sorry for the whole lot of no update...

Hello all!

I figured it was time for an update. It has been quite a while.

We are doing well out here. Long days are still in order... but are doing well. I (Blaine) was sick on the weekend, but recovered quickly. Melissa is beginning to feel a tingly feeling in the back of her throat, so please pray that she doesn't get sick.

School is full of absolutely hilarious moments and times that we would rather forget. We both have large classes and they are quite a handful. We do feel God blessing us out here. He is giving us strength, He is helping us to help others. There is definately a mission field even in a EMMC school. Pretty cool stuff. We are however looking for a new place to live. It feels like we have been wandering nomads for the last 3 months. There is a couple that is moving in to our place on the 18th of October, so we need to be out by then. We were going to move into a couples place that are going to Canada shortly, but they are waiting for paperwork for their adopted son to be completed. Like anything in Belize, it is not going very quick. So we'll see what will happen! Please pray that we will find something soon.

We have had a few tough situations here. One of the craziest things that happened in the last 2 weeks was a couple was found dead in their cistern after dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. I guess they the man had been cleaning out the cistern using a gas water pump inside the tank. When he collapsed, I guess the wife came and tried to help him, where she suffocated and died as well. They were about 30 years old. It was such a shock to the community. Blue Creek is about the size of Rosenort. The funeral was held on what would have been their 8th anniversary. They were buried in the clothes they wore for their wedding. It was such a beautiful funeral. One of the cooler ones I've ever been to. It was weird how it impacted me. I kept on imagining that I was at Grandma Eidse's funeral. It ended up being a type of closure for me on a totally different level. I don't know how to explain it all.

We would love to hear from you all. E-mail's are like pretty much the coolest things we get down here. I love to hear from back home! Oh, and thanks to whoever updates that pvchurch.ca site! It was cool for Melissa and I to see pictures of back home! Keep it up!

We love you and miss you all!

God bless you,
Blaine & Melissa Dueck

God protects Belize yet again...

We are praising the Lord for the sudden change in direction of Hurricane Felix. We are however still thinking and praying for those in Nicaragua and Honduras who got absolutely hammered by the HUGE storm. The eye was headed straight for central Belize and turned about 48 hours before hitting us. So all we got was a couple of feeder bands with decent wind and heavy rain. Nothing that we haven't seen before. So if you think of it, pray for those that are in the worst hit areas. It sounds pretty bad! Here is a story on the hurricane. GLOBAL ARTICLE

We continue to do well. School is becoming a real cool thing. God is showing us new things everyday. Our schedule is mostly getting up in the morning at about 6am, being at school by 7am and then starting school at 8am. We get home in the evening at 6pm or a little later usually. And then we shower, eat and go to sleep at around 9pm. During the week we don't have much of a life. haha! But somehow God gives us strength for it! He has been so good to us in the last 2 months as we undergo huge changes in plans! From a house being available to our decision to stay, God has been preparing the way ever since we started this transition. Praise God!

We would love to hear from you! Our e-mail address is bmdueck@hotmail.com... drop us a note! Also you can see pictures of our life at bmdueck.myphotoalbum.com.

God bless,
Blaine & Melissa Dueck

Hurricane Felix sets its sights on Belize...

So about 2 weeks ago we had a threat from what was called Hurricane Dean. This week we find a new threat that is supposed to, on its current track crash into the Belizean coast on Wednesday overnight. This one is going quite a bit south of what the last one did, so we are very concerned about it. It has jumped from yesterday morning being a Tropical Storm with winds of 30 or 40 MPH, to today being a Category 5 storm with winds of 165 MPH. Gusts were up to 200 MPH at about 7 o'clock. So we prepare again this week for the worst. If that hits here, it could do serious damage to everything. Corn crops are about 2 weeks from harvest, it is not good for the farmers. If winds like that hit here, buildings wouldn't stand a chance. Please just pray that somehow the storm would break up. We'll keep you updated on this storm.

Other than that, we have updated some pictures on the photo album site... click here if you want to be taken there.

We miss you all and hope to hear from all of you soon!

God bless,
Blaine & Melissa Dueck

Pictures of our lives!

Hello everyone!

Here is a link to a site that has pictures of our time here in Belize. We will update every so often.

bmdueck.myphotoalbum.com

I will also try and keep you updated on our teaching experience as well.

So far we have a week under our belts. Our week was very tiring and is getting quite a bit better as we go along. Keep praying! We are having a blast in our new jobs even if it is tiring. Getting streched all over the place!

God bless,
Blaine & Melissa

hurricane passes...

Hello all! An update on the hurricane that we expereienced on Tuesday morning. We barely got touched by the storm. All we had was wind. There was very little rain. A couple of trees on Melissa's parents yard blew down, but nothing that caused very much damage. We are very thankful it didn't do as much damage as they were predicting (although a very small part of me wanted to see a BIG storm). If only you could see that much power without damage to people and buildings. We travelled to Corozal which is on the border of Mexico and Belize. That town is in VERY bad shape. The further north we went the more damage there was. The jungle just looks like a tangled up mess, as well as many houses that look this way. Terrible damage.

We are on our last day here at the orphanage. Actually that isn't entirely true. We aren't at the orphanage today! We took the kids back to Blue Creek yesterday for a kind of "getaway"! So we have a bunch of kids staying at our house. (we just moved into this house on Wednesday night, FINALLY a place to call home) It has been so good for them to get out of there. They are totally different kids once they are out of the home. They have been nothing but a joy to have around and WAY easier to train, I believe. At the home everything has a 'negative' slant to it. If they are asked to do the dishes, they are FORCED to do the dishes. If they are told to go to bed, they are FORCED to go to bed. This is the way it has been for them. So it is good to see smiles on their faces as they help out. Today we'll go swimming with them, and go play at the park. Its really cool too, as they visit their friends that went out of the orphanage to a home in Blue Creek. They had a blast yesterday playing with those kids! Its been an exciting and tiring day and night so far.

Thank you so much for praying! Please pray for one thing in particular. Yesterday Melissa talked to Leslie (the person in charge of the home) and she said that the governement had come to tell her that she needed to shut down the home. It didn't have enough bathrooms for the number of kids, it didn't meet the many requirements they have for a home like this. Leslie was very discouraged. She wants to give these kids a better home but she just doesn't have the finances to build something new. She had asked the officials if they would give any government grant or anything, and they said no, its all on her own. WOW! So I think it is good that we are staying for a year. We want to help her out to find some sort of mission, that would be willing to consider taking over the home, helping us build a new home. So we'll see what happens! It would be terribly sad to see a place like this go down. We'll do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen!

Have a great day. Thank you for your e-mails! We love getting e-mails! We hope that God is blessing you daily!

God bless,
Blaine & Melissa Dueck

Hurricane Dean looms...

I want to ask you all to pray as Hurricane Dean approaches us. It should make landfall close to the Belize-Mexico border later today or early tomorrow morning (Tuesday morning). Right now it is a Category 4 Hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150MPH.

Please pray.

We are going in to the orphanage this morning to pick up our stuff as well as to see if they need any help there. Then we will come back to Blue Creek to help Mom and Dad prepare. It could be a doozy!

God bless,
Blaine & Melissa

pictures...

Well, we figured you might like to see some pictures. Here are a few of them. We will post more later.