better late than never, i guess...

Well, I finally got my blog up and running. It’s about time too. We’ll see how long it lasts, though. I tend to get bored with things like this. You guy won’t, I promise. I’ll always have something exciting going on. More exciting than you, anyway.
I’m not going to retell everything from the very beginning of the trip, but I’ll give you a little bit of background information. My name is Meghan van Hoeve; I am 16 years old and in grade 11 at Hamilton District Christian High. I’m now an international co-op student spending 3 months in Belmopan, Belize, Central America. I left for Belize very early in the morning on Thursday, March 1st, and will be staying here until June 1st. So that’s my general life story, although most of you already knew that.
Highlights of the trip so far include finally arriving at YWAM (Youth With A Mission) Belize at 3 am on March 2nd, checking out my first placement, going snorkeling at Southwater Caye on the second Saturday of the trip, getting a tan, and watching La Ruta Maya River Challenge (a giant long-weekend canoe race).
My day-to-day includes living during the week in the home of a Mennonite family – the Hein’s – at the Spanish Lookout Mennonite Community and working at Jireh Fundamental Education, which is a Mennonite school for low-income families. On weekends, I go back to the base to refresh, reconnect, and learn to appreciate the good things about my host family – the good food, the bedroom with only two people in it, the big house that doesn’t have 20+ people living there… it’s a good life. But now I will skip ahead to what happened this past weekend.
Friday afternoon, the five people stationed for their placements at Spanish Lookout gathered at Western Dairies, which is the place where all the milk from all the cows comes together to be processed, and often made into ice cream. They have the best ice cream around, it’s delicious. We hung around and talked for a while when finally the bus pulled up, we hopped on and trucked back to the base. (When I say "the base" it means the YWAM base which is our mission base while we’re here.) We didn’t really do anything on Friday night as everyone was just relieved to be back.
Saturday was an early morning for no particular reason. It’s like that at the base. We left at 10ish to go to the Blue Hole National Park. The Blue Hole is a natural spring and all the water comes out of it looking all bright blue and stuff. It’s really something to see. First we went caving, and Israel, our guide, let us go swimming in the cave. Since I’ve been caving lots of times before, I felt somehow very fearless, and I was the first one in the water. I kept up with all the guys at the front of the pack, exploring deeper into the cave. I got made fun of a lot because of my height (or lack thereof – but what’s unusual about that?) but I still kept up. After swimming there, we hopped on the bus and went to the actual spring, which was really cool. Maybe not as cool as swimming through cold spring water in a pitch black cave, but it was still decent.
Saturday night was an eventful evening. I was outside attempting to play some football with a couple of guys when I got my tailbone all bruised. I saw the ball sitting alone in the middle of the field and ran for it. Nathaniel and Stan also ran for it. I was cutting up grass, so Stan pulled out because he knew he couldn’t beat me. Nathaniel didn’t, though, and as both of us were reaching for the ball, we collided. I went flying and landed flat on my arse, bruising my tailbone, pulling a muscle in my neck, smashing my head on the ground and getting a fat lip in the meantime. Don’t ever play chicken with me, because you’ll have to deal with the guilt of hurting me.
Sunday was easily the most amazing day of my life. It was so incredibly powerful. I feel like a completely different person than I was when I left Canada. Actually, it builds from the previous Sunday, so I’ll tell you a little bit about that. There was a small youth conference going on at the base called Legacy, and the worship services were really awesome. It was real worship – of the Pentecostal type, actually. Never, until that night, did I ever feel so close to the Lord. I could close my eyes and feel the room and the people around me melt away until it was just me, standing before God, giving Him my everything. It was as if I was evaporating directly into His Will and His purpose for me. This Sunday night, though, was just as powerful. We went to the church of Kathy Macdonald, who works at the base and has been working tirelessly for our program, even though she wasn’t there. The service was in the kitchen at the home of the pastor, but people spilled over into the hallway, the living room, and the front porch. We started with music, and it was amazing. I was clapping, dancing and praising right from the very beginning. After the message (which was given not by the pastor, but by his wife) we had a few more songs, which gave way to moving up to the front of the room where the pastor prayed for many of us. I was reluctant to go up at first, but I felt drawn to the front when he prayed for my friend. When he put his hand on my forehead and began to pray for me, I was already sobbing, and it was only the hands of all my friends on my arms and shoulders that kept my knees from buckling and me from hitting the floor. It was the most powerful and moving experience of my life, and very few people from our team left the service without being moved in some way.
That’s really all that happened, but it sure was a lot. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I hope for Ben Verkerk’s sake that he’s not the only one commenting on it. Now really, what’s up with that? It’s a sorry effort from all of you (except you, Ben). But seriously, it would really rock if I got some feedback from some people; I get rather bored with the very exclusive youth group here in Mennonite land. I’m very much on the outside, so there aren’t many people to talk to on weeknights. Anyway, peace out, homeslices.
P.S. Here’s my email so you guys can email me and tell me how much you miss me/wish you were here with me instead of missing out on this awesome experience.
puppyduck2@hotmail.com