle because I knew she was going to mass. It went on like this for a few months. Then one day she said; “ James, I have something to confess.” I replied, “oh what is that?” She said, “I have been going to Mass, but I know now that they don't have the truth..” She then surrendered her life to Jesus our Lord.

We met several nice people in Belmopan but I didn't feel like we were in the real Belize, you know where ordinary people live.

Rogelio was a very ordinary sort of guy but most of the people were involved in government and I had very little in common with them. After living there for six months we had the leading of our Lord to move to Dangriga.

Dangriga is located on the coast, it was originally called Dangriga by those who settled there. After that, it was called Stann Creek by the British, then changed back to Dangriga. Because of frequent hurricanes most of the houses were built up on stilts because flooding comes with hurricanes. Dangriga is a Garifuna word meaning “ standing waters “. This small town bares the fame of being the second largest in the country of Belize. It was settled by the Garifuna people who are black. The word garifuna means the people who eat cassava. This is a common food. in South America it is known as yuca or manioc it can be dangerous to eat if not prepared correctly. It is the root of a very prolific bush that is ground into a large, flat bread. It doesn't have a strong flavor and readily takes on the flavor of whatever you eat with it.

There were two white families living there when we arrived, making it three. However, not long after our arrival, they left and we were the only white people living in Dangriga. You could say it was a bit of a culture shock. The people would call us white cheese. I think it was harder for our children, especially for the girls. Our first born Shannon was 13 years old, and Kimberly was about 12 years old, both attractive young ladies. Our daughters quickly learned not to pay any attention to guys on the streets. Being the only foreign girls living in town, the guys would pinch them or make rude remarks. If they had an errand to do they would walk very fast and totally ignore them; before long the guys learned to leave them alone.

For our daughter April, it was different. She was about ten years old with a very independent nature and strong faith. She would get a handful of gospel tracts all on her own, and go hand them out. Everybody would take them. She didn't know a stranger and everybody loved her. Oh, not quite. She did have one enemy; that was a neighbor girl who was big and strong and jealous she used to beat her up. It seemed like everybody knew April; we would be driving around the country and people would come up and greet her or shout out, “April, April.”

Richard and Steven loved Belize, they had heaps of friends. There were a good number of children close by that were about the same age, six to ten. Most of these children were abandoned by their parents to live with Granny or an Aunt and the parents were in the US. Most of the time we had about four to six in our house, especially at meal time. At first, we had to really watch them because they were little thieves; we had to frisk them before they left the house. In these children's homes, they were given a small portion of food and the food would be locked up in a box with a padlock. Even a small banana was a great treat for them.

Francille and I were shocked by the spiritual condition of the country. Our very first evening in the house proved to be a surprise. It had been a busy day, getting things unloaded and put away. A very hot and muggy day and we stepped out on the balcony that over overlooked our street, to cool down. Two men, staggering drunk holding each other up, stopped right below our balcony. Obviously, the word was out that some missionaries were moving in. They serenaded us by singing “Amazing Grace” word perfect and somewhat in tune. We cried; I knew then we were in a dark place. There were several bars in town; and when I would pass by one, maybe ten or eleven in the morning, men would stagger out the door, sloppy drunk, and begin to quote scripture to me like John 3:16 or Ef.2:8 and tell me to repent and get saved.

Being an English speaking country makes it really easy for Americans to come down for a few days and do some evangelizing. They usually would bring gifts for the poor and give out to the new “converts.” Therefore many would get converted time after time. Religion in the schools is taught, but with an academic approach without spiritual enlightenment.

We didn't find any who had been disciplined as Jesus commanded. Half-hearted efforts of carrying out the gospel is worse than no effort. It just brings more darkness, muddies up the water. Jesus never commanded us to make converts but to make disciples. The only one who can convert someone is God; when we try and do what only He can do, we make a mess of it.

We didn't know when we moved into our house, that just down the street was a voodoo temple where they blatantly worship the devil. We also found out that right behind our house there was a small house where a woman by the name of Sarah lived. It turned out that Sarah was known all over the country to be the second- strongest voodoo priestess in Belize. People came to her from all parts of the country to put curses on people and they would die. They also came to her for healing of many diseases; she was known to walk on coals of fire, speak in tongues and many such things.

The bible says in 1 Sam.15: 23. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” The spirit of stubbornness and mockery of God was very prevalent. For example, there was someone who died in a house not far from us, so they had a wake at the home. Friends and neighbors gathered and they had all night vigils they would be chanting and moaning for hours, an eerie sound that's hard to describe; this was devil worship. Then silence and next we heard singing in very good English, “trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but just trust and obey”. I couldn't hold back the tears at such a mockery of our Lord and Savior.

Chapter Three. Mrs. Hyde

We had been living in Dangriga a short time when we heard that Mrs.Hyde was diagnosed with cancer and given a one in ten chance of survival, she was in the hospital in Belize City. It would take over three hours to drive there. This gave me much opportunity to pray for Mrs. Hyde. I asked the Lord Jesus what His will was for our dear beloved sister. Was it time to take her home or would He heal her? My bible was laying beside me I opened it up and it opened in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 9: 20-22.

“ And behold , a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: For she said within herself, if I may touch his garment, I shall be made whole. But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.” After reading this I knew I was supposed to read this to Mrs Hyde. I wasn't sure if the Lord would heal her but I knew I was to read this to her. She was happy to see me. We visited a short time then I asked her if she would like me to read the bible to her. Her eyes seemed to lite up, and she said, “oh yes, please read.” I read the text in Ma.9: 21-23 and when I finished reading she was crying and saying, ” I know now the Lord is going to heal me.” Then I said,yes, and now I know also, that He is going to heal you. Previously I didn't know what kind of cancer she had, but it turns out that she like the woman who touched the hem of the Lord's garment, had an issue of blood.

We spoke of our Lord's goodness and rejoiced together of His readiness to heal Mrs.Hyde. We prayed and gave thanks for His healing touch. I went back home with good news for the family.

A couple of weeks later I returned to the hospital again, after the operation. Mrs. Hyde had come through the operation and she was healed of her cancer. She asked me, “Do you remember how I told you that I was a good girl when I was young?” I said yes I remember. She then said, “well, it’s not true. In fact, she said I was a very naughty girl, and I have always felt guilty about it; but now I know that Jesus really loves me. It was amazing to see our Lord Jesus working in her life, bringing her into a wonderful trusting relationship.

In spite of the spiritual darkness, we enjoyed Dangriga. There was a nice river that flowed through the town and runs into the Caribbean Sea which was only two blocks from our house. The river was by far the best to swim in because it was cool and refreshing, but my family loved going in the Sea. With goggles, you could dive and see all types of fish even small seahorses. We enjoyed living where seafood was plentiful. Except for the months that have an r, you can purchase lobster for an economical price.

Belize is a poor country where the people live humbly. Our creator, however, takes care of the poor by making fruit abundant. Lots of oranges, bananas, coconuts, mangoes, papaya and etc. Beans and rice is the staple diet, with fufu and cassava bread and fish. Most of the people could at least have something to eat. Mind you, many of them only had the bare minimum of what it takes to survive. A pigtail in the bean pot was living high on the hog. They imported buckets of pigtails from America and sold them in their “shops” (grocery store). Creole bread (made with coconut milk) was sold on the streets and you could buy a small loaf for a schilling. We really enjoyed conch fritters.

The house we rented was a two-story, it had fairly large room downstairs that we used for holding services. There were two areas in town that were good for open-air evangelism. One was located at the entrance of Dangriga, where Hummingbird highway, joined the main street of town; we preached there on Tuesday evenings. We had two military loudspeakers that were quite good, you could hear us well on that side of town. On Saturday mornings we set up in the town center next to the police station. They said they could hear us all the way out to the cemetery. I don't believe our preaching was disturbing the dead that was buried there, but I do know the preaching was disturbing many who thought they were alive but dead in their trespasses and sins.

Pat Murphy from Washington state was our children's teacher in Guadalajara, Mexico for a year.

After returning home, she married Mike Coogan. Then our Lord sent them to Belize. It was a great blessing to have them join us in the work. They had one boy, named Jonathan.

They loved the people and adapted to the culture but not without

difficulties. One thing that was especially trying for Mike was he had a real weak stomach; any food that was strange he would have trouble with. I explained to him that he needed to really pray about this because in order to not offend the people we always eat whatever they serve us.

The inevitable came sooner than we thought it would. In a village called Hattieville, we were holding some evangelistic meeting under a small wood-framed house that was on stilts. A young man named Charles had invited us to come and minister to his friends and neighbors. Charles had eaten at our house before and really enjoyed the food, and was quite intent upon having us come to his house and eat. Unfortunately, Charles’ mother was very sick, but this hospitable young man assured us it wouldn’t be a problem because he had some experience. He said, “ you are really going to like it, you will eat your knuckles off.” We learned later that his experience in cooking was what he had learned in a jungle survival course.

We had no idea what he would fix but after the evangelist service was ended, we went up the stairs into the small house. There was a plain wooden table and chairs and on the table, there was a platter with a black iguana laying on it, he still had his head and feet with the claws. Then there was a bowl of yellow looking balls that turned out to be the eggs from the same iguana. A bowl of rice and tea, a big meal for a Belizean. He had taken out the innards but had left the skin intact, which was thick and chewy. Mike surprised me because he started eating with much enthusiasm; he had obviously decided to give it is best effort. He amazingly ate it all.

Then Charles asked him if he would like more, he looked

shocked at the thought of eating more, but he said, “Sure.” The plate was passed to me because I was sitting next to Mike; there was just a leg left and I dropped it on his plate. When the claw hit the plate it made a sharp sound. Mike almost lost it, he looked horribly white. For a moment he stared at it, then somehow he ate it.

My esteem for my friend went really high that day. All the next day he was home but could not eat. Our Lord gave Mike the grace to do what he thought was almost impossible.

Chapter four. Brother Leslie.

We met a brother that was an active witness in town. He always carried gospel tracts with him and he had been a Christian for many years. Everybody in town knew him. He was in his sixties but had never married. He played the organ quite well and even gave lessons in some of the churches. He made a little money giving lessons but not near enough to live on, but he was a man of faith and the Lord always provided for him. Our Lord, who prepares everything, had the brothers in Oregon give us an organ before we left and we had it with us but we didn't know how to play it. It had a foot pump, that powered it, and folded up into a box making it portable. It played beautifully and was perfect for a street meeting. Brother Lesley really added a special touch to our street meetings. He knew a lot of old hymns and played them with a lot of enthusiasm.

Brother Leslie lived in the smallest little shack you have ever seen but he was full of surprises. He always carried a bag with him for his gospel tracts and people would give him fruit, or veggies or a fish. He often would come to visit; my wife had a basket in the corner of the dinning room; without saying anything, and most of the time when you weren't looking, he would leave a bunch of oranges, papaya or some type of blessing and it was almost always when we had almost nothing to eat, it seemed like our Father was informing him when to come by. He found out Francille liked fish and sure enough every once in awhile, He would show up with a big red snapper or grouper. Before you know it I also learned to like fish.

Derrick

The day we came to town the son of Sarah the witch came over and wanted to help unload our things from the trailer. His name was Derrick and he was 16 yrs old. I think his keenest interest was in our daughters but he kept that in disguise. He came right away to our evangelist meeting and to our fellowship meeting in our home. He truly enjoyed getting to know this foreign family and we enjoyed him. One day our daughter Shannon made some chocolate chip cookies, Derrick thought it was about the best food ever, and asked Shannon if she could go over and teach his mother how to make them?

She said, “you will have to ask my parents.” He mustered up the courage and asked us if it would be permissible for Shannon to go over and teach his mother to make the cookies? Francille and I both agreed it would be ok. I think even Derrick was a little surprised that we said yes because all the neighbors had warned us about her.

In the process of making the cookies, Sarah asked Shannon, “Did you know that I am a witch?” That's what they say, “was her reply.” “You know I can put curses on people and they will die?” Again Shannon said, “That's what they say.” “I have the power to cure all kinds of diseases and walk on fire. I speak in tongues.” Shannon confirmed, “ That's what the people are saying.” Then she looked at Shannon and said, “But the truth is the Spirit that you have is much stronger; ever since you and your family moved in, I can do nothing if I see one of you or look at your house, I lose my power.”

They enjoyed the cookies and Sarah sent us some Creole bread.

When people heard we had bread that was made by the witch, they said, “You're not going to eat it are you?” We said, “Sure, we are going to eat it. We will pray and ask God to bless it, then we will eat it. And we did more than once. We thank Our Lord God for his everlasting love and care. For we know, as Jesus said, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that's in the world.”

The darkness in Belize manifested itself in devil worship, thievery, laziness, and drunkenness. The people took pride in their ability to steal.

They would steal clothes off of our clothes line, then come and visit wearing the clothes they had stolen. One neighbor stole our tape recorder with a tape of gospel music, then played it in her open window so we could hear it. The three years we spent in Belize we were robbed at Least 23 times. Not always taking things of much value, one time they carried out a mattress in broad daylight. The first years the police wouldn’t do anything about it but after the Lord touched their hearts they began to do their job.

There was a prison not far from town, and we received permission to go and minister in the prison twice a week. In our bible study, I encouraged participation, allowing them to ask questions or make comments. We had a few incidents that tested our resolve. One man, who hadn’t been coming, came one day. His name was John the Baptist. He was big and muscular and was known as a trouble maker. He liked the freedom to ask questions and promptly started asking questions. He obviously didn’t want to know the answer but just wanted to cause confusion. After he had done this two or three times, I said, ”John I don't want you to ask any more questions.” He said, “But I thought we could all ask questions.” I said, “Yes, we all can, except for you. and if you ask one more questions I will call the guard.”

He then settled down and a few studies later he asked a question, but it was obvious that he really wanted to know, so I simply answered his question. He continued to come and caused no more trouble and seemed to be understanding the teaching.

John had spent most of his life in and out of prison. One day he showed up at our house. I was a little surprised that he was free and I was glad to see him. Of course, he was hungry, so I gave him a little money for food. Then he started coming a lot. One day when he came, I was out somewhere and the family were all upstairs; the door was open downstairs, so he went in. There were two boxes of clothes sitting there so he picked them up and walked out the door. He walked down the street and began to sell them. By this time our neighbors had decided they liked us, so when they saw him with the boxes they began to holler at him to take them back. John ran back up the street. Mr. Buller who had always showed great respect for us even though he was senior in years, stepped in front of John the Baptist and punched him hard. John fell down but quickly got up, picked up the boxes, and continued to run.

He ran out into the main street; in the meantime, Francille, unaware of any of this, stepped out on our back veranda. She saw a crowd of people running up the street; she thought there must be a parade. Then, about that time a policeman cast his hat to the ground and took off running, and all the people running behind him. She said it looked like the keystone cops in the old films.

He finally was apprehended, and when they asked him what he was doing in our house he said, “I went to see my friend Jim.”

He was put back into prison and I believe that's what he wanted. In prison, he had a place to sleep every night and at least one meal a day.

I don’t recall just why our Heavenly Father choose to have our dear friends Mike and Pat Coogan return to Washington State,

but after about a year of service, they left. But not before Mike led Calvin Nunez, a one-eyed Garifuna man to Christ. Calvin continues to this day preaching on the radio in the Garifuna language.

Then our Lord had Orville and Blanch Tadlock bring down a young lady, Peggy Farley, who was 18yrs old. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Tadlock's. It was Orville and Blanch who had first brought the gospel to us. Peggy quickly became a member of the family. She was a great help to us; she helped homeschool our children and helped Francille in the sewing of dresses for the girls. She played an autoharp and sang like an angel she participated in the street meetings. It was a delight to see the people's reaction when they would hear her sing of her glorious Lord and savior.

Peggy years later would marry Larry Gallegos, a young man who had served with us in Mexico. And they have been serving as missionaries in Mexico, ever since, it is such a blessing to see God’s hand upon them all these many years.

Ministering in an English speaking country has its special benefits.

One of the things is that you get more people coming down and helping out. In fact, we did a discipleship training class for Americans. Brother Dick York the founder of our Mission, Shield Of Faith International, came down and He and I taught, brother Gary Meagher, Ed Wagner, and Vic Loiler. We thought having the training in a foreign country would help in preparing people for the Mission field. All of these men came down with their families, and we had some very encouraging fellowship meetings.

This lasted for about four months then The Loilers went on to Costa Rica, the Wagner’s went up to Orange Walk, a town in northern Belize. Gary and Mary Meagher stayed and helped us. We enjoyed working with the Yorks for about a year, before returning to Oregon.

We were blessed to have Gary and Mary Meagher and family stay as missionaries, there in Dangriga. They had two daughters, Leah, & Abby, & their son Nathan. Their Abby was about the same age as our Abby. Leah was close to the age of our Daniela. The two Abby toddlers were a delight, they were all great kids but the younger ones would steal the show. They would play church down in our meeting room, Leah or Daniela would do the preaching, the two Abbeys would sing,“ he shot me and he bought me with His redeeming blood” Or, “Yesterday, today, forever Jesus is the same.”

Gary played the guitar and that was a blessing in our services and in the street meeting. Gary was good at teaching and preaching.

Chapter Five. Brother Basil.

The continual presence of darkness began to wear upon me. We had been going door to door, preaching twice a week in the open-air meetings, but little visible fruit. One day I was praying and I brought my complaint to the Lord. I was desperate, I said, “ Lord you must give me one soul, just one, today please.” After praying I had peace; I knew my Lord had considered my request. Therefore I got up and filled my pockets with gospel literature and walked out into the street.

When I reached the main street I saw a young, tall man coming and the timing was perfect, our paths just automatically joined. After greeting him I ask him where he was going. He said, “ to the soccer game.” I said, “ I didn’t know there was a game.” Then he asked me if I would like to join him? I said, “sure.” We had a good time watching the game and getting to know one another. I shared the gospel in brief with him and he seemed interested. As we returned to the house, I invited him to come and meet the family. He accepted my offer and, before the day was over, Basil’s life took a supernatural turn. He became a very faithful disciple of our Lord. A few years later he was pastoring a large, all-black Mennonite church in Los Angeles, California.

Eduardo Che

One day a short, pleasant man showed up at our door. He was a Kekchi Mayan. He spoke English well, some Spanish, Mayan and Kekchi Mayan. He lived in a village 21 miles out of town. It turned out he had been hearing us preach on the streets, he said, “ I have question for you.” I said, “sure,” Then he said, “ I have been living with my wife for several years but we have never been married, but after hearing you preach, I become convicted and we want to get married. Do you think you can officiate the marriage for us.” I assured him we could accommodate him. Gary and I started going out to there village real often.

Almost every time we went more people were getting saved, soon the whole; although small village was Christian. Before long we had weddings and baptisms. Gary and I began discipling them right away.

The Indigenous people of Belize were not treated with much respect, I had noticed, for example, when they came into the local shops to purchase food, they would be the last one to be waited upon and the shop owners would speak roughly to them.

In my opinion, they are the most noble, hard-working, honest, and non-threatening people in Belize. The obvious thing to me was they were well prepared to be followers of Christ Jesus.

They lived off the land, they would move into the thick jungle, clear off a piece of ground, and farm it. Because of the heavy overgrowth in the jungle, there wouldn’t be any grass or weeds growing. Therefore land was ready for farming as soon as they burnt the jungle away. They could farm this for five, six or more years. But eventually, the grass and weeds would become too big of a problem. Then they would clear a new area in the jungle. Some people think this is terrible but if you go back to the places that had been turned back to nature you find that the jungle has returned. Mind you they only clear small tracts of land, it seemed to me as if our Lord had planned it this way.

Julian Polanco and Paulino Cal.

We met Julian and his wife Esmeralda and family while living in Belmopan. Julian’s mother was from El Salvador and his father was a black Belizean, he spoke Spanish and English quite well. We became good friends right away. He was a new Christian and we spent a lot of time studying the word of God together. Paulino and his wife Santiaga lived close by, with two children. They were Mayan.

The way we came to know Paulino and their family was obviously arranged by the Lord. The Lord had put it on our hearts to do some house to house ministry along the Hummingbird Highway. We started at about mile 24 and proceeded on to mile 25 and we came to Paulino’s house. It was as if he knew we were coming; he invited us in right away and was very interested in hearing the gospel. Santiaga, however, was really shy, she smiled a lot but retreated to their bedroom. We were there for a long time explaining the gospel to Paulino and he made it clear that he wanted to surrender his life to Jesus. We decided to pray, then Santiaga, who had been hearing everything, came out and said, “ I want to get saved too.”

Later Paulino explained to us how he knew we were coming. He started by telling us that he really needed to get saved. He said that people wouldn’t set close to him on the bus; after a few questions it turned out that he was mean and sometimes would drink too much and was quick to fight. Palino and Julian, his neighbor and friend, had both grown up in Belize and knew the jungle really well. They were so well known for their skills of jungle life that the British Army actually hired them to train their soldiers on how to survive in the jungles for long periods of time with no provisions.

He said, “ But I fell sick and was in the hospital and the doctor said he didn’t think he would live.” I was there in the hospital for quite awhile but one day an American Missionary came to the hospital visiting the sick. He prayed for me and told me, I would be fine, and in three days you will walk out of the hospital door and you will meet me at the door coming in. Sure enough three days later Palino left the hospital and the Missionary met him at the door, he smiled and greeted him but Paulino never saw him again.

He then went home, after he was home, he prayed to the Lord, “you sent a man to pray for me, now I want to know more about you. But I don’t have a bible, could you get me a Bible?” Julian, unaware of his desire to have a bible, thought, “I need to take a bible to Paulino.” A day after Palino prayed for the bible, Julian gave him one. Paulino then explained that he was having much difficulty understanding the bible. So he prayed again, “Lord, I have the bible now but I need someone to teach me. Would you send someone to teach me?” A day or two later we showed up at his house, ready to teach him. He certainly was expecting us even though he didn’t know us.

Paulino and Santiago were really hungry for the things of our Lord, and Eduardo and all of his village were also eager to learn. Gary and I were spending a lot of time trying to cover these needs. We also were still ministering to the saints in Dangriga. We thought it would be good if one of us could move out to mile 25 or mile 21. Housing, however, was a problem, the Kekchi Brethren were also needing houses and we needed a place for fellowship and worship.

We found almost everything we needed in the jungle. Our van became very useful for transporting the poles and post and the palm leaf for the roof.

It was hot sweaty work but we really enjoyed it. We had some quality time with the brothers and we learned a lot about jungle life. We built four houses and our place for worship. The houses and the fellowship hall had dirt floors. We were having a meeting and the little children were crawling around in the dirt. I ask the brothers if they ever considered building a board floor. They all thought that was not to be considered, because the price of lumber is just too much for their limited income.

I understood that but I thought this would be a good opportunity to teach them that Jehovah Jireh is our provider and we should not limit him to our abilities.

They quickly understood and began to pray for the lumber to build a floor for our place of worship. Our Lord responded a few weeks later in this manner: Brother Eduardo was riding his bike at mile 21 he came upon a truck driver standing by his truck that was loaded with lumber. The man surprisingly asked him, “Would he like to buy some lumber? Eduardo quickly remembered that he had the love offering in the church box up in his house. He had been given the responsibility of keeping the funds for the church. He also remembered how we had been praying for lumber to build the floor.

He told the driver,”I don't have any money on me but in my house I have some, not very much, but some. “Then he said, “ fine go get your money.”

His house was on the hill close by so he left his bike there and ran to his house and brought back the money. Upon returning the driver told him to get up on the load of lumber and start throwing off lumber. Eduardo did and after he had thrown off a lot, more than he knew he had the money for he stopped. The driver said, “ don't you want more? Through off some more.”

After the pile of lumber on the ground was big enough to satisfy the truck driver, he said, “ok.” Upon receiving the money he wasn’t at all concerned that it was only 17 Belize dollars, worth about half of US currency. The reason being his truck was over loaded and he wasn't able to get over the hill with that heavy load. He was desperate to get anything he could for it and continue his journey.

Our dear Eduardo now has a problem with getting this huge pile of lumber transported. Fortunately, he knew that we were all up at mile 33 cutting palm leaf. Without hesitation, he headed out on his bike to come and inform us of his problem.

We were more than a little surprised to see him ride this distance on his bike. Then he informed us that our Lord Jesus has given us the lumber for the floor. This information came to us in a way that nobody had imagined; our Lord indeed is Jehovah Jireh. It didn’t take long for us to go and pick up the provision of God. It was three van loads of mahogany lumber worth hundreds of dollars.

Chapter six

Logging

The worship building was large and the lumber covered about half of what we needed for a floor. All the believers however were real happy to see our Lord provide in such a way. They were prepared in faith to pray for the remaining lumber needed to finish it, so we did.

A few days after praying for our Lord to consider this request, I remembered that I had met an American from Florida and he had said that he and his brother, had put in a saw mill just south of town aways. I thought I should go see him; now I didn't have any money to pay for lumber but I knew that I should go and talk to him.

The saw mill was going and it appeared as if they were doing a pretty good business. He was pleasantly surprised to see me. In our discussing the business it came out that I had been a logger, and he became real interested in the type of logging I had been doing. I explained to him that we had done about all types of logging but mostly skidder logging. He said that's the way they were logging and he wanted to know if I wanted a job? I asked him if he was having a hard time finding help. He said it was real hard to find people who knew how to operate a skidder good enough to get much work done. I explained to him that we were keeping busy in preaching of the gospel and in the making of disciples. I also told him that we didn't have work papers.

Then it was clear to me why I had gone out there. I said, “Junior (that's what everybody called him.) I said I can't work for money but If you could pay me in lumber, I could work for about three weeks and teach your man a little about logging. He was more than agreeable to do that.

Junior had a Franklin Skidder the largest they make; ok, I confess I knew that I was going to enjoy this. I soon found out why he had such a large skidder. I set the chokers on three full-length trees, thinking that the trees were not too big and therefore it should handle it alright. I engaged the winch and speed up the engine, pulled the chokers tight, and “pow!” I busted all three chokers in two.

Logging in a tropical forest in Central America is not the same has logging in Oregon USA. Hardwood trees may be smaller but they are several times heavier. After replacing the chokers, I hooked up again on the same trees and pulled them at enough angle that it sorta rolled them out of the beds they had made for themselves upon falling.

Three weeks can pass rather quickly when you are doing something you enjoy. By our Lord's grace, I had not broken any more chokers.

Junior was real happy because he now had a rather large deck of logs piled close to his saw mill, enough to last him for months.

He said he had some lumber that he wanted to show me. He took me out to a very huge pile of lumber. I looked at it and it was clear of knots and it reminded me of our Douglas Fir in Oregon. He said, “ he cut all this and the buyer backed out on me. Most of my customers want hardwood, so I am stuck with all this lumber. If you want it you can have as much as you want.” It was called Banack and it was very nice. I told him it would be fine for what I needed.

I started transporting it in our maxi van; it was impressive as to how much of this Banack lumber You can get in the van. It was much lighter than the hardwoods therefore you could pack it tight. The brethren were quite surprised when I was able to bring load after load of this nice lumber. Junior's stock of Banack was diminished but not exhausted, I took what I thought the brethren could use.

We then finished the floor in the fellowship building at mile 25 and put up half walls. We did that because it was cooler, especially with the extra overhang of the palm leaf roof.

We built a house for Gary and family at mile 25, it turned out to be a nice place for them. The had a creek close by and a brand new out house. They became a little concerned when they found out snakes liked to crawl in their roof looking for mice. I don't recall now what they did about that but I am sure they will remember.

Gary stayed occupied making disciples and Mary taught Santiaga English. Things seemed to be going good but not without trials.

Especially for our wives, Mary became sick and Francille had a bad case of eczema in her hands, Belize isn’t the easiest place to live.

Chapter Seven

Fiery Trials are blessings in disguise.

The fellowship in Dangriga grew a little not many but a few; a young woman named Ruth Tillet, a young man called Gerald Lopez, a one-eyed brother who was of the Garifuna tribe his name was Calvin Nunez. Basil Marin, Derrick, John, and several would come in from time to time, checking us out.

One day Sarah (the witch) came to our house she said she wanted to join our church. I told her no one can join the church because you have to born again of the Spirit of God in order to enter the family of God. She didn't understand,even though I tried to explain, it was obvious she was engulfed in darkness. What made things worse was she could join about any church in town and become a member. In fact, most of the devil worshipers also belonged to a “Christian” church. They would “worship” the Lord on Sunday but the rest of the time, the devil.

Jesus said, “ “You cannot serve two masters. “ Ma.6:24 He also said, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and truth.” Jo. 4: 24.

The fiery trials were upon us for a long time. Our washing machine finally quit working, a relief for my wife and our girls because it would often shock you when pulling clothes in or out of it. We often were running low on money to buy food. Our Heavenly Father always provided in many marvelous ways. For example, one morning Francille informed the family, right after, eating a very skimpy breakfast,that we were without food. So we prayed. That afternoon brother Julian came in from mile 25. He told us he was out working in his farm that morning and he said he just kept thinking about the Lucas family. He didn't know why but the thought would not let up, so he finally knew he was supposed to bring food. He went and filled three large sacks of all kinds of fruit, cassava, beans, and many other things, even three live chickens. He could not have known that we had no food in the house, without our loving Savior telling him.

One fiery trial was literal for our little Abby, she had learned to walk at about 11 months. Francille was ironing clothes and one the older siblings had taken a cup of scalding hot coffee and set it in the window sill close but behind their mother. By this time Abby was about 18 months just tall enough to reach up and pull the full contents in the cup on her head. Burning her head, face, and chest. I was not home at the time, but my dear wife certainly kept her wits. She immediately started filling the bathtub and plunged her under as quick as possible. Then carried her to the hospital but they weren't able to do much for her. They painted her with a purple disinfectant, which made her look even more conspicuous. She was the most popular person in the hospital and people were continually coming in to see her. We took her home the next day. Being such a pretty baby only increased our concern of scaring. Infection also is always a concern in the tropics, our Heavenly Father heard our prayers and she healed with no infection and no scars on her face, just on her chest. P. T.L.

Francilles’ hands were getting worse, she even had some ultra violet ray treatments, helped a little but not near enough. Our refrigerator quit working.

One morning my regular devotional time went on longer than normal. Our Lord was speaking to me a message that at first, I found it a little hard to believe. He was telling me it was time to go to America and give my family a rest, and that he was going to renew our equipment. The Holy Spirit was really confirming this to me to the point that now it was a matter of obedience, I found myself saying ok Lord we will go.

I realized it would be a shock for Francille to hear that we would be going to Oregon. It's about 5000 miles from Dangriga, Belize to Leaburg, Oregon. Leaburg is where Francille’s parents were living. I think at the time we had about $ 70. dollars, it would take somewhere from $ 400 hundred to $ 500 hundred just for gasoline alone. It didn't take very long for my dear wife to point out some of these important details. I acknowledge that all that was true however our dear Lord and Savior had made it very clear that we were to go for a rest. Therefore it would be best for us to just go along with his program and see how He would manage it.

It didn't take us too long in just a few days everybody had there one bag packed and a sleeping bag. The morning we left it was pouring down rain a typical tropical storm. There was something about that storm that put a spirit of unbelief upon me. I was driving and thinking, I must be about the dumbest person that ever lived. I was questioning why I would even consider heading out with almost no money, with my seven children and wife. On a 5000 mile journey! with a van that had 297000 miles on it, four totally bald tires. I was asking myself why are you doing this?

Then it came to me, simply because my Lord had told me to. I thought He will need to do something soon, that was when the faith returned, all of a sudden I had great expectation of the Lord performing a miracle but I did not have a clue what He was going to do. But I knew He was about to do it, I was so excited about it I couldn't hardly sit still. The rain was still coming down with a vengeance but the dark cloud of unbelief was gone, in it's place there was the comforting presence of God saying just wait and see.

Then we saw about five white men standing out in the rain, trying to catch a ride. I knew without doubt this was our Lord's provision. I pulled the van to a stop and told them to get in, they were so glad to get out of the rain, they quickly situated themselves among our children. They traveled with us as far as Belize City, when they stepped out of the van each one of them took out his billfold and handed me money, and personally thanked us for the ride.

Our Heavenly Father had provided close to $ 500. Dollars. That may not sound like much to some of our readers but for a missionary family trying to make it back to the States for a little R and R, it was colossal.

Our time in the US passed by quickly we were there for about three months. It was great to see our families and friends. I was able to hire out to a logging company, the money helped and I really enjoyed working, it was good for us to be in a normal routine.

We went to the memorial day conference, it was a great time of fellowship and we were able to inform the Saints of how our Lord was doing great things. While at the conference one friend and brother in Jesus approached me and ask me about our van, he wanted to know if we needed a new one, I told him it was operating alright, he then asked me how many miles it had on it and when I told him he said, you come to Portland and get a new one. You see I remembered God had said he would renew our equipment. I didn’t go up right away so he called me and said you get up here and get your van, I said ok, we will be coming. We also received a phone call from a brother who had a washing machine for us then we received a call from some Christians who had a refrigerator for us. Then my parents had a nice gas cook stove we purchased from them. When God Almighty wants to renew your equipment, it's no problem and he does it so graciously.

Chapter Eight. When God Speaks!

The trip back to Belize was a real joy, our new 1977 Dodge maxi van was so comfortable, it really made a difference.

Upon arriving we quickly settled into the same routine as we had before, two street meetings a week, Sunday morning service, and prayer meetings on Tuesday evenings.

One morning my wife said she had something to tell me and I could tell that she was really troubled, it turned out that our Heavenly Father had given her a vision that one of our younger brothers had died from a car accident, she wasn't sure if it was her younger brother Carl or my younger brother Tim. Needless to say, we prayed for both of them.

Not knowing which younger brother really kept us in suspense, but not for long just a few days later we received a message from the Dangriga Police Station that we needed to call my parents. Blanch Tadlock had called the Police with the message, I don't know how she knew about the accident but she knew we didn't have a phone and let us know the best way she could. My parents, so we understood now which brother.

I was the third born of four brothers, Gary was the first born, then Paul and I, Tim was the youngest, eight years younger than me.

He had stayed with us for a few weeks, during his high school summer break. He worked with me logging. Being the older brother, I, of course, took on the roll of preparing him to be a good logger.

Logging is quite challenging work, to say the least, but when your brother is on a mission of making it hard for you, believe me, it was hard work. I don't know why he put up with me but he did. Tim was six foot three and not afraid of much of anything and frankly, I respected him.

During that time I preached him the gospel, and in spite of my calloused treatment of him, he acknowledged that he believed the gospel.

Things really happened quickly for Tim.

He graduated from High School and was married shortly after. Within a few months, his wife left him, they didn’t have any children.

That was when he decided to join the Marine Corp.

During his first months in Vietnam it seemed as if he was doing well with the Lord Jesus, at least according to the few letters we received. Things took a bad turn for him when it was recommended that he use drugs, they said it would be a help for him to handle the stress of war. This did not help him spiritually but he survived his term in Vietnam.

Tim had told me that he enjoyed the Marine Corp, therefore, it wasn’t too big a surprise when he announced that he was going to reenlist. He was stationed at Fort Pendleton, then he was to be deployed to Vietnam. He went out for the evening, doing? I don't know what but early in the morning he was returning to the base and caught a ride with some Marines, who had been drinking, they ran a red light, the car was t-boned hitting the passenger side, right where Tim was sitting. He was hit real hard, causing extensive damage to his whole body. He seemed to get somewhat better but for some reason, they transferred him to a different hospital, and he grew worse to the point of death.

God had Spoken, but like Jesus said, “ Blessed is he that has ears to hear.” I must confess to you that I did not have ears to hear. The word was that he would die; I was in denial, I did not want to believe that Tim would die. I thought I will trust God to heal him, God will honor faith, so I set out to convince myself. In retrospect, this was all in the flesh and God did not honor it.

In Ro. 10: 17 It says, “ Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” When we refuse to hear the word of God, there is no way we can have faith. Once I started down this delirious path, the more I perused it the more heartache it brought. Not just for me but for my wife, mother, brothers and many friends.

Tim did not die right away, and I was saying, he will not die. I did call him and talked to him on the phone, he could not speak but he could hear.

I do regret the confusion and heartache, this sin caused. To this day many do not understand why I failed to be at my brother's funeral.

I do have one consolation and that is why I am publicly confessing, this terrible act of unbelief. My hope is that all that read this will come to understand. That when God speaks, we all need to hear, and when we don't hear, it is because we are refusing to listen. “Blessed is he that has ears to hear.” We all have ears but unfortunately, we are not always ready to listen. It says in Pr.18: 2

“A fool hath no delight in understanding, but that his heart may discover itself.” Even the wisest of men like Solomon, Moses, and David were capable of doing foolishly. Men of faith who refuse to hear are perhaps demonstrating more foolishness than those who have never heard. Beloved, I pray that we will all give our ears to hear when God speaks.

After Tim’s funeral, the Marine Corp sent His personal belongings and among them were medals of bravery that were given to him, for carrying out his comrades on his back under fire.

I do believe from what my mother observed that we will see him in heaven. She was with Him in the hospital until he passed.

Chapter Nine.

Francille’s hands were healed and we were enjoying having a refrigerator and washing machine that worked. There was an interesting incident that took place with our gas stove. The auto pilot sometimes would fail to light. I had learned that it was due to a slight breeze blowing the gas away from the pilot lite. So I simply would wave my hand over it in the direction needed and it would light. Stoves in Belize did not have pilot lights. One day Derrick (son to Sarah the witch) was watching me lite the stove. When it failed to light and I simply waved my hand over it, Derrick cried out, “no, Mr. Lucas, don't do that.” He had a very shocked look on his face, I asked him, “what is your problem?” He replied, “you taught us witchcraft is evil.” He was convinced that I was doing some kind of magic.

It took some real convincing him, nothing short of taking the top off the stove and showing him the little flame that was always burning. Even with that, he was very suspicious.

A similar incident had happened before when Francilles’ hands were bad. Derrick and Basil had taken it upon themselves to help my wife out with the household chores. These teenagers were truly demonstrating that our time in the word and prayer with them was not in vain. They were like part of our family. One day Derrick came to Francille saying, I need to confess something. She asked, what would that be? He said I stole a small piece of cheese. When I sliced off a piece I accidentally cut my arm, (this had taken place a few days earlier.) Look he said God is punishing me, see he said my arm has turned white. He showed her his arm and it was somewhat white looking. She had a hard time convincing him, that it was not a problem just to take a bite of cheese.

Basil loved to walk in the house quietly walk up behind my wife and stand right behind her, then speak. It was amazing how good he was at it and he did it a lot. One day he was there for awhile then he said he was going down stairs to study, it was quite. He was down there all afternoon, my wife began to wonder about him and decided to check on him, turns out that he had fallen asleep on the van seat. In Belize, it turns dark at 6:00 pm, amazingly fast. When she found him sleeping she walked up close to him and spoke to him, he woke up, it was dark and he saw this white face staring at him, he thought it was a ghost, it really frightened him. He knew he was getting some of the same treatment he had given my wife so many times.

Mrs. Tillett

A young lady in the fellowship whose name is Ruth had informed us that her mother was very ill, we prayed for her. Ruth was concerned for her mother's healing and salvation. Mrs. Tillett went to the hospital in Belize City, they diagnosed that she had cancer and there was nothing they could do. Many people were praying for her but her condition grew worse, in fact, if you went to visit her the smell of death permeated her house. Months passed, prayer was being made but no change.

It was when we had our conference that we finally saw a change of heart. Mrs. Tillett had been resisting the gospel for so long, it was very encouraging to see her come to the conference. She wanted prayer therefore we anointed her with oil and prayed for her. She seemingly understood the need to surrender her life to Jesus and trust Him for her healing. A short time after the conference she sent word to me that she wanted to be baptized, I baptized her in the river. Our Lord healed her of her cancer. He is forever the same, gracious, Lord Jesus, full of compassion and loving care.

The country of Belize is small but it is amazingly diverse in culture, the reason being, it is a melting pot of races. Of course the expected influence from Central America, like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. Most of them are Roman Catholics and prefer speaking Spanish. Then you find that many of the business people are either Chinese or Indian (from India). Most of the Chinese come from Hong Kong; where English is also spoken, but not the best English. We also encountered a few Americans, I made friends with some who were their raising bees, on small acreages in the country.

Perhaps the least understood, although most conspicuous people of Belize, are the Mennonites. Their history goes back to the 1600s. They were living in Europe, believers of Christ Jesus known as Anabaptist; persecuted for their faith they have migrated for four hundred years. Mennonites now can be found in many countries around the world. They speak a dialect that is combined of German and Dutch.

Everywhere they go they are a blessing because they are industrious hard-working people. Known for their farming skills, poultry, and dairy products. They manage to transform deserts or jungles into productive land that all appreciate. They provide the lion's share of food, poultry and dairy products grown in Belize. Conspicuous because of their fair skin and old fashioned conservative clothing. Among them are those who do not use electricity or drive automobiles. They use horses and buggies for transportation. However, there are also more liberal believers and they use electricity and automobiles. They even built a small hydroelectric dam.

Mi Amigo Carlos Reyes.

The Guatemalan fisherman, his English is a little limited, but he loves the Lord and is strong in the faith. His love for the word of God is keen therefore we spent a lot of time studying the word together in Spanish. A hard-working family man, about 35 yrs old at the time we were living there.

He had a fishing partner called Boris. They had a dugout canoe that was about 30 ft long and four ft wide, with a 10 horse outboard motor. They fished with long gill nets. I had the privilege to go out with him on one occasion. I really enjoyed it and in spite of my lack of experience, I was able to give him a helping hand pulling in the net loaded with all types of sea life, red snappers, grouper, stingrays, even a few small sharks that usually were dead, if not you finished them off before pulling them into the dugout.

An unforgettable experience that gave me a real appreciation for the fishing trade. Another blessing of this friendship was the privilege of having the first choice whenever he had lobster.

His fishing partner Boris was in his sixties, a nice man but not a Christian, who liked his drink. They always had to keep close watch on the weather, a dugout is not the safest craft in the sea, especially in a tropical storm. One day I went to visit Carlos and he wasn't looking good, he looked terribly sad, and weak.

It wasn't easy for him to tell me what had happened. He started out saying, “ his friend Boris was dead;” and with strong conviction, he said, “that it was only by the grace of God that I am still alive.”

The story of what happened finally came out. Boris was needing money and wanted to go fishing. Carlos explained to him that the weather report was not good, that there was the possibility of a storm. Boris came to Carlos several times, insisting that they should go fishing because his need for money was urgent.

Carlos reluctantly gave in and said, “ let's go.” They had good weather all the way out to where they had their net set. Then the storm came in and they were managing to keep the dugout upright but the net became entangled with the outboard motor. The weight of the net and the force of the waves flipped the dugout over. Carlos managed to get a rope around the capsized dug out, this served to have something to hang on to, a task not any too easy in a boisterous storm. Even with this advantage, they tired quickly. Carlos said he really was praying because he knew their chances of being found were very slim. They were in the water for many hours, then Boris overcome with fatigue sunk into the sea, Carlos let go of the rope and swam after him and managed to get him back to the dugout but he sunk again, this happened three times, then, he drowned. Carlos fastened his body to the rope and prayed for help. The storm finally subsided but Carlos was still hanging onto a rope with his dead companion. Then another fisherman in a dugout just happened to spot him. Somehow he found the strength to pull himself into the upright vessel and passed out. They took him to the hospital and he was in bad shape, he had been 36 hours in the water. Carlos knows it was only the loving hands of His Lord that saved him from the deep.

Chapter ten

The heavy hand of God

Open-air preaching two days a week in a small town full of witchcraft and devil worship is a lot and you add to that house to house evangelism and the giving out of an abundant amount of gospel literature. The people of Dangriga were being blessed with God's word. We rejoiced with the few souls we had seen come to Jesus but are hearts were really grieved for the stubborn and rebellious ones who not only rejected the message of love and forgiveness but openly mocked our Loving Savior.

One Saturday mornings preaching by the police station and market area. I was quite surprised with what was coming out of my mouth. I was saying God is not pleased with your continual rejection of the gospel therefore He is going to bring a hurricane into Dangriga. I had felt this way for some time but I wasn't sure.

But now I knew He had put these words in my mouth and He would bring a hurricane.

That same week we left to go to a conference at Guadalajara, Mexico, about one thousand miles away. On the way up to the conference, my wife informed me that our Lord had given her a vision that a hurricane was to come to Dangriga. She didn't know what I had preached the day before.

It was after the conference was over and we were in the van about to commence our return Belize, when the Montgomery family (fellow missionaries to Mexico)

came running out to the car saying you must come and hear what they are announcing on the radio. We went in and sure enough, they were saying a hurricane had hit Dangriga, Belize.

Here is part of the report you can find a more Complete report on WIKIPEDIA. Org. Hurricane Greta

“ Sep. 19th 1978 (Greta made landfall on Belize near Dangriga.

It damaged or destroyed 125 houses in Dangriga ( 50 destroyed the rest damaged)”

We didn't make it all the way to Dangriga because of flooding we stayed with some friends close to Belmopan, John and Judy Collier one night. John And Judy gave us a large sack of rice and a large sack of beans. To take on to Dangriga because they had heard that there was a shortage of food due to the road being closed for a time. We were particularly happy that our Heavenly Father was allowing us to bring food to the chastised victims of our Lord's corrections. Because He wanted them to know it's never too late to repent. We put the beans and rice into small paper bags and handed it out to the people. The people seemed to have a noticeably different attitude toward us.

We had left Derrick in the house to watch it he became a little nervous when the people started coming to our house saying, “we want to stay here because we know God will protect the missionaries house." The place filled up and Derrick put somethings in the attic, like some of my wife's nik- naks because he didn't want anyone to steal them. The house wasn't damaged at all and nothing was stolen either.

The hurricane was a blessing in many ways, for example, my beloved wife had previously feared hurricanes; in Belize, there is a continual watch for them. Francille saw how our Heavenly Father had everything in His complete control, even forewarning us and getting us completely out of the country until the storm passed. She still doesn't like hurricanes but now she can face the idea of a storm with renewed vigor.

It seemed as if the hurricane was confirmation of our Lord's approval upon the ministry, I confess I took satisfaction in our Lord chastising those who had mocked him for so long. It also helped to appreciate the abundant grace that was given to those who had believed, it truly is a miracle that any of us can be saved little alone those who are so lost in witchcraft.

With Gary Meagher and family living out at mile 25 it took a load off my shoulders, I took comfort in knowing they would do good job of discipling the brethren. It is not easy to explain just how every decision in life is made because following the Spirit of our Lord can be mysterious. There was a strong sense of knowing in my heart that our part of the ministry was over in Belize. The call of God on my heart was to preach the gospel unto the nations and make disciples. The word nation means “ethnos” this is the word we use for tribes. We had the privilege to make disciples among several tribes in Belize, the Maya, Ketchi Mayan, Garifuna, and Creole.

But now the desire in my heart was to move on. In Ps.37:4 it says, “Delight thyself also in Lord, and he shall give you the desires of thine heart.” In order to understand this, we need to look at Proverbs 18:1, “ Through desire a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.” Only those who have separated themselves (to do only the will if God) can trust that it is God who has put his own desire into their hearts. To truly delight yourself in the Lord requires a heart only content in doing his will. Therefore it has a twofold meaning, He initiates the desire we act upon it and he gives you the desire of your heart. It was close to a year before I acted upon this desire to move on. Allowing some time to let the brethren get adjusted to our departure. Costa Rica had been suggested as a place for us to consider going to. I liked the idea and I thought that it would be good for us to go and share the gospel. Even though we didn't have a word from our Lord concerning Costa Rica, it was apparent that we had liberty to move in that direction.

I bought new 10 ply tires for the utility trailer replaced the boards, greased the bearings, and started loading it with some of our household necessities. If you look on a map you can see that going out the west side of Belize into Guatemala would be the shortest route. However, we were informed that the road was almost impassable, that you would have to be pulled by a dozer because of the mud. We were advised to go around by Mexico and then come into Guatemala from Mexico. At that time the roads in Belize were not good at all. If a Belizean is saying the roads are much worse, it was hard to imagine but we decided to take the Mexican route.

Leaving Guadalajara and Bochil was difficult and it was every bit as difficult to leave Dangriga. Our Lord had given us some wonderful friends and brothers in Christ. It is not easy to leave them. But there are lost souls in need of knowing their Saviour. Our Belizean brothers are now in Christ Jesus, and He will never leave them. Taking the Mexican route would mean we would return the way we had come from Bochil, thus giving an opportunity to visit the brethren there.

Chapter eleven

On the road again

We were leaving with mixed emotions we were all concerned for the many friends we were leaving behind and the challenge of entering an unknown chapter in our lives. If you have read our first book Great Things He Has Done then you can understand that anytime we set out on a trip, we realized that only God knew what might transpire along the way.

This trip proved to be equally interesting from the start. We traveled about ten miles and what do you know a flat tire on the trailer. I was so confident in my new 10 ply tires, how could it be? To add to our situation it started pouring down rain, if you have never lived in the tropics it is hard to realize how it can rain.

Our Heavenly Father graciously brought along Thomas Polanco brother to our dear friend Julian. He was totally prepared for the challenge and so eager to take care of us. He went about his work as if there was no rain, you could hardly see him because the rain was so intense. He discovered what the problem was, the new inner tubes were a little too big for the size of the tire. I said well I will go and buy some new ones, no need, he says I have some right here, but you will need a pump to air up the tires; he grinned, I have one (hand pump). Our Belizean friend can really work; in no time at all, we were ready to continue our journey. Thomas seemed so happy he was truly grateful for the opportunity to serve us. And we were equally grateful for his labor of love. We had prayed much for him he was not a Christian like his brother, our Lord works in marvelous ways. We think we are the best witness when we are the ones serving but sometimes we are a better witness when we are Humbled and they can serve us.

We continued on the Hummingbird Highway going from

pothole to pothole, literally, the potholes are so deep you nearly had to stop and cross them gingerly especially when you are towing a loaded trailer. It was up by Orange Walk the northern side of Belize that I noticed the trailer acting peculiar and making a popping noise. The hitch was breaking but we managed to get it to a welding shop and fix it. It was becoming very apparent that this was going to be another trip that we would remember.

The road in Mexico was a decent highway paved a little narrow but what a difference. Traveling on the familiar route through the state of Yucatan. Watching for the occasional serpent or iguana often armadillo, and skunks. My wife and children loved to sing while traveling, which always makes for a more pleasant journey. We talked of how good it would be to visit the brethren in Bochil. Then I saw a tire rolling quite fast alongside of us then it turned and bounced out into the jungle and out of sight. Then I realized it was our trailer tire and wheel. What in the world? This, of course, brought us to a stop. Where the wheel was supposed to be was just a shiny axle, the bearing had burnt up and released the wheel of its duty. Now the wheel and tire are lost in the thick bushes. It is a long distance to go and buy another bearing. The first thing in order was to pray because it was obvious we needed our Lord to take charge of the predicament we had found ourselves in. The next thing was to look for the wheel, sounds easy enough but the brush in this area was so thick you couldn't walk through it nor see anything. Our Heavenly Father answered our prayer promptly. Bear in mind this is a real lonely stretch of road, no houses or villages for miles and no cars were going by. Then appeared a man walking down the highway, he was carrying a long machete. He asked me, “what are you looking for? ” I explained, “that our wheel had gone out into the bush somewhere but we hadn't been able to find it.” This dear man then ask where it had left the road and we showed him, he immediately began to cut a path in search of the desired wheel. He worked for awhile even with the help of the machete it wasn't an easy task. He didn't give up until he came carrying it back with a big grin of satisfaction. We thanked him profusely and he went on down the road, who knows where. We also thanked our Lord Jesus for sending this man right when we needed him.

We disconnected the trailer, chained Oso to the trailer left him with food and water prayed for his safety and the care of the trailer and it's contents then left for Campeche looking for a bearing. This took us the greater part of the day, then we mounted the bearing and amazingly we were on our way again. It had looked real dismal when that wheel went rolling out into the bush. However, the blessing of having all your wheels in their proper place cannot be equally appreciated by those who never have lost one. It's like the joy of good health is always greater for those who were gravely sick then healed by the Lord, than it is for the one who has never walked in the shadows of death.

Costa Rica was our goal but we had taken about twice as long as it should to reach Bochil, Chiapas. It was beginning to seem like paradise to arrive where we had so many friends who were hospitable, good cooks, and never wanted us to leave. Brother Nolasco was a mechanic and I thought, perhaps he could check out the bearings on the trailer, hopefully, avoid more problems with bearings.

Our time in Bochil was enjoyable indeed. I was quite impressed with the obvious maturity in Brother Eleuterio. He was developing a good teaching ministry and seemed to have a genuine concern for looking after the flock. Miguel was continuing in his passion for evangelizing and the report on Brother Andreas from Se Cayetano was positive. My wife had good fellowship with Argelia, Apolita, and Fetalina. Nolasco was very gracious in servicing the van and trailer.

Chapter 12

San Cristobal de Las Casas

After about three days we were back on the road again, with renewed determination to reach Costa Rica. The route we would take would pass through San Cristobal de las Casas, the third-largest city in Chiapas. Not very far from Bochil but because of the mountainous terrain, it takes about an hour and a half to get there.

While living in Bochil we had visited there, it is truly a very unique

Place, a city of about 100,000 people with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds.

San Cristobal de Las Casas {Saint Christopher of the Houses} is a tremendously interesting place due to its history it is the second oldest city in Mexico second to Veracruz. It was founded in 1528 by Diego de Mazariegos as the Spanish regional base. Dominican Monks reached Chiapas in 1545 and made San Cristobal their main base. The town is named after one of them Bartolome de las Casas, who was appointed bishop of Chiapas.

San Cristobal is surrounded by traditional Tzotzil and Tzeltal villages, the heart of one of the most deeply rooted indigenous areas in Mexico. A place where many ancient customs coexist with modern luxuries. For several decades has been the hot spot for sympathizers and opponents of the Zapatistas rebels. Also a central location for organizations working with Chiapas Indigenous people. Wycliffe translators were in this area for about forty years.

Due to a variety of Indigenous cultures that are displayed by several different tribal people proudly walking about the city in their specific dress, the City has become a very popular place for tourist. It is a unique place for sure, on the street you may encounter a finely dressed business man or a bare foot indigenous carrying a tape recorder and supporting a flashy watch. (now they will be talking on a phone) Or you might meet someone from California, New York, France or Germany.

During the year of living in Bochil, we had considered the possibility of moving to San Cristobal. But we didn’t want to be just another tourist in town. The idea of living in a popular tourist metropolis did not appeal to us at all. Therefore with Costa Rica in mind, we continued our journey with enthusiasm. We traveled about twenty minutes south toward the Guatemala border. Coming down a grade about 4% with our heavy trailer should be of no concern but the trailer began to swerve back and forth and it was all I could do to come to a safe stop along the side of the road. I thought don’t tell me, not again, then upon getting out and looking at the trailer wheel almost in a retired position. I knew we had lost another wheel bearing. But this time not only the bearing but the spindle had gotten so hot it now was bent down like a banana. It was obvious we were going to be there for awhile.

I don’t believe I can express the feeling that came over us. In my spirit it was like the last straw, I had no words nor ideas, I was at a total loss. I sat behind the steering wheel for a long while before realizing, our Lord had something to say to me. Finally understanding it was time to ask him, “What do you want to tell me?” Then this verse came to me, “ Be ye not as the horse, or the mule, which have no understanding whose mouth must be held with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee.” Ps. 32: 9

Like a cold glass of water in the face, I knew this rebuke was necessary, and I realized that ever since we left Belize our Lord had wanted my attention but I was too occupied in my own agenda to hear about His. (see Pro.9: 8) Before leaving I knew He had never said to go to Costa Rica but I thought, but He will direct us, and that’s what he wanted to do all along but with gentle instruction.

After confessing my stubbornness unto the Lord and my family we prayed and I purposed in my heart to have ears that can hear the word of the Lord.

Francille and I took an assessment of our situation. I could remove the spindle and look for another, we both realized that it would not be easy to find. The place where had landed actually wasn’t too bad there were quite a few Pine trees which provided shade and there weren’t any houses close by, almost our own private camp. Except for the occasional auto traffic or a passing pedestrian. We knew of a village not far from there where we could go and get water. I remembered that Julian Polanco our Belizean friend while training the British soldiers survival in the jungle had been given a lot of K-rations, he in return had given us several of them. The K-ration was an individual daily combat food ration which was introduced during World war II. In the kit, there was a little stove about 5 inches by 6 inches by 1.5 inches. It came with some little white bricks looking like a small bar of soap. These were the fuel, you placed them under the little stove and lite them with a match. They actually work surprisingly well. Francille’s opinion is of course much different than mine. Because it turned out for a week she prepared two meals a day on this little stove. Things like rice, scrambled eggs, and etc.

My wife and I were content with the changes and believed we should look for a house to rent. This is not an easy task, there simply were not that many houses available in Chiapas for rent. Nevertheless, we both knew our Lord would provide a place for us. There is a town situated between Tuxtla and San Cristobal that we liked called Chiapa De Corzo, we decided to go there and look for a place to rent. After removing the spindle, we secured the trailer the best we could simply making sure it was covered and making sure the ropes were down tight. We tied the dog to it and prayed over it. Our hopes of finding a spindle-like ours was quickly lost when they informed us there wasn’t one in the parts books. However, they said if you take it to a machine shop they can build it up (welding) then turn it down in the lathe. Hopefully getting it back to its original state. The machine shop we found was willing to try but said it will take a while; not having any choice we left it with them, agreeing to come back several days later. The more time we spent in Chiapa de Corzo the better we liked it and fervently searched for a house to rent. Nothing definite was found, a few possibilities that kept us hanging.

Our camp was our only place therefore we stayed there. I went back and picked up the spindle it seemed to be just fine after putting it on we hooked up the trailer and headed back to Chiapa de Corzo, to look for a house. Passing back through San Cristobal we made it about five miles (I hope this is not getting boring) I noticed the wheel on the trailer was wobbling obvious about to come off again. I found a place to pull over before it did.

Do you remember how Pharaoh was pursuing Moses and the children of Israel, in the path that the Lord had made across the Red Sea when he took off their chariot wheels? (read Ex.14: 25) Now it was happening to us bringing us to a halt. We had lost the wheel on the Southside Of San Cristobal now on the east side. The place we had called a Tourist trap, is where we ended up. Unknown to us we would be living there for nine years.

Chapter 14

Once our Lord Jesus made it clear that San Cristobal was where He wanted us. It Changed my perspective completely, I could see lots of reasons why He would want us there. The most obvious was to be a witness in a mission field white unto harvest. The Great Commission is to make disciples in all nations. (ethnic tribes) We were told there were about a million indigenous people made up of eight different tribes living in the surrounding area.

You will be able to read about,

the many challenging trials of faith, that all members of the family endured to bring the gospel among these eight indigenous tribes; in the following sequel of the Lucas, adventures.