Threads of Hope

The countdown begins.................... We leave on Friday January 4th at 9:57am. 
God willing we will be in Belize and setting up housekeeping and making preparations for classes to start on Monday. 

We appreciate your prayers and support.
Joe and Linda

Buena Vista

A good day sewing!

The ladies is Buena Vista were able to sew throughout the summer. 

 This beautiful little 
girl is Sophia the daughter of Ester.
Ester and Alba are the
two leaders of the group. Sophia is 3 months old! Check out the beautiful hair!

The ladies are making dresses for their daughters.
Their finished projects are getting better and better!
Most of the ladies can follow a pattern now. Whoo hoo!

We are looking forward to being back in Belize in January 2019. We will be taking serger machines for the sewing rooms. The machines will help give the finished projects a more professional look.


We asked that you keep us in your prayers as work on our plans for the 2019 trip.

Good morning!
Just to let you know we are getting things ready for our mission trip January 4th 2019. We have purchased our tickets, secured housing and are now looking a car rentals.

So many things happening since we left in April!

Los Tambos

Rose enjoysmaking dresses!

 Rose is in charge of the sewing room in Los Tambos. The major project that the ladies worked on was for school uniforms. They donated their time to make skirts, shirts and belts for the children at Los Tambos Government school.   

The sewing group was hired to make 
gowns for a neighboring school. Their 
first paying project. 




Our new sewing room in Los Tambos!! We now have a metal roof!
We no longer have the banana leaf roof that was home to geckos, spiders and snakes. Whoo Hoo!!!!

If you look close you can see the ladies in there working away.




Buena Vista

 

This little lady is Ester Guerra's youngest of 6 children. Her name is Ashley. She was born right after we left in April. Her moma has been busy sewing. The dress and the blanket are both made by Ester. Ester is one of two ladies that are in charge of the workroom in Buena Vista.

The valance one of the
projects the girls worked
on this summer.

Who doesn't like to make
pretty things for their house?
Or pretty draw string bags for
"stuff" 

How about dresses? Look at all those buttons down the front!!! They have learned so much! Now to refine the talent.

We plan to continue their education by adding serger machines to each of the sewing rooms. The machines have been donated and we will be taking them when we go in January.
We asked for your continuing prayers as we take the steps to follow in this mission. 

Proverbs 16:9 - We can make our plans but the
Lord leads our steps.

Happy Easter!

Sorry no pictures due to technical difficulties!

We have posted on Face Book some of the pictures from

our Friday Trip to Benque.

Today is Monday the 88th day of our trip and wrapping up all projects. We leave on Friday at noon and should arrive home about 8:00 pm. This week is a week of good byes and tears. Happy to be coming home but leaving everyone is hard. 

We are already making plans to be back next year, God Willing.

We are looking into more affordable housing and packing household items away for storage. 

Our experience has been amazing! 
So many wonderful memories of this trip.
God is so good!

I hope to be able to share more pictures once we are back in the states. 

March 21st Wednesday - Los Tambos

There was a lot happening that day! Coconut water tasting to holding babies and playing with the children. God is so good! The
children loved the team from Corryton! 

I was told that the Corryton GAs did a lot to prepare for this trip. Gathering fabrics and notions for the Threads of Hope ladies. They also sent beautiful hand made cards with pictures to all the ladies in the two groups. Thank you so much for the love you shared.

Thanks to Ms Rose and Mr David there were lots of coconuts to taste! 

Inside is good too, just a little more work.

 Here is Mr David using the machete to open the coconuts. It's amazing how he has all his fingers!

We have Nathaniel scooping out the inside of the coconut with a shell spoon. 

As you can see the children loved the balloons! AND the bubbles were a big hit too!

March 22, 2018
We now are in the 77th day of our trip. Next week we start to wrap things up. Only two more weeks and we will be home.                                          

We have been busy with many different projects. The girls from Los Tambos are finishing the uniform shirts and starting the skirts on Monday. Everyone has been working hard AND having fun.
The ladies from Buena Vista have finished a few small projects and are now working on a pattern for their skirts.

It's been HOT! I know all you people who just got another blessing of snow really don't want to hear that.


Joe has been working on small projects both at Los Tambos school and Buena Vista. It seems that the fence project has slowed down hopefully to pick up soon.

On Monday March 18th, the school had an appreciation assembly for Joe and I. We were entertained by a number of songs and
poems. It was pretty cool.

Ms Evelyn presented a certificate of appreciation for the things we do for the school and the community.

Ms Lily presented us with coffee mugs. 

Very nice mugs. 

Wednesday March 21st 

We had visitors!! Corryton Baptist Church Belize team came to visit the school they passed out beans and rice, helped in the sewing class and served the kids lunch! It was a great day! We sure enjoyed seeing Angela and meeting all the wonderful ladies on the team.  

Angela and her team collected things for Threads of Hope and brought it down to us. Four totes full of fabric, thread, needles, buttons and ribbon. 

JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS! WHOO HOO!

A very special thank you to the team for putting this all together for us. We appreciate it very much and we will put it to good use.

March 11, 2018 

Here we are in Buena Vista. Sewing on Tuesday and Thursday. 

The ladies are holding their quilted market bags that they just finished. LOTS of hard work!

After finishing the BIG project we decided to do something smaller. We made little clutch bags. That only took a day.

Tuesday we have another large project to finish and we will move on to making skirts for them from hand made patterns.

Right now they need to work on the look of the finished project. They are still on high speed wanting to finish which does not help the end product.

Our projects are set up so they continue to practice the basics that they need. Just handling fabric is a skill some have yet to learn.  They all have come a long way and I know that because they are breaking fewer needles. 

They all enjoy sewing. The ladies also realize the opportunity that they have been given so they look for ways to give back to others.

Here we are March 11th already!! Time is flying by! We still have a lot of work to do. The pictures below were taken this past week. 
Weather was a little warmer than normal but the cabana provides shade and allows a wonderful cool breeze. Only problems do occur.............it usually blows the pattern pieces all over but it is a small price to pay. Those who haven't been to Los Tambos this is the back of the school. I walked back to get a recording of the Howler Monkeys but the teachers were louder than the monkeys so we will try again next time.

This was our sewing group for this past week. We have two missing. We have sewing classes here every Monday and Wednesday, whether there is school or not. Life here does not revolve around sewing classes or school. The reality is that when there is work to do in the fields women and children go to help the husbands. This is bean picking time here in Belize and entire families hop on a pick up truck leave for the fields along with many others and work in the hot sun ALL day long. I have seen children 5 years old and women who are 7 months pregnant go to work. If they want to eat that is what they have to do. That part of it makes me very sad. But I do know that things are changing here and there is hope.  Life is getting better because the children are getting an education and getting better jobs. Everyday I see the young adults that I've known for 13 years working in stores and shops and that money goes back to help the family. It is a slow process but it is showing. Being here for three months has given me a lot to think about. 

Hi there!  It's been a while since our last blog just wanted to let you all know that we are still here and things are very busy. In the last week our internet has been down and we have had some computer issues too. It's amazing how life goes on even without technology.

Our main project in LosTambos is still the uniform fabrication and in Buena Vista we will start making uniforms on Thursday.  

We are now looking at the date that we will need to begin to wrap things up. It seems like we just got here. 

Someone said "snow" in Tennessee this weekend????
Hope it melts by April 6th.

We will catch up with some pictures this weekend.

February 26, 2018 - Los Tambos
Here we are..................Monday again. We are in Los Tambos and what a beautiful day!! Blue sky, cool start 63 degrees going up to 90 degrees. 

Today is the day that we start making uniforms. We have 5 ladies that are ready to roll! It was fun to show them what the machines can do. One of the machines has a button hole foot that does a really great job. I wish I would have had a picture of their faces when they saw how fast the machine sews on buttons. Think about this...................4 years ago most of these women had never even used a sewing machine. 


Mr Joe is the cutting out the uniforms which is helping out a lot. We can see what is being used and how much waste there is.  This is in between his projects at the school.   

 Ms Magdalena showing the first uniform shirt finished. Looks nice and VERY professional. Only 98 more to go. Off to a slow start today with  machine problems and electrical problems. We were up and running by about 11:30. They are also sewing on Tuesday and Wednesday. We are looking for things to go better. 

This young man is modeling the second uniform shirt. Pressed and ready to be bagged.

THE FERRY IS FINALLY OPEN!!! That means much shorter trips to San Ignacio.

February 24th and 25th, The week end came and went with the usual things. Market, a stop at the sewing machine repair shop, clean house, cooking for the week and church on Sunday. The weather was beautiful!!

February 23rd off to Belmopan to have our passports stamped for the last time before we leave the country. The trip included a hair cut for me and the French Bakery for Joe.

February  22nd Buena Vista
The girls are working away on their bags. We will be taking pictures on the 27th. We wanted all of them to be finished.

Everybody working away. This is one of my favorite pictures. A young lady of 16 years is showing an older lady of 46 years how to make banding. We have a diverse group but we are leaning how to work together and help one another.



AS OF FRIDAY WE HAVE ONLY 5 MORE WEEKS TO GET ALL THE LESSONS IN. IT SEEMS LIKE WE JUST GOT HERE! 


 

February 17th and 18th 2018
The weekend went fast. 
Rain stopped and things are drying out a little.
Sunday we were even able to make it to church.
The weekend ended with a beautiful sunset.

February 19th, Monday - Los Tambos

We are measuring children for uniforms and working on some of the market bags. Look at all those beautiful faces. 

After measuring approximately 100 children they began making the patterns for the shirts.
In the area we are in there are no patterns. All clothes are made by 

hand designed patterns.

The teachers invited us for lunch and Ms Evelyn brought homemade soup and we brought pineapple cobbler and apple pie.

I really enjoyed the soup it was delicious. However I have to admit I almost freaked out when I saw a chicken foot in the bottom of my soup bowl! YES, I SAID A CHICKEN FOOT!  We have been here for almost two months and I've seen a lot of things but I certainly wasn't ready for that. Next time I'm bringing the soup.

We had a great day! Very busy but we did accomplish a lot.

February 20th, 2018 - Buena Vista

Here we are and all the bags are in the finishing stages! Everyone working hard so they can finish and start the next project.

The girls are learning new techniques and loving it.  I'm  so happy that we are able to spend the time with them to really make progress.

Joe here - - - - -I figured I should add something to this BLOG so everyone didn't think I've spent all my time at the beach.  Mark has no classes on Fridays so we have been trying for 4 weeks to get a Friday without rain so we could paint Ms Juanita's house. Finally last Friday gave us a break and we spent the day painting. House is on 8 foot stilts so everything was on ladders...The house was built about 10 years ago and has never had a coat of paint - first coat soaked in like a sponge and the second coat did the job!!  Finished midafternoon and got cleaned up just in time for the neighborhood grilling party at McBride's.

There were close to 25 neighborhood friends at the party and a good time was had by all.  LeRoy and Mark did the grilling honors and did a fine job. What a mess of beef and chicken we had along with cobbler, pie, cake and ice cream.  No one went away hungry.

The hi-lite of the evening was a guest appearance by none other than LBJ himself.   Not really - it was our buddy BOSS - - - Andrew a long time friend of FCPC missions.

Today - February 19, 2018 at 2:52PM a historic event occurred at Los Tambos School...

The wires were strung and the meter installed and power was connected to the school.  Smiles and laughter all over the campus. Mr. Joel did the honor of flipping the switch for the first light.

WHAT A DAY!!!  

BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR A LONG TIME!!!!

Also today Mr Pedro and I worked to get the concrete poured for the posts for the iron gate to be installed as part of the fence project. Been dodging raindrops for the past couple weeks and have not worked on the fence a lot.   Mr. Pedro used an old technique to assure both sides of the gate approx 18 feet apart were perfectly level.  We used a 20+ feet of tubing filled with water  - when the water level settles at both ends of the tubing - it's level.  That's what you do in the bush with no string level and no transom.  Pretty wise old man!!!