The West Metro Rotary club had a special guest speaker recently – Pastor Victor Hernandez from Pun-ta Gorda, Belize.

He and his wife Sharon started a ministry there for people in the poorest part of Belize nearly 13 years ago.

Many of the residents are Mayan.

The story of how Toledo Faith Outreach Christian Center came about is an interesting one.

Victor was a businessman from Belize City when he went on a mission trip to Punta Gorda.

He recognized a great need for a church there.

Around that time, he read Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life.”

He began to see that he was not realizing God’s purpose for his life. He also knew that God was calling him to a new ministry.

As he prayed for guidance, God revealed to him that he was supposed to establish a church there in the Toledo district.

The church’s purpose would be to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the residents.

They planted the first church about 7 miles from Punta Gorda. It began with 12 members.

Later, Victor and Sharon would visit Punta Gorda looking for people who wanted a church to attend. Soon after, they started a bus ministry with her van to pick up people and take them to the little church.

And the church began to grow.

Today there are 275 adults and 60-80 children for children’s church. They have acquired 2 school busses and a 15-passenger van to transport people to and back from church.

Many of the people who attend are Mayan or K’iche.

The mission provides backpacks filled with school supplies at the beginning of school each year. There is a clothes closet ministry, a pastor training school on campus, and at Christmas they have a Happy Birthday Jesus party where the children receive gifts.

Though the non-denominational church has accomplished a lot for the community, they can always use more support. They have received help from short term mission teams from stateside churches.

They have now partnered with US Baptist Printing House in Iowa to bring in shipping containers twice a year. They are filled with books, and school supplies distributed to 250 churches countrywide.

The churches then distribute the items to local villagers.

One of the centerpiece activities of the ministry is baseball to spread the Gospel.

2 years ago Pastor Victor mentioned to Lexington County resident Sybil Jerralls that there were around 90 local kids who wanted to play baseball. Unfortunately, they had only 2 bats, 2 balls and 2 gloves.

That’s when the Lexington community and the Lexington County Blowfish jumped into action.

In a year’s time, they had collected over 300 pieces of equipment to send to Belize.

They played the first game on May 11, 2019.

There are currently 4 teams with 12 more waiting for equipment.

Pastor Victor says that baseball is ecumenical and brings diverse people together – Methodists, Catholics, K’iche people and Garifuna people.

Sports are a sort of universal language that break down many barriers.

Baseball has especially brought the young people together where they hear about Jesus and the Bible.

Interest in baseball in Belize continues to grow. Pastor Victor has received calls from all over Belize from people wanting baseball in their area. It is also bringing many young people to the church.

The future looks good for the church, too. They have outgrown the initial building and are starting construction on a facility that will accommodate 750 people.

The church will be the biggest in the country serving many single mothers, subsistence farmers and field workers. Currently there are few professional and business people among the church’s membership.

The church will also serve as a hurricane shelter and be a first responder location for disasters and flooding. In addition, they can provide a meal for school kids and a tutoring program for kids to help them learn to read.

The goal of the church is to empower people to take care of themselves. To that end, they are establishing a trade school in the new building, teaching sewing, computer science, auto mechanics, electronics and plumbing. And there are some programs for older citizens.

The Toledo Faith Outreach Christian Center is making a huge impact on one of the poorest parts of Belize.

To donate to the Baseball in Belize effort, contact Ralph Jarrells at 704-906-3622.