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...