Baptisms

We had a very busy weekend. John is feeling better; therefore, we needed to catch up with our friends here.

Thursday night I taught a Bible study at church. The little church was full. There are more people who can attend on Thursday night because many of them work on Sundays. We had a great time in the Lord's Word. We actually stayed home Friday evening because our American friends canceled on us, but Saturday was busy. John played golf for the first time with his local buddies. More than golf, it is a social event, since none of them plays well. I stayed home and cooked all day because I was making lasagna, two cakes and salad for the couples meeting Saturday night. We had a very good Bible study. All of the regulars were there. The new couple did not go. We talked about surrendering our lives to Jesus, making him the Lord of our lives. What does that mean? They are getting it, and it is our prayer that the Holy Spirit will touch them, and that they will come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Sunday morning was the baptism at the estuary. There were nine male candidates, no females, very unusual to have all males for baptism. The ages ranged form 12 to 65. Before entering the water, the pastor asked them one by one about their testimony. They were escorted to the water one by one, as the rest of the congregation sang. Again, before baptizing them, he asked them if they were sure that they know the Lord as their Saviour. Once they were all baptized, we celebrated communion because, according to the Assemblies of God, people who are not baptized cannot take communion; therefore, communion always follows baptisms. It was just a great morning on the beach!

Singing before baptism

Pastor greeting some of the people

Reading form the Bible

At the center, the candidates

John escorting the first man

Getting baptized

A hug of congratulations

Sharing communion

 

 

 

Francisco's youngest daughter, Luz Elena

John playing with all the kids afterwards

We went home, took showers and changed and picked up our friends whose boy has cancer and took them to a late lunch at the "surfers" restaurant. The little boy is just skin and bones. He was always slim, but now he just does not have any appetite. He ate a little bit of fish and wanted ice cream, so we all had ice cream, but again he only ate a little bit of his. We brought him a kids' joke book in Spanish. He loves to read jokes out loud.

We dropped them off and went to the next house, where we have the Bible studies on Saturday nights, because we actually had not have time to sit an visit with them. We stayed a little while and then we went to Francisco's house. This is the couple who wants to get married. We really needed to talk to them about the wedding. It turns out that they have had some unexpected expenses so they wanted to postpone the wedding until May. We understand, of course. We also talked about scaling down the celebration, making it easier on their budget. They also think that the church that is being build in the other town might be ready in May, so it would be nice to have their wedding in a "real" church. We set the date! It will be on May 18th, Lord willing. I guess we are going to have to bring a jacket for him also. So stay tuned...

Remember the earthquake back in September? Well, today they are finally fixing our roof. They fixed the inside of the condo beautifully. It doesn't even look like there was ever any damages, but they had not done the outside. They had to wait for approval from the insurance company, and for the rainy season to end. I guess the roof tiles are mainly for decoration because there were no leaks, even with the heavy rains. They have been banging on the roof since seven this morning!

We are off to walk on the beach... until next time...from the beach...