Tag Archives: Church

Belize Blog 🌴

Unbelizable! Belize It or Not? Those were titles I considered for this short report on the fantastic spiritual adventure I just completed with six friends from Northwest Arkansas, January 3-9, 2026.

Unbelizable! Because of the ways we experienced God, the people we came to know, and the sights we saw.

Belize It or Not? Because initially there where just two college women and myself signed up for the trip, and I didn’t think we should go. But our mission leadership said, “Go for it!” And the two ministries we were going to serve said, “Come anyway. It will keep our relationship growing and God will use it.” Well, we’re back home now, in a snow storm with temperatures in the teens for a week, still processing what happened there. We became a team of seven, and God did all those things, “…Above all we could ask or think” (Eph 3:20).

Background

Our church community is an average size, and fairly young, but very mission minded. They envisioned and promoted this short term mission adventure to Belize in Central America. The thought was that not everyone can muster the time and financial resources necessary to go on our longer mission trips such as Malaysia and Uganda. Therefore we should provide opportunities for Harvest Community Church members who have it in their hearts to participate in the great commission by going to other nations and sharing the gospel and making disciples in a shorter and more accessible timeframe and place.

Let’s Go!

I co-led this adventure with a young couple, Colt & Taylor, from our church and community group. I’ve been on 20+ short term mission trips since my first to Burkina Faso, Africa, in 2002. But I’m encouraging the next generation to go and learn to lead them. I tell them often, “All you need is someone you know, and some place to go.” “The Holy Spirit will be with you to lead and guide and do the things He does.”

Our young team got it! We so bonded with the young pastor and his wife with their two young daughters and their community in Bella Vista, Belize, that we hated to leave and tell them good bye. The feeling was mutual and we all felt a loving, spiritual, and family bond that’s impossible to forge in three days, unless the Holy Spirit is working, or the wind is blowing among His people (John 3:8). I wrote a several-page, after-action report for our elders and leaders, but there isn’t space for that here. I only want to report that we went, and you should consider going yourself.

I’m giving a thumbnail sketch of our trip, along with some photos, and I’ll let those do the talking. Normally one wouldn’t visit two places on a short adventure like this. But we were led to do so from an earlier scouting trip to Belize in April 2025. I had made five trips to Belize with our church in Fort Smith, Arkansas, but that was more than a decade ago. So we were asking the Spirit to lead us to ministries we could support and people we could trust to allow our short term groups to do kingdom work there in the future.

Our first three days were in service to a small, growing, multigenerational church in southern Belize with lots of kids. Our second three days we served the discipleship ministry of a young couple from Northwest Arkansas, who intend to disciple Belizeans to disciple future generations of Belizeans. We were welcomed into their lives and saw the places they minister and their vision for a campus on the outskirts of the capital, Belmopan, high on a jungle mountain top. We ministered in area high schools, and were connected serendipitously with the East Texas Baptist University track team which was staying at the same camp where we lodged and had our meals.

There were so many opportunities for prayer, ministry, interactions, and friendship that we will be processing what happened for a long time with a sense of mystery, wonder, and joy.

During our ministry time, we visited the beach at Placencia to buy paint, for a brief swim, and to admire the beauty of Belize. We also visited a Mayan ruin near the Guatemala border, and ate some of the world’s best ice cream at a dairy owned by Mennonites, who produce most of Belize’s food in the community of Spanish Lookout. Most mission teams include a day of recreation and reflection to further enjoy a new culture and place, while meditating and talking about the experiences they’ve encountered–still fresh on their minds and hearts.

Go Ye Therefore…

I hope you’ll find a group who takes these kinds of adventures and go! We are blessed more than the people we go to serve. But they are blessed too, so it’s a win, win situation.

Also, you almost have to go away to get to know your friends in our day and time. It’s a bonding time with friends in your church community that you’ll always remember, and a fresh experience with God. You’ll discover, or rediscover, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand….” as Jesus frequently told us ( Matt 3:2, Matt 4:17, Mark 1:15). Adventure with purpose!

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“The godly people in the land are my true heroes! I take pleasure in them!” (Psalm 16:3 NLT)

“You have also given me the shield of Your salvation,
And Your right hand upholds me;
And Your gentleness makes me great.” (Psalm 18:35 NASB1995)

“Brethren, sons of Abraham’s family, and those among you who fear God, to us the message of this salvation has been sent.” (Acts 13:26)

“‘That the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
even all the Gentiles who bear my name,’
says the Lord, ‘who does these things’— things known from long ago.” (Acts 15:17-18 NIV)

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:19-20 NASB1995)

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Fun Photo from Xunantunich Mayan Ruins

College Girls Tell of Their Belize Experience

Belize 26 Short Story (Small Photo Collection)

Belize 26 Larger Story (Large Collection)

The Garden in Belize / Vision

Following Christ

H.D. McCarty — Following Christ

I attended my first board meeting this week of Ventures for Christ. The meeting was lead by the 92-year-old H.D. McCarty who is still leading the way in exalting Christ, pleasing Christ, and becoming like Christ — for the joy set before him and all who believe.

H.D. McCarty’s mind is razor sharp. His heart is ablaze with passion for the King and His flock. His vocal cords, and his ability to speak or communicate this reality and passion, are affected by the polio he experienced in his youth.

This week he assembled a group of men, spiritual and distinguished in their careers and lives, for lunch in order to exhort them to follow Christ in a disciplined, sacrificial, “lay down your life” way — the way of the cross.

All of the men are older. About half are in their 80s and about half are in their early 70s or late 60s. All are successful doctors, lawyers, businessman, bankers, even a rogue pilot, who could go their own way, so to speak, and live lives of relative ease.

Indeed, there was small talk before and during lunch at Noodles restaurant about golf courses, vacations, and health discussions typical of retirees. But there we sat, loving the one who called us together, admiring him, and wanting to be loyal to him to the end — and as devoted to his Lord as he is.

He shared a few things with us as best he could. His beautiful and precious daughter Karen joined for a brief time and helped us understand some of his utterances that were unclear. But his main focus was that we get to know each other, and love each other like he loved us individually. And that we all pledge ourselves anew to die to ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Christ, Who is worthy and still showing Himself to H.D. in his 90s as ever before and as never before. His name be praised.

He left us with three sheets of printed material to read and meditate upon, after holding up a book by Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest. He intimated the book was special to him among the hundreds he has read.

One sheet was selected scriptures, front and back, that expressed the spirit and vision of Ventures for Christ, his ministry moniker in this chapter of his life. The other two sheets were copies from the Chamber’s book for November 1 through November 3, with H.D.’s personal notes scribbled around some of the text with insight and feeling.

I think you could sum up this unlikely, unusual, and sacred meeting like this:

“Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things; give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of kings.” (William Merrill, 1911) Or in the words of Jesus of Nazareth, “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me (Matthew 16:24-26).

I wrote on the bottom of my copy, “if you don’t first pick up your cross, there is no need to follow.” This truth came to me in the moment and perhaps has been lost on our affluent culture with a lukewarm church in many quadrants. May the Lord help us. He will, IF we do what He says. Amen.

H.D. wants us to be points of light for others, and disciple them in the way of the cross. I found on his website where he expresses this sentiment and passion in his own words:

“We are all to be men and women sent from God.” II Corinthians 2:17b
Our Ventures for Christ Mandate
The Ventures ministry is our Spirit led attempt to shepherd as many Christians as the Lord might give us into a Cross Disciple life! Our efforts are aimed at those who hunger to be contented warriors for Christ. Our goal is to teach others to continuously practice thinking, feeling, and acting with the Mind of Christ. We must grasp and internalize the practical presence of the Godhead ─ our triune Creator, Redeemer, and Perfecter ─ and respond increasingly, urgently, and precisely to the mystery of our New Creation birth in Christ. This can be done as we bring His thoughts into our minutes and learn the empowerment of His perceptions and promises! We “capture” His Mind, then “embrace” His Heart, and then “sacrifice” for His Will!
Carrying the Savior’s Cross for our individual earth adventure begins with a passion to live out one’s life increasingly directed and consumed with the Mind of Christ.

Get to know H. D. McCarty — An interview with a curator of the Arkansas Air and Military Museum in Fayetteville, AR. [Photos above were taken in his office during this interview.]

A good many things could be said about H.D. McCarty, but to those who know and love him and have had their minds, souls, and spirits directed up to Christ by him, certainly these verses come to mind.

“From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history…” (Acts 17:26 NIV).

“Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation …” (Acts 13:36).

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:28-31).

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).

In my latest book, God Stays Near, there is a chapter called “Grey Eagles” about aging with the Lord. In the board’s estimation, H.D. is the grayest and the greatest we know. May our gracious God continue to be the wind beneath his wings.

Quickly approaching ninety-three, he’s working on a second book. His first came out last year, His Cross and Ours. It’s a needed word in our generation and culture.

Recent Ventures for Christ Board Meeting with H.D. McCarty