Day 3

Well, we did not get everything done yesterday. John is not very ill, but he is very tired and did not feel like driving much yesterday; therefore, we did not go to the gas station and did not go shopping. Instead, we stayed here all day. We had to go to Property Management first to take care of some business. We have a very nice friend in the office. I call her "Cousin" because her last name is the same as my mother's maiden name. She is a believer. We talked to her for a while, and then went to the local restaurant for lunch, since there were no groceries in the house. Lunch was a typical dish of "casado:" white rice, black beans, meat for me, fish for John, tortillas, and fried ripe bananas. It certainly hits the spot. Of course, there were people to greet at the restaurant. Then we made the rounds to the club house where we chit-chatted some more. By that time, it was nap time for us. We just stayed home the rest of the day.

Today we had to go to the gas station - that's an hour round trip - where we met another fellow believer who works there. We were glad to see each other. We talked about his church and daily struggles. We are so blessed to have found these believers in places where we have to do business anyway. After that, it was off to the grocery store, home for lunch, and back to the property management office to get our taxes paid. They passed new laws for foreigner property owners, but made them so complicated that they had to extend the deadlines because not even their own accountants could figure it out. We sent a check to cover the amount, but the national bank did not like my numbers and rejected it. Now we have to put a stop payment on the check and write another. At least our ATM card works here! This is just a glimpse at life in a third world country. All these comings and goings took all day. We still have not been to the beach.

We also heard from one of the full-time workers in our town. They had to change the date for camp for Jan 19 - 20 and, as we suspected, the local moms are not willing to let the kids spend the night away from home. Only 6 - 8 kids have signed up. Two moms are going with us. Please pray that the Lord will transform the lives of those participating. It's not bad that the date was changed. It will give John a chance to fully recover.

Tomorrow we will continue visiting friends and catching up with each other. I have been calling my mother everyday. She is doing fine, but still very weak. Please pray for her and the rest of our family.

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