Happy New Year! 2024 started off with a bang here in Buena Vista as our Spanish neighbors love to shoot off firearms and fireworks to welcome in the New Year! We have received the first of this year’s volunteers with the arrival of John Debkowski and Wilf Skillings, from Canada. Wilf is working on installing three-phase electricity via a 75 KW propane generator, in the shop. He has tackled lots of smaller jobs too! Johnny traveled down in a convoy that Andy Jr had coming to Belize. Jr gave space in one of the vans for the CMTS Warehouse in Bernville to load up supplies for us. What a blessing to receive the items that were sent, including about 200 glass drinking goblets, in plastic storage trays. These will be loaned out for weddings and church banquets. Already, in February there is a wedding and a sweetheart banquet that will be using the glasses.
We are very grateful for the year-end donations that were received for projects here in Belize. The driveway was in need of maintenance. So we had three dump truck loads (17 yards each) of stone delivered. When the first load arrived, I (Nancy) operated the backhoe while Andy shoveled stone from the bucket into the many potholes. This was a first-time experience for me. Now I can cross that off of my bucket list! I am glad he had more experienced helpers when it came to applying the top coat of stone. The bigger projects are putting up a carport on the west end of the house, extending the existing front porch to meet the carport, and applying roofing paint to the original roof of the house. These improvements will help to make the house cooler and provide more room for hosting people. Culturally, when people visit here, they like to sit on your front porch, and it is usually cooler out there.
After a short break for Christmas, the men’s prayer breakfast is meeting again at 5:30 am on Tuesdays. Andy and I supply and prepare the food for this breakfast. It has been a great blessing for Andy to bond with these men from the nearby community and for them to see God working through their prayers. I have started going to a Tuesday night ladies’ Bible study. The women in this group are all moms with young children. It makes life interesting. I am still mentoring Greyvis and Priscilla Saravia, although the flu is going through both of their families.
My hip pain continues to worsen. I now have a date for my hip joint replacement surgery, April 16th at the Reading Hospital, in Pennsylvania. I have a plane ticket to travel up on March 23, so that I can take care of Pre-op clearances. Andy will join me later. We are looking forward to having Ron and Cindy Johnson for the first two weeks in February. Rosevelt Thomacin plans to return then also. Hopefully, the carport will go up and the porch will get underway.
We enjoy hearing from you. Your messages both big and small are a great encouragement to us. We are grateful for your prayer support and for those who give financially. May the Lord bless you and keep you!
Andy and Nancy Merrick