A thunder storm

John wrote:

It is 11:00 Friday night and by the grace of God I got home. I went with two friends to the church. There was about 30 people. They broke into groups and it was like a Sunday School class. They sang for an hour and the pastor taught for an hour. He is pretty good, but he jumped around and used a lot of verses. The Pastor encouraged both men to start a Bible study in their homes. One of them is going back on Sunday, if it is not raining. It is a long way from his house.
We then went to eat and that was fun, but after we left, it started to rain. I mean lighting and thunder so loud and then entire sky lit up. I could barely see out of the car. The town was flooded and I had to take them both home. After I dropped them off I went through the guard gate, and I couldn't see my way. I went the wrong way where the construction trucks go and almost slid off the road. Right now it is thundering and lighting very load. Praise the Lord I am home.

My Birthday

I haven't written anything in a few days.

My birthday was Tuesaday. We started in the morning by spending sometime sharing with the tennis pro who is a Christian. We spent a great time of prayer right there on the tennis court!

After lunch we had to go run errands. We needed to buy gasoline and service the car. The nearest service station is 45 minutes from here. John wanted to take the car to get an oil and a lube and steam-clean the engine. We were able to do all that, plus pick up some groceries and started on our way back by 4:00 pm. We had just started on our way when all the traffic stopped. It did not look good when we saw people turning around. The road was completely blocked. I actually called our compound to see if there was another road. They told us that the only way would be going back almost to the airport and going around to another town. It would take almost two hours, and we had English Club at 6:00. Then we saw some drivers taking a dirt road to the right, so, we decided to follow the locals. It was a wild ride. We had no idea where we were. We ended up taking a few dirt roads until we actually got back to the main road, bypassing the accident! :) PTL! We were able to make it to English Club without problems.

Now for English Club. About 21 kids were there last night. They now can sing the ABC song, and spell their first name in English. They are so much fun. They kiss me when they arrive and when they leave. Last night we went over words that begin with B, and they colored a butterfly. Then we played games. Since it was my birthday, they also sang Happy Birthday. We gave them candy and sodas at the end. It was a great birthday party!

We all have a lot of fun at English Club!

Meeting New Friends

Last night we went to a restaurant to meet a possible collaborator. This is a pastor and his wife who was recommended through a contact in the capital. He and his wife went to the outreach on Saturday and met some of the people in town, but we did not have a chance to talk. So, last night we met at a restaurant near his church. It is located in a town not far from here.

We met him and his family. He brought his wife and his three children. They are 15, 12 and 7, a very nice family. We went with our friends from the capital who help us here. They also have three children, but they are 24, 20 and 15. The young people had a great time together. Anyway, we liked what the pastor said. He has a few cells in nearby towns. His method is to start with one family with a very low key Bible study, very slowly. "Poco a poco (One step at the time.)" he said. It is important to make friends first. That is exactly what we have in mind. The wife told us that about three years ago somebody tried to take an evangelical campaign to "our" town, and they got stones thrown at them. We, on the other hand, have been taken into town by residents and had nothing but friendly receptions. It is a reminder that the Enemy is alive and well, but that the Lord is with us.

The pastor and his wife had to leave early, but their children had not finished dinner; so, they left them with us! John and our friend took them to their church later, and that way we now know where the church is. It is a rather large, well stablished church.

From left to right: Our friend from the capital, the pastor and his wife, and our friend's wife. We are looking forward to working with them!

A Different Anniversary Party

Yesterday was our wedding anniversary. We celebrated 34 years of marriage. Our wedding celebration was very different this year because yesterday we had our main outreach in town. We woke up at 5:30 am to a full blown tropical storm, big thunder and lighting. (You would have loved it, Blondie.) We got up to find out that there was no running water in the condo. All that water outside and none inside. There are seven of us here right now. I called the main office, and they said that the whole compound was without water. Well, that actually made me feel better because it was not our problem, and I knew that they would fix it. After a couple of hours, we had running water again. I made a big pancake breakfast, and by the time we had finished breakfast, the rain had stopped. We went to the town to knock on doors to invite people to the afternoon activity. The sun warmed up the wet ground, starting the natural process of evaporation. It was like walking into a hot, steamy bath. We divided ourselves into three groups to cover the entire town. We were able to do it in two and a half hours. There were two men in the town hall selling domestic appliances. This was a surprise to us, but they promised that they would be out of there on time. After returning home drenched in sweat and tired, we had tacos for lunch, showered, dressed and left again to set up.









It takes two trips in the SUV to take all the equipment and supplies. The men went first with the sound equipment. The women stayed behind getting the hot dogs ready. You may ask, why do they need to get hot dogs ready? Well, in this country, the hot dogs come in an individual, plastic casing. We had to peel this plastic off, one by one, all 104 of them! Meanwhile, the men arrived at the hall to find the vendors still there. They did not want to leave. They really did not understand that we would have about 70 children running around. It would have been a disaster to have all those kids touching all the shiny appliances. Anyway, the president of the town committee and his son came and told them to leave. These two men stayed with John and our friends until the vendors packed up.










We were barely ready to go when promptly at 3:30 people started to arrive. We had a craft for the women, a craft for the older children, an another craft for the younger ones. We also served coffee to the adults while they were working on the craft, and moved around the tables talking and helping out. After the crafts, the children were taken out to play games, and I talked to the women about choosing the best part, the story of Martha and Mary on Luke 10. When I finished, the children were brought back, and we served hot dogs and refreshments for everybody. We had about 30 adults and over 70 children, but somehow we had hot dogs for everybody. Then we showed the movie.





We had brought a few movies, but chose the shortest one to show. It turned out to be a great choice. The movie was about the problems of one family. It is actually a true story. The parents were always fighting because of the father's drinking. The movie shows the process of how they are all transformed by knowing Jesus. It was very impacting. A few women afterwards shared that they are going through the same thing. One couple asked us for the movie because they wanted to see it again, so we gave it to them. It will probably be shown again and again. One person who has been there before said that this time she was ready to accept the Lord. I know that this was a true conversion. We gave away all of our Bibles, even the president of the town committee requested one.

The process of packing up and returning home was also lengthy. Finally, we were all home by about 9:00 pm, and after a time of thankful prayers, we went all to bed, exhausted. It was the most wonderful anniversary party that we ever had!

A cultural experience

We had a totally different experience last night, one that we had not expected. We were told that the father of one of the ladies whom we know in town had passed away. When we expressed the desire to visit her to express our sympathies, it was strongly recommended that we do it last night because it was the last night of the rosaries. I really did not want to go to a rosary, but John got the message again that it was important to go last night, so we went, after a time of prayer.

When we arrived, it was still daylight, and there were about twenty adults, mainly women doing the rosary. I haven't been to a rosary in about 35 years. The small living room was full of people. There was a small altar on one side of the room. I think it had the image of the virgen Mary. The near relatives were holding candles, and the rest of the people were crowding at the door. We sat outside and waited for them to finish praying. It was rainning when we arrived, but it soon stopped, and we were under an overhang anyway. We met some of the kids who come to our events and our English Club. They were happy to see us. As we sat there listening to the prayers, the boys next to us were telling jokes, the equivalent of knock-knock jokes. We were both thinking about the asssurance that we have of our salvation. What a difference to know that we will go the Heaven when we died! That Jesus died once for our sins! (1 Peter 3:18). It was soon dark, and the mosquitos came. I had mosquito repellent on, but John had forgotten to spray before we left. They ate him alive! I have never seen such welts! The poor guy endured the whole thing until it was over, about an hour. As people turned around and started to leave, they saw that we were there. Everybody was glad to see us. Then we had a chance to pay our respects to our friend and her mother. It really meant a lot to them that we had come. It was the appropiate thing to do.

Our friend Randall had to walk us out with a flash light to our car because it was pitch black by the time we left, and we almost got stuck in the mud, but praise the Lord that we have 4-wheel drive. We were actually glad to be out of there, but our hearts remain with this dear, loving people. Please pray that the light of the Gospel can penetrate the darkness in their hearts.

July at the beach

We are back at the beach! It is great to be here again. It has been raining everyday, and everything is emerald green. We have been here a few days now. Life is a little slower here; therefore, we haven't done much.

There are only two things to talk about. The other night we went out to dinner with a local couple and their five-year-old son. They are our contacts in the little town where we are trying to start a church. They have a very nice middle class home. They both work where we live, and that's important because she has access to e-mail. That's how I communicate with her from the states to ask permission from the town governing committee. There's no mayor or any other town authority, just this committee. There is no police force, either. We went to a typical restaurant in another town about twenty minutes from here. It was very pretty, and the food was good and reasonable. In fact, the sign outside the restaurant claims: "bueno, bonito y barato." Good, pretty and cheap. It was true to its claim. We had a very nice evening. Of course, it was raining heavily when we left and the roads are very dark, but we made it back without incident. Praise the Lord!

The other event that happened was yesterday. As John was playing golf with a Christian friend, they met a worker on a tractor. John's friend introduced him because he is a Christian also. When John talked to him about what we are hoping to do, he warned John to be very careful because there is a group that practices witchcraft right here. He said to always pray before and after going into town. They prayed right there on the golf course for the work.

Today has been an uneventful, relaxing day. I am reading Church Planting Movements by David Garrison. I recommend it to anybody that has a global outlook.