» Climate: The overall climate of Belize can be described as sub-tropical. The mean annual humidity is 83% but many days the humidity is masked by the cooling sea breezes.

Temperatures in Belize range from 50ºF to 95ºF with an annual mean of 79ºF. November to January are traditionally the coolest months, with a 75ºF average. May to September is the warmest at about 81ºF average. Because of the high percentage of humidity, the real feel is usually about 20-30 degrees above the actual temperature.

There are definite wet and dry seasons. The onset of the dry varies widely from year to year, but once the onset of the dry commences, the actual amount of rain falling during the “dry” is a predictable amount. This does not mean that it will be like that the rest of the year. As a general rule, the higher the average rainfall, the greater are the departures from the norm. The number of rainy days varies considerably from place to place.

» Appearance: Belize is a great tourist site that people keep going back to because of its beauty, marine life, tropical climate, beautiful breezes and friendly people.

Belize is the only English-speaking country in Central America, but is also considered part of the Caribbean.

Social information
» Conditions: Tourism facilities vary in quality, from a limited number of business class hotels in Belize City and resorts on the cayes to a range of ecotourism lodges and very basic accommodations in the countryside. Crime is a growing concern. SAFETY AND SECURITY: Visitors should exercise caution and good judgment when visiting Belize. Crime can be a serious problem particularly in Belize City and remote areas. Road accidents are common. Public buses and taxis are frequently in poor condition and lack safety equipment. Medical care is limited .The border between Belize and Guatemala is in dispute, but the dispute thus far has not affected travel between the two countries. There have not been any terrorist activities in Belize.

» Population: A 2004 Population and Housing Census estimates the population at 282,600 with the main ethnic groups Mestizo (43.7%), Creole (29.8%), Maya (11.1%), and Garifuna (6.6%). Each of the other ethnic groups at the time accounted for less than five percent of the population (East Indian 3.5% and German/Dutch/Mennonite 3.1%). All the rest account for 2.2%. Ethnic groups, however, are heavily intermixed.

Spiritual information
Observers frequently note that Belizeans are a particularly religious people, with almost all the population declaring a specific religious preference in 1980. Indeed, religious institutions were a ubiquitous presence in Belize, especially in the school system, which the Roman Catholic Church and the state managed together. Belize was no longer the intense battleground between competing missionary denominations that it had been in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Nonetheless, numerous foreign missionaries, mostly evangelical Protestants from the United States, worked in the country in the 1980s.

Of the country’s nine major religious groups, the Roman Catholics were the largest, with more than three in five Belizeans claiming to be followers. Anglicans and Methodists comprised the two largest Protestant denominations, although they were steadily losing ground to fundamentalist and evangelical sects, such as the Pentecostalists and Seventh-Day Adventists.

Religion was strongly - but not exclusively - associated with ethnicity and region. Catholicism unified most Mestizos, Maya, and Garifuna. Most Creoles were either Anglican or Methodist, but a significant number converted to Roman Catholicism, mainly because of proselytization in Roman Catholic schools. Roman Catholics made up at least 70 percent of the population of all districts, but in Belize City and environs, they made up only 43 percent of the population. In the last two decades, however, evangelical Protestant groups have been particularly successful in making inroads among Creoles, Mestizos, and Maya in Corozal, Orange Walk, and Cayo districts.

A wide range of smaller denominations also flourished in Belize. These groups included Mormons, fundamentalist Protestants, Hindus, and Bahais. Among the Creoles and the Garifuna, there were also small, but socially significant, Black Muslim and Rastafarian communities.

The people’s response to the gospel is fair, because of the over evangelism and lack of relationships the people will respond to salvation, but a true conversion and walk with the Lord does not take place because of a need for discipleship. That is why we feel so strong to go and build relationships with the people to not only preach to them, but to show them through personal relationship and discipleship how to live a life for Jesus Christ.