BUSH TRIPS YIELD FRUITAGE

Although Belize City and the largest towns in Belize were being worked thoroughly, rural territory was not being covered regularly. Early missionaries had made trips by boat to the southern towns, but later a road was built that connected the southern districts of Stann Creek and Toledo with the rest of the country. Then, early in 1971, the branch organized annual preaching excursions, called bush trips, to take the Kingdom message to the Mopan and Kekchi Maya in remote parts of the Belize rain forest.

Using rented vehicles and dugout canoes, the brothers and sisters were able to reach villages and towns from Dangriga to Punta Gorda and as far south as Barranco, near the border with Guatemala. Some trips were made by a group in a van accompanied by two to four motorcyclists. Each night they stopped at a different village, and during the day, while the larger group worked the village, the motorcyclists went in pairs up trails to isolated farms.

In the Punta Gorda area, the brothers backpacked from village to village. They often had to speak to the alcalde (chief) in the cabildo, the meeting place for the older men of the village, before preaching to the rest of the villagers.

“At one village,” relates missionary Reiner Thompson, “the brothers arrived when the men were in a meeting in the cabildo, discussing the procedure for the corn harvest. After the meeting, the men asked the brothers to sing a Kingdom song for them. The brothers were tired and hungry, and they did not have a songbook.” Brother Thompson adds, “They sang with all their hearts, much to the delight of the men.” In time, congregations were formed in Mango Creek and later in San Antonio, one of the largest Maya villages.

“Sometimes we walked between villages at night to keep up with our schedule,” explains Santiago Sosa. “We learned to walk in single file in the middle of the road, not at the sides, because the bushes along the road were sure to harbor snakes. We also learned to drink from a water vine when we were out of water.”

Sometimes the group was divided into twos or fours to preach in different parts of the village. Then, they all met up again in the evening. Two would stay behind to do the cooking. “That could be a disaster,” recalls Santiago with a chuckle, “because some didn’t really know how to cook. I remember looking at one meal and asking, ‘What is it?’ The cook said, ‘I don’t know, but it’s food.’ If the cook couldn’t identify the food, we thought we had better test it first on a skinny stray dog. But even the hungry dog wouldn’t eat it!”

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Bush Trips​—Preaching in the Rain Forest

“In March 1991, a group of 23 brothers and sisters from all over the country gathered at Punta Gorda for a ten-day preaching adventure in the depths of the rain forest,” relates Martha Simons. “Included in our load of clothing, blankets, and hammocks was literature in English, Spanish, and Kekchi. We also carried food, which included 200 journey cakes, or biscuits.

“The following morning we set out into a choppy sea in a wooden dugout, made by hollowing out a large ceiba (cotton) tree. At the village of Crique Sarco, we off-loaded and set up camp. As the brothers put up the hammocks, the sisters cooked one of our favorite dishes​—pigtail boilup—​a stew made from cassava, yams, green plantain, coconut, boiled eggs and, of course, a pig’s tail. Word got around that we had arrived, and soon a steady stream of Kekchi villagers stopped by to greet us. In this way we were able to witness to the entire village within two hours. That night, the brothers slept in hammocks underneath the police station, which was raised on stilts, while the sisters slept inside a thatched cabildo, the meeting place for the older men of the village.

“The next day we loaded up the boat again and went farther up the creek, which in some places was overgrown with mangrove roots that made it dark and eerie. After about half an hour, we disembarked and hiked another hour and a half through the bush to the village of Sundaywood. The people there were small with dark olive skin and straight black hair. Most of them were barefoot, and the women were dressed in native skirts and wore bead jewelry. The thatched-roof houses had dirt floors, no inner partitions, and no furniture, other than hammocks. To one side of the houses was a communal cooking hearth.

“The people were very friendly, and we found much interest. They were especially impressed with the fact that we had literature in Kekchi and could show them scriptures in our Kekchi Bibles.

“The next morning we were awakened by the roosters, forest birds, and howler monkeys. After a hearty breakfast, we made return visits on all those who had shown interest the day before. We started several Bible studies and encouraged all of them to continue studying on their own until we returned to study with them next year. Subsequent days followed a similar pattern as we penetrated deep into the rain forest to reach remote villages.

“After ten happy days in the forest, our minds went over the long distances we had traveled, the many villages we had reached, and all the people we had met. We prayed that Jehovah would protect the seeds of truth we had planted until we returned the following year. Our feet were sore, and our bodies were tired; but our hearts were overflowing with thankfulness to Jehovah for the joy of sharing in this year’s bush trip.”