Blown tires, Monkeys and Ministry

Wow! It is hard to choose how much to tell you! I should start with the blown tire: Last Saturday we went for our early morning walk on the beach. We usually drive to a parking lot inside the Hacienda and park. Coming back home we heard a strange noise on the back which turn out to be a blown tire. We thought we could make it home, since it is about a mile, but we couldn't. We pulled off to the side of the road almost in front of our condos. One of the workers here, a grounds supervisor who knows us and who is a Christian, stopped to help, but it turned out that he really did not know much about changing tires. I called Luis Carlos who came and helped. This is a picture of the tire:

There is a new service center nearby, so John called to make sure the had the right tires, and they did; unfortunately, most businesses close at noon on Saturday until Monday; therefore, we made an appointment for Monday. The place is just like an American service center with real appointments, air-conditioned waiting room and even a TV. We were impressed. We bought two tires.

Next day was our first Sunday here. We only went to the Bible study in our little town, since church is about four miles away and we have to cross a river. We did not want to risk it on the spare. We tried to go to the "Surfer restaurant" for a late breakfast/early lunch, but now they charge to park. It isn't worth it! So we went to another place on the beach which was very nice, but farther than we really wanted to go on the spare. Remember that we are traveling on dirt roads full of wholes. The place was beautiful, but I really do not want to drive that far for lunch.

Lunch by the beach. The couple with the baby are regular attenders at the bible study

Sunday night we had the first couples' meeting a Luis Carlos' house. John just shared a little bit about joy in the Lord. The gentleman who helped us with the tire came with his wife even though they live kind of far. He really liked the fellowship and might attend on occasions. The group decided to meet on Sundays.

I neglected to tell you that the soccer event scheduled for Saturday has been postponed for February 6th. Since the coach's team made it to the final four here, they had to attend a charity event for cancer on Saturday.
However, we had the short-term team from CIMA here since Tuesday. CIMA is an organization in Latin America similar to Urbana. Our friends Warry and Deborah whom we met as missionaries in Chile years ago are now heading the area of Central America for CIMA. The do a week long conference about missions and ministry for young people, but the add a practicum right after the conference; so they had different groups going to different places. One of the options was our little town. A group of 12 ended up signing up. The first group of 6 arrived Tuesday. They came by bus from the capital and stayed in the house that we rent from Luis Carlos for church meetings. The same house where the "sewing lady" stayed. She was gone by then, of course. The group did vacation bible school type of events for children, worked with the young people at the church in the other town, cooked their own meals and walked everywhere because the was no other type of transportation for them. We did not do anything, except welcoming and saying good-bye yesterday. They were from this country, but also from Nicaragua, El Salvador and Panama. Warry, Deborah and their two young daughters arrived Thursday to stay with us. Warry spoke in both churches yesterday, and the group did the music. One of the girls has a beautiful voice. Worship was very uplifting under their leading. The group left very much encouraged to follow up the Lord's leading in their lives. The young people in church are now encouraged to attend CIMA 2017.

The entire short-term team with us, Francisco and some of the local children in front of Luis and Irene's house

We had the couples' bible study last night. The first activity planned was watching the movie The War Room. Half way through the movie, a car drove up looking for Francisco (He and Luz got married a while back after 13 years of living together, remember?) It turned out that their 14 year old boy got on his uncle's motorcycle barefooted and without a helmet and was hit by another motorcycle. Luz was trembling like a leaf upon hearing the news. We prayed for them and John and Warry went with them in our car to drive them to the nearest emergency clinic, but the emergency clinic does not have an x-ray machine; so they brought him back home because today they had to go to a town one and a half hours from here to the nearest hospital (No doctors available on a Sunday at that time of night anyway). Luz was going to take him in the bus this morning. In the meantime, we finished watching the movie and had a short discussion afterwards; however, they were distracted due to the accident. They all stayed because they wanted cake and ice cream which I always serve last.  John and Warry got home about midnight. I just talked to Francisco. It is 1:40 pm on Monday here, but they are still at the hospital waiting to talk to the doctor about the x-rays.


And now about monkeys. We always hear and see monkeys around here, but they were in our yard the other day. This is the first time I get to take pictures from our own balcony:

Prayer requests:

• For Osvaldo, that he may learn his lesson to be careful and never to ride barefooted again
• Keep praying for Sergio and Bianka: reconciliation and forgiveness
• For the couples' bible study 
• For our safety, health and wisdom as we counsel
• For the upcoming soccer event on Feb. 6th
• For our family back home - may the Lord keep them all safe

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