Holy Cross Anglican School was honored by a visit from the Rt. Rev. Philip Wright on Sunday, May 29th. Bishop Wright was here to administer the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist. The service was held at the Angel Nunez Auditorium at San Pedro High School. Eleven children were Baptized and nine students were Confirmed and made their First Communion. Those Confirmed were Isolene Bailey, Jovanni Campos, Kaira Chan, Reyna Chavez, Venancia Choc, Celia Edwards, Helen Palacio, Alba Trejo and Tamika Castro who left before the pictures were taken.
Holy Cross Anglican School rejoices with the eleven children who were Baptized and their families. We are also extremely proud of the students in our first Confirmation class. The Confirmands were prepared to receive the Sacrament by School Principal, Mrs. Grace Williams and Deacon Jan Lamb from St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Durham, NC who has been volunteering at the School since January 2010.
Bishop Wright presented copies of the New Testament to each family who had a child Baptized. In addition he gave Study Bibles and wooden Crosses to each student who was Confirmed. Many thanks to the staff members who prepared the auditorium for the service and everyone who made this such a special day!
Support Holy Cross Anglican School in San Pedro www.holycrossbelize.org
Richard Hess and Marcel Goneau, of Goneau-Hess Architectural design and construction here in San Pedro, have donated their time and expertise to make this happen for the school. They have also allowed the school to purchase all the materials to build this building at their cost.
This system is less expensive and quicker to build than a concrete building of the same size, which makes it very affordable. All future construction at Holy Cross Anglican School will be done using the SABS eco-friendly building system. For further information on this system please call Richard or Marcel at 667-7083.
Along with the actual building and the Aquatron Composting Toilet System, we are going to be building a state of the art water garden using UV lights to kill all bacteria and viruses as well as plants and limestone to purify the gray water from the school and toilets. This water then will be recycled and used to flush the toilets. The system has been designed by a volunteer in Minnesota who specializes in designing and installing water garden systems for the state of Minnesota.This will make our septic system the most advanced state of the art system in Central America. Holy Cross will keep the public updated on the building progress.
Ambergris Today
Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro Town
Ambergris Caye, Belize
Dear Friends, I hope you had a blessed and holy Easter and that now you're enjoying a beautiful Spring!. The students and staff here at Holy Cross definitely appreciated their two week Easter vacation. Many thanks to the volunteer team from St. Michael's, Raleigh, NC who provided a terrific Holy Week VBS to over 60 of our little ones and a Good Friday service for us all.
As always things are very busy at Holy Cross. To mention just a few....
* Our Standard VI students have taken the first part of their Primary School Exam (PSE) - Language Arts and Science. On May 4th they will take the second part - Math and Social Studies. Please send a few extra prayers their way. I hope Holy Cross will soon lead the nation of Belize in passing rate - a lofty goal but I pray for 100%!
* A class from Holy Cross recently won the Hol Chal Marine Reserve Slogan and Poster contest! Their slogan, "Save the Reef Today; Tomorrow Might be too Late!" will be the official theme of Reef Week and earned the students a free trip to the Reserve.
* Construction is proceeding on the new, state-of-the-art composting toilet system (please see the attached photos). We are all counting the days until it is finished!!! It will be the greenest school toilet system in the nation with 24 toilets, 10 urinals, 4 teacher bathrooms and 8 sinks - yea! Many thanks to the Episcopal Church Women and their United Thank Offering grant.
* We continue to be blessed with the presence of Deacon Jan Lamb from St. Luke's, Durham, NC. Deacon Jan has been such a wonderful addition to the staff assisting with Chapel, teaching Religious Education, preparing our FIRST Confirmation class(!!), counseling students and teaching math - wow! We will certainly miss her when she leaves in June.
* And speaking of Confirmation...Bishop Wright will be with us on Sunday, May 30th for Baptisms and Confirmation. We are soooooo excited!
* We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a volunteer team from Vancouver Island University. These folks will be working with the teachers on classroom management, lesson preparation and presentation.
Holy Cross is definitely an exciting place to be! Thanks to your continuing support we hope it always will be - smile. Please take a few moments today to send your prayers and a financial contribution to the school. We are committed to providing the Feeding Program (costs $500US per day!), maintaining the Computer Center (electricity for the air conditioning costs $2,000US per month!), staffing the Library (salary of $400US per month!) and the thousand and one other things that seem to cost tons of money. Please, please, please, the students of Holy Cross need YOUR help!
Checks payable to "Holy Cross Anglican School" should be sent to:
Holy Cross Anglican School
San Pedro Town
Ambergris Caye, Belize
OR, you may make your donation through "Click and Pay" on the school web site: www.holycrossbelize.org
OR, through the Holy Cross Education Foundation; 7550 Corporate Way; Eden Prarie, MN 55344
Many thanks and blessings, Francis
March 5,2010
Dear Friends of Holy Cross Anglican School, I am happy to share the following article written by recent volunteer Dr. Eric Fee. Holy Cross is so thankful for the many volunteers and mission teams who share their time, talents and treasure with the children of Holy Cross. We are also incredibly thankful for each of you! Your prayers, financial contributions, gifts of school supplies, shoes, back packs, teaching aids and books are a blessing to all of us. With your continuing support Holy Cross will continue to be a beacon of light, love and learning to the disadvantaged little ones of San Mateo. Many thanks and Blessings, Francis
Our Church at Work
In January 2010, Cindy Lee Hall and I traveled to Belize, Central America. We boarded a ferry for a bumpy 2 hour ride across the beautiful Caribbean Sea from Belize City to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. Our final destination was the tiny village of San Mateo that had been built upon unwanted government swamp land by the hearty people of this welcoming country.
The purpose of our visit was to work with the students and teachers of the Holy Cross Anglican School (www.holycrossbelize.org). Literally, this school has been created like a seed sprouting from the ground! And, it continues to grow with the support of the San Mateo community and the worldwide parishioners of the Anglican/Episcopal church. For those of you who have contributed to this ministry (www.hcefoundation.org) I assure you your monies are being put to great use.
In addition as a family physician, I explored the health care needs of the school and surrounding community. Despite the lack of abundant health care that we are accustomed to in the USA, the Belizean healthcare providers and people make excellent use of their limited resources.
This island does not have a hospital or emergency room or urgent care. The ability to transfuse blood, provide intravenous fluids, perform surgery or obtain a CT scan does not exist. We sadly learned of 2 children who had recently died from infections stemming from simple cuts due to the lack of appropriate antibiotics. In the face of this harsh reality, you quickly learn to appreciate the gifts bestowed upon us at home.
Belizeans and those serving the church's ministry are working feverishly to overcome these challenges. Holy Cross Anglican School is growing both in its physical plant and student population. A community health center with a domestic violence safe house and student health center is moving from the planning stages to the groundbreaking ceremony.
We plan to return to Belize on an ongoing basis as part of the Episcopal church's ministry throughout the world. And, we thank God for giving us the ability to do so.
Eric C. Fee
