Church

Cassandra's bicycle by the front of the church
(Photo by Brendan Flowers)

Saturday and Sunday were sunny days. Saturday evening we went out to dinner with some of our local friends, the couple with the young boy. He is now in the second grade and doing very well in school. Mom is proud. Because of the recent rains, there were little bugs flying around the restaurant and getting into our food and drinks. It is one of the prices one has to pay for living in paradise. Anyway, we did not eat any bugs that we could tell.

Sunday morning we went to church in our little town for the first time. They have purchased instruments, and the pastor is bringing two men from the big church to play. They are training two girls to sing with them. They are the only two girls in church; one is fifteen, and the other is sixteen. Actually, the fifteen-year-old, Cassandra, has the key to the church. She comes on her bicycle, opens up the church, sweeps, sprinkles the floor with the hose to keep the dust down, and sets us the plastic chairs. Her family does not attend church. As far as I know, she is the only Christian in her family. Now she is learning to sing and to lead worship. Please pray for Cassandra.

The pastor arrived somewhat late with his SUV full of people and instruments. The first thing he asked John was, "Are you ready to preach today?" John said no, next week. We worshiped for 45 minutes and then the pastor preached for an hour. His wife, sitting on the front row, kept signaling him that it was time to finish because they have to go do a second service in a nearby town. The people from this town were walking to attend church here, but the numbers increased to a point where the little house could not hold them all; therefore, the pastor comes to our town first and then drives to the other town. It is normally a fifteen-minute drive, but you actually have to cross a river, and due to the recent rains, it is too risky to cross, so he has to go the long way around. John has to speak in both places next Sunday. We are hoping that somebody will go in our car with us to show us the long way.

The pastor finished preaching and left in a rush, but that was not the end of the service. A man had asked to give a testimony, so he told the man to go ahead. The man is from Nicaragua. Last time he attended church, he asked for prayers for a job. He had gone back to Nicaragua looking for work, but could not find any. He returned here and found work. He praised the Lord for His provision and sang a song. We sang a final song and were dismissed by the worship leader.

We invited a couple to have lunch with us and headed for the surfer restaurant. On our way there, we caught up with one of the women from church walking home in the heat. We offered to take her. Unfortunately, we could not take her all the way home. She took us down a road that was even in worse shape than the main dirt road we normally drive (Remember that we are driving our friend's 98 Nissan Stanza with one windshield wiper). The road was pretty bad, but we scraped the bottom of the car only once. At one point, the road went down into a huge whole full of mud. John decided to stop right there and turn around. The poor woman had to walk the rest of the way, but she understood. Besides, our friends in the car were really concerned about the car and John's driving abilities in these conditions! Riding back, our friend asked John to stop twice, and he got out of the car to move some big rocks. They were still serving breakfast at the restaurant; therefore, we all had breakfast. I had the local breakfast which is black beans and rice, scrambled eggs, and bread, which is homemade at this particular place. John had French toast. He is such a Gringo!

Today is cloudy again, and it looks like rain, nevertheless, we already went for our beach walk this morning because of low tide. Memorial Day, but we were the only ones on the beach. It doesn't get any better than that. Now John left to talk to our friend, the tennis pro, who is also a Christian and was at church yesterday. John also hopes to get a few wholes of golf before the rain starts.

That is all for now...until next time...from the beach...

A Miracle

This is Ruthie. She is a 27-year-old married Christian woman. She lives on the Pacific coast of this country. A few weeks ago she got home with a terrific headache. Next she started to say things that did not make sense; so her family took her to the local hospital. They sent her to the big hospital at the capital. Now this hospital is about 5 hours away from her home; therefore, her mother, sister and husband who accompanied her needed a place to stay while she was there. Her sister is a missionary for Christ for the City; so our friends in the capital offered their home for them to stay while she was in the hospital. This is why there were 11 of of staying at this house.

An MRI revealed a blood clot in her brain, and she was immediately placed on a comma and on blood-thinners. She remained in the hospital for 23 days, but literally hundreds of people were praying for her, and she recovered completely. The chief neurologist is adamant that she did not have a blood clot because her full recovery. He wanted to do some very risky tests, but the family refused, and the doctor sent her home. She came home to our friends' house and slept about 15 hours. After she got up and had some food, she picked up a guitar and started singing praises to the Lord. She has a beautiful voice. She is still taking blood thinners and has to have moderate rest. Nevertheless, she is living proof of the Lord's power to heal.

The sun is out today and the rain has stopped for a while. We are planning to go to church in our little town tomorrow for the first time on this trip.

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

Another Wild Drive

Since our car was not ready for us to drive it home, and since Carlos had to fly out to El Salvador to a COMIBAM conference, it was decided that we would drive to the airport Monday morning, drop Carlos off, and the we would drive in Carlos' car to our little town. There was one catch: we had to get up at 3:30 am because he had to be at the airport at 5:00 am. We left his house at 4:30. It was still raining very heavily. One street was just a river. Carlos zig-zaged down the dark streets in the heavy rain. There is no way that we could find our way out of his neighborhood on our own. The advantage of leaving so early was that there was no traffic. We made it to the airport at 5:00 sharp. Carlos told us how to get out of the airport and catch the road out of town. There are no street names or house numbers in this country. It is all done by landmarks.

John started driving Carlos '92 Nissan Stanza with only one windshield wiper, in the middle of a downpour, in the dark! Why do we do these things??? I couldn't see out to help navigate. He found the on ramp only because he remembered where he was. Carlos told us to keep on the left, and we just kept driving blindly, hoping that we were on the right road. We couldn't even see the markings on the road. I think we were driving in the middle of two lanes because some drivers were honking at us. This went on for about an hour until the sun came up. We finally saw some signs that told us that we were on the right road, going the right way. The next thing for us was to look for a Shell gas station with a statue of a bull across the street. We were supposed to take a left there. I am not kidding. That's how they give directions around here. We had been driving for a little over two hours, and no bull (sorry). We were beginning to think that we had somehow passed it in the rain, but we saw one sign that said "Liberia 87 km," so we figure we could get home from that city because that's where we land when we come from the States. It would be the long way around, but we could make it. Then, all of the sudden, there was a sign with a left arrow that said "Hacienda Pinilla." That's where we live! As we were turning left, we notice the bull and the Shell station. :) We drove two more hours and got home safely. We almost kissed the ground.

We have been catching up with our friends here all week, some locals, some Americans. Today we were supposed to drive some friends to a restaurant for lunch, but our car (actually, Carlos') would not start. Dead as a doornail. We walked to our friends condo, and they drove. We are still in the middle of a downpour. It has rained 17 inches in three days! After lunch, our friends drove us to the transportation office here in the hacienda, and they sent somebody to give us a jump start. We then drove the car 40 minutes to the nearest service station, but they said that there was nothing wrong with the battery. It must be the starter. We drove back home, back to transportation. These guys are not mechanics, but they know a little more about cars than we do. They kept the car over night to take it to a mechanic tomorrow morning. If it is something minor, we will fix it, but if it is major, we are going to park car #2 an go rent car #3. The result of all of this is that we were supposed to go to church tonight, but can't.

Please pray for all these car problems. The Lord is trying to teach us something, maybe patience.
Until next time...from a very wet beach...

Sunday - Señor Fuga

Some of you seem to think that the car had been fixed. We can only wish!!

I left you after the party Saturday night. Sunday morning we all went to church. All eleven of us and two bathrooms. We all made it! John and I were scheduled to share Sunday morning. The church was the same where we had the women's meeting Saturday morning. The service started promptly at 9:30 am. We had 45 minutes of singing and praising. Then the pastor had about 15 minutes of prayer for different members of the congregation, announcements and offering, and it was our turn to speak. We had 45 minutes. We spoke about what we are doing here and how we use friendship evangelism. The pastor closed with prayer.

We were hoping to hear from the mechanic on Sunday, so that we could go pick up our car, since we were leaving Monday. We finally got hold of the mechanic, but the news were grim: he thought it was the oil pump, but was not sure. If that is not the problem, we will have to replace the entire engine. Please pray that this man can fix the problem. The car would not be ready for us to drive it home on Monday! :( Our friend had to fly out to El Salvador to a COMIBAM conference on Monday, so it was decided that we would drop him off at the airport and then drive his car home. He will return from his trip on June 2nd. In the meantime, his friend who recommended mechanic #2 would try to get updates from him, email our friend, and he would email us. It is always complicated here. We now call our car Sr. Fuga (Mr. Leak).

Sunday afternoon we went to purchase the easy chair that our friend has always wanted, since he had enough money from his birthday presents. By this time it was pouring rain. We were in two cars because the whole family wanted to participate in the event. We went to the closest mall, which wasn't that close, but they did not have what he was looking for; therefore, we went to the other side of the city in the middle of a downpour, to the biggest mall around. It took us an hour to drive across town. This mall is huge, and it has all the designer stores, such as Carolina Herrera, and other famous names. It is in the wealthiest part of town. We went to a couple of furniture stores, and finally, there it was!! The chair of his dreams. In the US we would have gone to the Lazyboy store and would have found what he wanted right away, but easy chairs are not very popular in this country. It took us the entire afternoon to find it. By the time we got home it was already dark and time to start packing. We had a nice time of prayer, singing and thanksgiving, and we all got busy packing...

Carlos trying on his chair at the store.

This is not the end of the story...stay tuned...until then....from the beach...

Birthdays

Now this is a good size coffee cup!

...Friday we went on a tour of a coffee plantation near our friends' house. It is the same brand we enjoy so much; so when they asked for a volunteer to learn to taste coffee, I jumped up. The whole thing was very interesting and fun. John even tasted some coffee. This is the first time in our married life that I have seen him drink coffee. They offered a huge discount at their shop; therefore, we bought all the coffee to take home there. By the way, we found out that you can order on line. You can see the website on the picture. Our friends picked us up at 11:30, and we went to their house for lunch. There were eleven of us for lunch and no water! (I will explain why so many people staying at this house in another blog) She managed to prepare lunch minus a salad.

Friday afternoon we tried to get answers from mechanic #2, but no luck. He just couldn't find what was wrong with the car... In the mean time, our friend's car overheated and had to be taken to be repaired. Enter mechanic #3. He is also a pastor. I couldn't figure out whether he is a pastor who is a mechanic, or a mechanic who is a pastor. He was closer to the house than mechanic #2, but not as good, according to our friend. We were now driving a third car. It's too complicated to explain how we had another car.

Friday evening we celebrated our friends' youngest son's 18th birthday. It is a big thing here. He is now an adult with his own ID card. The whole family came for dinner, plus a niece, her husband and three children visiting from Florida, plus young people from church, plus us, plus another family also staying at the home. These people are very musical; so we had a great time singing and celebrating.

Billy about to blow the candles. His 87-year-old grandma and his brother-in-law on the background. Grandma came to help when Billy, who is the youngest of three, was born and never left.

Saturday morning I was scheduled to speak at the women's monthly meeting at their church. We had a great typical breakfast of rice and beans, sour cream, scrambled eggs, corn tortillas and coffee. It is a great group of women of all ages. I talked about four biblical principles for a happy marriage. It was well received. There was a lovely lady who has been married for 58 years and says that she is still in love with her husband, but even she said that she had learned something that morning. While his wife and I were at the meeting, our friend and John were to go to mechanic#3 to pick up his car. On their way to pick us up, the car overheated again; so they took the car back to mechanic # 3. Just a minor adjustment was needed. They finally picked us up and went back to the house.

By now the whole family was in the middle of the last minute preparations for the real reason we were there for the weekend which was to celebrate our friend's 50th birthday. They had rented a hall and had to decide who was going to pick up the cake and take it there, plus all the other details that had to be done. Finally, we were all ready to go. After dinner, John and I had to give the toast. We had it all prepared, so it went well. We met some people there who we already knew. The band played the Guantanamera; so John took me out to dance. Nobody else was dancing, but people appreciated the show. Even the band liked it. We were all Christians at the party, and I hope nobody took it the wrong way. Anyway, it was a lovely party.

Father and son singing at the party.

Back at the house, our friend opened all the birthday cards. He had requested money gifts to buy an easy chair. They added the presents and figured that they had enough to go shopping Sunday afternoon. It had started to rain Saturday during the party and it is still raining nonstop. I don't want to bore you, or test your endurance, so until next time... more to come...from the beach...

Wild Thursday

What a wild ride did we have!

We started early Thursday morning boarding a 20-seat CESSNA for the capital. We arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule because we had a good tail wind, but our ride was 30 minutes late. We were starting to get concerned because they just moved to a new house three weeks ago and we did not have their new address to get a taxi. We were stuck if he did not showed up. I forget why he was late, so much has happened since. Our friend picked us up in our car. That was the good news, but the bad news were that it had not passed the DMV technical check, which is a lot more than just smog control. The inspector found...guess what? An oil leak!!! So the mechanic who had the car for three weeks did not fix it. The whole thing is sooo complicated. I am beginning to think that there isn't a good mechanic in this country. (Bob, we need you!)

Our friend offered to help us with the car in the first place because he had a reliable mechanic. He made an appointment and went all the way to our condo on the other side of the country to get it, just to find out that his mechanic had left for the US on a family emergency! That was mechanic #1. Mechanic #2 was recommended by a friend. The man guarantees his job, so the plan was to keep our schedule for the day and go back to the mechanic that evening. We unloaded our suitcases, had lunch and drove up to the mountains outside the city to attend a graduation.

There is a school in a beautiful pine forest called "Renacer," or Born Again. They take young girls off the streets and help them overcome addictions, abuse, and other problems. Girls stay there voluntarily a minimum of 18 months. When they graduate, those 18 and over go to a half-way house in the city where they can finish their education or job training and find a job. Minors are not released to family members unless the situation is acceptable to the school counselors. If they don´t have a safe home to return to, they stay in the school until they are 18. They have a graduation every six months. This time there were only four girls graduating. The school holds 40 girls, and they are at capacity at the moment. Even the graduating girls don´t leave abruptly. They go with their families and return after three days, talk to the counselors who evaluate their situation, go away for a week, come back again, until the counselors feel that they are ready to make a complete break. The whole event was very emotional. One girl gave her testimony. It was amazing. She came from a good middle class family, but got involved in drugs at ten years of age. She went down a horrible spiral of addiction until her parents brought her to the school.This school is sponsored by the government's education department, one national bank, and Christ for the City. Representatives for these organizations spoke at the graduation. It was refreshing to hear secular officials give God the glory for the changes in those girls' lives. We drove back to the city in the rain and rush hour traffic. Our friend has a 92 Nissan Stanza. Riding with him is an E-ticket ride!

Some girls performing at graduation

We then went back to Christ for the City headquarters and met with some of our friends there. We had an informal meeting at a local coffee shop (I had tres-leches dessert and capuccino!) and got caught up with their ministries. They worked with at-risk children, addicts, homeless, prostitutes. It is a very stressful ministry.

Back to our friend's house, we picked up our car, and then (here comes the wild part) we had to follow him to the mechanic in the wild traffic of the capital. You have cars and motorcycles passing you from left and right where there is only one car lane, besides the fact that we had no idea where we were going. We are not familiar with the city at all and had never driven there before. Words cannot describe the experience of trying to follow somebody in this kind of traffic. One more detail, it was already dark! I went along just to help John to keep up. He drove 30 years in Tijuana, but this is much worse. We made it safely, although sometimes there were literally inches separating us from cars. The mechanic was stumped about the problem, but agreed to keep the car until he can find and fix the problem. More to come...

We Have Arrived

We are here!

We had a very good trip. The highlight of the trip for me was that I got upgraded to first class during the second leg of our trip. They called my name to the desk just before boarding and gave me the upgrade. John wanted to know why he did not get upgraded, and they explained to us that he used miles for his ticket, and those don´t get upgrades, so then he said: "But I paid for her ticket!" The girls at the counter thought it was all very funny and took pity on him. They gave him the seat by the emergency exit that was completely empty, so he was able to stretch.

We had a good night´s rest. This morning we already have had two phone calls. Our friend from the capital called. He has our car, which was being repaired by a good mechanic that he knows. He will pick us up Thursday at the airport at the capital. We purchased a one way ticket in a little puddle jumper of a plane. He is going to take us around to some of the ministries that Christ For The City has over there on Friday, including a graduation ceremony for girls that have gone through a program called "Renacer" (Born Again). This program takes girls off the streets and takes them to a camp in the mountains for a minimum of a year.It is a beautiful place. I was there once before. They get off drugs and go to school. They only go back if they are ready and have a safety net. I will give more details after we visit the camp.

Saturday morning I am speaking to a Christian women´s group about the Christian marriage. Pray for this. Saturday night we are going to our friend´s 50th birthday party. Sunday morning we are speaking in his Sunday School class. Those of you in SALT will remember when he came to visit and spoke in our class. We told him that he was in the US and needed to speak in English (but remember that I ended up translating), now it is John´s turn to go to his Sunday School class and speak in Spanish. Our topic is friendship evangelism. Sunday night we are going to meet other friends, and we are driving back in our car on Monday morning. Please pray specially for this because we have never driven from the capital before. We have no GPS or map, although I am going to try to get one.

The door bell rang! It was the German Bakery guys!!! Rubia knows how much I like their stuff. I asked them how did they know to come, and they told us that they ask who is in at the gate. They only come on Tuesdays now because things are slow here also. Now we have fresh bread, cinnamon rolls and other goodies. We will survive!

Now you are up to date. Please pray for traveling mercies this week and through Monday.

Until next time...From the beach...