Last Thoughts

Our computer crashed, but I have been able to work on safe mode.We have continued reaching out to people. The problem with friendship evangelism is that it usually involves food, and we have been eating out with friends every evening! Last night a couple with whom we were having dinner told us that we are really family, and the husband's father told us the same thing a few days ago. We really love these people and pray for their salvation. One item of praise: the husband and his dad had lost their jobs here,and we have been praying for them. Well, they were both hired back in another department. PTL!

Wednesday night we went back to church. The speaker talked about husbands and wives, and at the end had us couples renew vows to each other. He then prayed for those who were there without their spouse. It was very moving. Tonight we will meet with the leadership at 6:00, and then we will show the Jesus movie. Pray that their equipment works. We are just taking the movie and the projector.

We leave tomorrow morning. Thank you so much for praying for us. Until next time, from the beach....!

A Christian Community Center

Yesterday morning we went to see this rental property in town. It is a house of approximately 600 sq ft on about a quarter of an acre. When I say "we" I mean the whole team. The director and his wife, the two full-time workers here, the clown and John and I. It is located about four blocks from the center of town. We would have liked to find something a little closer because they consider this location too far for the kids to walk at night since there are no street lights in the area, but there isn't anything suitable any closer. We got a good deal and there is an option to buy. We can put the six computers that were donated last year in one of the rooms., and we can also put sewing machines to teach the women to sew. We can also teach English. Christ for the City will install an alarm and air conditioning for the computers. The advantage to this location is that a Christian family who attends the little church in town lives across the street, so they can watch over the property.

The two full-time workers here are the young ladies that helped with the event, one is a psychologist and the other sociologist. They will conduct workshops for the women in town. When we were doing the craft on Friday, I noticed that some of the women have very bad eyesight. It would be nice if we could bring some donated glasses and an optometrist some day. Does anybody know how we could facilitate this? This would be one of the services provided by the community center. There is plenty of room on the property for other things, such an area for the kids to play, etc.

Tonight we are having dinner with another family. We continue our method of friendship evangelism. That's all for now. Hasta luego from the beach...

Friday's event

What a blessing to be able to work for the Lord!
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.

1 Tim. 1:12

So many of you were praying for this event, and you will be glad to know that it went very well. Thursday two young ladies who work for Christ for the City and are assigned to this area came at midday. After lunch, we set out for town with 80 invitations and tracks. Since it was only John and three women, he decided to stay together instead of dividing in two groups as we usually do. We walked the entire town, passed 65 invitations and as many tracks. It took us two and a half hours to do it. Of course, we had to stopped at many homes and chit-chat. At one house there was a man gravely ill on a wheel chair. We prayed with the family for healing and for salvation. Please pray for this man and his family. As the sun was setting, we returned to our car, which we had left parked in front of one of the houses at the entrance of town. We were very tired, to say the least.

Friday the rest of the team came. The regional director (Central America and the Caribbean) of Christ for the City, his wife and the clown. Again we had a big lunch (mashed potatoes native style :) BBQ chicken, salad and a lot of coffee) and set out at 1:30 pm in tow cars loaded with equipment, food, and a 43 cup coffee maker. It takes us about an hour to set up. Here are some pictures of the set up. The tables with tablecloths are for the women and the stools on the back for children. Those of you who have been here will notice an improvement. A very enterprising woman here worked with World Vision to have paint donated. She then organized the school children and had a work day. They painted the tables, chairs and the inside walls of the "salon." The equipment set up is a lot of fun. I always pray before plugging the coffee pot because that's the biggest power draw. Can you see all the cables and the power strip under the table? By the way, that's our director. Even the screen is ours. It comes tied to the top of the SUV.

We had 43 women and 73 children. There are only 63 enrolled in the elementary school; therefore, some of the children were not of school age yet. The clown is terrific. He handles all those kids on his own. They just love him. He has a great testimony.

The women worked on a cross-stitch picture of a butterfly, and I talked to them about the Lost Sheep. We showed a movie after dark called "The Last Fly Out." It was a good movie with a lot of action, and a Christian message. People prayed to accept the Lord, but we feel that we are just sewing seeds. The real work will be done by the local church.












We spent nine hours in town (without bathroom breaks). By the time we loaded the equipment back and got home, it was 10:00 pm. We were too tired to eat, so we had light snacks and went to bed. Now we were nine people in our little condo. We brought out two rollaway beds from the garage which we set in the living room for David and his friend because they had given up their room for the director and his wife. We have a convertible sofa in the loft, and the clown got to sleep in the living room sofa.




This morning after breakfast everybody went to the beach. Then we went back to town to see about a rental property. Christ in the City wants to have a permanent presence in town. They all left after lunch. I will talk about that tomorrow. Right now, I am doing laundry and blogging, and John is napping. We are just humbled by the Lord's love and how He allows us to serve Him. Hasta luego!

Wednesday

We went to visit the brand new church in our little town last night. This is the little group of seven that started with a bible study at somebody's house exactly a year ago. John even had to buy some plastic chairs at the time because there weren't enough chairs in the house. They were able to rent a house in town and pay the rent with their own offering. There were about 25-30 adults and children last night. PTL!

The tiny house's walls are half blocks and the top half wood planks. There are gaps between the planks. The roof is tin. Half of the floor is cement and the other half dirt, but somebody had obviously clean the place. It was windy and dirt would blow in. They had a CD of worship songs and they sang along at the top of their voices. The tune was typical "cumbias," but they were singing from the Bible; for example, Is. 40:31. Nobody was on key, but they made up for it with enthusiasm.

We were so thankful to the Lord for his provision for this town. Please pray for Alejandro, their leader, and the rest of the group. We did not take pictures inside because it was our first visit, but we are going back; in fact, they want us to bring our LCD projector and a Christian movie next Friday. We will take more pictures if we are allowed.

One thing we noticed was that about 90% of the congregation were new believers. They had difficulties finding Bible references. We brought a box of Bibles, and they were immediately put to use. Anybody without a Bible was given one, but I noticed that they returned them at the end of the service. Alejandro confirmed my observation that they were new believers. He said that only seven are baptized. Alejandro is attending a Bible institute to get more Bible background, and they need more chairs (PTL)! We are having a meeting with Alejandro and the leaders of the church Friday before the service.

Back from the capital

We are back at the beach! It was a great trip. We stayed in a beautiful old hotel built in 1930. It had an old European hotel atmosphere. Most of the time, we were visiting different ministries that Christ for the City supports here, but we had the chance to do some site-seeing; for example, we visited this volcano. It was very cold, windy and rainy, but we enjoyed ourselves. It was hard to see the crater, but we managed a peek between clouds. Here is a picture of the crater. It is the green lake in the middle. Afterward, we came down the mountain and had lunch in a beautiful rustic restaurant. The food was excellent, and they had three fireplaces, which we appreciated. We warmed up by the fire and drank good, dark coffee. People sometimes ask us what the local food is like. Here are some pictures of our lunches.



Here is the typical "casado," which is rice, black beans, meat or chicken, ripe banana, a salad and a tortilla.



We also had chicken and rice, which is different here from the way we prepare it in Cuba.

Finally, this is a soup that they call "olla de carne." It has a lot of vegetales and meat, very satisfying in a cold, rainy day.

As far as the different ministries visited, we went to a free clinic with a staff of two doctors, a nurse and a receptionist in a very tough neighborhood. A little farther down the street there is also a school for girls who need to finish elementary school. They pay a nominal fee and take accelerated courses. These girls could not attend public school for various reasons. They take the goverment administered tests at the end of the terms and get their 6th grade diplomas. This allows them to further their education or learn job skills. This program is run by a psychologist from Ecuador. There is also sports facilities. Soccer is the main sport here. The staff has big dreams. They want to build a cafeteria because most children in this neigborhood do not get a good meal everyday. They even want to build a swimming pool to teach them how to swim.
On our way back from the volcano we visited a school for girls who have been rescued from the streets. This is a year program. The school is high up in the mountains surrounded by tall pine trees. Here the girls also finish their education and learn skills, such as cooking and sewing, that will help them when they leave. This particular ministry is supported 99% by national donations. The girls half self-steem classes and group therapy. There is a psychologist and a social worker on staff. All of these programs emphasize a personal relation with Christ as basis for a transformed and renewed life.

We flew back this morning. We are going to rest this afternoon and go out to dinner with friends.

Monday

This sign is right outside the Hacienda. It is relatively new, so I just could not resist taking a picture. What would you think if you saw it? Well, it is not what you think. They happen to make clay pots there.

We had an interesting experience yesterday. They opened another condo development here in the Hacienda, so we thought we should go check them out. We were told to look for the people cleaning and that they would have a key to the model. Well, they did not have a key to the model, but ever so helpful, as they are always around here, they got on the walkie talkie and called somebody. We heard the name "Mauricio," well, that's the General Manager of the entire company, but we thought it was somebody else. In a few minutes, here rolls up the car with not only the General Manager, but the owner of the whole Hacienda. We were really embarrassed because of course, we are not interested in buying; we just wanted to look. We told them so, but they took the time to personally give us a tour of the model. It is exquisite. They go from 800,000 to 1.2 million. They are really worth it. The owner is 84 year old Southern gentleman. We chatted for a few minutes. He told us that his son has a special visa and travels to Cuba to help the only seminary left there.

Last night we went to visit an employee and his family. We had some presents from them. They have a 11 month old baby boy. There is also an eleven year old girl and a five year old boy. We played with the kids and visited. We snacked on local tortillas (they look more like pita bread), local cheese and mashed black beans. We also had fruit shakes, just perfect for the hot weather. John is off golfing with him this morning. Employees can golf here.

Tomorrow we are flying to San Jose and won't be back until Saturday. Until then, from the beach...

Sunday Afternoon

Today we walked back to town to visit friends. We visited a family that lives very close to our gate. They have three children. Mom is very active in the community. She told us that the construction for the computer room was halted because somebody complained about an unsafe wall. Now they have to get enough money to pay for an engineer to come inspect it. The town does not have the money, and they are upset about the situation because they really wanted the computers for the children. At least we know now why construction was halted.

We also visited the family who lives down by the plaza. They are the ones who hold the uniforms for the soccer team. They wash them and keep them safe. The boys come and get changed in their house. This is how we found out that there was a friendly match today, so we stayed and watched. They played well and the score was tied 2 - 2. We just sat by these people's front door and watched the game across the street.

An event is being planned for January 24. Stay tuned...

Some fun facts - The guys are having a great time diving. Here's a picture of dinner they caught.
So far no waves, but plenty of lobsters!

One frustrating problem has been our Internet connection. It has been going in and out, but it seems that it was mainly our computer. It is a good thing that we have a lot of computer knowledge here. The guys finally figured it out and had to reset the computer. It seems to be working fine now. Here is a picture of our Cable Guy (Cory). See all the cables sticking out of the wall?
I knew that you would be impressed by the high tech set up. The guys actually brought a wireless router with them, so they can use the Internet downstairs. Hopefully, we got it down now, and Cory won't have to sit in the broom closet.

As I have been writing this, we have been watching the Chargers. Well, friends, better luck next year!

Saturday Night

Tonight we went out to dinner with a young couple friends of ours. They have a seven-year-old boy. We went to a very out of the way restaurant. The dirt road was gone this time. Some times there was only room enough for one car, and a car coming the opposite way had to wait. Between the dust and the headlights, it was hard to see. Some of you would not have ventured it unless you had an ATV. Anyway, we made it, and had a great local dinner-white rice, black beans, steak, fried plantains with guacamole topping (great combination). We talked a lot about the town and its need. They had some great suggestions, mainly that computer training and activities for the youth are the greatest needs.

They were worried, because we haven't been here for such a long time, that we were going to sell the condo and not come back, but we told them that we are here to stay until the Lord tells us otherwise. We had brought them some things they wanted, praise CD's in Spanish, Spanish children's Bibles, and a Christian movie. They wanted those things for a small church in another town. They also told us that there is a boys' soccer team, so we will give them the jerseys that were donated. Thank you, Jean. They paid for dinner. We had to let them do it because it is just the right thing to do.

It was a delightful evening of good food, good conversation, getting reacquainted with our friends.

We are feeling better

Today was a better day. We were able to go out for the first time to visit our friends. We visited with three different friends, had a sweet time of prayer with our Christian friend who is the tennis pro here, and also went to see the new Marriott that just opened on this property. It is very beautiful, but pricey. The problem is that it was built on "our" beach. It was about three o'clock, so we decided to just have a fruit salad at one of the restaurants. We still have not had any real food, but we sat on a beautiful restaurant with a view of the beach and ate very slowly, savoring every bite.

One thing that I forgot to mentioned was that at customs check, we were asked to open just 2 out of the 8 pieces we carried. One happened to have a box containing two thousand tracks. The agent asked me what they were, and I told him, but I also handed him one, which he kept. We pray that it would bring fruit.

Please pray for the work on the town. We have heard of divisions and need to make some decisions about talking to the pastors involved.

Now David and Cory are cooking dinner, and I am going to attempt to eat. John still had something light.

Earthquake update - we are fine. We did not know about it until you people started asking about us. Thank you so much for your concerns.

Until next time....from the beach...

We are back!

Well, we are here, but not very well. We had lunch at Ruby`s in Houston and felt fine all the way, but woke up here at midnight throwing up. Both John and I were ill, but David and his friend had lunch elsewhere and are fine. This is our second day here, but we just started unpacking. I think that we will be better tomorrow. We just have no energy. David has been nursing us. We also had problems getting the Internet to work. Other than that, we had a great trip. We`ll keep you posted.