Teachers In Service

I am not a teacher, nor do I play one on TV, so I'm not sure what fear and trembling, dread, or eye-rolling the term "in-service" normally evokes. 

For Elba and Linda (E&L), the 4s and 3s teachers, respectively at Little Lambs Lutheran Preschool in Valley of Peace, Belize, it was nerves. As soon as they met Bev and Eunice (B&E), two retired LCMS preschool "teachers in service" with 76+ years of classroom and consulting experience between them, the butterflies were gone. I don't think we could have found two more knowledgeable, thoughtful, encouraging individuals to lead an in-service workshop in anticipation of school starting 9/2. I had a front row seat. 

I arrived in Belize on a Saturday to host the team, however small, as well as "learn" Belize with my hostess hat on. Conversations sprinkled throughout my eight days on the ground point to spending a fair bit of time there in 2025 (during the dry season? pretty please?). 

Even this city girl can appreciate a view like this from the balcony from the "Upper Room" apartment I stayed in at Camp Concordia. 

My first Sunday, I tagged along with Pastors Herb Burch and Micah Wildauer, the whole Wildauer clan (pictured: 9 yr. old David), and a teeny gecko to Christ Lutheran Church in Seine Bight. 

Ice cream for dinner is always the answer. 

Monday was shopping day with missionary wife and mom Robin. I could get everything I'd need for teams at the closest thing Belize has to a supermarket chain, but the more economical, culturally sensitive thing to do is start at the supermarket, then go to the dairy for yogurt and cheese, the Mennonite bakery for fresh milk and meats, the wholesaler for eggs, the hut on the side of the road for homemade tortillas, the open air market for produce, and so on (bringing a cooler to keep the refrigerated things you get at the supermarket cold, of course). I feel like I'm ready to try it on my own next time. 

Tuesday afternoon, I drove myself to the airport to pick up B&E. When plans A, B, C, and D to grab lunch in Belize City all failed, we drove an hour to Belmopan for a go-to favorite. 

Wednesday through Saturday, we'd make the ~20 minute drive to Valley of Peace daily. It's an immigrant community founded in 1952, a year after Belize gained independence, and so named for what its original inhabitants were seeking when they fled civil war and gang violence in their home country. Linguistically, Little Lambs is a microcosm of the community with 2/19 students who speak English at home. Each school year begins in Spanish but slowly transitions to English, picking up momentum after Christmas.  

Pastor Micah opened Day 1 of the workshop with a devotion on Psalm 8: 

"Out of the mouth of babies and infants,

you have established strength because of your foes,

    to still the enemy and the avenger (v. 2)."

Any tour of Little Lambs must include the "chapel walk" the kids make 2x/wk to Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. 

B&E structured the workshop around the "Early Childhood Spiritual Nurture Series" of videos recently released by the Lutheran Education Association.

B&E had shipped SO. MUCH. STUFF. And there's more coming! L&E were a bit like a deer in the headlights, albeit a VERY grateful deer in the headlights. 

In a nutshell, Day 1 was all about a preschool's physical space and how to convey at a glance, to children and parents, that yours is a Christian facility where Jesus is at the center of everything. It got me thinking about my person, my car, and my home. How would someone who doesn't know me be able to tell that Christ is all in all in my life?

Enjoying dinner with the Flores family (Pastor Benjamin, Karina, Lukas, and Matheo). 

L&E's homework from Day 1 was to begin conceptualizing how they might work in classroom altars. THIS is what we walked into on Day 2!

Circle time! B&E demonstrated numerous techniques for teaching God's Word to small children - and reinforcing concepts throughout the week - by teaching one OT and one NT story each. 

Even science can be a tool for teaching Scriptural truths when you demonstrate how God separated the Red Sea like oil and water separate in a plastic bottle (with glitter and plastic sea creatures, of course). 

Celebrating Robin's birthday with Lebanese food. And more ice cream. 

Hey! That's my church in one of the Day 3 videos!

I could smell the Kool-Aid scented play-doh B&E taught L&E to make from the other room. 

We ordered lunch on workshop days from local vendors who run home-based businesses, supplementing Day 3's quesadillas with Chinese plums from Linda's sister's backyard. New to me!

What a treat to accompany Pastor Benjamin on a home visit to Pedrina, a hardworking mom to a son with disabilities. He broke down the following Sunday's Gospel reading on the Good Samaritan for her, using a comparison to man's fall into sin in Genesis that I'd never heard before. 

It was L&E's turn to synthesize everything they'd learned and teach one lesson each on Day 4. They sure earned their certificates, coming up with ideas even B&E wouldn't have thought of. 

Gang's all here for celebratory tamales.

Herb's wife Markie gave us a tour of her impressive garden before an authentic German supper that night. I'd like to be the first customer when this vanilla vine starts yielding vanilla beans she can make into homemade extract. 

She'd later blend this homegrown pineapple we picked with yogurt and a overripe banana for a sweet, creamy treat. 

A little night music on the verandah courtesy of the resident howler monkeys. 

And now...we play. My second Sunday, the team and I worshipped at Good Shepherd. 

After egg salad sandwiches at the Wildauers', it was off to Lamanai Chocolate. I live on an island known for its chocolate, but I've never seen flavored cacao nibs; we sampled at least a dozen flavors right off the bat. Then: a short walk to see how cacao and other native plants grow. Pictured: an allspice tree (I bought some allspice cacao nibs). 

Who knew you could eat cacao tree leaves when they're read? I mean, I'd make a salad of them. 

Cacao flowers, which always occur in pairs, only become cacao pods if pollinated within 24 hours. If not, they fall to the ground. 

On a hot day without much breeze, the manual bean to bar process begins by winnowing away the beans' tough skins with "modern wind."

Our guide mixed 100% pure cacao with honey, poured it into molds, and refrigerated it into bars for us to take home. 

She also mixed the same 100% pure cacao with water, honey, cane sugar, cinnamon, allspice, and a dash of Mayan hot pepper. Tastes even better from a calabash!

I FINALLY got a pupusa (a thick corn tortilla stuffed with you name it [pumpkin, in this case]) for dinner at one of the Wildauers' favorite places (thought ironically, not for pupusas). 

I have full confidence that if they learn nothing else (and oh, but they will!), each "little lamb" will move on from Little Lambs knowing Jesus loves him or her and died and rose so that he or she might live with Him in heaven forever. B&E posted in our joint WhatsApp group that with under a week left, they're praying for L&E and their students; you can, too!

Until next time, blessings in Christ!