ANOINTING WITH OIL

Hello, Friends!

Once again, I have to catch you up to what's happening! I am sorry, but this time around, we seem to be busier, with less down time to blog. We had our couples' meeting last Saturday, as usual. I had the bright idea of buying frozen pizza because all the pizza restaurants in the area have gone out of business. I have completely forgotten why we don't buy frozen pizza here: it just doesn't come out right. It is too soft. I don't have the right pans here for pizza, so I decided to just set aluminum paper on the over racks. We bought ten pizzas because they are a little small, but I could only heat up two at the time. My oven here has a feature that locks itself when it gets too hot. I keep forgetting that between trips. I had the oven at 400º F, but it locked itself with pizzas inside! I was able to disconnect the oven and open the door before they burned, but I could not finish baking all the pizzas because when it happens, I have to wait an hour for the oven to cool down. So we took all the undercooked pizzas and the frozen ones to the meeting. Our friends just bought an USED gas range, but they don't keep it hooked up. Believe it or not, the actually brought the range out to the porch where we meet, hooked it up to a gas cylinder and we cooked and heated all the pizzas. They weren't very good, but we did not have any left. We talked about the resurrection: Jesus is alive! They were really tracking with me last Saturday. They actually had a lot of good comments. Without mentioning the Catholic church, I told then that Jesus is not on a crucifix, but alive in Heavens, seated at the right hand of God.

Sunday John spoke in church. The pastor is actually the caretaker for a house on the beach. The property is a vacation rental. Last Sunday, he needed to go back early because the renters were leaving, and he had to take them to the airport. It worked out well for him that John was speaking. He spoke in both churches about seven blocks of the Christian faith. Since the pastor wasn't there, John had to cross the river back and forth three times  to shuttle people. The pastor does that every Sunday up and back! They say that John is not really a Gringo because he is not afraid to carry 13 people in his SUV.

Monday and Tuesday we had a house guest. One of the girls who were missionaries here for Christ for the City wanted to come see us and visit the town. I made John go to the car wash before we picked her up because the car was covered with mud. He couldn't see out the back window. Then it started to rain all afternoon.  We spent the afternoon visiting different families in town, came home for a late, late, lunch and went back to town for more visiting. We got home at about nine and had ice cream for dinner. Tuesday morning we walked on the beach with our guest and went swimming. The first time for me this visit. We talked about a lot of things. She feels that the Lord wants her to go to Haiti full time, but somehow the doors are not opening. She will go to Haiti with a short-term team from here in August. That evening we had an invitation to go to dinner at the house of one of the workers. He lives in the big town 45 minutes from here. Our friend had to go to the same town to get the bus home, so we offered to take her with us. We were also taking the family whose house we use for our meetings. He is from Colombia, and this man where we were having dinner is also from Colombia. He had been to the house before. They are a family of five, and it was three of us, counting our guest. All eight of us piled in the SUV. The road was horrible even for this country! My sciatica started to act up. I was in a great deal of pain. We had a little boy riding on the back of the SUV, and he got car-sick! They told him, "oh, there is a grocery bag back there. You can use that, and I said, NO!! I have a cake there!! ( I was taking a cake for dessert) It was quite a funny trip, actually.

We dropped our friend off at the bus station, and Luis went to the pharmacy to buy motion sickness medicine and water. Finding the house was unbelievable. The "street" where they live was about the width of our SUV. It took John like 30 cuts to be able to back into their garage. Our hosts had said that we were going to have a gourmet meal by a professional chef, but we thought he was joking. When we finally entered the house we found a chef from El Salvador preparing the most delicious meal that we ever had in this country. He used to work for the embassy of El Salvador. We took the long way home to avoid the horrible road on the way back.

We met the pastor and his wife for lunch on Wednesday. We are his sounding board. There isn't anybody else with whom they can talk. All four of us enjoy these visits. We went with him after lunch to a store to buy 10 more chairs for church, since last Thursday we had to rent chairs from the local "7-11" store. Wednesday night we went back to visit the 26-year-old man and the 16-year-old girl. It is delightful to be with them. They actually did their homework. They are trying to apply some of the techniques we suggested to avoid arguments, and they are reading the Bible and praying. It was their one year anniversary. They celebrated buy buying a gas range, even though they don't have any gas yet, and a washing machine. These are brand new. We went over a list of Proverbs about relationships that we got from Dennis when he did the marriage retreat last year here. They got the message! Please pray for Sergio and Yanina, that they will turn their lives over to the Lord, get married, and learn to walk with Him.

I spoke again at church on Thursday. This time I talked about John Mark and how he went form being an immature Christian, to being a useful helper for Paul, to authoring the Gospel of Mark. (By the way, Sonny, I have an issue with Power Point that I need to talk to you about) We had enough chairs, no need to rent more! After the service we went to Yirardi's house. I mean most of the group at church went together. The pastor anointed him with oil (although he repeated three times that there was no power in the oil. It was just a symbol), and we all prayed for healing. His mother was sobbing. Now they know what's ahead. On Monday he will go back to the hospital for about three days for his first chemotherapy treatment. Then he will go every month, once a month, for two or three days for treatment. I suppose that the doctors realize where he lives and the five hours that it takes to get here, and they want to keep him in the hospital as a precaution. I am not sure. Please continue to pray for a miracle!

We are getting together tonight with another couple who works for the Hacienda. We have never gone out with them before. She heads Housekeeping. It will be nice to get to know them better.

You are again all caught up with us!! I am sorry that this is so long

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