May 2010

It has been quite a while since I have updated anyone on how Belize has been going. That is due mostly to the fact that this semester has been difficult in various ways. I think everything dramatically changed in my prayer life which then made everything else change as well. It's very easy to get caught up in the “busy”ness of life. With lesson plans, papers, tests, quizzes, homework, assignments, it can become very difficult to balance everything in the proper order. Thinking that I simply do not have enough time to really take time out of my day to pray. This resulted in more disorder, more stress, more negativity, gossip and I thought that the way to balance it out was to spend more time grading and preparing and then having more free time for myself, however, this was not the case. Only by spending time with the Orderer, Himself, can our life even begin to have any order.

I still made time for daily Mass, which for sure kept me afloat from sinking, but when it came to going into that inner sanctuary where our restless hearts can truly rest, I thought myself too busy with too many things to do. How foolish and stupid I have been. Here is one example: I'm a religion teacher and I have a curriculum of things I need to teach before the end of the year. At certain times, the campus minister has our class go to Adoration with our class cutting our teaching time in half. At times I would feel FRUSTRATED BY THIS?! What in the world am I thinking?! I thought “Dang it, we have adoration every other week and I don't know if I'll have enough time to teach everything that I want to.” HELLO! Where do I come up with such non-sense?! To think that I could teach something to these kids about Jesus that would be more important than spending time face-to-face with Him in the Blessed Sacrament?! How could I be so naïve? I realized that I was thinking as the world does and I realized that I was becoming like an ordinary teacher, but God does not desire ordinary people with ordinary jobs, but saints with vocations.

The only way we can become saints is by prayer which turns darkness into light, ordinary into extraordinary, human to divine. Without prayer, anything we do will not have any lasting presence. Despite my failings, I know that God has continued to work in and through me in various ways because even though I have said no to Him in so many ways, He has allowed my yes to come down here to Belize to re-echo throughout everything I do. There have been so many blessings of this semester. The blessing of Franciscan University coming down to spend time with my students, to teach them, to get to know them, and to pray with them. It was amazing to see my students get prayed over and have them reflect on their experience which for many of them was the first time anyone has ever prayed WITH them. I could see changes in them and I have continued to see changes in them. Easter down here is absolutely huge. Every single night of Holy Week there is a huge procession with “undes” which are huge floats that weigh a lot with either Jesus and Mary on top.

They process them throughout the town and pray. On Good Friday, the whole town participated in a Passion play and then that night there was a huge “unde” which was enormous. I believe it weighed 1 and a half tons and was carried throughout town by 200 men. On the streets throughout the town were “alframbas” which were carpets made of different color dyed sawdust with beautiful designs that took hours to be made only to be destroyed later that night by the procession of the “unde.”What was so encouraging was a student who told me “I have really begun to understand everything we do this week a lot more thanks to your class.”


Throughout this semester I had the opportunity to travel with the guys soccer team where they won a National Catholic tournament, that was a blast!


I also went to Antigua, Guatemala where I rode my first horse up a volcano and saw flowing lava.Yesterday was Fun Day, where we played sports with the students and competed against each other to try to win. There was a section where a bunch of people were dancing, and I, being my normal crazy self, began swing dancing in the middle with Ms. Iliana and I can honestly say I have never heard anything louder in my life. It was so funny because the students only see my “serious” side and when they saw that, they were so funny.

In fact, a student who I have been teaching since August, invited me to go to one of their ranches only after that. I thought that was funny. Over Easter break, a group of teachers and I went to Placencia, where I went snorkeling and saw a barracuda, a sea turtle, a sting ray, a spotted eagle ray, and others saw a nurse shark. It was pretty awesome. But nothing makes me happier than entering into my classroom and having students great me with a “hey Mr. Brokke!” “Maestro!” and a fist-pound. They are the coolest kids I have ever met and I love them with everything I am. I only desire that they know God and that somehow I have reflected His face to them. I only hope that somehow what I have taught them will bring them into that communion of intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that never ending burning Love that burns, yearns, and thirsts to spend time with them. I am continually amazed at their childlike innocence despite their situations. I have seen so much in one year than I ever could have imagined. Students that have been cutters, students involved in pot and alcohol, students that have been sexually active, students addicted to porn, a student that was attacked by a gang, a student that survived her parents trying to abort her, a student that is the result of incest, a student with cancer, students that have been involved with the occult and witchcraft, students that have been abandoned, students who's parents have died, a student who's father is a murderer, a student who has been raped, a student who once was kidnapped, students verbally abused by their parents, a student physically abused and the list goes on. But they are the most beautiful kids I have ever met and I love each and every single one of them, which is why I have decided to stay another year at the mission. I will be going home for the summer (June 12th) and then I will come back in August to teach another year at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I am very excited to be able to have this opportunity. There will also be a group of students trying to go to World Youth Day in Madrid 2011.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. But most of all, I would encourage you all to keep praying for the students but also to really keep praying for the teachers and their sanctity as well that we might be effective role models of holiness that will truly show them the face of Christ in our daily encounters with them. Thank you so much for your support throughout this year. I love you all and God bless you all!