Land in British Honduras

(From the personal history of Roger Pierpont Lewis (1942 - 2026). Roger is my father-in-law)

After mom and I got married in 1971, we had the same problems that most couples have. Finances are always a big surprise. We found out very quickly that whatever money we had wasn't enough. We reached a point where we had enough money to pay our bills or to pay tithing. The church has always meant a great deal to us and the teachings of the church. We believe that our belief if justified. The Lord has always been very faithful to us. We haven't always been faithful to Him, but He's been faithful to us. There are many, many stories of His intervention in our lives. At any rate, we decided to pay tithing, just because that's the way we wanted to live our life. So we paid the tithing which left us with no money for bills.

At that time, we were friends with Blaine Lilinquist and his wife. He was a wealthy man. He owned part of Tyson's Corner. I think his share of Tyson's Corner was 3%, but it was a pretty big industry. He lived in an area of McLean which was a very wealthy neighborhood in a big mansion there. His wife was a distributor for Shaklee. So I went over to pick up some Shaklee product and while I was there he said, "Roger, I've got a ranch in British Honduras, which is Belize, which is called the Banana Bank Ranch. I've decided I need some money so I need to sell it. But it has 3,000 head of cattle on it and it's a good place to raise cattle. Let me know if you have anybody who might be interested in buying the ranch." As a typical entrepreneur, he tells as many people as he can to sow seeds.

I came back and was laughing when I got home. I told Bonnie (mom) that Blaine had given me an opportunity to sell a ranch in British Honduras. I said, "Nothing ventured, nothing gained. If you don't try, you won't sell it." I remembered that I had worked for a man named Howard Wilson on his ranch in Kansas. (Mom had not met them at that time, though later she met them when they came to see the "Wizard of Oz." Howard's wife was Dorothy and she introduced herself as Dorothy from Kansas.) I called Howard long distance and said, "Do you remember me? I worked for you." He did. Then I said, "Well, I was calling to see if you would be interested in buying a cattle ranch in British Honduras (Belize)." He laughed and said, "No." But he had both the wheat ranch on which I had worked as well as a cattle ranch in Kansas. He drove up to his cattle ranch and then went and spoke with a friend named John Carr. His business partner's name was Bill Jaeger. They were born again Christians. They had established and dedicated their business to Christ. They prayed always about all of their business decisions. Howard got out of the car and came out laughing. He said, "You know I just got the funniest call. This kid worked for me a couple of years ago and called me and wants to know if I want to buy a cattle ranch in Belize." They looked at each other and then at him and said, "You know, we were just praying and we were talking about opportunities about raising cattle in Central America." To them, this was more than a coincidence. They too felt, nothing ventured nothing gained.

So, the next morning I woke up and the phone was ringing. There was this voice on the other end and he said, "This is John Carr. I'm a friend of Howard Wilsons. He said that you have someone who wants to sell a ranch in British Honduras." He then said, "Can you meet me in Miami tomorrow?" That was a huge leap of faith. I took off work. I didn't have the money to buy the ticket but I had an American Express card. I went ahead and bought a ticket and met him in Miami. He showed up with his partner and their banker from Denver.

So it was the three of them and me. Then we flew from Miami to Belize City. While we were there, they rented an airplane. I called Blaine before I left and he authorized me to represent him. He gave me directions on how to get there. I only had the directions. First we rented a private plane that flew over the property.

There is a military contingency in Belize from England. It was the British Honduras at that time after all. Guatemala had always claimed it was part of Guatemala, so they had always had a reason to be fearful of an invasion from Guatemala. The difference is British Honduras is English speaking and Guatemala is Spanish speaking. At any rate, we flew over the property and then landed in the little airfield by the British contingency.

Then we flew back again to Belize city and rented a land rover. The directions said to go up this road 50 miles and turn right at a dirt road/marker and the like. It was really bad directions, but we got there that way.

Then we arrived at the Belize river. The property was on the other side of the river. There was a ferry, but it was the kind of ferry that was attached to a rope that you pulled over. The ferry was on the other side across the river. It was the kind that there was a ramp that you drove onto with your vehicle and then pulled it over. We were trying to decide how we were going to get over there to get the ferry boat. I finally said, "Well, I'll go get it." But it was on the other side of a river with a fast moving current. So I took off my clothes, and a guy nudged his buddy and said, "I told you they wore funny underwear." I was wearing my garments.

I jumped into the river and before I knew it I was a hundred yards downstream. I came back and huffed and puffed on the bank. Then I walked upstream a little ways and dove in again. By the time I got across, I out of breath, but I made it to the other side. I wasn't as heavy as I am now, but I wasn't light either. I huffed and puffed on the other side as well until I caught my breath.

I then got on the ferry boat and pulled it over. We drove onto it, got across the river, and then drove up onto the property. We found the manager. He had a manager on the property who took care of the cattle. The guy saw us as we drove up and said, "Where did you come from? The ferry was on this side of the river." John said, "Oh, he just swam over and got it." The manager then said, "People drown in that river every day!" He was surprised that anybody could cross that river as the current is too strong.

At any rate, we took that tour and then went back to Belize City. While there, we went to the fish market which was next to the same Belize river. While we were in the fish market, the fish manager said, "Oh, let me show you something!" He then took this pail of fish heads and heaved them into the water and the water quickly agitated and bubbled as all the fish heads were devoured by something. While not certain, we speculated that it was infested with piranhas. In any event, it was a dangerous river. This was the same river I swam in…I felt that I had been protected from harm.

When we got back they bought the property. My commission was 5%. It was exactly the amount of what we owed for our bills. It also may have included paying off the house we were in where the realtor had fronted the security deposit. So that's our tithing story.