Episode 234

We are going back on the Mission field, this time with Missionary Bree Wiley. Bree believes God has called her to work with season missionaries to open and run a Christian school in the Central American country of Belize. Once deputation is compete and she has amassed full support, establishing the school will be her sole purpose and effort. Join us as we learn about her salvation testimony, God’s call on her life as an educator, and her conviction to share the gospel with the Belizean people. Belize has a rich history of the mixing of cultures through colonization, but more stark than that is the spiritual darkness that has persisted in the area for centuries, even. Who will go and tell them of the Savior? Bree has answered the call, seeking to minister not just to school children, but also to their families.

[Bree]

They took me to a Mayan ruin, and we got to hike to the very top of it. And at the top, you can see Guatemala and you can see the villages of Belize and just seeing all the potential that is there. And the Lord just said, Bree, look at all these villages that have children that need a good education that you could use for the gospel. And I said, Lord, here am I, I’ll come.

[Jay]

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG. And we’re attempting to remove barriers, so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

This is episode 234 of the Removing Barriers podcast. And this is the 29th in the series of On the Mission Field. And in this episode, we’ll be going on the mission field with missionary Bree Wiley to Belize. Bree, it is indeed a pleasure. Welcome to the Removing Barriers podcast.

[Bree]

Thank you so much. It is an honor to be a part.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely. Glad you can place us in your busy schedule.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things Removing Barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net slash donate. Removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

All right, so you’re going to Belize. Tell us about yourself, your family, your calling, whatever you feel comfortable sharing with the internet.

[Bree]

For sure. So I have grown up in a pastor’s home. So ministry has always been something that I have been accustomed to. I never really saw myself going on field. My brother and I, I have one sibling and we have served together in children’s ministry and in our bus route growing up. And I am fluent in American Sign Language. And so I thought that was mission field enough. Well, as a senior in high school, I ended up going to a Christian camp. And at the camp, the first night, the pastor asked me, just the teens, but it felt directed personally to me, how many of you have fears? And honestly, that question struck me quite hard. And then he said, how many of you have fears that you can touch? And then how many of you have fears that you can see in the unknown? And ultimately, I was a senior in high school. There were a lot of unknowns in my future of what was I going to do after Bible college? What was my whole goal? What was the Lord going to do for me? And I remember I stood up and he said, all right, I understand all of you have fears. And he said, how many of you, your fears are gonna keep you from serving God? And at that point, I remember I was under such deep conviction, the Lord basically said, Bree, what are you going to hold back from doing one day for me? And I said, Lord, if that means going to the mission field somewhere where it is scary and there are a bunch of unknowns, I’ll go. So I went to Bible college and I got my degree in elementary education. I was going to follow in the footsteps of my mom. Growing up, she was always teaching, and that was very impactful in my life. And so I wanted to be just like her. And so college, there weren’t really a lot of open doors for missionaries that were starting a school or any of that. And so I just started praying, Lord, I want you to prepare me if that means going to the mission field. And I asked him, I said, before I go to the mission field, would you please give me five years of experience teaching within the States before I go? Because I don’t want to be dead weight on a missionary. And so After Bible College, there was no open doors internationally. So I ended up heading to the state of Maryland, where I taught for two years. Well, I thought that was a mission field in and out of itself, because I was miles outside of the capital. And we were constantly going. We would pray on the Senate steps. We would go to Congress and pray for our Congress members. We were very active as a church doing that. So I said, wow, this might be all God was preparing me for. This was my mission field. Well, then after the two years teaching there, the Lord opened up another opportunity for me to move back to the state of Florida, where I ended up teaching at the same school that my mom was teaching at. And honestly, that was a dream come true. I never thought that would ever happen. And so just again, more preparation that the Lord was using. Well, my fifth year of teaching, I had a very rough year. Parents were not all together on my side. It was just altogether a rough year. And so I told my parents, I said, you know, I’m done. I can’t teach anymore. This is not worth the stress, the anxiety. I’m going to change degrees that I’m going to go to culinary school. And my dad said, okay, whoa, time out. He was like, you didn’t spend all these years training just to quit. He was like, let’s just talk through some decisions that you’ve made personally. And he said, what did you tell me right before you graduated college? And I said, well, I did ask the Lord for five years of experience. And he said, well, what year are you on? And I said, well, this is February of my fifth year of teaching. And he said, Bree, this might be trying God coming to your heart and saying it’s time. It’s time for you to move on. And I didn’t really think about it that way. I said, you know what, I need to pray about this. And so as I started praying about it, the very next morning, my uncle, who is my director of my missions agency, contacted me and said, hey, do you have plans this summer? I said, no, I’m just prepping for another year of school. And he said, well, we have a missionary family in Belize that is getting ready to open up a school. Would you be willing to go down and help them get curriculum and those types of things set. And I said, sure, I would love to do that. So I got in contact with a missionary family, but funny story, behind the scenes, we had been talking every year of Bible college. Really, they had been begging me to come down to Belize. And so I finally booked my trip and I went down for about two and a half, almost three weeks. And as soon as I landed at the airport, it was almost just a piece of understanding that I can’t even describe came over my heart. And it was just like the Lord said, Bree, this is it. This is what I’ve been prepping you for. And just serving with the missionaries and in conversation, it was unlike anything I had ever seen. And then really kind of the confirmation was right before we came home, they took me to a Mayan ruin. we got to hike to the very top of it. Now at the top you can see Guatemala and you can see the villages of Belize and just seeing all the potential that is there. And the Lord just said, Bree, look at all these villages that have children that need a good education that you could use for the gospel. And I said, Lord, here am I. I’ll come. And that was kind of, I can’t even describe that piece that I had over me. It was just, it was incredible.

[Jay]

That is so great. You said one thing that really piqued my interest. You said that initially there were no open doors for you in terms of educational opportunities on the missions field. And I wonder what your thoughts are about this because I’ve heard many people talk about how there are other unconventional means of missions. You could do medical missions, you can do, I hear some people talk about missions in flight having to do with that sort of thing and education. Do you think that’s something that perhaps churches are opening up more to, particularly in the independent fundamental baptist strain, do you think perhaps more creative and more non-conventional means of missions are something that they’re considering more now?

[Bree]

I do think as a whole, they are opening up more to the possibilities. There are still some that are closed off and not open to it. But as a group of independent fundamentalists, I do believe we are heading that direction of opening up. Because if we as the church don’t see ourselves as missionaries in our cities, how can we get the gospel abroad?

[Jay]

True, very true. Well, tell us, how long has the Lord known you? talked about being raised in a pastor’s home. Someone hearing that might think, oh, you know, well, she was kind of born saved. I’m sure Christians listening to the podcast wouldn’t think that, but when did you become saved? When did the Lord save you? How long has he known you? Tell us about your salvation testimony.

[Bree]

Yeah, absolutely. So when I was about nine years old, growing up in a pastor’s home, you hear the gospel a lot. And when I was very young, I think my parents told me maybe three or four, I remember it faintly going forward in a service and praying. asking Jesus to come into my heart. But as my parents started continuing and talking to me about it, okay, Bree, the next phase of this is baptism, following the Lord in believers baptism, I would be very, very lenient. I almost not angry, but very, very hesitant of I don’t really want to do that. I don’t want to get in front of people that’s not really my parents didn’t push me at all. And every year I remember as I got older, they continued to have these conversations with me. And I would always say, no, I’m not ready. Well, when I was nine years old, my dad was preaching through the book of Ruth and how Boaz is our kinsman redeemer. And he paralleled that to Jesus redeeming our souls. And I remember the Holy Spirit convicting me that night and said, Bree, Jesus wants to redeem you, but you’re not letting him. And so after service that night, it was a Sunday night in April of 2009, I went to my dad and I said, dad, I’m not saved. And he said, well, we should probably get that taken care of, shouldn’t we? And so we went to his office and he led me through the plan of salvation. And the next Sunday I actually got baptized. So it was one of those things that I was ready to take the first step of obedience after I had asked Jesus into my heart, but it wasn’t before that.

[MCG]

Amen.

So you are currently on deputation. Tell us how that process is going for you and what it is like to be a single young lady driving around the place on deputation.

[Bree]

So I am officially on full-time deputation. So with my trip to Belize last summer being so close to the school year, I returned home and basically started deputation and started my sixth year of teaching. And so I finished out this year as my last year and the deal with my administrator was in the spring I would be able to travel. So the spring has been very busy as I have been trying to to book my calendar and everything. I will say it has been a little bit more challenging than I thought it was going to be, but honestly just seeing God’s faithfulness through it and the encouragement that I have gotten from others has been huge, more than I ever could even imagine would it be. I am heading down to Belize because summer is a busy time for churches with camps and VBS so I will have no meetings throughout June and July but then I’ll come back and finish up hopefully Lord willing in August.

[Jay]

Great. Now the Lord has been preparing you all this time for Belize. And when you took a trip down there, it just immediately, he confirmed it in your spirit that this is where he wanted you to be. Me, when I hear Belize, I’m thinking beautiful beaches, vacation, just relaxation. But of course, I don’t know what the spiritual condition of the country is. Can you tell us what you know about Belize? Tell us where on the globe it is and what you might expect to be walking into.

[Bree]

Right, absolutely. So Belize is found on the North American continent. We are in Central America. And if you’re looking at a map, you can see the Gulf of Mexico and the little Yucatan Peninsula sticks out. Well, we are located directly below the Yucatan Peninsula. Our northern hemisphere touches Mexico, and then we are directly to the right of Guatemala. So my village, if you’re ever looking, we are in Bullet Tree Falls. and we are super close to the mountains that divide Belize from Guatemala. From our compound, our house, we can be across the mountains at about a half hour from Guatemala and Belize and all of that.

[Jay]

Awesome. Spoken like a true teacher because she explained it and in my mind, it crystallized exactly where it was on the map.

[Bree]

I get a lot of people asking me if we’re found in South America, so I learned to be as detailed as I can. Good.

[MCG]

Tell me about the capital city, the population, the people group. Dive a little bit deeper into that.

[Bree]

Right, absolutely. So, Belize, our capital city, back about 20 years ago was Belize City. But now, after a hurricane completely destroyed our capital, they changed it to what is called Belmopan. And it is one of the largest cities, second to Belize City. Our population is about 440 people so kind of small. We’re made-up of primarily Spanish and Creole groups and our main language is English so because we were a British colony we We were under the Commonwealth power of the queen. They made our English language very easy to understand because we have a lot of tourists come in. But in their homes and in their culture, you see a lot of the Latin American influences. They still speak Spanish. So in the schools, although it is English speaking, they’re still going to require one class a day in Spanish to hold on to those Latin American roots as well.

[Jay]

When you talk about Belize and Creole, I remember seeing a picture of, I can’t remember if it was a resort or what it was, but there were three signs, each of them in three different kinds of Creole. And my background, I both read and understand and can speak Haitian Creole and I was blown away that I was able to read all of those Creole signs and understand what was being said. So that says to me that in Belize’s history, of course, there was a mingling of cultures. Perhaps there was a, I’m not sure what the history is, but perhaps there was some sort of colonization going on, a mixing of peoples. Do you find that is the case and does that affect the population in terms of what they believe and the makeup group? I’m sure if that were the case, it does. What Can you tell us about that?

[Bree]

So from what my experience is, the Creole population stays to themselves and the Latin American Spanish group stays to themselves. So in my experience, our village that our main church is in where the missionaries have been the longest is Latin American. So you’re going to see a lot of typical Spanish looking people, although they’re not going to call themselves Spanish, they’re Belizean. We just started a church plant up in the next village over, and it is a Creole village. And you can totally see the culture shift just in the interaction of the people and in the children. It’s completely different just in one village over. So there is some integration to themselves, but they kind of do stay to themselves as well, just from my personal experience.

[Jay]

Okay. Does that also include their religious makeup? Can you tell us about the religious condition or the breakdown of the religious people in the country.

[Bree]

So any person that were to Google what is the religious state of Belize, it’s going to say that it is 40% Roman Catholic. Now for us in our village, the primary religion that we almost I don’t know if battle is the right terminology for that, but the one that has the most influence would be the Seventh-day Adventist. And they have gotten into the schools and have really… started a lot of their writing assignments, a lot of their science projects all have their religion just deep within it. And honestly, as I was talking to the missionaries that are down there that I’m going to be working with, they were telling me that through COVID, they started working with some of the kids with their homework and just keeping ministry going, even though church wasn’t really allowed to be having. And so as they were doing these writing assignments, it was explain this doctrinally. And they were like, we can’t tell you how to write this because we don’t agree with this. This is what the Bible says. And so they were able to use that as a witnessing opportunity. But the biggest battle that we face is just their form of doctrine that they’d even be able to spin it up a little bit to make it their own. So some of it is a little bit rich in the Mayan culture. So the Mayan calendar, the ruins. So their doctrine is not going to typically be what you would see in a Catholic church in the United States, but what they have made it to be Catholicism as well.

[MCG]

Oh, wow. How are you preparing yourself mentally to deal with the culture shift that you’re going to embark into in the next couple of weeks? You know, being an all-American girl going into Belize with to all cultural people and stuff like that. How are you doing that?

[Bree]

So honestly, I really haven’t thought through culture that much. I have talked to the missionaries down there a whole lot the last couple weeks. Okay, what do you want me to do? That way, if I feel like I’m prepared in my children’s lessons or discipleship that they want me involved in, I feel it will help me through culture as I’m interacting with the people. It won’t scare me as much. It will definitely be different. You know, there will not be a lot of American luxuries. Terminology of words is very different, but Honestly, I try not to think about it because then it scares me a little bit.

[Jay]

Let me ask you about this, something that you have a lot of experience in and you’re probably a little more prepared for is the teaching aspect. And so from what… what I understand, you are going to be practically running this school and you’re going to be making all of the decisions I imagine about curriculum and about everything, perhaps. Well, I imagine teachers would be joining you in that decision. But what I’m getting at is you’re stepping into a role that requires a lot of just wisdom and how to go ahead and put everything together. And I’m wondering if you’re serving in that particular capacity, How are you planning to make Christ and Christ crucified the preeminent thing that these children learn as well as them, of course, developing themselves intellectually and physically? I imagine you’re going to have to deal with those things as well. What do you hope to achieve in establishing this school, both for the children that you’re probably going to be ministering to and for the local children and things of that nature? I don’t know if I asked that question clearly enough for you you get what I’m getting at.

[Bree]

No, we’re good. So our biggest goal at the front, Belize has not done a very good job as a whole of educating their population. So even just in the assessment test of seeing where they can, I was talking, we have a 13 year old that can barely read on a second grade level. So having that foundation of people who know what they’re doing will be super important, but then emphasizing that even though they might struggle, still showing them love. And even when they start asking, why are you loving me? Why are you taking so much time to help me transition that into, well, I don’t just care about your education. I care about your future in heaven one day. And being able to have clear open doors of sharing the gospel and even just, you know what? I hope you have a great day because Jesus made it able for me to be here. And just having those little droplets of influence that could open up more opportunities for us to talk to them even for us to bring them into church, because if they see us in the early stages showing that we care, they’ll want to continue to come to church, they’ll want to come back to youth group, and then we can build those relationships even more of opening up doors of conversation for the gospel to be shared as well.

[MCG]

Amen.

A curious question going through my mind, I don’t have a whole lot of experience in Christian school, but I’ve been around Christian school some, and one of the Usually the big issues with Christian schools, maybe not so much in the state, but in other places, it will be laborers. Finding Christian teachers is always a big issue. Could you tell us more about the school? Where do you plan to find teachers? Because of course we don’t expect you to teach all the grades and all the classes.

[Bree]

Yeah, that would be a lot. So our first year, I am going to still be teaching, although I’ll be running the school. I told them as we were getting going, I don’t want to just run it. I want to still be involved. I want a classroom. There’s just that part of my heart is still there. So we have two young ladies that are here in the States that are just getting ready to graduate Bible College. So what we did was we drafted a letter and we sent it to all of the supporting churches that support our missionaries and basically said, if you have anybody that is willing to give us one year, we could use them and have them come in. Some of them might only have a teaching certificate. That’s okay. That’s able to be used in Belize, but some of them might be freshly graduating Bible college. They don’t know what they’re going to do yet. And it’s like, if you can give me one year I could use you for that one year and have them come in. So I have two girls that have promised one year, possibly two that will come down. One of them will be in kindergarten, one of them will be in first grade, but also not only ministering to students, but we have two Bolesian teachers that recently have gotten saved, walking with the Lord, and they have been working with the schools in their district. And when they found out we were opening up a Christian school, they immediately came to us and said, Would you please let us come and teach? And the missionary asked them, Why would you want to come and teach at our school? And they said, Because you teach Jesus. And having even that opportunity of someone of their own village joining us and being on board with what we’re doing is a huge accomplishment. So we don’t want to just be American teachers. We want to have the ability to offer the village teachers to come in and teach as well. So that’s actually one of my projects when I get there is we have not officially brought them on board. I’m going to be conducting interviews with them and talking with them and hearing their testimony to make sure that they line up with our vision for what the school offers. but that’s just another great opportunity that we have.

[Jay]

Incredible. Now, I know that you mentioned the teachers coming in and you also mentioned how in Belize… even though officially or at least on published sources, they would say that the country is Roman Catholic, but you’re really dealing with Adventist influence there as well. And I’m sure certain remnants of the Mayan culture. When you are interacting or perhaps when your students come in, do you find that you’re dealing with more of an Acts chapter 2 culture where people have a rough idea of who God is, what sin is, or is it more like an Acts 17 culture where they have no idea who God is or what sin is? you anticipate that you’re going to run into both in your ministry and in your work as a teacher.

[Bree]

Honestly, I think as I’ve sat and I’ve thought about this question. I think it’s going to be a little bit of both. I think depending on how the family interacts will determine on their viewpoint. Because the reason I say this is while I was down there, we hosted a vacation Bible school and we had 150 kids from the village show up at our church. which was great, great opportunities. But in my interaction with some of them, some of them are faithfully coming already to our church. They just wanted to come for the fun of it. Well, they already have the basic understanding of what sin is. But then you have other kids. that lives so far out, their parents don’t even want to go to church or they’re working on Sundays. And so they have no understanding of who Jesus is. They don’t even own a Bible in their house. But then you have those that are in the middle that have been so influenced by the different religions and the different influences that are in our village that they are very confused, almost who is this unknown God that we don’t know who you’re talking about because there’s been so much thrown at us that we don’t have an understanding of it. So I do believe that it’s kind of a mixture of both depending on their personal background.

[MCG]

Cool. Sounds quite interesting. All right. So tell me, what are some needs besides, you know, of course, laborers or teachers that if they should be filled, would make the task of you sharing the gospel in Belize easier?

[Bree]

So our biggest need right now is filling up our classrooms with the supplies that we need. That is kind of our biggest goal. We have a massive Amazon wishlist that we are trying to figure out. I’m bringing down a lot of my personal school supplies and then just figuring out material wise what we can use and what we’re not going to use this year of giving them that understanding Because again, we want to show them that we do know what we’re talking about, but then bringing in the gospel message as well and tying that in. So, you know, we’re always looking for people to come down. We do a lot of mission teams that come down and help us in the summer and they bring us supplies, which is always a huge encouragement when they do. But even just teams that bring down craft supplies or balls and letting the kids play with the balls, that just again helping us with our burden for these children.

[Jay]

And is there anything that you anticipate having to deal with that the church in the US is doing to make your job more difficult?

[Bree]

Not off the top of my head right now. Not to say that there won’t be more challenges that arise as I continue in my journey, but nothing off the top of my head right now.

[Jay]

Okay, great. I remember talking to interviewing one of our missionaries in the Middle East. And he talked about how the people in that country see America as Christianity. And whatever America does, that’s what Christianity is doing. And so. He finds that when he talks to people and they’ll say something like, oh, you Christians do this, that or the other, and he has to painstakingly explain, hey, America is one thing, Christianity is quite another. And so I didn’t know if perhaps the people in that country had the same misunderstanding, but I’m glad to hear that there’s nothing, at least right now, that you anticipate having to deal with.

[Bree]

Right, I do think a little bit, just because we are a huge tourist area, they look at Americans as just having a ton of money. And the fact that a missionary is coming down, well, that’s just gonna be a money source. No, not all Americans are rich, okay? And having them understand that just because you’re coming to church or gonna get saved does not mean that we’re just going to have free handouts. And I think that might be a little bit of our challenge of we’re going to love on you and we’re going to give you things, but it’s not just a free handout. We’re trying to work on building that relationship with these people so that they can know for sure that they’re going to have a home in heaven.

[Jay]

Awesome. Awesome.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely.

[Jay]

Yeah.

[MCG]

All right. You mentioned Amazon wishlist that you have. Is there a URL you can give the people that they can go to if they want to support you?

[Bree]

Yes, sir. Absolutely.

[Jay]

Tell us, what is it and where can folks go to access that wish list or whatever URL might be used to support you in this endeavor.

[Bree]

Right. So everything that we have, we are very active on our social media accounts. And so any person that looks up, whether it’s Beacon Baptist Missions or whether it’s my personal Breed of Belize, we have those accessed at the very top of our social media pages to where people can get in and be an influence there.

[MCG]

All right, cool. We should put those in the show notes as well.

[Bree]

Awesome.

[MCG]

All right. You’re listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. We’re sitting down with Bree Riley and she’s a missionary on her way to Belize. We’ll be right back.

[Jay]

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate. Removing barriers, a clear view of the cross.

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[MCG]

All right, Brree, let’s go into a little bit of a fun section and find out some of your favorites. Let’s start with your favorite scripture verse.

[Bree]

My favorite verse is 2 Corinthians 3:5 that says, not that we are sufficient as of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. And honestly, that has been a huge encouragement to me. It became my life verse in college as I was really finding out that he is everything that I need, but it has become even more of a truth since I started deputation. Even when I’m struggling and I am so tired, I cannot keep my eyes open anymore. He is everything that I need and much more.

[Jay]

Praise the Lord. What is your favorite historical biblical account?

[Bree]

So I would think anything of the king’s periods through first and second Samuel chronicles has always intrigued me. I still cannot get the kings straight in my head, but I think David’s reign is probably my favorite. Just watching the shepherd boy become a king and then watching him reign, even though he had his failures in his life, he still is remarkable.

[Jay]

That’s incredible.

[MCG]

What would you say is the most convicting scripture passage to you?

[Bree]

That was a really hard question. I would say probably one of the two, either 1 Thessalonians 5, where Paul is giving the church of Thessalonica their almost to-do list of pray without ceasing and everything gives thanks. And honestly, as a school teacher, sometimes it’s not always easy to give thanks or even pray over a situation because it could be tired or, you know, you’re dragging unsupportive roles, something of that sort. But having that, that always convicts me. But I think a parallel passage is Philippians 4, where Paul is just thanking the Church of Philippi for everything that they’ve done. And he just keeps reiterating so many times that in whatsoever state I am therewith, I’m going to be content. And whether I have it or whether I don’t have it, I’m still going to be happy in the situation that I And both of those have been super convicting in my heart.

[MCG]

Yeah, definitely.

[Jay]

Amen. What is the most comforting scripture verse for you?

[Bree]

I think probably, I don’t know if I can pinpoint just one, but whenever I’m having a sad day or an irritating day, I always find myself going to the Book of Psalms because there you can see so many of these psalmists going in and just crying their heart out to the Lord and you’re finding so many characteristics and reminders of who God is and the attributes of God. And even in their failures and in their weaknesses, you still find that God is faithful and he is powerful to be everything that you need.

[MCG]

Amen.

How about your favorite hymn of defeat?

[Bree]

Another hard question. Honestly, I love Great is Thy Faithfulness. Just the words of your hands have provided everything that I need. Especially as a single missionary, there are a lot of means, there’s not another provider, and yet God my Father is going to take care of everything that I need.

[MCG]

Amen.

[Jay]

Now the last question is, what is your favorite giant of the faith from the scriptures? And I suppose it could be the same as… King David that you mentioned from the Bible history, but if you have a different one.

[Bree]

So I would say David would probably be my hero. But second to that would be Moses. I think both of them are great leaders who had struggles in their life and even influences that were struggles as well, but yet God always was there to provide. And even in Moses’ uncirca, well, terrible outcome in his death where he wasn’t able to see the promised land, God was still faithful to him. And you can see Moses even recognizing God is still faithful, even though I failed him in this. So I think both of those could be my great heroes.

[Jay]

Awesome. Amen.

[MCG]

What would you say are some of the biggest barriers to the people of Belize?

[Bree]

I think their poverty and the state of their village would be they constantly are looking at what they have or what they don’t have. And I think overcoming that mentally is a huge obstacle.

[Jay]

How do you suppose those barriers can be removed? Do you think it’s the work of the missionary in terms of preaching the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts? Or is there something more that the church should be doing to help overcome those barriers?

[Bree]

I think that as the church is working and ministering to them and really showing them that even when we don’t have much, because we don’t have much, we can still be happy and joyful with what the Lord is giving us. So I think just showing them, building those relationships, but also having the foundation and the word of God are both very important.

[MCG]

Amen.

Bree, it was indeed a pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the Removing Barriers podcast.

[Bree]

Thank you so much. It was an honor being here.

[MCG]

Amen.

[Jay]

Thank you so much for listening to the Removing Barriers podcast. Make sure to rate us everywhere you listen to podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Stitcher. Removing Barriers, a clear view of the cross.

[MCG]

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us, to support this podcast, or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the Removing Barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.