Belize Mission Trip 2021

It was nearly the middle of May before I even heard they were coming. Professor John Peacock of Weimar University had been charged by his bosses with planning a mission trip for a group of students. He has planned dozens of mission trips in the past, but never in the midst of a pandemic, so he asked Mr. Ostap of Build and Restore International to help him. Mr. Ostap does dozens of trips every year. For weeks the two men called every location they could think of, including places where Weimar has gone year after year for decades, but everyone said “don’t come!” “Not now!” Or “Maybe,” only to cancel.

“Do we have a location yet?” was the habitual question at their weekly planning sessions, and Mr. Peacock could only hang his head. The number of students planning to go on the trip slowly dwindled as some lost hope. Finally, someone suggested Belize, and Mr. Peacock called Keila, who was still in Colombia finishing up MOVE’s spring session at Shilo (see last month’s newsletter).

“Yes, you can come!” Keila replied, fully expecting that she would be leaving any day for Belize and have enough time to make all the arrangements. That didn’t happen. She ended up arriving on May 14, three days ahead of the group.

Meanwhile, Mr. Peacock’s challenges were not over. Now that he finally had a place to go, administration began to backtrack. “Now really isn’t the time to go” they said. Mr. Peacock couldn’t believe his ears. “You asked me to plan this trip, and now that God has opened a door you’re telling us not to go?” Chagrined, the leadership backed down and told him to proceed. “I have never planned a trip on such short notice, and I hope to never do so again, the beleaguered professor said.

The group of 15 staff and students held a two-week crusade at the Tower Hill church, did four health expos, eye-glass clinics, visited, gave Bible studies, performed a concert, and put up the walls for the children’s division of the Louisville (pronounced Luis-Ville) village SDA church.

By Kody Kostenko