How to Fix a Muffler, Local Style

We were feeling so great because we had not had anything break down on this trip. Alas, with just three days to go, our washing machine broke down. I was doing a lot of laundry in order to leave all our clothes here ready for the next time. The machine stopped in the middle of the rinse cycle and would not drain. The head of maintenance for our condos is a very handy young man, so we called him. He came very quickly and got it to work, but he said that it needed a part that would take eight days to get here. He said to finish doing the laundry because it should work the way it was. He also gave us his cell phone number in case we needed him. Well, we had to call him once more. He had to come a second time that day. I continued to do laundry, but the machine stopped again. By this time, it was after working hours, and I had to wait until the next day. I called him the following day bright and early at eight o'clock. He sat with us and waited for a full cycle to make sure it was working properly; nevertheless, I had to call him a fourth time. I finally got done with all my laundry. It took me two days, and I promised him that I wasn't doing any more.

But those of you who follow this blog know about our car, and all its problems. This morning we were going to get gasoline (45 minute drive), some lunch and a couple of things at the store to have for our next trip. When he opened the garage, John noticed that the muffler was hanging low. The roads here are terrible; therefore, cars get a lot of shaking. It is not surprising that things get loose. Since we were going to the service station, it would not be a problem to have the mechanic take a look. I thought it would be a matter of fixing some clamp. The mechanic got under the car and came out with out muffler in his hands. "It is broken," he said. Well, duh! He also said that we had to find somebody who could weld it together or we needed to replace it (it takes eight days also). While we were waiting for the mechanic to take a look at our car, another guy drove up in a Cadillac Escalade. It is very, very unusual to see a Cadillac here, never mind one so big. John stroke up a conversation with the man, a local. He was not the owner of the car. He was the concierge for a very fancy resort. They talked about mechanics, and he told John he happened to know a good one in a town very close to where we live, a place we drive by often. When he overheard what the mechanic said, he told us that his mechanic had the welding equipment needed to fix the muffler. There are no muffler shops anywhere near where we live. He then got on his cell, called his mechanic, asked him if he could fix it, the mechanic said yes, and he told him we would be on our way. Then he drew a map how to get there because it was off the main road. There are no street names, signs, or house numbers in this country.

Incredibly, we drove straight to the place. The directions were. "Drive to the pizza shop in Villa Real and take a left on the dirt road. You will pass a soccer field. When you get to a Y on the road, take the road to the right. Drive about 200 m, and you will see a bunch of dead cars. That´s the mechanic's shop. By the way, if you are hungry, you should try Las Palmas Restaurant." The mechanic was very nice. He said they needed to go get a part. We asked for a ride to the restaurant, but he wanted us to ride standing up on the back of his Jeep. There is no way I was going to do that. We walked to the restaurant, about half a mile. It was a buffet. All the truck drivers were there, so we figured it would be good. We had a typical lunch and walked back.   While waiting for the car to be ready I walked over to the mechanic's house and asked a grandma who was sitting on the porch with her grandson if I could sit there to wait. She said yes, and I sat in the hammock. We chatted for a while, mainly with the two-year-old boy, who was so nice to let me sit on his hammock. They were still working on the part, but soon they welded the muffler back to the car, and we were on our way. We finished our errands and went home.

There were two people we wanted to see at the main office. One was the secretary of the general manager. She was the one who facilitated the use of the house for the couples event. The other was a good friend. We were also going to have dinner with friends, but we called and canceled. We are tired. Too much excitement for one day.

Tomorrow is our last day her. Thank you for your prayers. The Lord is good. We are humbled by the fact that He has chosen us to be here and do His work. There is a lot to do, so, with His help, we plan to be back in a couple of months.

Until then....from the beach...

COUPLES EVENT

The couples event was a success. This year we could only have one meeting because of all the year -end celebrations. Our topic was conflict resolution, and we would have liked to meet at least once before the main event, but it was not possible. Once again, the Hacienda Administration let us use one of the facilities for free, since we are doing what they see as social work for the town. This time they let us used this large house right on the beach. It is near the owner's house, which we used last January. This house is one of the original structures at the Hacienda. It was the overseer´s house. It has two stories. On the ground floor there is a large room, a kitchen, a bedroom with a private bathroom, a utility room, a bathroom, and a separate room with a large shower facilities. Upstairs there are three large bedrooms with a total of 24 beds and another bathroom. They don't rent this house anymore, so it was quite dusty when we went to see it last week, but our dear friend LC asked housekeeping to clean it a little bit. Yesterday morning at 9:00 am Carlos and Rosario, and John and I went there to get the keys from LC and clean. We were ready for a few hours of cleaning, but when LC came with the keys, we were pleasantly surprised to find it clean. We still did some cleaning because places get dusty here quickly, but we were done in about one hour. John and Carlos had to go get two long tables and tablecloths that the motel here was letting us use. We got two long tablecloths, three round ones and two square, and also some extra folding chairs all for free. We went back with the tables and the decorations that Rosario made, got the place set up, and went back to put the lasagna in the oven (3 pans), get ourselves cleaned up, and get the rest of the equipment. At this time, LC called us with the bad news that the Hacienda couldn't provide transportation because the minibus broke down, but, being the resourceful man that he is, he had already found other transportation, only that we had to pay $60.00. We told him to go ahead. What could we do at that point?

 The minibus arrived promptly at 4:45 with all the couples. We had 11 couples. They already know that they have to be on time, or the bus will leave without it. They enjoy attending these events, so they are there on time. There is one tall guy in the center with a girl dressed all in white. This is a Christian couple, who are dating, but not married yet. He attends our church, but she lives in another town. They were allowed to come this time because we were talking about conflict resolution only, not sexual relationships. They are a very nice couple. On the left at the very end there is LC and his wife. They are the parents of the little three-year-old boy that I have mentioned before. The second couple from the right are also good friends, They have a nine-year-old boy. They are also of great help for all the events, whether in town or at the Hacienda. Neither couple are yet believers. There were two other Christian couples attending.Carlos and John spent time with the couples on the beach taking pictures and watching the sunset, while Rosario and I got the garlic bread ready and gave the rest of the meal the last minute touches.


Soon we were ready to eat. We called the couples, and told them to enter through the "curtain on love." Actually, some heart streamers that we hanged from the front door. The light bulbs that you see are the ones used throughout the house. They are a special yellow tint that keeps all the bugs away. We did not have any mosquitoes or other bugs inside the house. This couple is actually from Nicaragua, but live in town and attend our church. The dining room looked very nice really. We had candles and flowers, everything looked very romantic. They appreciated their candle-light atmosphere.

Just a partial view of the dining room

Another partial view of the dining room

 After dinner, we had a warm-up activity that we had before. It was like the Newlywed Game, where the group was divided into men and women. The men went into the downstairs bedroom to answer 5 questions. The women remained in the dinning room answering the same questions, Then the couples came together, and we compared answers. There was a three-way tie, but we had three identical presents, so that worked out fine. The ladies got jewelry and men got a soccer ball. 

Winning couple

Winning couple - LC giving the prizes

  
After the game, we had a talk about conflict resolution. John did the introduction and Carlos talked about the 12 steps for conflict resolution. We got our information from Peacemaker Ministries Spanish website. They listened intently to all the information. We used Bible verses and Carlos even gave a little Gospel presentation at the end, but no altar call. This is all very new to them. Rosario followed with an application. They had a string and scissors. The couples went off by themselves and talked about their conflicts. The cut the string at a conflict, and if it was resolved they tied it back.  This made the string shorted, but it got them closer together. This was an object lesson to drive home the point of the importance of resolving our conflicts. This was just a brief exercise because it was almost time for the minibus to get back. We had dessert (chocolate cake) after this last activity. The minibus was there at 8:30, but they took their time to say good-bye, thank us, and also they asked us to do this again when we return in April. One new thing we did this time was to bring a mini photo printer. While Carlos was speaking, John and I printed at least one picture per couple. Before leaving, they got to get their pictures. We also did a picture show of all the pictures while they were having dessert.

We loaded our SUV with everything because Carlos and Rosario had to drive back to the capital, since Carlos had to do a wedding today at 8:30 am, and were leaving immediately after the event. He just called. It only took them three hours to get home this time because there was no traffic that late. They got five hours of sleep, but were now ready to take a nap. We went to church this morning, and were pleased to see good attendance. Now is nap time, and maybe a little football.

 We will be going back home soon. Next week we will visit some of our closest friends here to say good-bye.


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

Visiting

Christ for the City staff

Yesterday we spent a lot of time visiting our friends. First, the two young women who are the Christ for the City staff here in town were at the center getting it ready for the next school year. This is summer break here. The new school year starts February 10th. They were cleaning out the house, checking the computers, and passing out announcements about summer camp, which will be the first week in February. This time we are not going because we won't be here. One of the girls is a local, but the other one is an American. Last month she married the local girl's cousin. He happens to work in the computer field, so he was working on the computers. We sat on the porch and talked to the girls for a long time because we had a lot of catching up to do. We haven't seen them since we were here last time in June. This is the heavy traffic we encountered after leaving Christ for the City.

Traffic jam

We then visited our friends, the little boy's parents, because they were both home from work. Since most people here work in the tourist industry, their schedule is not 8-5 as in the States. We played with the little boy for a while and talked about the couples event this Saturday. He has a list of those who have attended before and is contacting them to confirm whether they are coming or not because we have to turn the list into Security for them to be allowed in the Hacienda. From their house we went to the other couple's house who is also helping out with the event. We gave them the list and they brain-stormed about other couples that they might invite. Remember these two couples in your prayers. Their help is invaluable in order to get the event together, but they are not yet believers. All four of them work here in the Hacienda.

After that visit we went still to another house. This young couple don't have any children yet. They have attended our events and were moved to get married because of what they learned last year. (They were living together.) They are very cute together, very friendly. It turns out that they live with his mother. Actually, they live in about one half acre lot with all of his brothers and one sister. They have different houses, but all live very close. The mother-in-law has attended church. Because of her work schedule, she can only attend on Thursday evenings, so she told me that she would be there today. They served us coffee and cookies, and John had some coffee. I was so proud of him! This is only the second time in our married life that he has tasted coffee. There is another couple we know who lives on the same block; therefore, we walked to that house to see if anybody was home. We have heard rumors about their marriage, but since they are rumors, we haven't said anything to them. They have never attended our events, although they claim to be believers, they have never attended our church. The wife was home, and we chatted for a little while. I invited her to church tonight. We had left home at eleven in the morning, and it was 4:00 by the time we drove back home. We were hot and tired.

Today I got up early and started cooking lasagna. Unfortunately, I could not find either ricotta or cottage cheese. (Rubia, I needed 3 lbs of ricotta for the amount of lasagna I am making. I only had half a gallon of milk on hand, so I decided to skip trying to make ricotta, but I will bring cheesecloth from home next time. I will be ready if this happens again. Thanks for the recipe!) Since I did not have ricotta cheese, I decided to double the wine. It never hurts to add more flavor. I'll let you know how the couples like it this time. So, I started cooking at 7:00 am this morning. It is 2:00 pm and I just finished cleaning up. I do more cooking here that I ever do back home. 

Carlos and Rosario will arrive tomorrow morning from the capital. The reason we are having the event this weekend was so that they could come and spend a few days relaxing. Well, it happened that Carlos made a mistake on his agenda, and he has to do a wedding this Sunday morning; therefore, they are going to leave back for the capital, a five hour drive, right after the event Saturday night. Please pray for traveling mercies for them!

I will be busy the next few days, so you won´t hear from me until Sunday or Monday.

Until then...from the beach...

Ministering

Another busy Sunday! I taught Sunday School Sunday morning in both churches. The lesson was about resisting the world's influences in our Christian walk. This time we went to both churches because last Sunday some people were confused about the schedule.One pleasant surprise was to see one of the families we have befriended here, but who do not know the Lord come to church because they knew I was teaching. Whatever it takes to get them there works for me. The pastor announced the movie that we were showing at the other town, and our friends decided to go to that event also.After the service at the second church by the river, one of the guys asked to talk to us. He and the cabinet maker work in construction. They have jobs and work every day, but they are not getting paid. Their boss has all kinds of excuses when payday comes around. They haven't been paid for four weeks now. Back in the States we would take this man to the Labor Board, but there are no such resources here. It is so sad to see honest men being taken advantage of. We could only pray with them and asked the Lord to take care of the situation. Please pray for Giovanni and Milciades. They are new Christians.

We got home late and just had enough time for a short nap before we had to take off again to set up for the movie showing; therefore, we missed all the football games on Sunday. After loading our SUV with the screen, DVD player, digital sound equipment (we are so proud of this equipment that is very easy to use and very light), LCD projector, extensions and miscellaneous cords to attach the screen, we left at about 4:30 because we were going to stop by our town and pick up our friends and Kassandra, a young lady who is a very serious Christian, and we had to set everything up before dark. The event was on the soccer field. This town has about 60 families. They don´t have a community hall like our town to hold events. Giovanni and Milciades built a backing with some poles and black plastic. They attached that to the soccer goal frame and hanged the screen from the top bar of the goal. It worked perfectly. The screen was secured and the backing worked so the image was nice and bright. I praise the Lord for our Epson projector which I bought when we were doing short-term trips to Kazakhstan so long ago. We just keep it here now. One lady brought something cold to drink, and yet another made empanadas, but they charged for all this. They are poor and can't afford to donate. Money goes towards the church. Giovanni brought a 20 cup coffee maker. As I mentioned before, he works in construction, so he has very, very long extensions. We got the electricity from a house in front of the soccer field. John went back to Giovanni's house and brought the church's chairs. The pastor brought the chairs from our town and from the third town. We had about 65 chairs total. We put them in front of the screen, trying to avoid the cow chips as much as possible. The movie that we showed is a true story about an Mexican church planter who was shot and killed by enemies of the Gospel back in 1952 in Mexico. People seemed to enjoy the movie, even though, and maybe because there was a lot of violence. Our friends have a precocious three-year-old boy who talks constantly. They did not want him to see the violence, so they would take him away every time that there were bad scenes, but we were out in the open, so really there was little that they could do. When the scene of his murder came, they took the little boy away and thought he was being distracted until he said: "You can take me back. He is dead." After the movie we took down all the equipment with the help of flashlights. It is very, very dark here at night. I was a little concerned about crossing the river in the dark, but John did fine driving the car through all the obstacles. We drove everybody home and went home. We were so tired that we put the car in the garage without unloading the equipment. We did it the next day.

Monday we had to go buy gasoline, always an event here, and groceries for the couple's night because I am making my world famous lasagna. I am very disappointed because I could not find ricotta or cottage cheese this time. I will just have to add extra wine to make up for the lack of cheese!! We thought we were getting a break and not going to our town, but a man called who wanted to talk to us; therefore, after putting the groceries away, he headed back to our town. We met the man where he works because he wanted to talk to us alone. He is really in a lot of trouble. We counseled him and prayed together. Please pray for A and S. The Lord knows who they are. I am trying to make some phone calls on his behalf today, but can't get through the place where I can get some information for him. I have been trying all morning, since 9:30 am.

John played golf today with our friend, the father of the three-year-old boy. Tonight we are having dinner with our American friends. One more thing: we have a new granddaughter: Brooklyn Hines, born January 17, 7 lbs 6oz.

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

A Busy Week

I apologize for not getting back to blogging this week, but we have been busy visiting and getting ready for the couples event. We have been doing research on conflict resolution and putting together our presentation. The other day we went to see the house where we are having the event. It is a large house right on the beach, but they don't rent it anymore because it is old and rustic. (Rubia, you remember this house. We went to see it while you were here.) Upstairs there are three bedrooms with 24 beds. It has a large kitchen and meeting room, but it is very dirty. Saturday we will have to go there early to clean up, come back, take showers, and get ready for the event. The minibus will pick up the couples in town at 4:30 because we want to be able to take pictures on the beach before the sunset.

There is an American man who has a house in the town. We met him a long time ago on an occasion when we were walking around the town to invite people for one of our events. We were so far out that he thought we were lost. He had not seen any Americans near his house. Anyway, while he was in the States, somebody broke into his house, stole a lot of things, and sold them in town. He knows who did it: one of his neighbors. This man is a Christian and attends the local English congregation. He has donated a lot of Bibles. A few months ago he went around town with some members of our church giving Bibles to every household. He again donated Bibles. This time for our church, but he told John that he wanted one of these Bibles to go to the man who stole his property. We will see that he gets it.

We have spent a lot of time this week visiting and encouraging the believers. We visited the lady who is waiting to have a hysterectomy. Her husband is in the capital on a temporary job. We prayed and encouraged her. We went to her house twice this week. Thursday night was church. Attendance was low, only eight people. Last night we were invited to have dinner at the house of the young couple with the four-year-old daughter. Dinner was excellent! We had appetizers of home-made chips, guacamole, pico de gallo (without onions because John doesn't like them), and black bean sauce, salad, and the main course: shrimp and rice. Wow! It was very good! The little girl is scheduled for eye surgery on the 19th. Please pray that everything go well. Mother and daughter are actually leaving tonight for the capital. They are staying at a relative's house for about two weeks. They have pre-op appointments, then the surgery and then the post-op follow up. Surgery will be at the children's hospital in the capital. These two families are going through huge trials. Either situation would be trying for any family in the States, but you have to add distance, staying with relatives, and the bureaucracy of socialized medicine on top, and you can get the idea of the difficulties that they face.

There is another family in the church who is going through financial problems. They haven't had a job for the last six months and their electricity was cut off four months ago. It gets to the point here when the electric company takes away the meter. It will take a lot of money for them to get it back. We tried to visit them today, but they weren't home.

Today we went out with a local friend, who is not a believer, but willing to help us, to visit all the couples who have come to our couples event. Since she lives here, she knows where everybody lives. This saves us a lot of time. We were able to go to all the homes in one afternoon. In some of the homes we were invited in and visited for a while. As soon as we get there, some young member of the household is sent to the "pulpería" for Coke. They don't keep sodas in their homes. It is too expensive. Soon we are drinking lukewarm Coke. We drank a lot of Coke today! Most of the couples are looking forward to going, while others said that they have to work. We can have about 15 couples.

Tomorrow morning I am teaching in Sunday School, in both churches. Tomorrow night we are going to the second town through the river to show a Christian movie. Please pray.

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

Sunday's Visits

This is the creek that we have to cross to get to the second town.

Are you sure about this?

When this creek floods, it becomes impossible to cross by car, never mind on foot.

The only other life that we saw crossing the creek: a heron

Sunday was a busy day. John preached in the morning. He did an excellent job talking about John 21 and "Follow me." I think this was his best sermon. Our prayer is that the Lord will use His Words to impact people's lives. We were very happy to see the other family, who is a little upset at the pastor, in church. The wife is ill and needs surgery, but with socialized medicine here, she has to wait for two months before a bed is available. I mentioned before that they had both lost their jobs, so the husband was at the capital working with his brother who is in the air conditioning business. They are both electricians by trade. He still hopes to find a job around here because living away from his family is not a good solution to their problem. They hope that this is just temporarily. Please pray for this situation.

After the service, we took some people from the other town home. One of them, a man, is the owner of the property where the church in this little town meets, the one with just a tin roof and four poles. This man is a cabinet maker. The other day I was telling John that it would be nice to have a bench by our front door. Our front porch needs some decoration. So we told him this, and he suggested that we stopped by his house because he has some books with pictures of furniture that he uses to show customers and get a better idea of what they want. We sat on his front porch and asked him about his testimony. Wow! He has been a Christian for a short time. The Lord brought him out of a life of addiction. One night he was in a fight and somebody split open his head with a machete. He was not expected to survive, but the Lord gave him another chance. He had heard the Gospel before and in the middle of his ordeal, he reached for the Lord. This happened in December '09. He started attending church and during the revival in June 2010 with the dwarf from the Dominican Republic (See June 2010 blog "Revival"), he went forward. Last month, a year after the fight, he was baptized. Now he has a church meeting on his property. He considers himself extremely blessed by the Lord, beyond anything he even dreamed about. Every time we talk to somebody from one of the churches we are blessed by their testimony! Anyway, he is going to gives us an estimate on a bench and two rocking chairs.

After our visit with the cabinet maker, we drove to the pastor's son's house. It is near the big church. His son, an only child, is married with two children, a three year old boy and a one month old baby girl. We had lunch and talked about possible candidates to head the work in our town. The guy we like, who leads the music occasionally, does not want the responsibility of visitation because he works full-time and comes home late. It is a 45 minute drive just to get to town. There is another possibility, but there are doctrinal issues, and we are not sure that is the Lord's will. Keep praying that the Lord will bring the right man to take on the ministry at our town.

We got home at around 3:00 pm and had to take a nap because we were going to meet another family for dinner. These are also good friends, but not believers, although we have shared with them, and even last night we shared. He works here in the Hacienda and is of great help setting up the couples' event. We went to the same restaurant for the 3rd time this week. There are not too many options around here. We got home at about 10:00 pm. Today we are resting. A friend from the capital was supposed to come see us today, so we did not schedule anything, but we haven't heard from him. Well, we need a little rest after yesterday's activities.

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

STILL ENCOURAGING

This is as close as horseback riding on the beach as we get!

We continue on our mission of encouragement. As I mentioned on the last blog, the Lord seems to direct us that way. Wednesday we had dinner and watched the sunset at the Beach Club with our friends and neighbors who live here full time. They are going through a lot of health issues. She has been going back to the Catholic church, which is puzzling to us. Anyway, they are the ones who keep us informed about what is going on at the hacienda from the owner's point of view. Things are always changing around here, whether personnel or rules. In general, we are satisfied as owners. Our condo is always well taken care of, and the staff is helpful.

Thursday we drove to a town kind of half way between where the pastor lives and works and us to have lunch with them. We spent about two hours sharing. He is very open about his vision for the work here. He considers himself a church planter; therefore, he wants to train somebody to take over the work in our little town so that he can go on to other places and start Bible studies. They also talked to us about their schedule. They are busy every night of the week, between going to seminary (both of them are going), the big church and the three towns where they minister, there is just no time for him to visit the people as expected of them. He suggested that the four of us talk to the young man who brings the music sometimes. He lives near the big church, but he has a car. Maybe he will be willing to take over the service on Thursday nights, as well as visitation. We are going to have lunch Sunday after church at the pastor's son's home, which is near the big church, and talk to this young man and his wife to see what they think. Please pray that the Lord will show us His will.

Thursday night was church. We were curious to see the result of our visits to the three families. Well, one family came. Is that a .300 batting average? It sounds good when we talk about baseball. We had given them a Thompson study Bible, and the pastor made a big deal about it. "Wow, do you know what you got? That is a treasure of knowledge!" and so on. We hope that he uses it to really study the Word every day. Last night we went out with the same young couple. Again we tried to encourage them on their Christian walk. Their little girl is the one scheduled for surgery on the 19th to correct her eyes.

Today, Saturday, we are going with non-Christian friends to the "big city" by the airport to the mall and the movies. We will treat them to McDonald's. Actually she is the sister of the young man with the Thompson study Bible. He asked us last night if we talk to them about the Lord, and we have. May the Lord use our witness to them to touch their hearts.

John is preaching tomorrow. The pastor is getting the three groups together here in our town so that John only has to preach once. I'll let you know how it goes.

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

ENCOURAGING

Due to the discouraging news from the pastor, we decided to start visiting our friends in town Monday afternoon. We only had one phone number, but it was not working; therefore, we decided to just show up Monday afternoon around the time that everybody gets home from work. There is a road in town where there is a cluster of homes, all belonging to members of the same family. Only two families attend the church. We went to one of the homes, but the lady of the house was not home. One of her nephews, a boy who used to be in our English Club, came running out of another house and gave us a big hug. Pray for him, Manfred, he is now about 14 years old and needs to Lord. He told us that his aunt was out getting something from the store, but the other family next door was home.

We visited this couple. They have a 4 year old daughter who needs eye surgery to correct a birth defect. They are one of the couples who attended our couples event last time. So, we talked to them and asked what is going on. They told us that they were having marital problems. We did a little counseling and encouraging. Since they both come from abusing backgrounds, it is hard for them to have healthy discussions. They just don't know how. She tends to fly of the handle. She says she is praying that the Lord will help her control her anger. Unfortunately, she won't be able to attend our couples event this time because she is going to the capital with their daughter. The surgery is scheduled for January 19th. We had this issue of the surgery last May, but it was canceled due to a doctor's strike. We had brought a study Bible for them. Pray that they use it and learn to follow His Word.

The lady next door came home, saw our car and came over. She works on Sundays because she works in a hotel. She had lost her job here in our compound last May, and this is what she could find. Since most jobs depend on tourism here, the economic crisis has hit them hard. She said that she will be in church Thursday.

We then went to visit another family on the other side of town. This is a middle age couple with two teen-agers. They are upset at the pastor for not supporting them on their time of need. She is having female problems and needs a hysterectomy. Since they have socialized medicine here, just as with the little girl above, she has to wait for her turn in the hospital. Right now she doesn't know when her surgery will be. In the mean time, she is on bed rest. The problem with that is that she and her husband were care takers of a property. She cooked and cleaned the house and her husband kept the grounds. Well, since she had to quit because of her health, her husband had to quit also. The owners want a couple. Now neither of them have jobs. They are very discouraged, and as I said, they feel that the pastor doesn't visit them and gives them the spiritual support that they need. We tried to encourage them also. We also had a study bible for them. Please pray for these families and for wisdom for the pastor. He and his wife also work taking care of a property, but the main problem, we feel, is that since he is not considered a pastor under the rules of his denomination, his own pastor expects him to participate in the big church as the other members. He just doesn't have much time for visitation, and besides, counseling is not his strong suit. He is a good Bible teacher.

It seems that the Lord has given us a ministry of encouragement. Wherever we travel, we end up encouraging the Christians we meet. Carlos from Christ for the City asked us to enroll in a class to learn to counsel and minister to missionaries. We will start the class on line on January 16th. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom, and that we can use what we learn here and in other places. We need wisdom on how to approach the subject of counseling with the pastor. We are having lunch with him and his wife tomorrow, but we are not sure on what to say at this time. He sees their discouragement as falling away from the Lord and as bad witness for the community.

Last night we went out with another couple from that first family group. They are good friends, but unbelievers. He had a snake bite last July and almost died. I mentioned that he needed to be sure he knows where he is going when he dies, even though the Lord spared him this time. It was quite an ordeal for him. There is a doctor and a clinic here, but they did not have anti-venom (They do now!). He said that he waited for an hour as the finger kept swelling up while the doctor went on line trying to figure out what to do. Well, he ended us going home on his motorcycle, picking up his wife, and then driving in their car to the nearest hospital 90 minutes away. By the time he got there, it had traveled up his arm almost to his heart. He spent four days in the hospital, but even after that, he had problems with constricted throat and blotches that would appear, and he had to go the the clinic a few times. He was home four weeks, but the company here paid his salary because the injury occurred at work. This is a delightful couple. Please pray for their salvation. We have known them from the beginning.

This morning John went golfing and I took a walk by myself. On the way home, I decided to stop by our American friends here. They live in the same condos as we do but full-time. They also have had a rough year due to illness, and the economic crisis has hit them as well. This couple accepted the Lord a few years ago and were attending an English-speaking church, but their walk is not consistent. John and I had talked about getting together with them, but I was sick and had not called them. Well, it turns out that today is their wedding anniversary, and they had nothing planned, so, when I asked them if they wanted to go out to dinner, they were glad to do it. We will go to the new Beach Club here tonight and watch the sunset, which is always a beautiful sight from there.

Pray for us as we try to encourage our friends here. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom: "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances." Prov.25:11

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

MINISTRY UPDATE

Today we visited both churches. Last night we called the pastor to double check on the time, since they tend to change it often. He told us 8:30 am for the first church. I very much doubted that, but we went early any way. During the course of our conversation, he shared his disappointment with the church in our town. The attendance has gone way down. A lot of the key families have stopped going, presenting all kinds of excuses when he visits them. We were very disappointed to hear this. The other church, in the smaller town is quite different. They are strong, vibrant and alive in the Lord.

So today we got up early to be in church at 8:30. Of course, we were the only ones there, not even the pastor. After about 10 minutes, he arrived, and then some of the members. The lady who walks about 4 miles to church was there in short time. We passed her on our way, but I did not recognized her because she changed the color of her hair. The attendance was a total of 4 adults and 3 children. We are going to visit all our friends from church to find out what is going on. Please pray for this situation. These are fairly mature Christians, and we are shocked that they have "left their first love." The pastor talked about Psalm 40:17 "But as for me, I am poor and needy; may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer; you are my God, do not delay." As we begin a new year, it is a wonderful thing to know that the Lord is thinking of us.

We left at about 10:30 for the second town. It is literally going through the river and through the woods. (I have to bring my camera next Sunday because you won't believe me). While the first town rents a house for meetings, this town just has 4 sticks and a tin roof in somebody's yard, surrounded by tall trees. The weather has been most pleasant this week, and we had a wonderful breeze to keep us cool. I told them that they were so blessed to have the privilege to worship in such beautiful and pleasant surroundings. There were about 25 - 30 people attending. This group is on fire for the Lord. They are blessed with a few good voices who can lead worship. One young man plays an acoustic guitar. It was such a sweet time of worship! Our pastor did not preach here. He loves to mentor younger men. Today one of the young men, Marlon (not Brandon), was to preach. His message was on Judges 7:6-7 "Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The LORD said to Gideon, 'With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.'" His point was that the Lord delights in using the small to accomplish big things. Very appropriate for this small congregation of mostly farmers and day laborers.

After the sermon, the pastor gave a report that five people got baptized. He explained that for him to be called "Pastor" under the rules of his denomination he has to have 70 people baptized under his care because that is a minimum to be called a "church." Right now these three groups are "outreaches," and he is a "worker." Between the three towns there are about 35 people baptized. There aren't 70 people totally between all three congregations. Then another young man reported about their dream of buying instruments and sound equipment. This guy has a degree in computers, so he shared their written project. This project has stated goal, mission and vision. They need to raise $1,400, and they already have about $300 in faith promises. They are planning a big event on January 22 to raise funds. They will have soccer tournaments and food sales. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like we will be able to attend because that's the same weekend we want want to have the couples event here in our town, but the big church is coming, so they will have plenty of support. They don't need us for this. In fact, it was all decided and planned before we got here.

As we were leaving, we notice that half of the congregation was trying to get into the pastor's SUV, so we offered to take some. These are the people from the third town. We went down the "main" country road for a while, then we turned into a gate and a driveway and drove up a hill for about 20 minutes. I asked them how long it takes them to walk. They say that it is one hour just to the gate, where the pastor usually picks them up. This family works taking care of a big property that belongs to an American family from Santa Monica. They live in the caretaker's house. Everybody got off there; therefore, I am not sure exactly if they all live there, or they were just getting off and going someplace else. Anyway, we were able to continue straight and come out on the other side of the hill, to the road to Santa Cruz, the big city around here. We took the opposite direction and drove to where we live. This is the long way to this little town that we take when the creek rises. We just had never gone through the hill.

We thought somebody was going to ask us for dinner, so we'll wait a while. If they don't call, we will just spend another quiet evening at home, watching some football. You haven't lived until you watch American football in Spanish!

That's all for now...until next time...from the beach...