Preschool completed in Belize;
plan now to make trip in spring

The preschool has been finished in the Burial Grounds area of Belize City, Belize, Central America.The preschool has passed government inspection and is ready for students. Members of First Presbyterian Church helped build the church building next to the preschool and helped with the preschool as well! The church has grown as an active body of Christ and is now reaching out to this poorest of poor community to provide children here with a preschool. Also, about 50 people took refuge in the building during the two recent Hurricane threats.
During Spring Break 2008, March 15 -21, we will be looking for members of First Presbyterian Church who want to continue to join the work He is doing in Belize! This is exciting Stuff! Please contact Murray Gossett for this and other opportunities through FPC to impact the world for Jesus Christ!

Walter and Hazel Moody Habitat House Work began bright an early June 1 on the Walter and Hazel Moody Habitat House at 1516 N. Tyler. At the end of the first day, the walls were up and several trusses raised, despite showers that plagued the work early in the day. As of Monday, the house had the following installed: windows, exterior doors, shingles, air conditioning, exterior wrapping, rough plumbing and wiring. Volunteer participation has been great. The Lord is really blessing this home! We are still seeking financial donations of $3,360 to complete the work. Dedication of the Moody home will be at 2 p.m. June 10 at 1516 N. Tyler. For more photos of the project, please click here.

Rosa now makes quilts and sells them at the co-op to help provide for her family.

Made a difference

Co-op allows Belize women to support families

By Lori D'Atri
Special to The Chimes

When I first met Rosa, she came to one of our sewing clinics, and I watched her children. She lives in a rented box on stilts above a contaminated swamp. She has 12 children and faithfully brought the five who live with her to the meetings out of which the Burial Grounds church eventually grew.

I saw her each Spring Break. She and some of the other ladies from the church cooked lunches for our whole work group. Can you imagine cooking lunch for 30 people with one small stove in this house? Sometimes I would look at the conditions, the poverty, the obstacles the women faced and wonder what God was doing. What good can we ever do here?

Oh well, at least we can give the kids a nice memory of making crafts and hearing about Jesus at the loving (if sometimes chaotic) Vacation Bible School we conducted alongside the sewing clinic. The sewing was fun and gave the women a break. They got to know each other, and the community was strengthened.

A family from Lubbock who has come to Belize with us almost every year for the past 10 years, had a vision of creating a women's center where the women could work near their homes, continuing to take care of their children while providing for themselves. Seemed like a “pipe dream" to me.

Then, this year, I saw it happen. A group of eight women have set up this co-op. The U.S. women have “come alongside" them. Now, the Burial Grounds women, led by the pastor's wife, Carolyn Betson, opened their first bank account.

This March, I took Rosa to open a personal bank account. What a moment! To see that she'd earned enough to open a bank account was thrilling to me. The money came from the quilts she had sewn and sold. She had some extra to save — no longer living meal to meal.

Children's Home Compassion project Members of First Presbyterian Church till the soil for planting at the Children's Home. The project was part of Compassion Month, an initiative of FPC's deacons to offer members an opportunity to reflect God's love in the community. Participants in the gardening effort included: Cole Camp; Darrell, Nathan, and Hannah Gaddy; Bob Neely; Rohn and Vicki Butterfield; Jody Glover; and Kathy Morris. For more photos of the event, click here.

Beautification Compassion Project Deb Laur places flowers at grave sites in Llano Cemetery during a Compassion Project led by Deacon Elease Wood. Volunteers helped beautify the Whispering Pines cemetery section on behalf of families who are unable to visit their loved ones' final resting places. For more photos of the event, click here.

Dirty, nasty highly fulfilling work

By Marilou Guinn
Special to The Chimes

A group of FPC members had the opportunity to serve Lord during a mission trip to Louisiana over Spring Break. The people who went were: Mistie Bradley, Shawn Wood, Murray Gossett, Luke, Joy and Blair Gossett, Lexie Hodges, Lanie Douglas, Madeline Shaw, Marilou and Jamison Guinn, Doug Vermuelen, Ralph Sandoval and Ben Chavez. That includes nine 13-14-year-olds, who, by the way, did a fantastic job of gutting the houses.

We stayed at a church, sleeping on air mattresses, and showering in the FEMA shower trailers (what an experience, but we were clean).
We were assigned a duplex in the Ninth Ward, which was owned by a son and mother, who plan to rebuild if possible.

They had no insurance, so our help gave them the opportunity to at least eventually rebuild. We completely tore out the inside, including floors and ceilings, but the hard part was cleaning out all the contents, which had been submerged for several months, and then stripping the moldy wood out. We finished in three days of hard dirty labor,

We were then assigned a newer house, which was much less labor intensive, and we finished cleaning it out down to the studs in one day! We, of course by that time were very experienced in the art of gutting!

Everyone worked so hard, and we all learned that teamwork is essential, but mainly working for the Lord to help those in such need was such a blessing.
I would encourage anyone to help with a mission trip if at all possible, as it has been one of the most rewarding times of my life.

Extreme Heart Makeover: Trip changes member

By Steve Chaloupka
Special to The Chimes

I recently had the unique opportunity to participate in a mission trip to Mexico sponsored by First Presbyterian for high school and college kids.
Like most things in my life, what was intended as five days with my son Michael as bonding time before he ventures off to college in two short years, ended up being much more than I reckoned for.

I did have a fantastic time with Michael and will cherish it forever. It was great watching him give so freely in an environment far from his (and my) norm.
These five days were invaluable to both of us, and we will never forget the experience of father and son time.

I must go back, though, and tell you how bumpy the week prior to the mission trip went. I started questioning what I had gotten myself into.
What seemed in the beginning as a great idea of spending quality time with my son gave way to absolute fear.

Why a mission trip? I could spend quality time with my son in Vail snow skiing, on the beach at a resort in Virgin Gorda, BVI, golfing at Torrey Pines or traveling through Europe?

Five whole days with high school and college kids, sleeping in cramped quarters in a small church with sleeping bag and cot, learning to use the word “Dude" at least three times in every sentence, living around fellow missionaries who have had little opportunity for personal hygiene due to having only one shower for 30+ people, and the most frightening of them all, the one toilet for the guys and the one (very next door) toilet for the ladies.

To say the least, I tried to find every excuse in the world to back out of the trip at the last moment. At my age, why should I put myself into such an uncomfortable situation? Life is much too short for this sort of torture!

Well, with the help of my two sons, enlightenment from Barbara Howard and Tyson Taylor and the persistent encouragement of my wife Shelley, I did go with my son to Ciudad Juarez.

In my professional life I have seen many impoverished areas around the world, so upon arriving at the work site, I was not too surprised. I think it was a little more overwhelming for Michael, but I had mentally prepared for what I now was living.

Extremely meager means, many houses made from old discarded wood pallets, shacks with five to six people living in them at half the size of my bedroom back home, no bathrooms, trash and waste everywhere, stored water in plastic barrels with who knows what bacteria, germs and fungus lurking within.
All of this I was prepared for, but what I was not prepared for was the family that was receiving the house we were to build.

As mentioned previously, I have been exposed to many situations and through my professional training I can tackle most anything the corporate world wants to throw at me.

With that said, I was absolutely not prepared for how this family was about to change my life. Even though I never really specifically thought about the family of five prior to arriving at the job site, I knew I would not allow myself to get even remotely connected with them.

Gosh, I was way more concerned about being out of my comfort zone than I was for this family. Boy, does God have a way of changing one's thinking!
During our first day, the recipient family prepared lunch for our building team. It was totally unexpected, but something they wanted to do for us.
The food was great, and their hospitality was more than appreciated since they have virtually no money, and it is difficult logistically for them to acquire food.

Well, day two rolled around, and to my surprise, the family again prepared lunch for our building team. This time, I silently asked myself why they were doing this; we were there to help them?

Once again, their hospitality was beyond my comprehension. When day three came along, the family was out of money and out of food. Our team leader, Amy, gave the mother some money and told her that it was to replace the food their family had so graciously given the prior two days.
Amy explained that we had brought our lunches for that day, and we were there to help her family.

A few minutes later, the mother disappeared. She walked almost a mile to the highway, rode a bus to the nearest village, bought more food with the money given to her and returned to fix the granddaddy of all lunches for our building team.

When I saw this, all I could think of was The Widow's Offering in Mark 12:41-44. The widow had given only two small copper coins for an offering, whereas the rich people had given a small portion of their vast wealth. Jesus explained to the disciples that the widow's gift was far superior in God's eyes since she had given everything she had!

I have read the Mark 12:41-44 story countless times, but probably by choice never gave it a whole lot of consideration. But now I was witnessing the story first hand. This family gave everything they could give for us. I was witnessing Jesus' love in its purest form.

This is where I crossed the line; the line that separated my clouded and foggy view of Christ's true love because of all of the clutter in my life versus the uncluttered view this family has for our Lord.

Although they materially have virtually nothing, their focus on Jesus is far greater than any I have experienced before. I am now constantly reminded of Mark 10:25, when Jesus tells the rich man it is easier to pass a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to gain access to Heaven.

I now know I must channel my own love for Jesus, in the same manner as this precious family, in order to more clearly focus on Him. Well, I'm now back home in my comfortable lifestyle, enjoying the abundance I have been blessed with and writing my account of this five-day mission trip to Mexico.
What I will never forget though is the family in Juarez we built a house for and their pure and unconditional love for us.

All of my best laid plans, the mental preparations and the efforts to get out of going on this mission trip because it was making me uncomfortable was a thousand times overshadowed by God's plan and purpose for me.

I have learned a valuable lesson in allowing God to work through me and what happens if I take the “me" out of my plans and allow God to do His work through me.

I will never forget the precious family back in Juarez, and I pray for their well-being and happiness every day.
This family that gave everything to me in the name of Jesus!

Bob Neely and his daughter Elizabeth discuss the Habitat House project with Joe Wood.

House to be named in honor
of Walter and Hazel Moody

FPC is answering the call to reach out to the Amarillo Community by helping a hard-working family build their house this summer.
This house will be built in honor of Walter and Hazel Moody.

From June 1-9, members of our church will help a deserving family construct their beautiful new home. We will be working in conjunction with Amarillo Habitat for Humanity. We need your help!

Whether you are a skilled carpenter, painter, or want to be a “go-fer," we need you! Please consider spending a day or two or even the week at the construction site (1514 N. Tyler). The work will be hard and very rewarding. The fellowship is fantastic and the food is free!

Please sign up at the Habitat volunteer table in the Great Hall. If you have any questions, please call Bob Neely, 355-6658, Darryl Gaddy, 467-9342, Carol Burnett, 373-2771, or Steve Cowan, 353-0194.