It's only customary

One of the things that has never quite gone away is the feeling of "what would happen if they don't let me in" when we come into Belize.  My previous pastor taught me that no matter what I think or do when I come into Belize I will ALWAYS be a visitor.  I mentioned that to Mr. Jeff (who we are house sitting for) last night who is a 7 year veteran, all in Belize.  He couldn't agree more.  He said there's two types of expats here in Belize, (a) those who look at the customs and the culture and the way things are done in Belize and in frustration agree to it anyway or (b) those who whine and complain about how things are done here and wind up going back home after 2 years.

So, one of the things I learned when I shipped the first truck into Belize is that 45% of the GDP (economic activity) comes from the customs office.  Yeah, that's right, Customs.  If you plan on shipping in a big ticket item (like a truck) the duty tax comes in around $1,100 USD.  If you're doing it for the Lords work it's still $1,100 USD, but the money seems to fall out of the sky...thats a whole other story altogether.

Anyway, on the plane, they give you two forms to fill out (1) for Immigration, (2) for Customs.  One (1) is for each individual to fill out to document that you coming into the country (let's call it a ticket through Trump's future wall) that also will document WHEN YOU LEAVE.  I say that in bold (yelling), because if you have a dream of buying a one way ticket into Belize City International airport and deciding when the time is right to fly back home you will be held over, get to meet someone from The United States Embassy and then (oh joy) get to fly BACK HOME.  On the other hand, you can buy a one way ticket to Cancun, ride in a bus for 5 hours and cross the border just 3 miles away from where I'm typing and come in just fine on foot...go figure.  If you want justice, see paragraph 1.

The Customs form (2) applies to the entire family.  This is used by the fine folks at customs to determine how much cash you get to deposit in the window as you enter the country.  I've been dinged bigtime in the past for carrying toys and supplies for the children of Orange Walk who come to the conference, but another time I brought in a $350 Kitchen Aid mixer and didn't pay a dime.  It comes down to the customs officer you get, plain and simple.

All filled out and ready for the dance

So, we fly through immigration just fine.  They just want to know where you are staying and if they know where it is, they will sometimes play dumb and ask where it is.  You realize this AFTER you answer the question correctly about the community.  Every time we have come into Belize, we have stayed somewhere that does not have addresses, this time as well.  The officer was familiar with where we were staying, but asked "I've never heard of that place, where is it?"  After words, we joke and laugh and it's just a good time.  I've never had an immigration officer give me that "vibe" that they don't want us there, they truly are nice folks that make you feel welcome, they are just looking for bogus people entering their beautiful country, Belize doesn't want bogus people either.

Customs was a different story.  Typically I will claim $100 US worth of "stuff" worthy of duty tax.  Most times, I wind up paying $10 - $25.  Again, if you don't like it, see paragraph 1 in this blog post.  This time, I went to the speedy declaration line fully prepared to pay duty.  To back up just a minute, when we were laid over in Houston, my pastor put us on speaker phone so the entire church could say hi.  I asked for prayer that all 200 lbs of checked luggage plus carry on and backpack make it into the airport without issue and nothing gets broken.  Also, I asked for prayer to get through customs duty free.  Ok, so we are standing next in line and this big customs dude is raking these gringo's over the coals (medium well) right in front of me.  I'm fully prepared for him to do the same to me AND pour some of the Arthur Bryants Original BBQ sauce on us to make it a bit tastier.  As we eagerly wait our turn, someone taps me on the shoulder that another officer became free.  She was a sweet, very through customs officer who happened to be familiar with the BCE mission we were staying at (who were getting most of the goodies we planned to get dinged for) and who also happened to be from Corozal (2 1/2 hours away) where we were staying.  Yup, God answers prayer!  Duty free, that's me.

The passage in Hebrews Chapter 4:16 says "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."  This verse applies to all of us before and after repentance.  This is the verse that applies to the born again believer, like me, that when we finally come to the place of utter chaos in our lives (for me it was Feburary 15, 2002 at ~3:30 pm facing south at the grocery store in Bonner Springs with my favorite brother-in-law) and I asked Him (not my Brother-in-Law) to take control of my life because I screwed it up .  No I don't use that date for any special encryption in any passwords or cool user names, it's a date that's public that I will share given the right opportunity with anyone.  The passage also applies to our daily prayer life.  God loves us, and like the parent child relationship, God loves it when we boldly approach him with confidence in prayer.  Remember the first time you asked your mom or dad for the keys to the car?  Boldly we were saying, yes I can take that shiny piece of metal that is ~15% of the reason why you go to work each day and not roll it into the river.  God loves it when we ask for the spiritual keys to drive through life, but unlike this dad, He knows how it will turn out.