CBC Colorado Sends Team to Belize

CBC Colorado recently sent a mission team to serve in Belize. (Click to enlarge)Craig and Tina Rumbley, Co-Directors of Charis Bible Institute (CBI) in Belize recently hosted a mission team from CBC Colorado. The nine-person team led by CBC instructors, Lawson and Barbara Perdue, spent a week with the Rumbleys ministering and sharing the unconditional love and grace of God with the people of the small Central American nation.

While on the ground in Belize, the team had the opportunity to minister in a variety of settings. They participated in door-to-door evangelism, hospital visitation, and visited an Evangelical elementary school as well as a youth hostel (a prison for teens). The CBC team shared the Gospel with elementary school children.
(Click to enlarge)In addition, the team was thrilled with the opportunity to minister at three churches, the Bible School, and on a secular radio station.

“Great seeds were planted during this trip. We saw walls come down that we have been working against and praying against for a long time. The students were such a blessing,” Tina explained.

One former Mennonite pastor, whom the Rumbleys have been working with for two years now, experienced a breakthrough in his legalistic mind-set while listening to the CBC students' testimonies and Lawson’s teaching on grace from the book of Galatians. He came forward at the end of the service to share his heart transformation. The team was able to minister to the children after the service. Here the boy in the orange stripes is receiving Christ as he prays with CBC student Mark Anthony. (Click to enlarge)“Hallelujah!” Tina said, “We had been telling this pastor the same thing for two years, but when Lawson spoke, his heart was softened and he repented! Praise God. We believe his church will grow in a new direction now!”

While at the youth hostel the CBC team ministered to teens charged with murder, theft, and rape; kids in desperate need of God’s unconditional love. The missionaries and the CBI-Belize students spent some time doing skits and sharing the Gospel, and then followed up their presentations with questions. If the kids were willing to answer the team's questions, they were rewarded with pens, pencils, notebooks, etc. The team had the opportunity to minister in a youth hostel (a prison for teens). There they saw the Word of God melt the hearts very troubled kids. (Click to enlarge)Following the group meeting, the prisoners were ministered to one-on-one, and some received Jesus as their Lord. Some of the teens were given Bibles, but many more were requested than the missionaries had available. Later in the week the team went back to the hostel to deliver Bibles for all who had asked for one.

A CBC-Colorado student named, Mary Jane, shared a highlight from her time at the youth hostel, where she was able to minister to a young man approximately seventeen-years-old. He shared an experience where he had been trying to get away from the police by swimming across an alligator infested canal. As he swam he realized he wasn't going to make it across, and he cried out, CBC students and team leader, Lawson (blue shirt) prayed for many during their visit to Belize. (Click to enlarge)“If there is a God, please save me!” The boy gained stregnth and energy and got across to the other side unharmed. He asked Mary if she thought it was truly God who saved him. As Mary ministered to him about the unconditional love of God, the young man decided he wanted to receive Jesus as His Savior and be baptized in the Holy Spirit. Praise God!

At the elementary school, another CBC-student, Mickey sat outside and ate lunch while the children played. A seven-year-old girl came and sat down next to him and smiled. Loice smiled back and prayed in tongues over the girl. Some of the young ladies at the elementary school. (Click to enlarge)When the bell rang to go inside, Loice told the little girl that Jesus loves her, and the girl hugged him and then ran off to her class. “There is a saying, ‘preach the Gospel, and if necessary, use words,’” Mickey said.

During door-to-door evangelism, Craig and several CBC Colorado students were able to pray for a very weak, sickly man. He lived in a small, dark and dirty shack and was lying on a bed made from a wooden shelf. The following Sunday, the man showed up at church with his mother, and he appeared to be much stronger and healthier.

The Belize trip was a fantastic display of God’s unconditional love. The CBC mission team, Craig and Tina and their students, were all abundantly blessed by sharing the nearly-too-good-to-be-true-news of the Gospel, and seeing the lives transformed by its power.