A Night at a Concert

The evening started nicely enough. Our taxi driver picked us all up. Helvecia, Helen, John and I. We got to the concert a little late on purpose because we did not want to stay too long. Our taxi driver parked inside the gate of the church because she was afraid to leave the car on the street outside. This was a mistake, but we did not know it at the time. We went inside and found a lot of the people we knew from the three churches that we have been working with. This was a big Pentacostal church that we had not visited. The concert was there because it is probably the largest church in town. We were ushered to the front where we found our friend Warry, full time worker for Christ for the City. He was the MC. The concert was great. We all enjoyed it very much. It was folk Chilean music with a Christian message.

After the concert, we got in the car, but she was boxed in and couldn't get out. There was a big van next to her. She told the ushers to go get the owner of the van, but one insisted on pulling the car out. He got in the car and hit a cement wall. Our friend was devastated because the car is only two months old. Finally the owner of the van came, moved the van, and we left. She cried all the way home. Instead of talking about the good music and how much fun it was to be with Christians, we had to talk about fixing the car. Please pray for Jimena. She is 39 years old. Helen has been witnessing to her for months, and this was the first time she agreed to go to church. Please pray that the car gets fixed and that she will be blessed in spite the circunstances.

We are packing now because we will leave tomorrow at noon for Buenos Aires. Until next time, still from the beach ...

Last Days in Chile

Hello! We are almost done here in Chile. I shall continue the blog where I left off yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a high risk area in La Serena. This is a large area of government subsidized housing. Just as in any similar place anywhere in the world, there is crime, drugs and gangs. I was shocked by the way that young children imitate American gangs' way of speaking, flashing signs,etc. There are about 600 children in this area, but there is no church at all. I was told that there are four different areas like this one in the city without church. Christ for the City rents a community recreational building for two hours every Friday. The whole team was there. One of our team members, Edner, brought a clown outfit, and two girls from the local church dressed as clowns also. The three clowns took some of the local children around the neighboorhood to invite others to come. There were about 70 children. There were games, a Bible story, cake and soda, and a gift for every child. We all had to help because these children are not as disciplined as children who attend church. Pray for the children of Puerta del Valle.

After the event, we all went to one of the church members' home for a BBQ to celebrate the end of the activities. One couple from our team was staying at this home. It is a big house, with five or six bedrooms, but only one bath. Eight people live there, plus our team members. That is 10 people with one bath. I don't know how many people were at the party, but I guess that there were 30 adults and quite a few children. I have already described the Chilean BBQ. They eat bread and sausage (chorizo, but not spicy like Mexican chorizo) BEFORE the BBQ. The meat was brought out in platter after platter, and people just helped themselves. You have to understand that by this time is was 9:00 pm, supper time in Chile. After dinner, somebody brought out a guitar, and we started singing Christian songs. Somehow the music changed to Chilean folk songs and the pastor and his daughter danced. Among the dances was a "guaracha." It is a very simple dance, so after watching them, I jumped up and started dancing also. You cannot keep a good Cuban down when there's dancing. The pastor was amazed that I got the dance perfectly. I told him that I am Cuban. That's all I needed to say. Then it was the Costa Ricans turn. They also started to dance the dances of Guanacaste, the province where we live when we are there. It is their custom to yell "BOMBA" and stop the music all of the sudden. Then somebody tells a couplet, which is a joke in verse. Then the music and the dances resumes until somebody yells "BOMBA" again. The only other American in the team is from Alabama, so I told everybody that he needed to sing "Dixie," which he did. Then the guitar player started playing the Guantanamera, and John and I danced. It was a lot of fun. At 10:30 all the young people left to play basketball, girls vs. guys. We left a little after 11:00 after saying our good-byes to all this dear people. They gave us a lot of presents. I will treasure them always. The team left this morning back to Santiago by bus. They will minister in two different churches there and will leave on Wednesday back to Costa Rica. We will stay here until Monday.

We have been driven back and forth sometimes by a hired taxi, who is a young woman. She decided to give us a free tour today on her day off. So, this morning she took us around the coast to many different towns. We had lunch at a fish place and got home at about 4:00 pm. Today is the first sunny day since we got here! It was a beautiful day for a drive. Tonight we might go to a concert at another local church.

I am going to have to wait to post pictures when we get home. It is hard with the connection they have here.

Until I connect again, still at the beach....

Ministry in La Serana and Coquimbo

As promised, here is an account of our activities.



On Wednesday, John went to jail. It was a very modern facility. The inmates did not wear uniforms. John said that it looked more like a hotel that a jail. The group separated into men and women to go to the different areas of the jail. The Chaplain is a woman who attend our friends' church here in Coquimbo. Everybody greets each other with hand shake and kiss; so the chaplain entered and kissed all the guards. John said that Chaplains do not kiss guards in the States. I did not go with John. We understood that he would be home around two for lunch. We waited all day fro him, but he did not come. He had only taken his passport with him, no money or jewelry. I had to speak at two events that afternoon, so Helen and I left on a taxi, but Helvecia stayed home all afternoon waiting for John. He is going to have to blog about that day because it was very different, but fun.



I went to the first church to speak at their regular ladies' Bible study at 3:00 pm. I spoke on Priscilla and Aquilas. They scheduled me to speak first so that I could make to my next appointment, which was a tea at another church at 4:30. Here I repeated the same talk on marriage. Again, the tea was very well presented. I sat at a table with a businesswoman who was very impressed. She said that she had never been invited to a church. (A few of the guest from the other tea went to church on Sunday at the other church. We hope that this church will have the same results.)

Thursday morning (yesterday) we went for a tour of the Elqui Valley. It was beautiful. We visited the little toen in the mountains where Nobel Prize winner Gabriela Mistral lived. We rented a van, so it was only our group. We quoted poems all the way up (I could keep up because I was a Spanish Literature major) and told jokes all the way down. This is really a very fun group. Last night I spoke at a Bible institure about how to design a Sunday School lesson. For you teachers out there, I used Madeline Hunter's 5 step lesson plan, adapted for Sunday School.

This morning we had a team devotional. It was very moving. The one full time couple in our team (20 years in Costa Rica) prayed and annoited the two young couples here. I just can't describe how closed we all felt to each other and the Lord.

I have more to say, but they are coming for us soon. We are going to ministry to children at a high riske area.

Until next time, still from the beach ( a lot colder beach)....

We are in Coquimbo, Chile

The good news is that we made it out of the airport after 13 hours. We spent the time at a Starbucks right by out our gate. They had the nice arm chairs, but their coffee was dreadful. I have had Starbucks in different countries, and this is the first time it doesn't taste right. Chileans don't drink coffee, but tea. We spent the day drinking coffee and using hte computer. There were also a few fellow passengers doing the same. We made friends with a businessman who had to be at La Serena at four. He did not make his meeting. We were waiting for our luggage when my phone rang. It was our son, David! He did not realize that we were in Chile.

We finally connected with our team in La Serena. The worker here met us at the airport with part of our luggage, and he gave our friend here directions to where the meeting was that evening. It was just a team debrief that night. We got home, took showers, had a great meal of "cazuela," which is a kind of chicken soup, and rushed out to the meeting. That was last Friday evening, May 22nd. Saturday afternoon was busy. The director of the organization and part of the team, including John and I were speaking at one church. As soon as I finished my part, one of the workers here rushed me to another church to speak at a ladies' tea. They really know how to do tea here. They do it English style. It was all very nice. It was organized the same way as we do it at EFCC. I spoke about marriage and husbands. My presentation was very well received. John is dying to know what I said, but I won't tell him! :)

On Sunday, we went with our friends to their church. John spoke in the adult class, and I spoke in the young people's group. I also brought an object lesson before Sunday School. Yesterday we went door-to-door with the cube around the main church that is hosting us, where we had the tea. I ended up walking with three young people. It was really nice seeing the young people share their testimony. Most people saw us coming and shut the doors. They have a lot of JW's here. After that, it was tea at the pastor's home, then to a seminar on finances that one of the members was already presenting at another church. We got home at 11:00 pm. Today we had a meeting at the pastors' association here in Coquimbo. The other team members were at La Serena, the next town. There were about twenty pastors from different denominations. They get together each Tuesday morning to pray, worship and share. Our director spoke for about 15 min. Tonight we are going to a home Bible study where John will share again. Then we are going to the pastor's house because it is our director's birthday. We probably won't get home until midnight. Tomorrow John is going to jail, to share, that is. In the afternoon, I am speaking at a ladies group in one church and will be rushed to another tea to repeat the same talk on marriage.

We are still at the beach. Both La Serena and Coquimbo are beach towns. The beach is only about five blocks from here. There are a lot of fishing vessels at the port. Fish is good here. The only problem is that it is about 55 degrees and cloudy. Our Costa Rican friends are freezing; even though they brought warm clothing. I should post some pictures, but I am not using my computer. This one is pretty old. I'll wait until I can connect with my own computer. Until then, still from the beach...

Stuck in Santiago, Chile

Today I am writing from Santiago, Chile. We arrived at 2:00 am this morning from Costa Rica via Lima, Peru. Our flight to La Serena, our final destination, was supposed to leave at 10:00 am. We were upset about having to wait 8 hours for the next flight. Guess what? The airport at La Serena is fogged in, and it is now 12:30 local time, but we are still here. We are beyond tired. The rest of the team left at 3:00am by bus. They are already there. We did not know that they were going to do it that way when we bought the tickets.

We have to present at 8:00 am tomorrow morning and again at 2:00. I know that the Lord is in control. We are surprised, but He is not. We are hanging non the promise:
"And we know that for those who love God, that is, for those who are called according to his purpose, all things are working together for good." Rom.8:28

We are off to Chile!

Tomorrow we leave for the capital, and there we will meet with the team going to Chile. This is the first short-term trip to Chile for Christ for the City. They want us to make a good impression. The team consists of a group of professionals who will be doing different workshops for pastors, pastor's wives and lay workers. There are psychologists, pastors, children workers and ourselves. John and I will conduct a workshop on how to penetrate a community. We will be sharing our experiences here. I will be doing a workshop for pastor's wives on marriage. I will be talking on "love and respect." Edner is a youth pastor with a successful computer business. He will be talking to pastors on how to start a small business. Pastors in Latin America need to supplement their income. Most churches here are small and poor. There will be workshops for children workers also, and some door-to-door evangelism.

Besides our participation in Christ for the City work, we will be sharing in a few churches that our missionary friend there knows. We have prepared a few talks, but we really aren't sure how many times we are going to speak. Please pray for our friend. She is 84 years old and has been ill for a few weeks. She needs to be health and have energy for all the activities that she has planned for us.

Last night we had dinner with an American couple who owns a condo here also. They are believers. We went to one of our favorite places. It is very typical, very pretty, and the food is good and inexpensive. This man volunteers for the Gideons, and he gave our waitress a Gideon NT. It was nice to see another believer using every opportunity to spread the Word.

Today we will say good-bye to a few friends, clean out the refrigerator, and close up the place. As usual, the Lord has done so many things that it is hard to even talk about everything. Our friend in Chile has Internet, so I will try to blog from there also. Keep praying for us. We need traveling mercies, and the Holy Spirit to impact lives.
Until then....From the beach....

Sunday School

I rejoiced with those who said to me, "Let us go to the house of the LORD."Psalm 122:1

This morning we went to church. This morning it was just Sunday School. They had all ages together, from 8 to adult. There were no small children present, except for the pastor's grandson who is one year old. We still don't understand very well how the schedule works, but we know that they have to work around the main church's schedule because Pastor Alejandro is still required by the main church to attend there regularly.

Pastor Alejandro taught on John 19, the last words of Jesus on the cross. He is an excellent teacher. Everything he said was solid doctrine. He repeated concepts, reviewed, and asked questions. There was also an opportunity for the congregation to ask any questions at the end. One of the men, whose wife just had surgery, asked about blood transfusions. Again, the answer was solid doctrine. I talked to the man afterward, and he told us that his mother-in-law is a JW. We praise the Lord that the group is getting good teaching.

After church, we went a block down the road to visit the family who accepted the Lord a week ago. We found one woman home. Her husband was working. The other couple found work in a town nearby, and they moved. We introduced her to the pastor and his wife, and another family who lives just four houses down the other block. They invited her and her husband to attend a couples' Bible study tomorrow evening. She said that she would go. We also left her with two New Testaments.

By that time, it was lunch time; so we went to the surfer restaurant which is not very far from town. We took the pastor and his wife and the man whose wife just had surgery with his two children. It was still early enough for breakfast. All of us, except for John, had a typical breakfast of rice, beans, eggs, bread and coffee. John had banana pancakes. I really liked their breakfast better than their dinners. We are now relaxing at home for a little while before some friends come over to visit.

Just strolling down the neighborhood!

Glasses

These are some pictures from the event in town last April when the optometrists came. Many people have proudly shown me their new glasses. Thank you SALT members!

Just Catching Up

This is an oven-these kids go to kids club

What have we been doing this week? Well, let's see...

On Tuesday we went to see a young man who briefly tried to help us in our little town, but ended up going to Africa with his wife on a short term. The addresses in this country are very strange. Houses don't have numbers, neither names on streets. The address was something like 1 km before you get to Conga Longa Bar. Of course, that means that you have to go to the bar, turn around, and count 1 km. We still could not find it, but we had his cell number. It turn out we were just a few feet away. We met the two young ladies who are full-time staff for Christ for the City at his house, and went to the big town nearby to have pizza. The pizza was very good, Neapolitan style.
We had a great time sharing with each other what the Lord has been doing in our lives. The girls followed us home and spent the night in our condo.

One of the girls was having symptoms similar to a heart attack. We gave her an Aspirine tablet to chew. She was still having pains the next morning, but they were determined to go horseback riding. (Remember, Rubia?) They went and had a great time, but we insisted that she would see the local doctor right after. There are two doctors in house for workers, owners and guests. We went to the clinic, but there was no electricity, so the doctor could not perform an EKG, but she spent a long time talking to her and determined that it was probably stress related. Nevertheless, she told her to comeback later when the electricity came back. It was scheduled to comeback at 2:00 pm. We went home to eat lunch and take showers before kids club.

They went to the house to get it ready for kids club, and we followed a little later. They had kids clubs and computer classes. The place was busy. Erika, the girl with the pain on her chest and arm, was telling the Bible story when we arrived. As soon as she finished, John took her back to the clinic for the EKG, and I stayed to help with the kids. Kids club takes place on the porch because is bigger and cooler. As they were working on their art work, it started to rain heavily, with lighting and thunder. All of the kids wanted plastic bags to protect their work from the rain. Some had umbrellas, others were riding their bicycles, others were picked up by their parents because of the rain, and still others stayed and waited out the storm. Then we were invaded by very large frogs. I remember those from back home. They are huge, and I don't like them. The kids just took the broom and swept them out, but they kept coming. I was ready to climb on the kitchen counter. The girls were as scare as I was, but the boys thought it was very funny. It finally stopped raining, and John and Erika came back with the news that the test was negative. The doctor gave her some pills and a lot of advise. We went home, and the girls returned to their home one hour away by car.

Yesterday, we took a local Christian family out to dinner at the restaurant on the mangroves. This time it was early, and there were no surfers and no large dogs. We talked about our dreams for the town. We are bringing a TV personality, who is a Christian, to speak to the town on Aug. 21st. Yes, we already have our tickets for the next trip. We are also planning to take the kids to a camp in January because that is their summer vacation. More information later.

Today I stayed home to prepare for my talk on marriage in Chile, and John went to the big city near the airport to a real mechanic to service the car. It is always an adventure. The good news is that John had a chance to share his testimony because it is a long trip, and our friend asked about our faith. While the car was serviced, they walked around. They went to Burger King and also found a Christian bookstore. One of the problems with the car is that it leaks inside when it rains, and it rains a lot here! The mechanic suggested a body shop, which they found after a few tries down dirt roads. The guys told John that our car has been in an accident and that the doors were crooked. So one guy got on the top of the car, and another one at the bottom, and they literally bent the doors back. Then they put "chicle," literally chewing gum, on the seal. They are sure that the car won't leak anymore. So now we can honestly say that our car is held together by chewing gum. The cost? $20 for body work!

Tonight we are taking the head of security, his wife and baby out to dinner. As I said before, the problem with friendship evangelism is that it involves a lot of meals!

You are now caught up! Until next time, from the beach...

Talking Bibles

I'm sure most of you remember when we had our Missions conference, and we had a man come to our class and talk to us about the fact that more than one billion people cannot read, so his ministry is to take talking Bibles to those people. I thought about this country, but most of the people can read, but I went to the office and bought two of them. I showed them to the team here from Christ for the City and the director Carlos Cordero told me about a pastor that went blind and could not preach in his church or have a Bible study. I gave one to Carlos and he went to the Pastors house yesterday. Praise the Lord the man is now filled with hope and again will study the Lord with those how can see, but who are blind to the truth of the Lord. One other man from Christ for the City said his grandmother was going blind and many people asked me to bring some more when we come back in July Lord willing. This is the first time I have blogged so I hope it was of interest to you.

John

Revisión Técnica

We passed the car mechanical check up and have our yearly sticker! This was a stretching experience for John, to say the least! This is more involved than just a smog check. We went with our local friends from our little town. The office, kind of like a DMV, is located in a town 50 miles from here, but it takes about an hour to get there.

We got there, parked the car, payed about $10, and got in line behind about 10 vehicles. In front of us there was a truck driver from town. We had talked to him briefly when we were passing out invitations on Friday, and he recognized us. Our friend stayed in the car with John and his wife, little boy and I waited outside. Finally, it was John's turn. An employee comes out and starts asking John to turn lights on and off, step on and off the breaks, right and left signals, the horn, the emergency, low and high beams, all very fast in Spanish. Then he had to drive through a tunnel, then the man gets under the car and yells different instructions through a microphone. Again, it is fast, the place is noisy and it is all in Spanish. Our friend tried to help by repeating the instructions to John in Spanish. This whole thing was so confusing for John that he was drenched in sweat, and the car stalled. A computer is checking how the car works through all this. Well, we did not pass because we needed a wheel alignment, but our friend knew of a good shop nearby. We drove there. There were no other costumers, so they aligned the wheels in about 30 minutes. Then we drove back to the DMV, had to pay again, but only $5 this time. Luckily, there was no line this time, and he did not have to go through the whole process again. They just checked the alignment; it was correct this time, and they gave us our yearly sticker. We were very happy. Our friends took us to dinner to celebrate. When they had their car checked last month, they had to go two different days to get it done. We left at 1:00 pm this afternoon and got home at 7:30. All in a day's work, from the beach...

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, I hope that everybody is having a blessed Mother's Day!

I need to catch up with what we have been doing since my last blog. Let's see. Thursday, we just spent the day at home. I prepared a pan of lasagna and baked a cake, to get ready for the weekend. We also went back to the center to observe the kid's Bible club. They had about 14 kids, ages 8 - 12. They really had a good time from 4 - 6. It gets dark at 6, and parents want their kids home. The two young ladies who are the full-time missionaries for Christ for the City here in this area run the club, but they live far, so they spent the night with us to get ready for the out reach event this weekend.

On Friday, we went into town at 1:30 pm to pass out fliers door-to-door. It was right during the heat of the day. It felt like stepping into the bathroom after somebody took a hot shower. The family who rents the house for the Center are good friends of ours, so the young wife wanted to go out with us knocking on doors. She actually had passed out 20 fliers already around the block, as they live behind the Center. We feel this family is very close to accepting the Lord. They have been a great help to the Center and to us. The three women went together and John and I went by ourselves. We divided the town in two halves.

As John and I were walking way out of town to a particular house that we know, we heard somebody yelled in English: "Hey, are you lost? Do you speak English?" It was actually an American guy who is building a house in town. He could not believe that an American couple would actually be visiting people in town. We stopped and chatted for a while. This man drove a bus all the way from Naples, Florida! His story should be the subject of a blog by itself. He sounded like quite a character.

It took us an hour to walk our half of town, and we met with the ladies as they were finishing their half. All five of us were drenched in sweat, but that wasn't the end of the day because we had to go back to the Center to meet another volunteer who was working with the computers. You see, the computers were donated by a church in Mission Viejo, and they were set up in English. He was changing the language to English, setting up Windows 2007 and Office. It was very hot in that little computer room. They still have air conditioning issues. This man is going to Chile with us, so he was staying for the weekend. Part of the purpose of the weekend was to meet the rest of the team members that are going to Chile. So, we all went home, took showers and had dinner. After dinner, we talked about the event and tested our equipment. I couldn't get my new ACER computer to work with the projector, and he showed me how. He brought an ACER himself. It turns out that he is a youth pastor, but has a computer business also for income. He is going to talk to pastors in Chile about starting small businesses. Pastor support is a problem in Latin America. The churches are small, and people are poor.

Yesterday was Saturday, the day of the event. We had activities form 1 - 3 for women and children, and a Christian movie at 7. We do this not to interfere with the Catholic mass. We found the hall filthy when we arrived. Usually somebody cleans it for us (we don't know who), but this time nobody had done it. John drove back to the Center, which is only two blocks away to borrow a water hose. We all got to work, washing tables, stools, counters and floors. It was a lot of work. We also had problems with the electricity, but John has enough extension to plug in China, so the guys strung cable from one plug at one end of the hall to another, from poles to poles, so that the children would not trip over cables.

By the time the first people started arriving, we had the place clean, tablecloths on tables, the equipment working and the coffee brewing. I was surprised to see two men arriving with their wives. We told everybody that the activities were for women and children in the afternoon; nevertheless, I gave the men a craft to do , just as the women. We were making necklaces and they got really into it. John sat and talked to the men the whole time while the kids were having a ball on the other side of the room. It really got noisy. Finally, the kids settle down to hear a Bible story, and I told my Bible story to the adults. I talked about Mary of Bethany, who anointed Jesus with her very expensive perfume. I even brought a little bottle of nard oil and passed it around so that they could smell it. The two men and their wives were just absorbing every word I said. I had about 30 adults sitting in a semi-circle. The power went out just as I was finishing and making the invitation, perfect timing.

We took everything down and went home. By now we had been joined by the rest of the Chile team. I had a grand total of 11 people for an early dinner of lasagna and rice and beans! We have to have rice and beans in this country! Carlos, the director of Christ for the City in Central and South America just returned from Honduras. His wife picked him up at the airport in San Jose and they drove straight here. After dinner, we had a hurried meeting about the trip to Chile. This is the first short-term trip of Christ for the City to Chile. All the team members are professionals who will do workshops for churches on different subjects.

We went back to set up all the sound equipment to show the movie. I was disappointed with the sound quality of the Spanish dubbing. We really could not hear the dialogue if the background music was going. I don't know whether it was our hurried set up, or a problem with the movie, since we had watched it in English at home. The movie was "The Ride." It is about rodeos, which are very popular in this area. After the movie, the two couples I mentioned prayed to accept the Lord. PTL! They are moving to San Jose, but to the area where Carlos and his wife live, so they will try to get them involved in a local church.

We took everything down and went home. Some of the team members left, and I only had 6, besides the two of us, spending the night. We had ice cream and talked until almost midnight. This morning we all slept until about 8, and went to the beach after breakfast. Everybody left at about 2. Tonight we are having dinner with the other side of the tracks, the group of Gringos who live here.

I am sorry that this is so long. Thank you for reading it! Until next time, from the beach...

Filling Up the Car

Yesterday was an easy day. We had some things to do, like stopping by the office here to pay our HOA dues, filling up the tank, and going shopping. All that should take a couple of hours in the States, but it took us practically the entire day.

We went to the Property Office to drop off our check, but of course, we had to sit and chit chat with friends, meet a new employee, etc. All that took about one and a half hours. As we were leaving the office, we saw that the German Bakery truck was making the rounds, so we went back to the condo to wait for them. I wanted to make a special order for our event on Saturday, plus buy some bread and pastries. (Rubia knows how good their breads and pastries are!) By the time we were done, it was lunch time, and time to sample the goodies!

After lunch, we went to buy gasoline first. There were some black clouds on the horizon, and we knew that it would rain soon. The closest gas station is about 40 minutes from here. We had a quarter of a tank left. When we arrived at the station, we found out that they were out of super. We have been told never to buy regular here; so we went to the next gas station, another 30 minutes farther on the highway. I was telling John that if there was no gas at this station, we would have to find a place to spend the night. On the way we encounter a tropical storm and could hardly see the road, but we were able to buy gas there and drove an hour back to our favorite supermarket. By the time we got back home it was 4:30. We decided that it was enough excitement for the day and stayed home the rest of the evening, and except for a mild earthquake, there were no more events to report. So, until next time, from the beach...

Sunday Morning

Last night as we were driving through town, we notice a bunch of chairs being lined up at a corner of the soccer field. They looked familiar, and I wondered if the church was planning an activity. We should have stopped, but didn't as we were on our way to take our friends to dinner. We went to a nearby restaurant literally built on a mangrove. (Mangroves (generally) are trees and shrubs that grow in saline (brackish) coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. from Wikipedia) The mangroves are on one of the best surfing spots on the planet; therefore, the restaurant was crowded with surfers. The owner has an Alaskan Husky that wanders about the place and was frightening to our friends' one-year-old. Between the baby, the dog and the surfers, we managed to have a nice time with our friends. When we drove back into town, the lights were out. It is very, very dark around here without the few lights here and there. We dropped our friends off and went home as a thunder storm was approaching, the first one of the season.

The generators were working in our condos, so we had power, but no air conditioning. That is fine with us, since we don't use it at night. There was no Internet and no TV, so we read for a little while and went to bed. There was thundering and lighting all night, and the generator kept going on and off. The water went off and on also during the night. We managed to sleep off and on also. We feel so much closer to Nature here! This morning we got up early to get ready for church, which was supposed to start at 9:00 am. As we were driving at 9:00 sharp by one of the church members' home, we noticed that they were still home; nevertheless, we drove to church, but found it locked. Back to the church member's home we drove. By this time, it has started to sprinkle a bit. They told us that there was no worship service today because they have had an event last night, and some people wanted to visit a member in the hospital instead.

It started to rain, so we went inside. We sat around their dining room table and tried to talk over the increasing noise of the heavy rain on their tin roof. The night before they had an outreach event in town. Only one of the residents opposed to it, but they had permission. They were praising the Lord for the power outage. Since people did not have anything to do, they took their chairs out on their porches and heard the Word of God preached. There are two bars on opposite corners of the soccer field, but they had to close due to the lack of power; therefore, there was no music blaring and no men drinking beer! Praise the Lord! We told them about our plans for next Saturday. We hope to be able to coordinate efforts with them, of course. After about one and a half hour, we prayed together and left in the rain. That was our Sunday worship service this week.

It stopped raining now, and, obviously, we have Internet again. We just came from visiting our American neighbors. Yes, we still remember how to speak English. Just another interesting day at the beach...

Community Center in Action

Yesterday we went to see the community center in action. There is a computer room equipped with seven computers brought last year by a church in Mission Viejo. A young man volunteers to hold classes once a week. He takes two buses one hour each from his University to make it here. He holds different classes according to age and computer experience: 4-5, beginners children; 5-6, intermediate children; 6-7, beginners adults; 7-8, intermediate adults; 8-9 teenagers. He spends the night at a local home and takes the 6:00 am bus next morning back. There is an air-conditioning unit in the little 8 X 8 room, but it is not working well yet. Please pray that they figure out what is wrong.

The landlord lives in another house behind. We are friends with the family and praise the Lord that it worked out that Christ for the City rented this particular house. We sat in the shade outside and talked to our friends all afternoon. The invited us to walk up a nearby hill to watch the sunset. Here is a picture of yesterday's sunset.
You can see the ocean from the hilltop. It was beautiful. This couple just got back from visiting Colombia, where the husband is from. After class, we invited the computer instructor to spend the night at our house because we wanted to get to know him better. So, I had to cook dinner, of course. I had rice and a can of beans, and with a salad, we were eating dinner at 10:00 pm, quick and easy. He was very hungry, not having had anything to eat since lunch. We all went to bed immediately.

Today we dropped him off at the bus stop and went back to the center. Now two young women were holding English lessons, as they do every Saturday morning. Again, there are two groups according to ability. The lessons are held in the porch where it is cool in the morning. Some of the students were wearing their new glasses. We stayed until both classes ended. In the mean time, our friend from Colombia told us that his father was very ill in the hospital back home. John took the opportunity to take him aside and share the Lord with him. He did not accept the Lord, but this is the first seed. After class, we gave some of the students a ride home and stopped by the home of one of the committee members to ask permission to use the dance hall on Saturday for an event. They will let us know tomorrow.

I want to talk about this event on Saturday. When we started coming to this town, the priest would come once in a while to hold mass at the public school. When he saw what we were doing, he started to come every week. Now the Hacienda where we live built a beautiful chapel on the grounds, and the priest is holding mass there. The Hacienda is sending buses every Saturday at 3:30 pm to the village free of charge and bringing people to mass. This has attracted more people to attend mass in the beautiful, new chapel. We do not want to be perceived as interfering, so we will hold our event from 1 - 3 in the afternoon, with crafts, games for children and a little talk for the women, and will come back at 7 pm to show a movie. This will mean that we have to set up and take down twice. Pray that the Lord will bring those with hearts ready to listen.

Tonight will go back to have dinner with our Colombian friend and his wife. They are very kind and friendly people. Pray that the Lord will guide our conversation. Until next time, from the beach...