“… been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will;” Ephesians 1:11

Even though we are here at the beach, we listen to Pastor D every week, although not on Sundays. He referred to the above Scripture on his message last Sunday, and it really spoke to my heart because, as you gathered from my last post, I/we are disappointed by the state of the ministry here, but our job, as Pastor D said, is to learn from the situation and trust God to "work all things after the counsel of His will." 

It was decided to close the church and to start over with a Bible study at Luis and Irene's rental house. It will help them financially, and it will provide a different venue. Last night Luis called John. They talked for a long time, and we can tell that he is really excited about this. He is going to start inviting sympathizers who have never attended church, but come to the Bible studies at his house.  By the way, this is the same house where Christ for the City was located. Please pray for a renewing of the ministry in this town. Pray for Luis and Irene. They are incredibly busy with three kids who need to be shuttled back and forth to school, working full time and going to school full time. Pray that the Enemy does not attack them. They need health and perseverance. Pray for a hedge of protection around the whole family.

I was feeling down because of all the things that I mentioned last time, but the Lord reminded me that there is now a church where there was none. Below there is a picture of our first activity in the second town. You may remember this picture: I am speaking to the women under a tree. There was nowhere to hold meetings. 

This is a picture of the church now in the same town. The Lord provided a couple from Florida who saw the need and built this church out of their own resources. He is a builder by profession and brought all his builder friends to do this. It was definite a gift from God who, "after the counsel of his will" decided that the church in this area needed to be built in this town, not where we started.

This church has a good group attending. The other Sunday I counted 30 adults and 30 children, but, according to the pastor, there is better attendance in the evenings because a lot of people work on Sundays.The church is big enough for 200, since the builders had a lot of faith!  So PTL and keep going!

Holy Week is very different in this area. People use the time off for vacations at the beach; therefore, it is very busy all around here. There is a festive atmosphere that I find rather strange. We are going to avoid going near any of the towns, but tonight we are going to visit Eduardo and Arelys, a couple who are new believers, who had a baby just a few months ago and who moved back to her home town because she needs help from her mother to take care of the baby while she is at work. I will have pictures next time. We want to encourage them in their walk. They are attending another church near where they live now.

We have been busy visiting people. Also, just the two of us walked around the town the other morning praying for protection. We are going to do it a few times while we are here. We know "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 6:12

Last, we had a very nice thing happen to us this week also. We always try to be friendly to the security staff because they work very long hours; therefore, when we go to the supermarket, we try to remember to buy a soda and a snack for whoever is working at the gates. The other day one of the guards brought us something special that his wife had made. The doughnut-shaped items are "roscas" made of corn flour and baked on an earthen oven. The other flat ones are "tanelas," also corn flour, but these are sweet. It is something special that they make only during Holy Week. They go great with coffee!

Prayer requests:

• For John's shoulder. It is always hurting. He may have to have surgery when we go back.
• For Sergio and Bianka's marriage. They had another "date," but did not talk about their problems! Bianka is coming over for lunch on Saturday.
• Wisdom for Pastor Alejandro and his wife, Alba.
• Health and salvation for Armando, the gardener.
• Pray for Luis and Irene and their family.
• Pray for the new venue and for open hearts in this town.
• Wisdom for us. We are so not equipped for this! Remember that I just a high school teacher and John is a box salesman.

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

Ministry Challenges

We are enjoying our second week here. Our daily routine consists of a morning walk after breakfast, then we spend time studying or reading, lunch, more reading, dinner here or with friends, sometimes with friends here. They sold the small hotel that has been here since the beginning to a company that runs detox centers. It is for the very rich, and most guests come by helicopter. It is a little weird, and the government is already after them for using experimental drugs not approved by either the local authorities or the US, and for a doctor practicing without the proper local license. Here is a link: http://www.ibogahouse.com/  This has limited our options to go out to eat, since we really do not like to travel far at night. I think we will be hosting more people over to dinner this time around.

We are a little disappointed with the ministry. There is a marked apathy in this town, and believers are not any different. There are four legally married couples who attend church, but three of the marriages are on the rocks. This is worse than for unbelievers. Needlessly to say, it is damaging the church testimony. According to the pastor, key families are not attending consistently. They only come when we are around; therefore, we are considering closing the little church and starting over in the same house where we have the Bible study, or in an empty house on their property, away from the center of town. Pray for wisdom on this matter. The other church in the other town that was started after this one is doing very well, PTL. Speaking of the couples Bible study, last Saturday there was a huge celebration all weekend in the nearest town. These are cowboys around here, so they had rodeos and things like that for four days. Most of the couples did not come to the study for various reasons connected with the festivities. They also have a lot of celebrations around Holy Week; therefore, we have decided to stop the Bible study until after Easter. We knew that it would be difficult to hold meetings with all the stuff going on; for example, in our little town they build an effigy of Judas that gets paraded around the soccer field in the center of town and burn later. They do this on Saturday before Easter. Even our friends say that there are hundreds of people at this event, but only about thirty go to mass.

The young couple, Sergio and Bianka who are separated, are not doing well. Sergio is determined to get a divorce. She is devastated and very depressed. Please pray for them. John is going to talk to him of Thursday. Pray for wisdom.  Armando, the gardener, had to fast one day to have blood work done the next day, but when he went, the place was closed. Now he has to do it again and miss work again. Please continue to place for healing and salvation. Pray that he can keep his job.

Which brings me to prayer requests:

• John is still having problems with his arm. Pray for healing.
• For Sergio and Bianka's marriage.
• Wisdom for Pastor Alejandro and his wife, Alba.
• Health and salvation for Armando.
• For the couples Bible study
• For wisdom about what to do with the church here.
• Wisdom for us. We are dealing with a lot of different situations here. 

There are some sunset pictures below.

Our pool at sunset

The main event around here

Sonny, why did I get this halo around the sun?

Deep in thought

  

Almost over

Do you like cashews? I am going to make a drink in the blender because they need a lot of sugar.

The Rodríguez family: Osvaldo, Scarleth, Frandisco, Luz, Mary, Diana and Luz Elena in the front

Thank you for your prayers! 

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

Morning Walks

Hello, dear friends! We arrived safely and started getting together with friends right away. The first couples' meeting was on Saturday. We were a little disappointed because only four couples came, but it was a great meeting. The smaller group made it easier for people to share what was on their hearts. One particular couple, Fabian and Alejandra are having in-law issues. They are not married and do not know the Lord. We actually had a group therapy session, but they need to resolve a lot of issues. They do not live in town any longer, but come to the meetings whenever they can. They have visited a new Calvary Chapel church where they lived and liked it. They said that they "talk like" us. Pray that the Lord will touch their hearts. Sunday we went to both churches to re-acquaint ourselves with everybody. The second, bigger church across the creek is doing very well.  Our little congregation is struggling and not growing.  We visited two families on Sunday afternoon and went out to dinner last night with Yirardi, the boy with brain cancer (in remission now, PTL!) and his family. Tonight we are going to have dinner at another home with the pastor and his wife. Pray for all this people, that they will really experience a personal relationship with the Lord.

We also talked with one of the gardeners, who is a very nice young man. He did not look well, so we asked him what happened. This is a story of socialized medicine: He was in a lot of pain in his stomach and went to emergency three days in a row, but all three times they told him he had a virus and was sent him home. One the fourth day, he could barely stand up, so his father and his brothers pool their money together and took him to a private doctor who immediately sent him back to the hospital with a note saying that he had a burst appendix and needed surgery right away. He almost died. He lost a lot of blood and had to stay in the hospital for 10 days. They gave him 30 days of medical leave and he is back at work, but he still weak and in pain. He asked for another appointment and will see the doctor again in two weeks. I asked him if I could pray for him, and right there we put our arms around him and prayed for healing of his body and salvation for his soul. Please pray for Armando.

Which brings me to prayer requests:

• For Armando´s healing
• For Fabian and Alejandra to come to the Lord and resolve their issues
• For another Christian married couple, Sergio and Bianka, who are separated
• For the little church in Pinilla, for a deeper commitment to the Lord
• For Yirardi's health and...
• For himself and his parents to come to the Lord
• For wisdom for the pastor and his wife
• For the couples' Bible study on Saturdays

Below you will see a few pictures that I took today during my morning walk. These are mainly for Sonny who requested pictures. I took my camera along this morning. These are unedited. I have Windows 8 here and can barely work the computer. It has been very windy, so it is hard to maintain focus while the wind is blowing your camera.

I start the walk from our condo. This is a view of our building. Our condo is next door to this one at the end.

These gourds that I hope you can see are what they use for "maracas." In Cuba they were also used as containers by county folk.

I start down this path. You can see that the morning sun is on my left.

I enjoy walking through the nursery. The ground keepers always need to replace plants, so they have their own nursery.

Another view of the nursery. It goes way back.

I like these bushes, but I don't know what they are called.

This is a yellow oak. The blooms will be gone soon because of the winds

Same oak, from the other side

Now I am on this paved path under the mango trees. It will take me all the way to the beach.

They are always monkeys around this area. They are very loud. This is a whole family. I walk gingerly under them.

A quaint little bridge

A traffic circle, but there is no traffic

Can you see the nest?

The path goes up and down a lot

This is a cashew. The seed that we eat is outside the fruit, which is very tart.

Termite nest

Arriving at the beach

Playa Avellanas

Low tide

Playa Avellanas, just one family in the distance

Beach Club - Our HOA voted to join, so now we are members

Sit and rest a spell - then turn around and walk back

Home again! This is our front door

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