LAST DAYS

I just love these trees. Oaks are in bloom also, with pink flowers

 

On this particular day, we only had nine in the car- our top was 13

 

We are almost done here. It is always a little sad to leave our friends. Wednesday night we stayed home and relaxed in order to be ready for the marathon of the last few days. Thursday night I spoke in our church here. Since we have been studying Esther with Beth Moore, I spoke on Esther, the whole megillah! Friday we spent about six hours running errands and getting ready for the next leg of the trip. We did not even have time for lunch. We got home, had something to eat, and got ready for church. This time we went to the other town, but we took four girls from here because there are a lot of young people in the other group. This is the group that meets under a tin roof in somebody's yard. The pastor had told us that they had better attendance on Friday nights than on Sunday mornings because so many have to work on Sunday, but we were pleasantly surprise at the group. All the chairs were taken, and they sang with such gusto! I think there were over 50, counting children. This time I spoke on Luke 10, Martha and Mary.

Las night it was the last couples meeting. We had pot luck and BBQ. Again we had just a great time together. We feasted on food and on the Word. They again brought their Bibles and were very much engaged on the lesson . We studied how Jesus is the Lamb of God. They are familiar with the term because it is used during the Catholic mass, but they did not know where it came from and what it really means. The lesson ended in the book of Revelation where it says that our names must be written on the Book of Life of the Lamb. That got their attention. The lesson explained how we get our names on the Book of Life and ended with a prayer of repentance. Again, I did not ask for decisions. I told them to really think about it. One of the women folded her paper carefully and told me she was going to read the prayer again at home. Please pray that the seed planted will be fruitful. One of the younger couples wanted to continue the meetings while we are gone, but, unfortunately, none of the Christians in the group feel that they can lead it. Pray for these baby Christians that they may grow in the Lord and that their testimony will shine in this town. We finished playing Simon Says for prizes, ate two cakes that I baked and hugged everybody good-bye. The meeting started at 7:00 and ended past 11:00. They were not in a hurry to leave. It is so hard to leave this group. They are literally like sheep without a pastor.

John spoke today on Andrew, the disciple, in both churches. He is getting very good at preaching in Spanish! We went the long way around to the second church to drop off some and pick up others. Today at the second group, there was a keyboard player and a guitar player. There is also this two year old boy with a toy guitar who "plays" along the guitar player. They actually have a lot of instruments, but not enough people who can play them. There was also a woman that I had never seen before leading the singing. She was pretty good for these parts. As usual, the second group is bigger and livelier. It really helps to speak to a bigger group. It was sooo hot under that tin roof!  After the service, the lady of the house invited all of us, about 40, to stay and have coffee and the local version of a coffee cake. We sat and chitchatted for a while. She called me inside and gave me some presents because she knew we were leaving. Among other things, she gave me some loofahs, which grow here wildly. I think I am going to leave them here this time because we are going to continue traveling, and I really don't think I can get them through customs. They need to be treated anyway, and I don't remember the process. They are expensive if I wanted to buy them back in California.Going back from church we had ten in our car. We have to talk to Bob about shock absorbers. We got home at 2:00 pm.

Now we have to pack suitcases, empty the refrigerator, and get the condo ready for the inside repairs that will be done while we are away. It will take the rest of the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow morning we will leave here at 10:00. We are being driven to the capital by the transportation department here in the Hacienda. They suggested the scenic route. We are actually on a peninsula; so we are going to drive north, I think, and take a ferry to the mainland, instead of the direct route by a bridge. It will take us about six hours to get there, but we are not in a hurry. We will leave Tuesday at 6:00 am for Argentina, starting the second half of our adventures. This blog is just about our life at the beach; therefore, if you would like to follow us for the next three weeks, you have to switch to our South America Travels blog: http://hinesinsouthamerica.blogspot.com/

As the sun sets here, we really feel torn between our lives here and back home. What is best for us and our ministry? Pray that the Lord will clearly show us His will for us. We will see you in South America!!

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

Sunset from the home where we have the couples meetings