a Sunday afternoon...

It is Sunday afternoon. We just returned from having lunch with friends. Sundays can be nice and relaxing or very busy. There is the young marrieds' get together one Sunday out a month. It starts at 3pm and goes until 7pm. Then there is youth Sunday once a month. It starts at 2:30pm, goes till 5:30pm at which time everyone goes home for dinner and then comes back again at 7:30pm for an evening program. This Sunday is Friends and Fellowship...for anyone not in youth or young marrieds. They have, however, invited the young marrieds to join them this Sunday for games at the park, starting at 3:00pm.

Since Chris and I are young marrieds (you are considered such until you've been married for 10 years), and since we are helping with the youth group, we tend to go to both events. Today, we have decided to take it easy, rest, relax and get ready for the week ahead.

Being a grade 7 teacher, teaching my students proper grammar, I am suddenly noticing all the areas where I am using improper grammar in this blog and am hoping that no one else will notice :)

We have just finished our info prayer letter. Feel free to down load it (just below this update).

Another week of school starts tomorrow. More tests, quizzes, and homework. May the Lord give us strength that matches the energy of these kids.

-Cory

September Prayer Letter

The following prayer letter will be coming out in the mail in the next few weeks. For those of you who did not get it or want it early, here it is...

Download the full prayer letter with all the pictures here

I find that every year of my life seems to have a theme. This year one verse really stands out, “Leave your country, your people… and go to the land I will show you.” (Gen 12:1) Some say life is a journey; and like in this verse, it is a walk of faith, stepping out, not sure where we are going but knowing there is someone greater who walks with us.

It is interesting how God leads; take this year for example – at the beginning of the year Cory was working at a Christian Bookstore and Chris was making web pages for Trinity Western University. But a hand began to move us. At first we just heard about Belize and how there was a small school in the jungle just south of Mexico looking at being short 8 of it’s 12 teachers this fall. Something grew within us till we finally had to check it out. Little by little God kept confirming that this was where we were to be. So in faith we stepped out into the unknown in confidence that God would walk with us.

There is a joy in being involved in something supernatural – to have a sense that God has called you and there is a purpose for the steps you are on. It is kind of like how when I (Chris) was training my students to lead chapel for the younger grades I told them that God is already at work in those younger students lives and they have been invited to be part of the work of God. So Cory and I often pray, “Thank-you God for inviting us to do ministry with you today, show us where you want us to serve.” The interesting part is God was walking with these young people before we arrived and God will be the one walking with these young people long after we have left.

So why are we writing this letter? We would like to invite you to continue to walk with us. The amazing thing is that the God who is walking with us in Belize is the same God who walks with you in your city. The moment you enter into prayer with us the miles between us disappear and we walk together. In this way we can join hands and do this ministry together.

To support this we have created a web site called www.coryandchris.com where we are writing regularly of our stories and experiences here, of God’s answers to prayer and of urgent prayer requests. In addition we have included in this letter a prayer card that you can put on your fridge.

Thank-you for joining us in this ministry. – Chris and Cory Priebe

Continued....

Grade 8 teacher urgently needed - do you know of anyone!

The good news is we have 11 teachers working at the school now. The bad news is we are still missing a grade eight teacher. Leroy filled in for the first few weeks and one of the school board members has been filling in this week but it is really important to get a teacher in there who can guide the students through the year.

Would you be willing to help out or do you know of anyone that could come and help out? The qualifications are a person needs to be a growing Christian and able to teach from a home-school curriculum. If the person has a degree than that is wonderful but all they have is a servant heart and desire to teach then they could probably be used.

I am been emailing different Bible schools and Universities I am connected to and also tried to get a hold of a few Christian schools and ask if they had any applicants they did not have positions for this year.

If you know of anyone who might be a good match send them to http://www.authenticwalk.com/belize

If you can't think of anyone could you please join us in prayer for this one?

Thanks

Reflection on Love

An interesting thing happened the other day. It was during study period when my students were supposed to be studying. They came to me and asked if they could go to the store to get some icecream. Of course, it is study period so I asked how they were doing on their homework. I knew they had work to do in my Bible class because a Bible memory test was coming up quick so I told them if they memorized the passage for the quiz and said it to me 100% then they could go.

The next half hour was chaos. The students kept coming to me every 2 minutes and asking to quote their verse or complain about why they can't just go to the store. I admit (after sleeping on it) that my attitude was not very good. I got a bit annoyed and would not let them go until they got their verse down perfect without even pausing. I figured they should be studying. Sadly I watched the students become more and more frustrated and feeling like they want to just give up. Both sides were a little bit stubborn I think....

Anyhow I was praying about the whole thing that night and I started to realize I was not acting out of a Spirit of love but of frustration. The next day I had to humble myself and apologize to the class. They took it well and surprisingly they are studying more. Now I am praying for God's love to really pour through me and when I get frustrated I try to take a moment to just pray and find peace in God.

Of course, God loves to make His points clear so that same night I happened to bump into the pastor and we were talking about leadership. He said of himself, "People won't remember all that I said but they will remember who I was and if I loved them."

Speaking at Youth this Wednesday Night

Well we are over our colds now. Thanks for all your prayers.
Highlight for today was taking the high school down to the river for
PE canoeing class. Funniest part of today is I opened the windows to
cool down the house and the rain blew so hard and fast my bed sheets
got wet. Now Cory doesn't want to change them because it is my side
that is wet...

Tomorrow night (Wednesday) I am speaking to the young adults about
"Potential" It is part 3 of a 4 part series the youth leaders are
doing on "What does it mean to be a leader" in preperation for the
youth elections the first Sunday of October. I will be talking about
how God took clay which is nothing on it's own and breathed into it
just as he took David whom people thought was not much, and the
disiples whom people thought were not much, and you and me, well....
you know.... and breathed His spirit into them and they did amazing
things. Like them we need to offer ourselves as lump of clay into
God's hands and let Him form us and then breathe His power into us.

Thanks again for your prayers. Pray specifically that some of the
youth will feel called to leadership and rise to the challenge.
Blessings on you.

- Chris

Sick this week

Cory and I are sick this week. Looks like a strong head-cold, soar throat and perhaps flu is going through the community. Several of my students are sick too. Seems strange in that it is so hot here and yet you can still be sick, oh well. Please pray for Cory especially as she is really tired and we only have a substitute available on Tuesdays.

Chris

Leadership Training

At my seminary (ACTS seminary on Trinity Western Universities Campus) we are taught over and over again about leadership. I noticed a shift has actually happened in my life. I used to always focus my energy on teaching about holiness and leading seminars on how to live for God. Now I feel just as strong about leadership and training godly leaders (an integration of the two topics).

The youth group is having an election for 2 new youth leaders from the youth group. In preperation for this we are doing a four part study on what it means to be a leader to help the youth think through whom they want to elect and for those elected to think through what it means.

The four key topics are:

- Heart - Leader as a servant (John 13)
- Hands - Wise stewardship of the gifts we have been given (1 Cor 12; Rom 12; Eph 4)
- Life - Being a leader worth following (1 Cor 11:1, "Follow Me" statements)
- Feet - Stepping out and trying. (David, who although young and overlooked stepped out in faith, likewise we need to step past our fear with faith in God)

In addition to this I am working with the students in Bible class and teaching them how to do chapel for the younger grades. Our first chapel is next Wednesday Sept 7th.

Geckos in the Computer!

Since I have moved to Belize I have had about 6 requests to, "Please come over and fix my computer". I don't mind doing that but my passion is really to pass on what I have learnt to others. So I hosted a "Computer Repair Clinic" after school for my students where anyone could bring their sick computer and the students learn to fix it.

I invited my new friend, "Abe Dyck" who for many years has been fixing the computers in town but is now far too busy. So I let him take the show this week and he did great! He talked about hardware (I am more into software so I really learnt a lot). The biggest problems here have to do with the heat, humidity and dust. Most often all a computer needs is a good cleaning. We fixed two machines just by cleaning them out (including taking the video card and memory out and brushing off the cobwebs, dust and sometimes eggs from geckos or others). We learnt that a long beeeeep sound followed by a pause then another long beep means the memory is not working so take it out and clean it.

3 Other computers had fan problems. In two cases the fan was just burnt out. In the heat of Belize that means the CPU is overheating and when it does that it just stops until it cools down which means the computer just hangs and waits for the CPU to come back on. So we need to find new ones of those.

One fan we looked at was not spinning at all. It was on a computer nicknamed "Methusala" because it is so old (not to mention rusted because of all the humidity). After closer examination there was a gecko (small lizard in it). I wrote my friends who are in charge of technology at the leading Christian universities in North America about this one and the best suggestion was to put up a poster outside the computer advertising positions available as a stunt-double for the "Geico Gecko". Or just to put a screen over it.

Once again I left the pictures at school so I'll have to post the photo later.

Old Colony Service

We (most of us oversee teachers and the pastor from the Church here) went to Shipyard this morning. We had to get up just after 5am so we could be there when it started. It was really amazing to see all the horses and buggies all tied to posts in the Church parking lot. The ladies went to the south side and we went to the east side and stood at the door till someone invited us in. Then we took our seat on the wooden (no back) chairs. Everyone was dressed in coveralls with long-sleeve blue or dark shirts. All the straw hats were hung on nails about the pews (for the guys, the women kept their headcovering on).

We sang three songs out of an old high-german hymnal, each song was about half a page long and lasted 15 minutes. The singing was more in the form of chanting each word taking 5 seconds with a pause for the commas, etc where the song leader did a short solo. It was kind of neat in that it set an atmosphere of unity and consistency over the last 350 years. As the song continued to go on shall the faith through the generations (at least that was my reflection).

I could not understand any of the words in the song or sermon (both in high german) and unfortunately most of the people could not either (since they speak low-german) so I tried to pray for the church. Praying mostly that God would show me what to pray and praying that God would help the people to understand the words they are singing and the Word of God. The insight I had was, "You have to understand in order to serve", I mean understand these people until I can think from their perspective even if I do not agree with it.

When the sermon was over we sang the third song and then everyone immediately left. Two men stopped to talk to us (in English) outside and the preachers passed by and I made sure I shook their hand and thanked them with the little german I knew (they understood danke-shein)

From here we went to the contemperary EMMC church (planted by the one in Blue Creek). We spent a lot of time talking with the brothers there about their journey out of the old colony and how they were asked to leave for conducting Bible studies in their houses or having rubber on their tires. Surprisingly they seemed very loving to those who had ostrasized and forced them out. Instead of being bitter I sensed they were genuinly loving and praying for those in the old colony still.

This contemperary church sang some songs in English like "Jesus loves me" and some hymns in high german (all this high german is because low german was not written - at least not the Bible and hymnal till recently). Our pastor from Blue Creek was preaching on Habbakuk and that was in English.

Following this we had lunch at their pastors place and had a wonderful time of fellowship.

Please continue to pray for these two churches. One of the struggles for the old colony is they do not understand the words they sing and hear even when they are clearly the gospel so they are left only with a set of rules to obey or to be excommunicated. The new Church needs much prayer because they have been excommunicated from their family and friends so they cannot shop or visit and it is very hard to make a living and very lonely. For now there is only a handful of them but a huge number are just waiting till the time is right to make the switch. It is as if a revival looms on the horizon, may God breathe life anew!

Ministry in Shipyard this Sunday

Several of us teachers are going over to Shipyard (the old colony) this Sunday at 6am to attend the old colony service. Afterwards we are going to the Evangelical Church where Pastor Darryl (From Blue Creek) will be preaching.

Please pray that we will learn a great deal about the old colony culture tomorrow, that God would give us opportunities for ministry and that we could be a blessing on the new Church (the evangelical one) that our community has been helping to plant there.

To learn more about the old colony listen to this sermon I preached at AWANA camp a few Sundays ago.

Missionary Status Accepted

I got an email today from the EMMC Church saying that our status as missionaries has been accepted. Thank-you to everyone who has asked to support us, here is the information you will need.

Funds going toward our ministry should be sent to: EMMC, Box 52059,
Niakwa PO, Winnipeg, MB R2M 5P9.

All funds should be clearly designated toward "Blue Creek Linda Vista
teacher support" and "Chris and Cory Priebe" so that the deposit is made to the right
accounts.

Once again that you to everyone who has asked to support us. This is a huge blessing.

AWANA camp sermons are now online

I wrote a few weeks ago that I was working on putting all the sermons I did at AWANA camp online. It was kinda fun cause I was on a bus somewhere in Mexico working on my laptop as I converted the audio files to be web enabled. The challenge was then to figure out how to upload such big files a satellite internet connection that was hit by lighting just before we got here.

Oh well, here is the link. I pray that you will be blessed by these sermons even as I (and many campers) were blessed a few weeks ago.

http://www.authenticwalk.com/camp/sermons/

Listening to God's Voice all around me

It finally dawned on me, I should be sharing some of the amazing things God has been teaching me in class and what I am learning along with the students.

Well in Bible 11/12 class we are studing Genesis but the course begins with "The Bible" (which is a good place to start when you are talking about first things first). This week we learnt that God has two books - natural revelation (Creation) and special revelation (The Bible). In class I pointed to a large tree and asked the students what they can learn about God from that tree. I quoted A.W. Tozer who said to C.S.Lewis "Beyond this great oak with it's roots reaching deep into the earth and his arms stretched high into the heavens" (rough paraphrase) Likewse we too need to be rooted in God's Word and reaching up to God to pour into us.

I said, "Look at the sky, what do we learn there?" That it changes, it is vast, it is big and must have had a big vast God who loves rythme and beauty.

So I had all the students sit carefully in their chairs and take notice of what was around them and let God speak to them through it. For me, it was the breeze which blew through the door and past me in the hot morning air. Like that breeze I need the refreshing wind of the Spirit to keep me anew each day.

In the end my challenge to the students (and to myself) was this: Pay attention, God is all around wanting to speak to us.

How to Overcome SPAM!

Several people have been asking me how to overcome SPAM. With over 80 emails a day making it through my filter on YAHOO mail I figure I have some experience with it. Here are some of the lessons I have learnt (feel free to add your own tips below)

Here is my basic theory: "The primary reason why people get spam is because they gave away their email address to an untrustworthy source." In other words, spam is really the fault of the user (or his/her friends) and not the email provider. I have tested this theory by creating unused accounts and it seems to be true (except for a few small cases where spammers guess my email address because it is too simple like info@domain.com)

The problem is that if I never give my email address away it is completely useless to have an email address.

Here is my solution: Get 2 email addresses!

Primary email address: This is your email that you want to keep for life. Only give this away to your closest friends and family and those that have proved to you that you can trust them. As soon as enter this address on a web page or give it to one of those friends who send out one of those chain letters or mass mailers with everyones name in the TO or CC you have might as well kiss that address good-bye.

Secondary email address: Sign up for one of those free address at hotmail.com, yahoo.com or gmail.com. In fact I highly recommend gmail.com.

Use this secondary email address to book all your flights online, buy stuff online, sign-up for newsletters and give it to new friends. If that friend or organization proves reliable either let them know you have changed your email (give them your primary one) or if you are not sure yet set up a rule to forward email from that person to your primary.

Once this address becomes too full of spam then create up a new account. With your old account set up an auto-responder that says something like. "I am no longer using this account because of too much SPAM. Please try my new address at 'mynew dot name at-sign gmail dot com.'" (Of course you don't want to put your new email address as 'mynew.name@gmail.com' because all the spammers will get your auto-responder and add that address also to their records).

Turantula outside our door

[This post would be better with a Croc Hunter accent] Cory and I got home today and found a big old turantula on our sidewalk by our gas tank. The thing was huge, dangerous and having a bad day. I approached it with my camera and it reared up on me. But I pressed onand got some really good photos. (Stay tuned for the next part when I develop them on my computer)

Commissioned in Church Today

This morning all of us teachers were called up to the front of the Church and prayed for. It was a real blessing. Here are our teachers (left to right)

Phil (Highschool math and science)
Susie (Kindergarten)
Lisa (Grade 2)
Cory (my wife, Grade 7)
Chris (That's me, Highschool Bible and Computers)
Noelle (Grade 4)
Rebekah (High School History and Language)
Alicia (Grade 5)
Liz (Grade 2)
Jennifer (Grade 6)
Rosy (Grade 3)
and Pastor Darryl in the front

High-School Building Dedication

We cut the ribbon on the new high-school building today. Last year the grade 11's had to meet in the basement of the Church so all summer the school has been working on a second level on top of the middle school. Today the ribbon was cut and the keys were handed over to the school board.

Urgent Prayer: Grade 8 Teacher Needed

We received news this week that our grade 8 teacher will not be able to make it. Unfortunately he could not sell or rent his place and so called and said he would not be able to come. Classes start on Tuesday and so far we do not have a teacher for that place.

Please pray that we God will provide someone (either from abroad or locally) to teach.

Thanks

(If you know of anyone interested please send them to www.authenticwalk.com/belize )

I Know What I am Doing ... I Think!!

Lots of people have asked me, "So Chris, what are you going to be doing in Belize?" This has been hard to answer so far because the community had not decided on what they would want me to do. At first I applied to teach in the school but then the youth pastor resigned so they talked about using my gifts in that area.

I had a meeting with some of the school board yesterday and they shared how scheduling is really tight right now. We are still missing a grade 8 teacher and we don't have another teacher to teach all the electives I would be missing by working part-time. In contrast (and to my joy) the youth ministry is doing really well at this time with their volunteer leaders. It seemed best for all of us that I should teach full-time and then we will re-evalutate in January based on how the school and youth ministry are doing. So here is what I am doing.

8:00 - teach Bible Doctrines to a grade 9/10 split class
8:50 - teach Genesis to a grade 11/12 split class
9:40 - Recess
9:55 - Study Hall for grade 9's
10:45 - Computer Applications for grade 12 students
11:30 - lunch
12:30 - (another teacher will teach the Spanish and Automotive electives)
1:20 - Keyboarding 9/10 (Typing and Word-processing skills)
2:15 - Computer Applications for grade 11 students on Mon,Wed, Fri and Physical Education on Tues, and Thursday (so glad it is last period)
3:00 - Mark student work and prep for next day.

Cory is teaching grade 7 all subjects

Sunday night once a month is youth and we are volunteering to help.
Wednesday night is youth Bible Study every week
Friday night is games night with all the teacher and college and careers

We are also volunteering with the Church to help the youth leaders and at times the Church if they need some leadership develpment based on Cory's and mine's masters degree (although I still have 9 credits to go)

AWANA Camp Sermons Online

I had a hard time sleeping on the airplane and bus ride to Belize so I opened up my computer and converted the audio and powerpoints into a web page for the campers last week to download. I was so blessed and encouraged as I prepared and preached these sermons. I pray that God will bless you as well as you listen to them.

See http://www.authenticwalk.com/camp/sermons/ for the list of sermons and powerpoint slides available