Truth, Teachers, and Snakes

How do you decide what is true? 

The past couple nights I haven't included our devotion time in the blog, but I decided that tonight was a pretty important one to touch on. As Christians, we must be incredibly cautious with who we allow ourselves to listen to and entrust with teaching us. We must constantly be checking what they say against the absolute truth in the Bible. Even if it is someone who isn't purposely trying to lead you astray, we must be watchful. 

The second point that Chan made in a tonight's video, was that we are all called to pass on our knowledge of the gospel. There will be some who are called to be Teachers (pastors, overseers, counselors, etc. ) but all of us are called to teach. We must be ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us. 

Church went really well today! I helped with the children's Sunday school, which was a combined class resulting in about forty young and very energetic kids. They behaved pretty well though. There was one little boy who latched onto me like I was his mother, wanting me to pick him up and hold him, he sat with me for the better part of the main church service. He was maybe seven years old at the most. Very cute, but very active! 

It's rained a lot again today. We took a trip to some botanical jungle gardens after lunch, and it cleared up enough for us to walk around and enjoy the scenery, but it rained the whole way there and the whole way back. It isn't the constant rain that we've had before though, so hopefully it won't be bad for VBS that starts tomorrow. Our program this year is centered around sports and outdoor games, mostly based on soccer. If it rains constantly, or starts thunderstorming, we're going to have to come up with a plan B pretty quickly! 

Funny story: tonight as we were about to go up for devotions with the girls, Jordan and Mark come running in saying that there's a snake coiled up right beside the sidewalk and really close to our team quarters. Now for those of you who are unfamiliar with Belizean wildlife, or think snakes are no big deal-- there are 63 different species of snakes in Belize, 9 of which are venomous, and the three that are the most potent are also the most aggressive. So when we heard 'snake' we all started to freak out to varying degrees. Someone mentioned throwing a rock at it to try and get it to move. We didn't have any rocks in the house, but we did have soccer balls, so we were planning on using that. Mark thought he should be the one to throw it, since he supposedly has the best aim and accuracy. Just as we were deciding who should be the thrower, Dave comes in and gives everyone a surprise--it's just a leaf. We all had a good laugh, Jordan and Mark were really embarrassed, and we all went up for devotions with the girls. 

Another good day passes, and we are now another day closer to the end of our trip. I try not to think about the leave-taking, but it's going to go very quickly from here on out.