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...