LAST COUPLES EVENT

Sergio is a great guy, Christian, single but with a serious girlfriend

The chefs - Sergio and Luis

BBQ chicken, beef, sausages and home made tortillas to die for

The finished product

Scarlet was celebrating her first birthday

Bingo winners

Christian and Daniela, Scarlet's parents, won the other bingo game

Yesterday morning we went to a baptismal at the Catholic church in the big town 45 minutes away by car. It was a group ceremony. There were about 30 kids being baptized. A former worker here called us to invite us, and we, of course, went. At seven in the morning, our friend Luis called to tell us that his little three-year-old boy was ill, and to ask us if we could take him to the clinic in the same town because it is located near the church. They don't have a car. So, we picked child and mom on our way and dropped them off by the clinic. Since it was a group baptismal, it took a long time. They read the Bible from Ezekiel 36:26 and John 3:1-6 Interesting! I listened very closely to what the priest had to say. He said that through this baptism, the children became Christians, but it was up to the parents and godparents to instruct them in the faith. We left after the ceremony because we had the sick child with us, and he needed to go home and rest. The child had a throat infection. He will have to have his tonsils out eventually. By the time we went back to his house that evening, he was up and about, asking all kinds of questions about the equipment set up.
 
We had our last couples event yesterday, which was, by far, the warmest I have been here in the evening, ever! We were out in the porch, but not a leaf was moving,  and the humidity must have been 90%! This time it was pot luck, well, people volunteer to bring something for the meal. It was a simple BBQ with rice, beans, tortillas, and chocolate cake for dessert. We ate so much! Everything was delicious. Luis, whose front porch we use for these meetings, and Sergio, the single Christian guy, did the BBQ. They are really good. They use an open wood fire stove that Luis has in the back of his house. We had a great time of fellowship, then we played romantic bingo with prizes. The girls got earrings, and the guys got either a Charger T-shirt or a football. After the games, we watched another clip from the movie that we showed the first Saturday and had a discussion. They really get it. They appreciated that the husband in the movie was not forced to make a decision from the Lord until he was really ready. I think that they wanted to make sure that WE got that part. No problem, we are not going to force anybody until we feel that they are ready to commit. We also had them sitting knee-to-knee to talk privately about things that they have in common. We finished talking about the 12 steps to conflict resolution. They are a very good group. I asked if there were any questions and they said: "Yes, when are you coming back?" So, we said, "In August, Lord willing, do you want to continue with these meeting?" "Yes, of course!" I guess they enjoy the distraction. They are out with friends, good food, laughter, games, good conversation, etc. We try to make it fun for them. The party broke past 10:00 pm.

This morning John was to preach at the other church in the smaller town. They have a good group of about 30, counting children. John did an excellent job talking about the "I am's" in the gospel of John. It sprinkled a little bit, so we had to huddle together under the small roof because there are no walls. The little children were running around and the dog, as usual, took a long nap by the pulpit. The pastor, who was sitting next to me, leaned over at one point and told me, "This guy is really preaching!" Tonight we are going to visit the parents of a young lady who attends church faithfully. They are not believers, but actually have an excellent reputation in town, much better, unfortunately, than the believers. We will attend church again tonight in our town to say good-bye to our friends. John will not preach tonight.

Tomorrow we will begin to clean up the condo, clear the refrigerator, and packing. We have to get up early Wednesday, 3:00 am, to leave for the airport. Our flight takes off at 7:00 am. This has been a long journey, since we left home on April 4th. It will be good to see you all again. Be patient with my accent. I can barely speak English by now. Thank you for you prayers. We couldn't do any of this without your support.

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

Second Couples Meeting

I apologize for not writing much this past week. I trust that all of you moms had a great Mothers' Day. I heard from both my sons, which is pretty good for them. We still don't know when our car is going to be ready or how much it is going to be. All we know is that it isn't as bad as originally thought. We only have a week left, but it doesn't look like it is going to be ready.

We spent a lot of time planning the second couples meeting. Our friend suggested pizza from Pizza Hut. He called them and told us that there was a good special. We thought that the price was good, We only had to call an hour in advance. Well, on Saturday afternoon we called to find out that they could not deliver here. I couldn't believe it. We went back and forth and thought about it. They told us that they could go as far as the edge of town (the entrance of the Hacienda is only 5 minutes from there by car). It is interesting how business is conducted in third world countries, but it is what it is. We agreed to meet the delivery man in the parking lot of a big appliance store at the edge of town at 6:00 pm. We went first to our friend's home where the meeting was going to take place with all the equipment because we had to get it set up before dark; otherwise we can´t see all the plugs! (It gets dark here at 6:00) As we were doing that, it started to rain, but it didn't rain for very long. Remember that we have these meetings on the front porch of his house. We left everything ready and drove back to meet the pizza delivery man. The manager called us twice to make sure that we really wanted six pizzas and that we really were going to meet them at Gollo's Appliances. Our friend's second son wanted to come along for the ride. He couldn't wait to eat all that pizza, but of course, he had to wait a long time for it.

When we got back to the house, there were already some people waiting for us. We had a total of seven couples, but not exactly the same seven as last week. We had pizza, played a romantic Bingo game that I did in the computer, watched a clip from last week's movie, and then sat around in a circle and talked about resolving conflicts in the marriage. The subject of respect came up, and one man said, "If the wife doesn't show respect for her husband it is because she doesn't love him." Wow, I could have planted that comment, but he said it on his own. That is straight out of Ephesians 5:33. I made sure that all the girls heard that comment, then we talked about what respect meant. We had such a good discussion! We also talked about why so many of the men in town drink excessively. They said it is because there isn't anything else to do. There is a culture of drinking here that is harmful in many ways. One of the guys, not a Christian, said, "If you tell the town that there is going to be a dance, everybody shows up, but if you tell them there will be a meeting with Bibles, nobody wants to come." Interesting! I think this group is very open. The one Christian couple in the group doesn't have a good testimony because they fight a lot. I am praying that the Lord works on the wife because it is her sharp tongue that causes trouble.

Last night John preached in church. There were five people in attendance besides the pastor, his wife, and John and I. John talked about what does it mean to really believe. The people in town need to really believe in order for them to come to Christ,  He will preach again next week, in the morning in one town, and in the evening in our town. We were also invited to a baby's christening, pretty far from here on Saturday morning. Pray for our witness and traveling mercies!

We are going out tonight with a very nice American couple who also owns a condo here, but doesn't live here full time. We always go out at least once when we happen to be here at the same time. They volunteer for the Gideons. Tomorrow the two missionaries from Christ for the City come to stay with us, as they do every week when we are here. The pastor invited the four of us to his house for lunch tomorrow. It is on a beautiful beach. I will take pictures to share with you.

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

MOVIE NIGHT

Our set up for movie night

Movie night started a little slow, on our way out of the hacienda, we met one of the girls who would be attending. She was just getting off work. We offered her a ride, but she had a bike; nevertheless, she said, her co-worker, whom we did not know, could use a ride. So, we gave her a ride. It turns out that she is the sister of one of our best friends in town. Now we have a new friend in town.  On our way from her house we stopped at the local "pulpería" (think 7-11) to get ice. We had to go to church first and load all the church chairs into our SUV, which we were able to do in only one trip. Then we went to our friend's house where the meeting was going to take place. As you can see from the picture, we used their porch. We like it better there than inside Christ for the City's house because it is too hot. You can see the church chairs, the projector, DVD player, and one speaker on top of the table. The rest of the speakers are under the table. You can see them if you look carefully. We were ready to go at about 6:00 pm, but nobody was there. I took this picture just before 6:00. The sun was setting behind the screen.

John went to get the hamburgers that we had ordered from one of the local restaurants. They came in individual foam containers with fries. The problem was that nobody had arrived. By the time we ate the burgers, they were cold. Slowly people started coming. I guess 6:00 was too early for them. Even though it was Saturday, many of them were working. Their habit is to get home from work and take a shower before dinner. We ended up with seven couples out of the twelve we were expecting; therefore, there were enough hamburgers for seconds and thirds. We also had a game. I thought it would be fun to hear how they proposed marriage. We separated the men and the women, and the men were to write how, when and where they proposed. Wow! It was quite enlightening for us! It turns out that most of them are not even married, so we had to switch to how they got together. One cute couple said that they got engaged in bed! We had three stories that matched and gave them prizes. It was very interesting for us. Although that wasn't our intention, we learned a lot from the game.

The movie's title was "Scars." It is a Mexican production about domestic violence. It is very strong and has a powerful message. I wanted to talk a little and present the plan of salvation after the movie, but as soon as it was over, people started to get up and move about.So, we just talked a little about the movie. They were impacted on how even verbal violence affects the children in the families. Most of them have lived with, or witnessed domestic violence. We decided to meet at seven next Saturday. I am going to try to lift some scenes from the movie for discussion. We are going to continue talking about conflict resolution.

Yesterday we visited one of the couples (the ones who got engaged in bed) who live with his parents. They want to borrow the movie to show it to his parents. I can only guess that there is violence in the house. She told us that her father was a policeman who used to get drunk and even threatened her mom with his gun once. Her parents are divorced now. We will give it to them after we are done with it. Pray that the movie will continue to impact lives as they show it to relatives. Pray also that this couple will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

We went to church last night. There were five people in attendance. We are very disappointed with this little group. Our plan is to work with the couples and try to build a new group, but we hear that the Christians have a bad testimony in town, so we are not sure what it is going to happen. People may not want to attend church because of all the stuff that has been going on. It is a tiny town with a lot of gossiping. The other group in the other town is going strong. Yesterday they had soccer matches during the day, then a Christian music group was going to have a concert. Pastor Alejandro was going to bring a message at about 8:00. John was going to preach at our church, but the pastor decided to postpone it for next Sunday when he can bring a group from the other town.


On the lighter note, for those of you who are acquainted with the German Bakery, they now have mango strudel! That's being international!! I was thinking about you, Rubia!

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