Servant Leadership

One of my greatest joys as I work in Belize is seeing God working through the lives of those around me. I wish I had the time to relate more incidents in this blog, but an instance several weeks ago was a particular blessing.

In January of this year, Clifford and a young married man from Big Falls, Julio Chub, were responsible for hosting a remarkable youth rally at Big Falls. As a result of this event, a number of young men in San Jose, Clifford’s home village, became interested in attending church. The next month, Clifford became the host of the Wednesday night services in San Jose, which the church board designated as a special service for young people. Of course, the adults are still present and active in the services, but it provides a special opportunity for the young people to participate in leading songs and sharing verses, while the messages are usually geared to encouraging the young people to follow God with their lives. 

The influence of Clifford’s life has quickly become evident as the young guys look up to him and rally around the services and other events. A recent outreach was a great example of Clifford’s leadership. He has been involved in a project to finish up the construction of the new church building in San Benito Poite, and it needed just a little more work on the plastering of the walls and sealing the windows. He invited the young men from his church to join him in this effort one morning. He set out early Wednesday morning in the pickup to meet the guys (who were travelling on the public transportation bus) at 5:15 by the junction. 

I travelled to Poite a little later on the motorcycle and was blessed by what I saw. 13 young men and the pastor (Clifford’s father) had come, at their own expense) to help Clifford with the project. These guys ranged in age from 13 to 20, and were all busy working. It was an impressive sight. Joyful laughter accompanied their diligent labors, all under the watchful eye of Clifford, who alternately lead by example and walked around encouraging the others in their labors. No one complained when he gave direction or made corrections. God has truly blessed him with an amazing set of leadership skills and integrity of character that has made him an inspiring leader for the younger guys. I came away that day with a sense of hope that God will raise up a new generation to seek and serve Him. My prayer is that they would take up the torch of truth and grow to know the Lord in greater ways than the generation before them.

A few pictures of the guys:

The Boss Man himself :)

The "German" work & witness team :)

 

Since much of the church building work here in Belize is done by Work and Witness teams, I was informed that this team was from Germany. They had great fun playing up the part, asking me questions as if they were newcomers to the area. The joyful spirits and diligent work was a delightful mix.