The girls at the Bible study

Greetings from  the beach! Life is never dull around here. I got a call from our friend Carlos from the capital on Wednesday, and at the end of the conversation he said, "well, we will see you tomorrow." "What?! I thought you said next week." "No, I meant this week." "Fine, we will be happy to have you." He and Rosario had to come to pick up a donation  of 13 wheelchairs from the owner of a hardware store here in the area. They had to rent a big van to get them, and since the van has a commercial license plate, they had to hire  a driver also. They came Thursday afternoon and went to church with us, so they brought the music for the praise time, which is sorely lacking in our little group. They left Friday afternoon.Pray for his parents because they are both in the hospital. His mother has lung cancer, and she is not expected to make it. They do not know the Lord.

Last week I mentioned about the car. Well, the mechanic kept it three days and brought it back on Thursday because he knew we needed it, but it was not finished. He still had to have it back on Monday for alignment and other things. He also let us know that the air conditioning had gone out! Carlos knew a man in town from the Dominican Republic who worked on his air conditioning before, so he called him and made an appointment for Friday morning. He and John took the car while Rosario and I stayed home and caught up with each other. The guys came back too soon. We knew that was not a good sign. The car needed a condenser, but as it is around here, the man doesn't have replacement parts, so it needed to be ordered from the capital. It came by bus that afternoon, so we returned Saturday morning to get it fix. The story does not end here. The mechanic had to take our the battery to work on the condenser. He took it out and put it on the ground next to John. We sat right there talking to him while he was working on the car. His wife came out with cool drinks for us and to show us their three-month-old baby girl. Two and a half hours later, it was time to put the battery back and test the air conditioning, but the battery was completely dead! We don't know why. He took the battery out of his own car and gave it a charge to start the car. The air conditioning worked as a charm, but now we needed a new battery. Off we went to another shop. We were able to get a new battery with a guarantee for 18 months and were finally on our way back home.

Sunday night Bible study is going well. We were on the topic of how to deal with conflicts. Pastor D's material starts that section with a reading from the Song of Songs. Oh, Pastor D, they could not believe that the Bible has such a book! The priest had never mentioned it! We certainly caught their attention. I told them to go home and read the whole book. :) They were very opened about their problems. This is the core group of seven couples; in fact, they want to continue meeting once a month after we leave.

Last night we went out for pizza with Sergio, Bianca, Randall, Arleth and Yirardi. We had a great time with them. This Saturday we are going to a town about one hour from here for a wedding. A man who works at the golf shop is getting married to his long time live-in girl friend. They have a child together already, but they are making a big deal with invitations, a church wedding and a party. We were told to save the date since our last trip, so we must go, but Randall and Arleth are going with us. It should be a fun time. We agreed already to leave the party before things get to wild.

Praises

• Praise the Lord the car is finally fixed.
• Praise that the pastor's car is also fixed.
• Praise for good interaction with the couples.

Prayer requests:

• We  continue to meet with the pastor and his wife once a week. Pray for wisdom.
• Wisdom as we counsel Sergio and Bianca.
• Wisdom as we teach and counsel others.
• Pray that we don't have any more car troubles this trip.
• Pray for Carlos and Rosario as they are both dealing with elderly parents.
• Pray for energy and good health.
• Pray for our family back home.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

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

Mothers' Day

John preaching on Sunday

August 15 is Mothers' Day here. John thought it would be nice to visit the mothers we know in town and bring them a rose each. We asked around to find a flower shop. There is one actually in the first town near here. We went the day before to order 12 single roses for the following day. We left here at 3:00 pm on Mothers' Day to go to the flower shop first and start visiting from there. The roses were individually wrapped in a very nice presentation. We actually had a list and a planned schedule. The first stop was Yirardi's great-grandma because we knew she would be home in the middle of the afternoon. She was so appreciative! She has a large family, and many were already there. Next we went to Yirardi's grandma. There was another lady who is also a mother at her house, so we gave her a rose also. We went around leaving the working moms for last.  Some people were able to leave work early, but Arleth, Yirardi's mom,works at the golf club, so she had to work until six pm. We finished at Luz and Francisco's home. It was a tough day for Luz because she is having problems with her oldest daughter, but she had a light dinner ready for us. We got home at 10:00 after visiting nine homes and giving away eleven roses. The twelfth rose was for me.  All the ladies were appreciative of the gesture. 

 

Saturday night we went out to dinner with Randal, Arleth and Yirardi to our favorite restaurant. It was starting to rain coming back, so John drove very slowly. The car was acting up again. The left tire was vibrating. When we had the DMV check back in May, they said that there was something slightly wrong with the bushings, among other things. Saturday morning John called Freddy, the mechanic, so we already had an appointment for Monday.

From left to right: Eduardo, Pastor Alejandro with Evans Eduardo,
Alba. and Arelys

John preached at both churches on Sunday. He did a great job on Luke 5:1-11. There was also a baby dedication in the first church. Sunday evening was the first couples Bible study at Luis Carlos and Irene's house. By the way, they are attending church faithfully. We are very encouraged by their walk with God. We started talking about relating with one another using Pastor Dennis' material for couples. We had a very good discussion on the Lord's plan for the family. We know that some of the couples are not married, but we are trying to stay positive, trusting that the Lord will do the convicting. 

Monday John took the car to the mechanic, and it was bad news. Freddy did not have the parts (they never do), so he has to order them from the capital. It takes a couple of day for the parts to get here, then he has to fix it. He will keep the car for four days, but we definitely need it for Thursday because I teach in church Thursday nights.

Today, Tuesday, the pastor and his wife came over for lunch because we don't have a car to go meet them. They don't have a car, either, so he had to borrow his brother's. We had a nice time with them. John is still trying to give him examples about mentoring and spending time with a small number of people. Pray for pastoral wisdom for Alejandro.

Praises:

• We praise the Lord for a good time on Mothers' Day visiting friends. 
• We praise the Lord for the new baby dedicated on Sunday. The parents are very serious about following the Lord.
• We praise the Lord for Luis Carlos and Irene's faithfulness in their Christian walk.
• We praise the Lord for the good time with the couples on Sunday.

Prayer requests:

• Pray that our car gets fixed in the time allowed.
• Pray also for the pastor's car to get fixed quickly and correctly.
• Pray for pastoral wisdom for the pastor and his wife.
• Pray for wisdom for us as we counsel and teach.
• Pray for safety and good health.
• Pray for our family back home.

Thank you for remembering us in your prayers! 

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

Back at the Beach

We arrived on Sunday night. It was quite a reception at the airport. Sergio and Bianka were there to pick us up, as arranged, but Randall, Arleth and Yirardi surprised us by being there also (Yirardi is the boy with brain cancer, on remission so far). In addition, somehow the transportation department did not get the message that we did not need transportation and sent our singing driver to get us. Wow! We were like VIP's!

Monday morning Sergio and Bianka came back to go to breakfast with us because they were both off. Sergio was such a great help for John. They went to the garage and checked our car to make sure that everything was working before going to breakfast. We went to this new place in town owned by a guy from Long Beach, CA to have banana pancakes. Sergio and Bianka have been going through a rough time in their marriage, and they stopped attending church. We talked at length about it, not going into the details of their problem, but how they handled it. They are fine now, but they need to get back to church. Pray for them. The Enemy wants Christians to be discouraged. They took us to the grocery store and helped us bring in the groceries. It was all so easy with their help!

Last night Luis Carlos, whose house we use for the Bible studies, came over to say hello after work, He left at 10:00 pm! Now we are all caught up with his life since we left. He is going to college to be a CPA, Irene is going to night school to get her high school diploma, and the children are all in school. The entire family has homework! They are all doing well in school. We will start the couples meeting this Sunday at five. Pastor D, we are once again using your material on marriage.

Today we took our morning walk on the beach and have no other plans for the day, but tomorrow we are meeting Pastor Alejandro and his wife for lunch. Pray for this meeting. We need to have a "well-instructed tongue" to talk to him about pastoring his flock. Pray that the Lord will speak to his heart and that he won't take our words as criticism.

Praises:

• We thank the Lord for an uneventful trip here.
• For everything in the condo working well.

Prayer requests:

• Pray for Sergio and Bianka - their marriage and their commitment to he local church
• Pray for our talk with the pastor and his wife tomorrow
• Pray for the couples Bible study on Sundays. We will talk about marriage relationships
• Pray for good health and energy for us
• Pray for our family back home

Thank you for your support!

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