We started off well here, meeting a number of believers.  However, we’re at a little disadvantage in Belize North because the vast majority of Belizeans up here speak Spanish (or maybe Creole) as a first language and English second.  They are not as anxious to improve their English as they are in Belize City (Bleece)   So, practically all of the church services up here are in Spanish.  The mix of believers is:

Roman Catholic     62%

Anglican               11%

Methodist               6%

Mennonite              4%

7^th Day  Advnt        3%

Other                   14%

Many of the church services are in the early morning or late afternoon, to avoid the mid-day heat.  It’s not incredibly hot, but if you’re dressed up for church, you’re going to sweat up your finery if you’re out past 10:30, eh?  People generally do dress for church.  (The older people dress to go out shopping or traveling, and the women carry a parasol or plain ol’ umbrella.) 

We had one fairly negative experience.  By chance, I met a Church of Christ evangelist at the hotel, and he told me that they had a Sunday morning service where he preached in English with a Spanish translator, and they sang familiar hymns from a Spanish songbook.  Of course, the CofC does everything “Acapulco” (a capella) so there is no organ, but the singing was good and lots of fun.  Great practice reading Spanish and singing familiar tunes.  The sermon was something else.

It seems that this evangelist is focusing on cults and the distinctives of the CofC.  He winds up sounding like the CofC is the only true faith.  Well, the local Seventh Day Adventists picked up on this and published an 8 page tract which attacks the Church of Christ.  So, our evangelist takes a page from this tract and systematically begins defending himself.  Of course, he’s concentrating on proving that he and the CofC are right, and the SDAs are wrong.  No focus on Christ, no Gospel to speak of.  He was preaching from the Bible, of course, but using selected verses to prove that, for instance, the Church of Christ is entitled to call itself THE Church “of Christ”.  His Bible references were right on, but his focus was way off.  The Spanish translator is great – I would love to see him translate a real gospel-preaching evangelist, but I’m afraid we won’t see it at that church.  Too bad. 

So, we are looking for another English service, or at least another English/Spanish one, and I’ll let you know how that goes.  Another weekend is coming up, and it’s the week after Easter, when attendance will be down, and they’ll be glad to see a new face.

Pray for us pilgrims here in this strange land,

 Rick & Charlotte

NEWER. (March 2010)  Well, someone read this and thought I was really down on the Church of Christ!   Please don't take this that way.  There are some evangelists who are so zealous that their zeal works negatively on people.   I was simply commenting on that.  In fact, we did find a wonderful church soon after I wrote this note.  (We had only been in country a couple of months when I wrote it.)   Please look here, and at other references to "church" and "Christ" that you can find when you search the site! 

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