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Outreach About the Mission in Belize The Rt. Rev. Sylvestre Romero, Bishop of the Diocese of Belize, Abagail Nelson, Director of Latin American Programs for Episcopal Relief and Development (ER-D), and others discussed the best way to help. They decided on a joint mission between the Anglican Diocese of Belize and ER-D to build 30 cement houses raised on foundations three feet off the ground on Caye Caulker. These houses are better able to withstand hurricanes than the flimsy wooden structures usually erected there. The houses will have electricity, running water and sewage facilities. Caye Caulker was selected because the island is hit every season by hurricanes.
Under the auspices of ER-D, and in cooperation with the Anglican Diocese of Belize, a program was established whereby teams of volunteers can travel to Belize and participate in the construction of the houses on Caye Caulker. Typical work includes digging ditches, laying cement blocks, and other heavy construction work. In late August 2001 a group of St. Clement parishioners, building on the long tradition of community outreach for which the parish is well known, decided that it was time to explore the possibility of outreach and involvement with the larger global community, within the framework of the world-wide Anglican Communion. The group was excited by the possibility of direct involvement that ER-D's Belize Mission offered, and so established a committee with the objective of sending a volunteer team to Belize for the week of February 2-9, 2002. Through the efforts of the committee, and the strong support of the entire parish family, the organizational and fund-raising goals were met, and the mission was successfully undertaken by ten parishioners of the Church of St. Clement. The Belize Mission At the end of each Eucharist which we celebrate together we pray to the Lord to "send us out to do the work you have given us to do - to love and serve you as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord". Then the celebrant dismisses us with words like "go in peace to love and serve the Lord" and "let us go into the world rejoicing in the power of the Spirit." This last part of the Eucharist is where the term for 'mass', or 'missa' in Latin, comes from. The dismissal is really a commissioning. The priest or deacon used to say "Ite, missa est" which, better than, "go the mass is ended" is best translated as "go, you have been given a mission." I mention all this because we of the Church of St. Clement have recently been gifted with a mission to send forth from our community a group of ten of us to help build permanent houses for people in Belize whose homes were destroyed by hurricane. We will be adding our effort to the work of the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund of the national church. Our whole community can heed this call to mission by joining together in prayer and solidarity and generosity both monetary and spiritual. This effort will be one more way for us to live into our Baptismal promises, our mission to "seek and serve Christ in all persons" and to "strive for justice and peace among all people." I am planning to make the trip myself, but I would want each and every parishioner to be sure that we are all on this mission of the Lord together. May it be graced time for us all as we step out on this journey of faith. Reflections on our Belize Mission I was among the ten parishioners of the Church of St. Clement who had the good fortune to participate in our Belize Mission in February 2002, under the auspices of Episcopal Relief and Development. What some might find interesting is that the actual construction of the homes on which we were working turned out to be one of the less important measures of our mission success. While we exceeded our expectation for what we actually did construct, more than few of the mission participants found greater meaning in the interaction we were able to have with people we encountered in Belize and the bridges made between our cultures. There were very important connections made, for example, with people of the island, some of whom were at first reluctant or even somewhat skeptical about what we were trying to accomplish there. Through our interaction, we were able to explain to them the realities of the project and why these Episcopalians had come all the way from the United States to help. This is not to say, of course, that the actual work that was done was not important. It was, for some families in Belize, life changing. Helen Manich, who was part of the team, makes an excellent point when she explains that although we only worked on two houses, Habitat for Humanity and other similar projects started with just one or two homes and look what they've become. Habitat, for example, is one of the foremost providers of low income housing in the United States. Another member of our mission, nurse practitioner Carolyn Long, had the unique experience of working in the Caye Caulker Health Center with Dr. Maria Cassio, a doctor from Cuba who has volunteered to serve in Belize for two years. Cuba, she learned, sends doctors all over the Caribbean to serve in impoverished nations. She interacted with many of the locals and got a first hand sense of what they face on a day-to-day basis. She learned, for example, that most of the children of Caye Caulker face limited futures, as many are only educated through the eighth grade. She also saw some health conditions in adults that in the United States would have been treated in adolescence. This experience underscored for her the fact that people in the US have opportunities that many people in the world do not. Going to Caye Caulker, she feels, shows that, even though culture and many miles separate us, we care about their future. Some of us found great meaning in the spirit of welcome we encountered everywhere we went in Belize. From the time we landed and were greeted by Francis, a fellow Virginian who is in Belize with her missionary husband for two years, we were made to feel right at home. Francis got us acclimated to our new surroundings and took care of us for our first two days in Belize City. We were also welcomed by the Bishop of Belize and the people of St. John's Cathedral during the service we attended the day after we arrived. Once on Caye Caulker, we made friends quickly and some of our group were even invited into the home of a family who is living in one of the homes built through the program in which we were participating. One night at compline, we learned that for several days we had prayed nightly directly under a thatched roof in which a homeless man made his dwelling. He welcomed us one evening to see his little living space and invited us to continue our prayer services as we had for several nights already. Here we were in Belize, building homes and inviting people to begin their lives anew in these homes, and we were the ones who were being welcomed. We were the ones being invited into other people's lives and experiences, and that was truly amazing. The amount of support for the mission from the people of St. Clement's, and others in our community, through prayer, funding and other forms of support, was a source of great inspiration and strength for the whole team in preparing for our trip, while in Belize and upon our return. We all felt that the church was behind us 100% from the start and we were all so very grateful for that and for the support of our visionary rector, John Hortum. One thing is for sure: we're a stronger community for having had this shared mission experience. Prayer Group for the Belize Mission Church of St. Clement finds Power of Prayer through e-mail. A call went out from our now Senior Warden - for the need of prayers for our Belize Mission Team. Some tugs of personalities were being felt, a need for the jell to help the group come together, and better prepare for their road ahead. The task was presented to me. Life being as it is in the Metro Area - hectic - no time to actually come together to pray, some of our church mentors said try the newest of tools that God has given us. So we came together daily through the e-mail. Being a poetry writer first, I wrote some thoughts in rhyme - then as I began to pray God did provide. So we at Church of St. Clement tried the Power of Prayer... I find in dealing with the most tremendous power in the world when we came together to pray. The secret of prayer is to find the process that will most effectively open our minds humbly to God. The e-mail did just that. Any method through which we can stimulate the power of God's flow into our minds is legitimate. An illustration of a scientific use of prayer is the experience of a man who opened a small business -- as he characterized it, "a little hole in the wall" in Washington, DC some years ago. He had one employee. In a few years they moved into a larger room and then into extensive quarters. It had became a very successful operation. This man's method of business as he described it was "to fill the hole in the wall with optimistic prayers and thoughts." He declared that hard, positive thinking, fair dealings, the right treatment of people, and the proper kind of praying always get results. This man worked out his own simple formula for solving his problems through the power of prayer. The formula = (1) Prayerize, (2) Picturize, (3) Actualize. By "prayerize" my friend meant a daily system of creative prayer. When a problem rose, he talked it over with God simply and directly in prayer. Moreover, he conceived of God as being with him in his office, in his home, on the street, in his automobile, always a nearby partner. He took seriously the Biblical injunction to "pray without ceasing." He interpreted it as meaning that he should go about every day discussion with God in a natural, normal manner the questions that had to be dealt with. He did not often kneel to offer his prayers but would, for example, say to God. "What will I do about this, Lord?" or "Give me a fresh insight on this, Lord." The second point in his formula of creative prayer is to "picturize." When either failure or success is picturized, it strongly tends to actualize in terms equivalent to the mental image pictured. So our prayer group continued to pray for the Belize mission team to surrender to their picture of God's will - and we put it in God's able hands to direct them and care for them - and to help them feel and know God's guidance. I have tried to follow these three steps, in this prayer method and found great power in it. Others have likewise reported that it released creative powers in their prayer experiences too. I was blessed by many who joined our group and who shared our prayers to so any others - out side the walls of St. Clement. The biggest blessing was so many people admitted that they had forgotten how to pray and this prayer group had given them hope and they had started to pray again - daily. We as a group met online daily and centered our thinking on God; we prayed for a positive future for our mission team; and most importantly become prayer-active - prayer partners for them. And thus through e-mail our prayer group was formed - some of God's great people used this method and actually used it to get some pretty astonishing results. Amen!! Our St. Clement's Belize (very Supportive) Prayer Group's thoughts they shared... Humor is a prelude to faith, and laughter is the beginning of prayer....accomplishments have no color. Prayer is a tool given to us by God. Prayer for a purpose in numbers does wonders to all who pray. Prayers have been heard around the world since 9/11. Shortly before the departure of the Belize Mission, each member asked a fellow parishioner who was not going on the trip to be a Prayer Partner. It was a great honor to be a prayer partner for Matthew Ziegler. Matthew and I have known each other for his whole life so it had another special meaning. Each day as I said my prayers I prayed for the whole group individually. Then I prayed for Matthew, that he would learn how to be Jesus to people different from him and in much need. Since the return of the group I feel our prayers were with them every day and their prayers were with us. Let's send another group to be the hands of Christ for us. |
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1701 QUAKER LANE ALEXANDRIA, VA 22302-2398 PHONE: (703) 998-6166 FAX: (703) 998-3068
The Rev. John D. Hortum, Rector
Copyright 2007 by The Church of Saint Clement. All rights reserved.