Ministry with Belize

Francis Wilson and her husband Vernon are missionaries from National Episcopal Church serving in Belize. Vernon is a retired jeweler who is now teaching design and production of jewelry in the Belize prison. Francis serves as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Anglican Diocese of Belize. They have taken on the additional daunting task of championing the building and operation of a new primary school that opened September 2006 on Ambergris Caye.

Manakin Episcopal Church has adopted Holy Cross Anglican School as its mission project as part of the Belize Companion Diocesan Mission in our Southern Diocese.

For those of you who do not know, Holy Cross Education Foundation was formed to help protect the long term viability of Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro, Belize. Operating costs were threatening the school’s very existence. In the past two and a half years, the Foundation has had two successful matching campaign fund raising events and aligned with Global Giving, a website organization that supports fund raising for environmentally sustaining projects. You can read about the campaign with Global Giving at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/electricity-to-500-students-in-belize/.

Manakin has supported Holy Cross School since its inception in 2006. The school has gone from a 3 room hut with 80 children who sat on the floor to an amazing campus that serves over 500 children who live in severe poverty. With grades pre-K through 8th, they have had 4 graduating classes with several students going on to high school. A high percentage of students depend on full scholarships, others contribute only a modest amount of tuition. The school addresses hunger with daily breakfast and lunch plus a multivitamin and snack. The students have access to the school clinic for basic immunizations, preventative health screening, health education and dental care. Costs associated with utilities, building maintenance, clean water and salaries have soared, compounded by the economic down turn that reduced donations. The school has persevered through the kindness of volunteers and their amazing accomplishments. Volunteer teams have continued to donate their time, talents and treasure when crises have arisen.