Homestead Acres, Esperanza

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  Alright, I learned a bit more about the Beachy Mennonite congregation at Esperanza village in the western Cayo District. Most people nowadays no longer call it by its mission name, Homestead Acres, so when the spokesperson first referred to that I was perplexed. According to him, it began as a mission base established in the 1970's by white missionaries from the US. The decades rolled by and it became a permanent congregation as locals from the area were converted to the Mennonite faith; there were also some Old Order Mennonites from Pilgrimage Valley who joined the Beachy in fellowship. 
  Right next to the church is a poultry operation owned by Caribbean Chicken, a poultry packing and processing company based in Blue Creek, a modern Plautdietsch Mennonite colony in northern Belize. It used to be Kratzer's Poultry because it was started by the Kratzer brothers, members of a conservative Amish Mennonite church, but in 2003(5) it was purchased by Caribbean Chicken.
  Not that long ago, perhaps about 15 or 20 years ago, a Conservative Mennonite (somewhat different from the Beachy) mission school was started in Santa Elena, within a mile from the Beachy church. Over time it also became an established church with both locals and North Americans who migrated here. 
  I grew up in a Holdeman Mennonite church, and I still remember when in my early teen years we would go Christmas carolling to members of both Beachy and Conservative churches. We would stand and sing while the missionaries looked down from their 2 story house. Sometimes we would receive sweet treats such as cookies and cakes, other times they joined us in singing.


                                                        A. Mendoza

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