Port Loyola Calvary Chapel

Port Loyola Calvary Chapel is a non-denominational Calvary Chapel fellowship located in Belize City, Belize, Central America. As a Calvary Chapel we put a very high value on the teaching of the whole counsel of God. Join us as we study the Bible verse-by-verse, worship our Savior and fellowship as the Body of Christ.

Several years ago, Denise and I felt the Lord leading us to plant a Calvary Chapel in Belize City.  We moved down in May of 2003. We began to meet as a church in our home on October 31, 2004. And have been meeting in our new building in April 2005.  We found the building in May of 2004.  The owners were no longer in possession of the title to the building, and it was in great disrepair.  Basically, it was walls and a roof.  All of the doors, windows, light fixtures and even the toilet had been stolen.  As is common in a third world country, the process of getting a new title and getting ready to sell the building took many months.  A year of effort finally paid off though and we were able to purchase the facility. Shortly after a team from our home church, Calvary Chapel Eastside came down and helped with the remodeling.

As of October 2006, there are up to 30 Adults attending on Sunday mornings and Friday nights.  Many are single mothers with their families.  We also have quite a few high school / college age kids coming.

It is a small group, but the Lord is definitely moving among us.  It is a pleasure to see these young believers growing in the Lord.

Belize is the first country south of Mexico on the Caribbean side and is roughly the size of Massachusetts.  There is an amazing amount of diversity in Belize.  While Belize is in the tropics, there are pine tree covered mountains, 1000' waterfalls, desert islands, huge farms and banana plantations as well as tropical rain forests that receive as much as 150" of rain each year.

The temperature in Belize ranges from the 60's in the winter to a high of 105 in the summer.  The rainy season is from June until December, and hurricanes are a fairly common occurrence.

The people of Belize are as diverse as the country.  Belize was first settled by English pirates and mahogany cutters, later becoming an English colony.  As a result, many people in Belize are the descendants of slaves from Africa and India and make up the  Belize Creole people.  The Garifuna are a people group that live along the sea in southern Belize. They are descendants of a group of slaves that crashed on St. Vincent and intermarried with the Amerindians. There culture is distinct from the Creole culture. There are also many Hispanic and Mestiso (Hispanic/Mayan) people.  Many of the Hispanic people have migrated from El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras as well as Mexico.  Among the indigenous people there are three Mayan groups, the Kikchee Maya, the Maya Mopan, and the Yucatec Maya.  A large number of these people still live in the jungle in palapas, small thatched huts.  More recently to the scene are the Mennonites.  They are mostly farmers of German decent.  For the most part they live in their own communities and still speak German.  There are also Lebanese and Indian merchants as well as a large contingent of Chinese and Taiwanese shopkeepers.  All this from a country of only 250,000 people! 

While English is the national language, you will hear many tongues as you travel the country.  Most people speak Creole, a form of English similar to what you might hear in Jamaica.  There are also many people who only speak Spanish.  

Belize has a strong Christian foundation, but in recent years that foundation has been eroded away.  Crime and immorality are rampant in Belize, especially in Belize City, where there is reported to be a violent crime a day.  That’s in a city of about 70,000 people.  Belize leads in the rate of HIV infections in Central America, and AIDs is in danger of becoming pandemic.

For the most part, the church in Belize borders on both extremes.  On one hand, there some very legalistic denominations, and on the other hand there are many hyper-charismatic churches.  On the whole there are very few solid, balanced, Bible teaching churches. 

That the Lord would raise up ministry partners, especially a worship leader.

That the Lord would grant us patience in ministry.

That we would have favor with the Belizean people.

Continued financial and prayer support.      

CONTACT INFORMATION

Joel and Denise Meyer

PO Box 394 Belize City

Belize, Central America

Phone 011.501.602.1434

E-mail us at joelanddenise@earthlink.net

IM us at Eliasmeyer@hotmail.com

SUPPORT INFORMATION

Calvary Chapel Eastside

5126 164th Way SE,

Bellevue, WA 98006

Phone 425.641.7717