Ben and I left South Bend last Monday for our mission trip to Belize and got back to South Bend Wednesday the 30th. I figured I would just kinda do a day by day format for this week, because it was so packed!

Monday:
Monday was our first day of travel. As it turned out, Mike Brubaker and Geoff Bornhoft were visiting South Bend that weekend and were leaving about the same time as us for MN anyways, so we got a ride with them. Praise God! We weren't able to cancel our tickets for a refund but we got our money back anyways because there were some major delays on what would have been our bus. Praise God! So we had a fun trip back and got home at around 6 to a loving family who wouldn't stop commenting about my new facial hair. Apparently they didn't like it. But they got over it and then I had some people over to swim and chat because I hadn't seen so many of them in a while. A good 15 people came over and we had some good times!

Tuesday:
I packed all morning... well for about 3 hrs until 3:45. I fell asleep expecting to get up in 45 minutes but didn't wake up until 5:30. We were supposed to be at the airport at 5 so we all rushed out of the house in Olson fashion and sped to the airport, arriving an hour late. The funny thing was that most of my church expected it! But we made it to the gate with plenty of time and flew 3 and half hours to Miami, changed planes, and flew an hour and a half to Belize! We got there at about 2 pm Belize time, met our Praying Pelicans Missions leaders (Jason, Heather, Jillian, and Gale), and hopped on our bus to head off to "lupper." We ate at a tourist joint called Old Belize, got back in the headed off to our first mission site. On our way there we had a bizzare experience. About halfway through the trip a small toucan tried to enter our bus. It hit the window edge, died instantly, glanced off a girls head, and landed slit open on her backpack. It was a pretty bird, but it made all the girls screamed and all the guys say "Where's my camera!?!" We disposed of it out the window and a little later came to an interesting natural phenomenon. Pointing downhill, the bus stopped, shifted gears, and began going in reverse. But our bus driver informed us that he was in neutral. The area was so magnetic that you actually roll uphill in neutral! Besides that the bus driver drove over 90 mph everywhere we went, it was awesome. Around 5:30 we arrived at the Hosanna House, our first mission site. The Hosanna House is a place for children removed from their houses for safety reasons. They all were plenty healthy and happy though! We had a tour, and then were sent out without much instructions to just hang out with the kids. I found a little shy kid sitting on the couch and proceeded to introduce myself and got his name, Mikey, and tickled him and threw him around and chased him until he warmed up to me. Then he wouldn't leave me! So I had a bunch of fun with him until we had to leave, playing futball, volleyball, and just messing him up a bit. But we left and went to check into our hotel. It was a little hotel, with the owners family on the second floor, and us in all the other rooms. We were about a block away from the ocean beach, and from the church we were working with. The rooms were decent, all concrete and tile, with AC! Praise God! So we had a team meeting, got all the names out, and got some logistics done. Bedtime was at 10, and we went immediately.

Our leaders: Gale, Jillian, Jason, and Heather.

Our hotel through the bus window.
The Toucan that killed itself with our bus!

Wednesday:
Still being on the Company Summer, we both woke up at 6:30 to do PT and personal prayer. Being so close to the ocean we ran the beach and did our push-ups and sit-ups there. It was much more enjoyable! After our Belizean breakfast of eggs, bacon, and these wierd almost tortilla like bread circles with mango jam, we went off to two different projects. While half of us went to help out with Vacation Bible School at the church we were helping, the rest went to the Red Cross building in Dangriga and sorted clothes in preparation for the next national disaster. In the afternoon we all came together at the Red Cross to help them with more preparation. Having recently suffered through a mudslide, the Dangriga Red Cross was looking to be more prepared for the next natural disaster. So we all split into groups of about 5-6 people and went door to door getting information such as how many people live in the house, where they were evacuating to, phone number, etc. This information will really help to get these people effective aid in the event of another natural disaster. At around 4 we piled into the bus and cruised back to the hotel for free time and dinner. During free time we were walking about and a man came up to us and invited us to his art gallery which had a lot of cool paintings and my favorite part, some hand drums! So I looked them over and really liked them, very original, so I bought a small one and then headed over to the church to lead our first service. There were a few Belizeans there but we made up the majority of the congregation. The service consisted of leading songs, performing skits, and then I gave my testimony. I focused particularly on prayer, so afterwards we gathered together in small groups and prayed with each other. After the service we had some time to socialize before heading back to the hotel roof for a team meeting. We talked about all we did, and about the question "What does it really mean to follow the Lord?" The general response was making sacrifices and giving up your own agenda for the Lord's. We finished with the next days itinerary and fell asleep exhausted.

Red Cross Sign above the place where we sorted clothe

Thursday:
On Thursday we did PT again, ate another delicious breakfast, and began the day with a team meeting. There we learned how to have conversation with a mental picture to go along with it. which I won't actually go through because its quite long but it was basically a series of conversation starters. Next we took a trip to Blue Hole National Park and explored St. Herman's cave. It was a massive cave with a nice long "hike" through it. At the end we all shut our lights off and experienced absolute darkness, which was pretty cool actually, you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face! After that we took a little hike through the hills and went over to an underground river that came above ground for about 100 feet. It came up out of a cliff and then disappeared into a cave. We got to swim in the very cool water and explore the part where it comes up, swimming down about 20 feet with goggles to check out the underwater part, looking up and only seeing rock. After that we had lunch, and went back to the Hosanna House. This time we brought soccer balls to leave there with them, and my buddy Mikey was waiting for me outside the bus! So I got to hang out with him for the rest of that day. We went home in time for dinner, and some free time where we heard about this concert that was going to be happening that night at the park. So after dinner we headed out there to watch this concert. It turned out to be a reggae concert that started a lot later than we thought. We got there at 7 and there was music playing from the speakers from a DJ, but nothing live. But we brought a soccer ball and we began passing it around but in no time about 50 kids ran out and so a game of "keep the ball as long as you can" began. They were all incredibly good, some better than me, but at least 7 years younger! We probably played that for over an hour until the actual music started at 9. So we only got to see a couple dances and a rap and one actual song. But my favorite part was this huge handmade drum probably 2.5' in diameter, just like my new one but way bigger, which was really low toned, like a bass tone in techno. But after that we all went back to the hotel and had a quick meeting before bed.

A snake was eating a frog on our way to the cave!

St. Herman's Cave
View on the way back.

Hosanna House ending prayer.

Me and my drum!

Friday:
Friday was very similiar to Wednesday. We split up again in the morning and finished the clothes sorting at the Red Cross, and the others helped out at Vacation Bible School. Then we finished surveying the town in the afternoon. After arriving back to the Chealanor, we all took showers and headed out for dinner! We went to this Chinese place in Dangriga and had food family style. There was plenty and I got coke in a glass bottle! It was quite fun. Friday night we led another church service and once again made up most of the congregation. So a couple other kids gave their testimonies, we sang a a few songs, and had more time to socialize afteward. After our team meeting we went to bed quickly in preparation for the next day!

Beautiful Dangriga, Belize.

Saturday:
Saturday we got to do some physical labor. Half of us went to the beach in front of the Pastor's house and the rest went to the church to do some landscaping. At the beach we picked up trash and driftwood and built a fire for that evening. At the church they did some weed hacking, and then landscaped the dirt around the church to make the water flow away from the church instead of into it like it had previously done. While at the beach about 15 kids showed up just because they saw us and wanted to help. They asked, and we set them to work. They were great workers, picking up trash and sticks for the fire. I got a few kids interested in moving logs, so we all picked up some decent size logs, and they were straining with all their might to move these things! It was fun to see. Then Cody, Trevor, and I labeled ourselves the firemasters and set to work building a pretty sweet fire. After the beach I went and helped landscape a bit and then went and jumped in the ocean to cool off. Then it was lunch and free time the rest of the day! So pretty much everyone went and walked down main street of Dangriga. There was a market we went to where I bought a new wallet, and experienced a bit of bartering. Then while walking main street we stopped in a shop and got a rubik's cube but then Ben met a man named Armando and asked him where some cigars would be. He was very friendly but didn't understand so he brought us to his house and had his daughters in law translate for him, and all they had to say was "funto" and he knew what we wanted! So he brought us to a litte house with a shop in the front and the lady showed us these cigars she had, that were only 25 cents a peice! And yet they were good cigars! So we bought ten and went back to ask a friend if these were legit, afraid of illegal substances. But he said that we wouldn't have trouble getting them over the border. So he wanted some too so we showed him and a few other guys where they were, and they all bought some. The lady there even had tobacco leaves sitting out there for us, but we didn't get any of those. We weren't actually supposed to have tobacco, so we hid them away never to be seen again until we got home. After that we shopped some more until the lady from the shop came up to me on her bike and said she was looking all over for me as she presented my passport bag! I had taken it out to buy the cigars and forgotten it there, but she was kind enough to bike all over town to find me and return it! Praise God for her! After that adventure we had dinner (I believe it was lobster) and went to the fire! There were about 30 of us there and probably just as many kids from the neighborhood there too! We hadn't told anyone but the kids who helped us in the morning but a ton showed up and played soccer with us and sat around the fire roasting marshmallows. It just showed me how eager these kids were to do something, or anything really. But that was that night, and it was a joy to hangout with the kids.

Trevor, Cody and I moving a log for the fire seats.

The Kids who helped at the beach! (they eventually moved that log)

I could have bought 30 cigars with that!

The fire on the beach!
This cool guy had awesome pets called Quash, who when full grown can kill rottweiler. He trains them for fun, and are quite calm. I held one for a bit too!

Sunday:

First thing Sunday morning was breakfast and Sunday School. I was put in charge of leading the adult class. I must say it was a little weird telling 40 somethings and older how to live their lives, and there were no Belizean men to be seen. But we studied Esther together and I probably learned more from them than they did from me, but I got through alive. After the kids returned from Sunday School, we started church. We were expecting things to be a bit different, but plans changed, and it was all right anyways. After church they fed us all right there in the sanctuary and we got to socialize until we went back to the hotel before some more free time. It was at this time that a my brother and company came into our room looking for the place to buy some cigars, since they couldn't in America. I wasn't about to show them, but Ben gave in and so a few minors bought some cigars. Unfortunately the adults knew about all the cigars but didn't care about all of us of legal age, but when they found out the minors had some, well they had to do something. But we went to the hospital soon after that and I met some kids and a cool old guy who had surgery on his foot, and he told us all about Belize. He was poor and was telling us about the bad social security they had there, and said that if you can't make it on your own, you won't make it at all. Then we went out to dinner again at a nice hotel directly on the beach outside of Dangriga a bit. So we ate dinner on the beach, took a bunch of pictures and hung out. I got to chill with my buddy Kyle who I had met in preparation for this tripm so it was fun. After dinner though I was made aware of the cigar situation. The adults were talking it over, and I didn't know what to do. But at the evening session, our Praying Pelican leader asked everyone for them, so I brought them to him later, and then talked to our leader. She made sure my parents would know, and that was the end of that. I wasted a good $7.50 on those cigars, but oh well. So I packed for our vacation day and went to bed, only a little disappointed about the cigars.

Kids in church.

Family picture outside of the church. Christmas card right there!

Group Picture

Monday:

Monday was fun day. We woke up early and went to watch the sunrise over the ocean. It was a bit cloudy but still incredible to see the colors on the clouds. Then we went back to the hotel and packed up the bus and left by 6. We ate breakfast on our two hour bus ride, and arrived in Belize City at 8 for our water taxi. We took our 45 boat ride out to Caye Caulker, an island located in the world's second largest barrier reef! We immediately picked up some snorkling gear and headed out to the coral. The guides swam us through lots of coral and fish and it was great until my mask started leaking so I couldn't stay underwater for long, and then I got stung by a jelly fish, no fun. Overall it was tons of fun though, and I saw some stuff I will probably not see again for a really long time. Then we got back into the boat and drove over to another spot where there was about 30 stingrays swimming around. So we all hopped in the water and got to swim with the sting rays. The guides had bait to keep them happy and used it to actually catch them. One picked one up and was holding it so I asked for a chance and he let me hold it in my arms! After we finished with the stingrays we got back in the boat and went and checked into our hotel. It was a pretty nice place with a few hammocks in the shade which were my favorite. After checking in we went out for lunch and explored the island town. I went to a couple shops, walked along the beach, and bought some Fanta. By the end of the day I bought a t-shirt, hot sauce for the guys in South Bend, and some gifts for my siblings. That night we had a group meeting and did a washing of our feet like Jesus did, and then went out to dinner one last time! After dinner our leader Bonnie brought us out to ice cream and we got pulled over by the cops for having too many people on our golf cart! They just told us to get off. There were no cars on this island. Everyone walked except the tourists who drove around golf carts over big bumps and drive all crazy. It's really fun. After ice cream all the seniors went and drove around in the golf cart. We kinda just drove for a while but then near the end we made a race course and timed ourselves. Eric and I won the races, without too much competition from the girls. After that we star gazed and there were a TON of stars, probably 3 times as many as i had ever seen before! Practically no light pollution!Monday morning in Dangriga sunrise.

The Hotel beach with hammocks next to the water!

Here's a bunch of pictures from snorkeling. Enjoy!

Lunch some peeps!

Tuesday:

Tuesday we got up early for the sunrise again but this time I watched it from the hammock. Same thing too, cloudy but colorful! Then it was breakfast and an early start back on the water taxi. We got to Belize city with plenty of time before our flight. So we got through security and sat around till we boarded our plane via stairs! We got to Miami with a 4 hour layover, and my bags weren't even searched. I could have easily got the cigars in! So we ate lunch there and played MOW and "The Hand Game" until our plane came, just a little late. We hopped on that plane and got home at about 12. I said hi to my family, unpacked and proceeded to fall asleep without an alarm set on accident.

Tuesday morning sunrise at Caye Caulker from the hammock!

Wednesday:
The Fossen's were going to pick me up at 6, but I woke up and looked at the clock and it was 6:06. Luckily the were late so I packed quickly and was out the door by 6:20. We got dropped off at the Megabus and rode that to Chicago. Once in Chicago we got to walk across town to the train station. It was actually really fun despite the heavy bags. We walked next to the Sears tower and many other huge buildings. We got our tickets and boarded the train and arrived in South Bend at about 9! It was two days full of planes, automobiles, and trains!

Week the Seventh

This week was a pretty normal week, flooded with excitement for my Belize mission trip. Work was great all week. I spent the week finishing the basement of the garage which was really fun! So fun that we worked an extra day and I used my free time on Saturday to complete it.

Andy and I workin hard.

The joists are laid.

The floor is done!

This week we had a couple meditations and watched Malcolm X, which is a great movie. On Saturday we went over to the Kane's for Lord's day and had a blast! I met all the Kane's, had some good competition, and had really good food! Then Sunday we relaxed, messed around with the Kane boys, and went to the Cramer's for dinner.

So the week was tough and the weekend relaxing. A good combo to have. It was all very fun!

One of the things we do here is put some of clothes in common, which basically means we all share polos and socks. And we also happen to have doubles of the polos, as seen below!

God Bless!

6th Week

This week was incredible. We did a huge variety of stuff with all our free time, working, training, and chilling. The work this week was really fun. I spent the week in the basement of the Greenlawn Garage, which is actually a pool, with a garage built over it. Its really cool that the nuns just built the garage over it instead of filling it in! So the week was spent preparing to lay a floor to flatten the sloped pool. We cleared out the junk down there, including shelves that were falling over and some antique wheelbarrels. Then we tried drilling holes with a hammer drill, but after no success rented a core drill, a huge machine that drills out huge cylinders of concrete. So we used that to drill post holes and then set posts down to hold up the floor, 18 in all. This week we will be laying the beams, joists, and flooring down.

After work was done on Thursday, we were introduced to our new project: researching the Mississippi River Valley, i.e. the POP citybuilding target area. We made a list of what we might care about, and looked around for helpful websites this weekend. Another project we've started is visiting the Juvenile Detention Center. We went on Friday to get signed up and have a tour, then came back and brainstormed on what we could do with them there. It was incredibly interesting to see how they live and just to think about what we could do, because there was pretty much no regulations on us, any activity was game. I'm excited to finally hear what we decide to do!

Saturday was a Kingdom Drill, where the two Peters were in charge and led activities for the day instead of David and Jeremy. So we started out the day with chores (I had to clean the bunkhouse and bathroom), then gathered for our mission: to find our way back to Greenlawn from a random location. We got dropped off in the middle of suburbia about 7 miles due east of Greenlawn. Blindfolded the whole car ride, we had no clue where we were to start out, its kind of a cool feeling, one I haven't felt before I don't recall. But after spinning in a few circles and trying (and failing) to get our bearings from the sun, we just set out in the direction of what seemed to be a busy street. On our way over, we stopped and told a lady we were lost, and so she told us we were near Jefferson, the street we were walking towards. When we told here we were looking for Greenlawn, she pitifully said, "You're a long way off!" and began questioning us so we ended the conversation and went on our way. From Jefferson it was a straight, 7 mile hike back. We were the first group back, because the one of the other groups took the Railroad tracks and the other was placed in a corn field. It was a fun drill! After that we all went to church. I went to Granger Community Church, which was definitely a production. There were 5 huge screens, lights, and a whole rock band, such that it gave it a more concert like feel than a church service. But the pastor was great and gave an awesome sermon about Christ as the authority! Then came an amazing Lord's day, followed by "Live Free or Die Hard" before going to bed.

Sunday was the real fun day. We all went up to Lake Michigian to go sailing with the Colemans! It was incredible! When we first got there it was too windy (damage the ship windy) so we went on over to a real WWII sub called "Silversides" and took a tour of it. Mr. Coleman even paid for us all, so generous of him! The sub was really fun, I've got some pictures courtesy of Eric Blair, who was really fun to have on the sub because he's spent 2 and a half years on a sub and is currently on active duty for the Navy, so the tour guide knew how they did it then, and he knows how they do it now!

The sub from the outside, big one!

I'm looking throught the aimer of a very massive gun. It could shoot up to 8 miles!

The steering equipment and gadgets. I thought it was pretty cool!

Some sub beds I decided to take a nap on!

Here's all of us on the sub!

After the sub tour we came back for Lunch and then went sailing! It was still pretty windy so we only used one sail but still went the boats max speed! (6 knots) We went out onto Lake Michigan and hit some huge waves, rocking the boat a ton! It was great riding out front on the boat, getting splashed by the waves and barely holding on to the cables. Sailing was a definite highlight of the trip, and the whole purpose of it! Here we all are on the boat:

From left to right, back to front. Jon Xenaxis, Jeremy Osterhouse, Justin Lokke, Collin Anderson, Peter Putzier; David Salmon, Andy Bowar, David Zimmel, Peter Coleman, Nick Raway, Kevin Mcshane, Joe Bulger; Eric Blair, Micah Olson, Zack Loughran. Thats all of us except Ricky Thomas and Eric Yost, who weren't there.

After sailing we went to the beach and swam in the huge waves. They were bigger than than the ones I saw at the ocean so it was really fun to just get hit by them and try not to fall over. Plus we tried body surfing but that kinda failed, so we resorted to more taking on the waves! Then after being exhausted from that we all came back and built a huge sand castle! I couldn't find the picture but I'll try and get it up later... After the beach we went back for dinner watched an awesome sunset and left for home at 10, not arriving home till past midnight, but it was worth it! Check out that sunset!

Justin and I watching it disappear over Lake Muskegon, turning the clouds red.

Another glorious week around here! Praise God for all his blessing!

Independence Day (and the week of)

This week was probably the best so far. The Indy missionary men came and visited for the weekend, which was sweet. They arrived on Thursday evening and then on Friday we celebrated the 4th with a pool party at the Havard's! It was a great day of pool volleyball, diving and other such activities!

We made a wavepool!

Then we played this sweet game where you jump over a bar as high as you can. Nick won in every catagory. I mean, seriously, check this out!
Nick flipping over the bar.

Then on Saturday we had a good prayer seminar followed by some work on people's houses in a the branch. I sanded a deck all day, but it was fun with Rus, Mike Coney, David Zimmel and Ben all singing some awesome songs. Then we came back, got all dressed up and had an excellent Lord's day followed by an incredible prayer meeting! There was a lot of prayers for our missionaries and their work. It was really powerful. After that we ate some watermelon and proceeded to jam for the next few hours. There were 3 guitars and 4 "drums" at one point! You can see a video of it here, its kinda funny!

Sunday I went to a really big church that was kinda weird with my bro, and then came home and found out we all had the day to do whatever we wanted! So we went and got supplies for Special K bar. It was amazing! The peices were HUGE!

Then we all decided to drive up to lake Michigan! It was about an hour long drive, but it was totally worth it! We got there and saw the massive sand dunes so we climbed up and jumped off the tops for about 2 hours! We found a nice grass knoll for more air!

Woo! Huge air!

Peter being ridiculus.

From there we went swimming, made a sand hole, buried Chris and played some water football. But then we wanted to jump again and Joe told us about this way bigger dune down shore. So we hiked down the beach to it and discovered that it was, in fact, way bigger! Here's some more footage:Me jumping Peter. I cut it a bit close!

Ben jumping me. TONS OF AIR!

Then at the end we all decided to run down from the very top of this very large dune, at full speed. You would seriously go faster than your legs could carry you. Thats why Nick tumbled, he let himself. Oh and Joe is just being Joe.

It was an awesome day, ended with cigars with Peter Putz for his birthday. Happy 20th!

Oh and I can't forget my present I got from Andy in the mail. My newest addiction.

It took me about 6 hours to solve, with dinner and a talk in there too. And yes I've already broken it from overuse! That black one is missing the yellow tile for it.

Excellent week! More next weekend! I'm leaving for Belize in 2 weeks!

3rd Week

I've finally settled into the schedule for life down here. I'm used to waking up at 6, and now I'm hungry at the right times too! Work this week was spent, once again, getting the slaggers to work. We got a new gun and I played with the machines for 2 days! But finally, on Thursday afternoon we had 2 guns working at the same time! Then on Friday we did work for South Bend Branch members. The deal was that we worked, and they paid the missionaries a donation for our labor. I ended up stripping stain off of a deck, which is far more difficult than I was hoping coming into it. It was a lot of scrubbing and powerwashing for about 8 hours!It was great to work for another cause besides our own self benefit. We had two talks too, one about the extensive history of the People of Praise, and one about the Spirit and Purpose of the People of praise. Both helped me understand the POP a lot more; how it came, what we're doing and why, when really cool things happened, like the beginning of Trinity. I am now way more excited than ever to work for the People of Praise and help it accomplish our goal of 200 new cities in 40 years! Glory!

Friday night was the first Community meeting for us this summer. It was a great meeting with a ton of people I didn't know! We watched the 3rd Indy Video which you can see here http://www.citybuilder.org/ The sight has a few videos from Indy and pictures too! After the meeting we went to the Pruess' and played some ping pong, pool and fooseball. Good times... I met a ton of new people! I got home late though and stayed up later so I didn't get enough sleep! Saturday I made some more bread! 28 loaves!

COUNT 'EM!

Sunday I went to church and then over to the Zusi's for brunch! It was a great meal and conversation followed by a game of baseball with the little Zusi's and then some intense volleyball for a couple hours! It was awesome! Then we headed over to the Heintzelman's for dinner! South Benders are so hospitable! At the Heintzelman's we had a really great meal full of all the summer goodies: corn on the cob, watermelon, patato salad, sloppy joes... etc. Then I had 4 or 5 brownies for dessert! After that we came home and watched Usual Suspects, our first movie this summer.

Baseball at the Zusi's... yes I tagged out a 5 year old.

Here's a couple clips from our life:

I thought this was cool. Jeremy Osterhouse built it with all the cans from around the One Ten office. This is David Salmon's desk...his boss who's on vacation!



This is how we do dishes around here, there IS a ton of 'em, we might as well make 'em fun!

The Night of Wonders

On Sunday night, there was the most incredible show of nature ever, and it can only be barely grasped at with a bunch of pictures.

Ahh beautiful shot... sunset... roofline of a mansion...WOW. Thanks Chris Milliren.

The sun in all its glory!

Wait! Turn around, and there's the rainbow! And the sun just barely hitting the tops of the trees!

Here's a panorama of the whole thing... incredible. Thanks Collin Anderson.

Hold on! Lightning too! Captured in a hurry it seems. Thanks Joe Bulger.

This was the most incredible night of nature I've experienced. Thank you Lord! And I promise you, it was way better in person