Valentine's Day Party

Greetings from the beach! The weather is hot and windy. John just came back from a swim in the ocean. I finished my last blog telling you that we were going into town visiting. Well, we tried to see the young man who is back drinking, but he just wouldn't come out to talk to us. He is embarrassed, we know. We will try again. But we were able to visit another couple, just being friendly, no pressures. We had our usual lunch with the pastor and his wife on Wednesday. In fact, we are going again tomorrow, Wednesday. Saturday we took Yirardi an his parents to see Leggos in 3D, a very corny (spelling?) movie. We left at about 3:45 pm because both parents had to work until 2. After the movie, we went to McDonalds for dinner and got home at 11:00 pm. Yirardi was sound sleep by the time we got home. He had to be carried by his dad into the house.

Notice the open glass door. That is the door that broke.

John had to preach in both churches Sunday morning. The second church with the nice brand new building and glass doors war practically empty. I don't know what is happening there. The pastor doesn't seem to be worried. I guess he has good attendance on Friday evenings. Anyway, it has been extremely windy here, but it is also hot, so they leave all the doors opened and all the ceiling fans running. After John was done, while the pastor was closing, the wind smashed the side door close and glass went flying everywhere. Does anybody out there know how to secure glass doors to the wall while open? It will cost $100 to replace the glass, but I am afraid that it will happen again. The winds are gale force strength.

The couples Valentine's Day party was Sunday night. We decorated the tables at Luis' house with Valentine's decorations that I have here. I have brought a lot of cute things over the years. Since we meet outside on the porch, the wind was blowing everything. We just put up some decorations. The centerpieces needed to be held for the pictures because they kept toppling. We had a great meeting. Sergio shared about true love and Randall read a nice story about an old married couple. John also shared. We had a game based on the Newlyweds Game where couples have to match answers, then cake and ice cream for dessert. We stayed talking until 11:00 pm even though they all had to work the next day, some at 6:00 am. One sad note, the couple in whose house we had the meeting last week have separated. We knew that they were having problems, and she wanted John to talk to her partner alone, but we just couldn't make it work. Randall wants to talk to him also. Maybe they can work something out. This man's brother just accepted the Lord recently and he is attending church, mostly on Thursday nights. Keep praying for the entire family.

John, Ricardo and Miguelina next to him, Sergio and Bianka across

On the right, Yesenia and Walter; Luz and Francisco next to them; on the left, Paola and Gardy, Arleth and Randall

 

 

Valentine's cake from the German Bakery

Last night we had the next door neighbors over for dinner. They are a very nice Christian couple. They have helped us with a lot of stuff while we are gone. We also have new neighbors on the other side. They are a Colombian couple, but we haven't met them yet. Today, Tuesday is rest and relax day. We are not going anywhere! We gave ourselves a break.

Update on Coach Mendez team: one tie and two loses. :(

Prayer requests:

• Continue to pray for all these couples who are somewhere along the road to meet the Lord
• for Yirardi's health
• Pray for Coach Mendez - that he may have wisdom to take his team out of last place, his job depends on it
• for wisdom for John and for me as we teach, counsel and encourage
• for Bianka to get a nursing job
• for Fabian and Alejandra, the couple that broke up, they both need the Lord
• for our family back home

Thank you for your prayers!

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

Second Week

John and the kids

Remember your present, Rubia?

 

This is fun

We had a good week. My foot is healing well, and I even started walking, but not every day yet. Saturday afternoon John brought Francisco's kids and Yirardi to the pool for an afternoon of fun. John probably had the most fun of them all. Sunday afternoon we watched our friend's team soccer match. Coach Méndez has just been hired to head the team, and now I know why a change after the season started: they are tied for last place. They lack speed. The two players who came with him and one other national player have been added for speed, but still is not enough. They tied the match 1 - 1. Al least they did not lose. I just keep praying for him to have wisdom to get the most out of each player.

Sunday evening we had the couples Bible study at the home of Fabian and Alejandra in the nearest town from here. Last year they built a two bedroom house, with a bathroom, small kitchen and a small living room, no dining room. We sat outside because there wasn't enough room in the house for all of us. This is the common practice here, since homes are small and hot. We brought beef for BBQ, the local version of carne asada. We just bought at in the supermarket already marinated. It was very good. We had the usual tortillas Hoduran style from Luz with rice and beans, very good. We also had cheese cake and ice cream for dessert. The purpose of meeting at their house was to bless their new home. We talked about the parable of the wise and the foolish builders. I told the story by memory, then they repeated it to each other, then we read it from the Bible, and we asked them questions and comments. They got the message loud and clear, but as Dennis says, easy to understand, but hard to put into practice. We finished with a game, as usual. They stayed and talked. Even though they were far from home and had to work the next day, they stayed until about 10 pm. They are really connecting with each other as a group.

Monday we went with one of the couples, Sergio and Bianka to another beach town one hour from here for lunch. They had the day off, and it was something different to do. Bianka graduated with a BA on nursing last January. She took and passed all her Board exams last April, but she still doesn't have her nursing license on hand in order to apply for jobs. It has taken almost a year. She should get it this week. In the meantime, she works part-time at her sister's beauty shop. Her husband works at the Beach Club here, but really wants to study to be a pastor. He certainly has the gift. Pastor Alejandro would love to turn over the little church here to him, but Bianka needs a good job, so that he can go to the university. Getting a degree here is difficult and expensive. Pray for them.

Tonight we are going into town to visit certain people who are backsliding. One because alcoholism and the other family because they must have been offended by someone, although they deny it. We need wisdom to encourage these believers to come back to the fold.On Wednesday we will have lunch with the pastor and his wife, just to encourage them.

Prayer requests:

• Continue to pray fro my foot and for protection and good health for both of us
• Pray that Fabian and Alejandra will turn their lives to Christ
• Pray that Banka will find a full-time nursing job
•  Pray for Jose Pablo to stop drinking and come back to church
• Continue to pray for Yirardi's health
• Pray for Yirardi's parents to take that step of faith
• Pray for wisdom for both of us as we teach, encourage and counsel
• Pray for our family back home

Thank you for your prayers! Until next time...from the beach...

Soccer Festival

Crossing the street from the community hall into the field. Mixed groups of eight players with two coaches

Coach Mendez explaining a drill

This boy was able to participate at every point with the help of his patient coach

This is Yirardi, looking healthy and enjoying the afternoon

Coach Mendez and the two professional players who came with him. They enjoyed the afternoon as much as the kids

About to score a goooooal!

High five from John

All of the kids and their coaches at the end of the day

Coach Mendez sharing 

We had a great time at the soccer festival on Saturday afternoon. Coach Mendez came all the way from near the Panama border with two of his players, one from Uruguay and one from Argentina. The national teams are allowed three foreign players. The reason we had the event this weekend was because they were holding presidential elections on Sunday, and there were no soccer games. Coach Mendez, who is from Uruguay, and his two players did not have to vote, so they got a free weekend. They actually came Friday night after a 10 hour drive, mostly in traffic. I had dinner waiting for them (Cuban lasagna). We ate right away to go to Luis Carlos' house for a meeting with all the helpers. That's where Coach Mendez explained how the afternoon was going to be organized.  I am so impressed with him. He is really a coach and he knows how to lead and organize, but he is a very humble and unassuming man.

The kids assembled in the community hall. We lined them up by age, boys and girls together, then we made teams of eight, getting two eight and under, and then one of each of the other ages. It worked beautifully. Each team got shirts of the same color. Each volunteer, he called them "guides," got one team each and walked them across the street to the field. The field was divided for four drills and two scrimmages, all going on at the same time. The guides stayed with the same group the whole time. There were other helpers just getting the balls that got away from the kids. Each team had two balls so that they never stopped playing to retrieve balls. There were scheduled water breaks. We had women at the two sides of the field with water. We also had a nurse. Everybody had such a great time. At the end, Coach Mendez asked the parents to go to the field and congratulate their children and then walk across the street to the community hall for refreshments, to see the pictures that I had been taking, and to hear a short talk by him. The women in town made sandwiches for everybody. We exchanged the different color shirts for the ones we brought from home for them to keep. All together, we had about 35 people from the town involved in the event as volunteers, and about 68 children. Everything went well because they all knew what to do and worked together. It is the first time that I have seen such wide support from the town. Luis Carlos and Irene worked very hard to organize everything. Randall, Yirardi's father and his wife also led the organization of the event. We finished at about 7:30 pm. We have kept all the equipment, including soccer balls and different color jerseys with the hope of repeating this event next year.

We took Coach Mendez and the players to the restaurant here in the hacienda. They had had sandwiches, but that did not stop them from having a full meal with dessert. They were delighted with the experience. I failed to mention that the two young men are not Christians. Coach Mendez is like a father to these young men away from home, and he lets the Lord use him to bring Christ into their lives. They left Sunday after a late breakfast, and got home safely that evening (they texted us when they arrived). Pray for Coach Mendez. I am praying that his team will have a good year, and that the Lord will continue to use him in all of these young men's lives to bring them to a saving knowledge of Christ.

My foot was much better by Saturday. Thank you for your prayers. Today I feel 90% healed. Yesterday morning I walked a mile, but today I was able to walk 4.5 miles, and I feel fine, PTL!

Pastor Alejandro here is putting a short-term mission team together to go to Nicaragua in July. He wants the church to start a tradition of missions. The best way to do this is to provide a mission experience for them. They have to raise their own funds and get passports, since nobody has ever traveled outside the country. I will teach this Thursday again, but John does not have to preach on Sunday because they have a guest speaker. This is an evangelist who was here before. Maybe you remember a blog about a little man from the Dominican Republic who came about two years ago. They are having a campaign at the big church in the other town on Saturday night and Sunday morning. We are just going Sunday morning because we don´t like to drive into the river at night.

Our couples' Bible study has been moved to Sunday evenings. Luis Carlos, in whose house we have the meetings, got accepted, at the University about 45 minutes from here, for a program to get his accounting degree. This is a program for people who work during the week, so it is on Saturdays. He takes three classes from 8 to 6, then he has to get home. This Sunday's meeting is not going to be at his house, but at another couple's house who moved to a town near by and built a house. This couple is not married and haven't made a decision for the Lord yet, but they are a lot more open now. John is preparing a Bible study on what makes a home. Pray for him. This brings me to the prayer requests:

• continue to pray for Yirardi's health. They haven't detected cancer so far.
• pray for our teaching, that the Holy Spirit will work in hearts and minds
• pray for Coach Mendez, his team, and his family, since he is away from them a lot.
• pray that his testimony will have an impact on somebody's life here in town
• pray for this evangelist coming this weekend
• pray for the couples' Bible study this Sunday at Fabian and Alejandra's house
• continue to pray for our family back home

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