Gifts, Caves, Slime and Bats (Lauren's Blog)

To start, happy independence day! We are celebrating in a different sort of way here in Belize, since we could not get our firework supply past customs. We started our day by gathering together for a devotion since we did not have enough time to do our devotion last night. We had planned on leaving Hosanna House by around 8:30, but due to several team members taking too much time to shower and dry their hair (Deb), we were running a little late. We are glad that this happened though, and we know that God was working through this, becasue three local women travelled at least 30 miles to bring their hand made crafts for us to buy from them. If we had left at 8:30, we would have missed them and wouldnt have several gifts to bring back to our friends and family. So thank Deb that she takes a lot of time to get ready in the morning! :) After we finished buying some really cool gifts, we loaded our group of 17 into our 14 passenger van and went for a 25 minute drive to the Blue Hole national park. We first took a hike to a cave, where we were able to go into the cave and explore for a little. I personally would have not gone into the cave so willingly, but I was under the impression that we had to go through the cave in order to get to the water hole. The cave was extremely dark, slippery, and several bats were flying overhead throughout. Some of the boys (Matthew and Mark) enjoyed scaring several of the girls (Brittany, Jada, Bekah and myself) by yelling "Snake!" or "Skeleton!" every now and then. After that adventure, we drove to the Blue Hole, which is a beautiful water hole where we were able to swim. Almost everybody was able to go swimming, though some were not so thrilled about the idea of swimming in the middle of the jungle where there is the possibility of snakes and biting fish. We are all still alive and well, so no worries :) We are now back at our home eating lunch and preparing for our VBS which will be taking place in a couple of hourse. Keep us in your prayers, as we will be sharing the message of Jesus dying and rising again, which is the main message of our VBS this week. Thank you for your prayers as we are here this week!