Hello everyone! As usual, the days have flown by! It hardly seems possible that Easter is two weeks away. Here in Belize, we have been busier than ever with all of our different ministries up and running. As mentioned in our last prayer letter, this year’s theme for our church is “My Faith and My Family.” We are focusing on teaching about the home, family, marriage, and child-rearing. We have seen some growth in the area of entire families attending church together. More men have been coming instead of just the wives and children. This is a huge step in the right direction.
Our school lunch program has grown. We are blessed to have new kids coming and inviting their friends. In our devotionals with them, I have been trying to emphasize salvation. Many of the children come over to the church to play even on the days when there is no planned activity. We are thankful for this opportunity to build relationships.
In January, we had our Teachers’ and Workers’ Training for all of our Sunday school teachers. Our children’s ministry has been growing. Praise God, we have added three new teachers. This allows us to have five different classes according to age. One very special blessing is that our daughter Alyssa is the new teacher for the four- and five-year-olds. She is 14 and has displayed a love of teaching and the Bible. I started my first Sunday school class when I was 14, so it’s a real joy to see our daughter do the same. Please pray for this ministry; pray that many more children would attend and that many more souls would be saved.
Our bimonthly Youth Rallies with other churches continues. In the February rally, we had around 90 teens together from 5 different churches. One of the goals is to start a Bible college to train these young people for the ministry. Please pray for that.
At the beginning of March, we had our annual Missions Conference. This year was amazing! We added 2 more missionaries, making a total of 15 supported missionaries. Our church worked hard to prepare food to sell from 5 different countries represented by our missionaries. Every plate of food was sold! Praise God! Many of our members are very poor but have a heart for missions. The last day of the conference, a young lady in our church was baptized.
It was mentioned in our last prayer letter about a sponsorship program for high school students here in Belize. Our hearts are thrilled to announce that we have received some positive feedback. Thank you to the individuals who have sponsored a student. Please continue to pray for wisdom in setting up the details of this program. There is still more need; if you would like to be a part, please email me at israelalvarez@fbmi.org.
We are honored to serve where God has placed us. Thank you for supporting us!
In Christ,
The Alvarez Family