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In retirement, he's on a mission

By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published January 5, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Kathleen Flynn] Suzanne and Fred Marquis of Palm Harbor founded a missionary group focused on Punta Gorda, Belize. One of their first projects was to build bathrooms in a school.

For 22 years, Fred Marquis was Pinellas County's top administrator, deftly managing numerous departments and employees during a period of rapid growth.

And when he retired in 2000, there was no way he was going to slow down and hit the golf course.

He was going to Belize. And not for a vacation.

Marquis, 67, who is also a retired two-star general in the Army Reserve, was going to work again, this time for God.

For several years, he and his wife, Suzanne, both members of Palm Harbor United Methodist Church, have led mission teams to a city called Punta Gorda in the small Central American country on the southeast coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Located on the Gulf of Honduras, the town and surrounding district has about 2,500 residents, "and no real commercialism," Marquis said.

With guidance from the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission, he and his wife founded a missionary group to help the community.

"We have a covenant relationship with residents," he said. "They know we're going to be there when they need us, so that was very important to us. This is where we're going to stay."

Volunteers fly to Belize City every few months and ride an old Bluebird bus they call the chicken bus with its bobblehead Jesus on the dash to Punta Gorda. Or they take a puddle jumper.

"One of the first projects we did was to build four bathrooms" at the local school, Marquis said. "All they had was an (outhouse), a pit with tin around it. They were terrified they would fall in and never be seen again. They would have to go home to go to the bathroom. Some kids walked an hour-and-a-half to get to school. When they went home, they didn't come back."

Teams have also built a medical and dental clinic, constructed a rail around the second story of a school (students were being killed or seriously hurt falling off) and installed windows in a church.

Marquis said the people are desperately poor. They speak English, but have little education. Churches provide schooling for students in the first through eighth grade, but many drop out early. Girls start having babies when they are about 11, he said.

Most citizens make a living by farming and bartering. Marriages are arranged.

But they're happy, he said, and express their love through song.

"They love to sing," Marquis said. "When they know we're coming, they prepare whole concerts."

* * *

Palm Harbor United Methodist's youth director, Carl Rinderle, and assistant youth director Lynn Stevens have accompanied Marquis on three trips to the city. Each time they go, they bring up to 15 teenagers and put them to work improving the Methodist church, school and selected houses in a community called the Forest Homes settlement.

"They fall in love with the place," Stevens said of the teens. "They come home feeling like they know they are (lucky to live privileged lives) and want to help others. They get away from the computers, the cell phones and other distractions and learn that relationships are more important."

* * *

Marquis was born in Jacksonville. His mother was Methodist, and his family attended an Episcopal church. He and Suzanne joined Palm Harbor United Methodist in 1998.

He will lead a new mission trip in March. The way he describes it, it's always an adventure.

"On the last trip we were on, we had an opportunity to re-thatch a house," Marquis said.

In a ceremony, a 12-foot python was let loose in the roof.

"We blessed the house and blessed the python," Marquis said. "They're like a pet. They keep the citrus rats out."

Eileen Schulte can be reached at 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 4, 2007, 21:58:54]