St. Stephen's Episcopal Church - Edina, Minnesota

	Belize Mission - Holy Cross Anglican School

Over the last fews years youth and adults from St. Stephen's have been traveling to Belize to participate in mission work at Holy Cross Anglican School.

The Holy Cross Anglican School is in San Pedro, Belize. The school is located in an impoverished area on the island and educates over 500 children while providing food, clothing, medical and dental services. We all have gifts and talents to share and all members are welcome on these trips! If you are a professional doctor, dentist, builder or accountant, your gifts may be especially needed at the school.

On October 23^rd, 2010 Jim Bizal will be leading a team on another mission trip to Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro Belize. We have 5 men and women going so far and would like to get to 8 or 10, so please consider joining us on a life changing adventure to a school that is changing lives every day.

The Details:

Where: San Pedro, Belize on the island of Ambergris Caye www.ambergriscaye.com

When: Saturday October 23^rd to Sunday October 31^st

Cost: Approximately $2,100.00 (includes airfare, meals, all transportation, hotel, and donation to the school)

What will be happening: There will be construction, teaching in classrooms, painting, working in the library, working in the computer lab, and I am sure we will be working on a Halloween party this trip.

For further information contact the office.

Belize Mission Trip Summer 2009
By Jim Bizal

St. Stephens Episcopal church sent 15 people on an inter generational mission trip to Belize for 8 days in June. This was the fourth trip in 3 years for our church to this school and every trip has been a moving experience for all involved.

It was great to see the progress that has been made at the school. The computer room and library that we worked last year are up and completely functional. They had another church in the US donate 32 Dell computers to the lab and the library is filled with 15,000 books that all have been donated and brought to the school in everyone’s suitcases. In just 3 short years, the school has gone from 63 students to 524 and they graduated 25 this year. All those who graduated received full 1 year scholarships donations to high school from people just like you and me.

This year we worked on several smaller projects which included painting, building a cover work area to protect the crews from rain and sun, two much-appreciated soccer goals, and cleaning and organizing the tool room.

I think the moment that hit us all the hardest this year, was when Francis Wilson who with her husband Vernon run the school, took the group on a tour of San Mateo. This is the small village where a large amount of the students who attend the school live. We saw first hand the living conditions and how children are disciplined, but the school is changing so much for these families.
Everyone who supports these trips can be very proud of what we are doing to help Holy Cross. Through our trips we have formed friendships that will last well into the future and changed many lives along the way. If you would like to learn more about the school or our trips, please visit www.holycrossbelize.org or contact me directly at jim.bizal@bizalbuilt.com.

Images of Belize Mission

St. Stephen the Martyr Episcopal Church