Fifth Week

Hello, faithful prayer warriors!

We continue to work hard discipling and counseling every day. Last Thursday we went to Christian and Daniela's house for dinner and a little Bible study. They meant to cook lasagna for us; unfortunately, their oven had a short circuit when they turned it on (very common in these homes because they do not ground their connections well, or whatever you-call-it). They had to call us to apologize about dinner; therefore, we went to the nearest town to buy pizza. Usually, when we buy pizza here, the pizzas are a lot smaller than in the US, so we ordered five large pizzas. Well, this pizza shop's sizes are the same as in the US, so we had way too much pizza. They shared it with the neighbors after we left!

Modeling her cowgirl hat on her PJ's

Christian and Daniela have two little daughters. Their dream is to have a little colt to learn to ride. The little girls modeled for us their cowgirl hats and boots. We figured that by the time they have saved enough for a horse, their boots will be too small; hence, we are buying a horse! It's just a little colt. They have room in the back of their house to keep the horse.

We might buy this horse!

Friday night we had dinner at Ricardo and Miguelina's house.  This is the couple who used to attend church at the beginning, but stopped. We still don't know why. They appreciate our efforts here and participate in the couples Bible study. They shared with us about their two grown children. You know how it is, parents may give advise, but it is up to them. Pray for this family.

Ricardo and Miguelina

On Saturday we had our regular couples Bible study. John shared about the prodigal son. They were a little quiet, not much participation. Hopefully, they were thinking about the lesson. We had a Bingo game afterwards based on the story, with prizes. I make up games to use after each Bible study. It is our way to show them that Christians can have fun and laugh without alcohol.

We have a little Sunday School in the same house we are renting from Irene. There is a faithful Christian woman who attends every Sunday. She is the one who keeps it going when we are not around. The pastor and his wife come occasionally. When we arrived, she told us that the pastor had a business meeting and couldn't come. She told us she had nothing prepared. I had been studying Acts 8; therefore, I shared about Philip and the Ethiopian. Gardy and Paola were there with their 10 year-old daughter. Gardy asked me what an eunuch was, so I told him (He has been a Christian and attending church for a long time. I was surprised he did not know!). He was a little shocked, but we moved on. I talked about the importance of sharing the Lord whenever we had the chance, even in the bus, since they all travel by bus a lot.

Sunday afternoon we went to the movies with Walter, Yesenia, their two daughters, Randall, Arleth and Yirardi (we traveled in two cars). The two little girls, six and eight, I believe, had never been to the movies. We saw a children's animated story about the Wizard of Oz 2. They loved it. Afterwards, we went to McDonald's and Walmart because we needed to get extra folding chairs for the wedding. A full day! We got home at about 8:00 pm.

John had to get up early Monday morning to take our car to the mechanic to fix some issue. They had to keep the car over night. Sergio gave him a ride home. That evening we went out with Gardy, Paola and their daughter. We had a nice time with them.

Tuesday was our regular Bible study with Walter and Yesenia. Last week we talked so much about their wedding that we did not have a chance to do the study, so we just left them their copies. They surprised us on Tuesday by having done the entire study on their own. PTL! It is such a blessing to see their enthusiasm. Pray that Walter does not go back to drinking after we leave.

Last night we were supposed to go to Eduardo and Arelis', but it started to rain very hard just about the time that we were to leave. John has difficulties driving in the dark at night, but when it is raining that hard, it is almost impossible to see. We just had to call and cancel it. They understood. Besides, all the homes in the village have tin roofs, and it is very difficult to hear each other when it is raining. This morning we found out that we had 5 inches of rain last night. I am glad we stayed home. We needed some rest any way.

Prayer requests:

• Pray that the wedding will come about on September 10th
• Pray for all these couples that they will stay committed after we leave
• Pray for a couple to take over this ministry full time
• Wisdom as we teach and counsel
• Safety and health for us. My back is doing well
• Traveling mercies
• For our family back home. 

Thank you for your prayers!

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

Couples Retreat

Hello, Prayer Warriors!

Our hotel

I have so much to tell you! But I don't want this to be long and boring, so I will try to be as brief as possible.

We left for the mountains Saturday at about 1:30 pm. Eight of us went in Gardy's van, plus two more cars with two couples each, Carlos, Rosario, Luis in Patricia live near the capital, so they met us there. It was pouring rain when we arrived, so we got drenched just walking to our cabins, but it cleared up after that. We immediately went to enjoy the thermal water pools. I was still in our cabin, but I could hear them laughing like children going down the water slide.

Dinner was at seven. We had a private room, so right after dinner we had the talks. The topic was "Why marry?" We did not suggest this topic. Luis and Patricia decided that guided by the Lord. Luis is a pastor. He talked about what the Bible says about marriage; then Patricia followed. She is a lawyer. She talked about the laws of this country and why it is important to marry under the law. There were a lot of things we did not know because we are not from here. I thought the three couples who are not married were going to be offended, but, on the contrary, they were convicted. They all decided to marry. What a blessing!

Getting ready for dinner

Yúa and Diana

Francisco and Luz

Gardy and Paola - he was our driver

Luis and Patricia, our speakers

Christian and Daniela - she is actually 27 years old!

Ricardo and Miguelina

Carlos and Rosario

Luis sharing from the Bible

Patricia sharing the law

There was free time for the rest of the evening. Some couples went off to talk by themselves. Others went back to the pools. Next morning at 6 am, some of the men were already at the pool. Breakfast was at 8, and we followed the same arrangement as before. We had the talks right after breakfast. Carlos spoke about the parable of the wise and foolish builders on Matthew 7. We must build our house on the rock. Then Rosario followed with Ecc. 4:9-12 "Two are better than one..." She had illustrations and a keepsake for each couple. She is very good with crafts.

The Lord truly touched hearts. We ended with each couple holding hands and praying for each other.

Breakfast

Refrigerator magnet from the retreat

Carlos sharing

Couples praying

Carlos and Rosario praying

Fun!!

More fun!

Some of the guys

Some of the girls

 We all went back to the pools afterwards. It was so much fun! I should say that it was the best time John and I have had in this country. We had to drive by McDonalds on the way home. So Arleth, being so organized, took everybody's orders and wrote them on paper. When we got to McDonalds, most of us sat down and John, Arleth and a few others took care of the order. The girl at the counter panicked at first when she heard that they were ordering for 22 people, but Arleth just handed her the paper, and everybody got his order right. We arrived home Sunday at about 4 pm. Carlos, Rosario, Luis and Patricia stayed home with us through late Monday afternoon. We had a chance to debrief and relax at the beach and at the pool. We just give glory to God! He answered every single prayer we had for the weekend.

Another view of the place

Now for the unmarried couples. It is always surprising how people react. All three couples want to get married. We visited all three couples right away to confirm their decision. The lawyer had left with us a list of all the documents needed for the weddings. Tuesday we saw Yúa and Diana (that's not his real name, but that's what everybody calls him). They decided to wait until we comeback in February to have a Valentine's wedding. We also saw Walter and Yesenia on Tuesday because that is our regular Bible study day. They are ready, but Yesenia is from another country and her passport has expired; besides, she needs a document from the Civil Registry of her country stating that she is not married. Now, we thought that this was going to be difficult, and it still might be, but she called her consulate yesterday and found out that she can get it in 24 hours if she travels back home. She is leaving next week. If she can get all her documents in order, we will have a wedding in our condo on Sunday, September 10 (we are coming home on the 12). So, here we are planning a wedding with less than three weeks time! Walter breaks into a cold sweat just talking about it. This is great! We are really excited. We don't know how, but we are going to fit 30 people in our place. Pray that it doesn't rain, so that we can use the lawn.

The third couple, Eduardo and Arelis, are having cold feet. Actually, Arelis is having doubts. We had our regular Bible study last night. It so happened that the topic was what is the church and about using our spiritual gifts. Well, they both expressed a desire to serve the Lord, but we told them that they have to get straight with the Lord first. They have to get their house in order. They know this and agreed. We left the lawyer's list with them. It is up to them to get it all together and contact the lawyer. By the way, I did not explain that Patricia is a lawyer and a notary. You have to be a lawyer first to be a notary here. It is kind of like a Master's degree in law. Notaries perform all civil ceremonies here. People need a civil ceremony even if they get married in a church.

I promise not to bore you. So, I am going to end here. But I want you to know that my back is fine now, although I still wear a brace to ride in the car. I think I will continue to do that the rest of the time here. Thank you for your prayers!

Prayer requests:

• Continue to pray for a couple to take over this ministry.
• Pray that Walter and Yesenia can get married on Sep.10th.
• Pray for us as we teach and counsel.
• Safety and health for us.
• Pray for traveling mercies. You have no idea how bad these "roads" are.
• Pray for reconciliation for Luis Carlos and Irene.
• Pray that this wedding will actually take place on Sep. 10th.
• For our family back home that they might be safe in our absence.

Thank you for your prayers!

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

Low tide this morning

Third Week

Getting ready to pass roses on Mother's Day

Hello, Prayer Warriors!

Life at the beach continues to be exciting. Never a dull moment!

First of all, my back: I had to go see the local doctor. We have a clinic here in the Hacienda for employees and guests. The doctor gave me a physical to make sure that I had no neurological problems, but I told her that this is an old problem that just flared up due to the stress from the roads. She gave me a shot of Diclofenac and B Complex, plus some anti-inflammatory pills for the next two days. I wish I could tell you that it was an immediate relief, but it wasn't; nevertheless, I am felling much better today, a week later.I think your prayers are being more effective. I am wearing a brace we have here from previous back problems and using the heating pad whenever I can. Keep praying, please.

We continued with the Bible studies last week. We had a good visit with Christian and Daniela on Thursday. Since they have not made a commitment to the Lord yet, we just had a short talk on the storms of life based on Mark 4:35-41. We will return to there next week.

We had our second couples meeting on Saturday. As I mentioned on my last blog, we changed the location to the little house that we rent for Sunday School meetings. I meant to take my camera, but forgot. Anyway, Diana cooked a delicious chicken dinner, plus she cleaned the house also. When we arrived, the table was set with a white table cloth and everything was ready. She worked very hard to make it work. We met on the porch, just like we did in the other house. The front porches here are used as living rooms and dinning rooms, since it is so hot inside the homes.

Sunday morning we had a good group at Sunday School. The pastor had a good message. We all stayed around and talked. Interestingly, both Luis Carlos and Irene were there. Now, if a couple has separated and they meet at our church, it is a little awkward, but the church is very large, and it can work. Now imagine a very small room with 14 people, and you can see how awkward that can be. They made the best of the situation, and in fact, they both stayed with us after everybody left. We really wanted to talk, but their son was there also. However, we took the opportunity to talk about the fact that the lady who teaches catechism in town is promoting first communion among the kids. Some people in town are very strong in their religion and are putting pressure on family members. Hernan, Luis and Irene's son, wants to do it because everybody else is doing it. We talked about it. I think the parents are going to leave it up to him. He is very smart. We will see what happens. They are all caught up in the excitement of the clothes and all the trappings, really.

Our printer died. It was 12 years old, but things here at the beach do not last as long as back home. Must be due to weather and humidity. Anyway, they just opened a Walmart one hour and a half from here a month ago; therefore, on Monday we took the long drive to Walmart to get a printer. They sell printers around here, but they do not sell ink. We wanted to buy the printer where we could get replacement ink cartridges. We hardly go to Walmart when we are home, but here we were excited to go and get a few things besides the printer. The long ride did not help my back; besides, we were having dinner at Francisco's house that evening. The section of the road by their house is the worst! We took Walter and Yesenia and their two daughters with us to Francisco's house, and the pastor and his wife went also. The pastor and his wife had never met Walter and Yesenia. Again, we had a very nice time together.

Dinner at Francisco's - to my left Pastor Alejandro and his wife, Alba. To my right Walter, Luz, Yesenia, Juan (Francisco's brother), back to the camera, John and Francisco

From this view you can see John and Francisco

Dessert at Francisco and Luz' house. Walter is next to me

Tuesday was Mother's Day here. It is a big deal, a national holiday. On our way back from Walmart on Monday, we stopped by a florist and bought 3 dozen long stem roses for the mothers in town. So, Tuesday after lunch, we walked around town passing out roses to the mothers we know, and some we don't know, but know who we are. This is our third year of doing this, and it is greatly appreciated by all.

Tonight we have our regular Bible study with Eduardo and Arelis. Tomorrow will have dinner at Water and Yesenia's with Randall and Arleth. Then, this weekend is the big couples retreat that we have been planning for a while. There will be eleven couples all together, counting ourselves, Carlos and Rosario and another couple friends of theirs. We will leave here at 1:00 pm on Saturday and will return on Sunday afternoon sometime. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will work on all of our hearts, that we will know His will.

Which brings me to our prayer requests:

• Pray for the retreat, traveling mercies up and back, good times, and that the Lord will pour his Holy Spirit on the meetings.
• Pray for the speaker, Luis M. and his wife, Patricia.
• Pray for all the children left behind staying with relatives. They have never done this before. Pray that they all be safe.
• Pray for healing for my back.
• Pray for Luis Carlos and Irene and their son, Hernan.
• Pray that the Lord will keep the rest of the families together.
• Wisdom as we teach and counsel.
• Safety and health for us.
• Traveling mercies as we drive on these crazy roads.
• For our family back home. May they be safe in our absence.

Thank you, John Spots, and the rest of you who write words of encouragement and who are praying for us. We greatly appreciate your ministry to us in prayer.

Lady and her son, Victor. She attends SS once in a while

Miguelina and Raquel, her daughter, they used to attend church

This is Yesenia

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

Second Week

Hello, Partners in Prayer!

Life at the beach continues... It is raining buckets full everyday. If it is not raining, it is incredibly muggy. This is the rainiest we have seen it in the month of August. The result of the rain is that the dirt road to town is just full of wholes. It is muddy everywhere in town. We are always praying that our car doesn't get stuck in the mud. But everything is so green and beautiful! A feast for the eyes!

This is truly a cattle ranch (hacienda)

Just what we see entering the hacienda

We have settled into a schedule, more or less. We have three Bible studies in three different homes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, on Saturdays, we have the couples Bible study, Sunday mornings, church. That leaves us the rest of the day on Sundays, Mondays and Fridays open to meet with other people, or to rest. Of course, we have to prepare for all these different Bible studies, which takes up a lot of our time as well. It is difficult sometimes to decide what we are going to talk about on Saturday evenings, especially. We have two discipleship books that we follow for the individual Bible studies, but nothing specific for Saturday nights. We are thinking of using the Journey With Christ small groups Bible study from 2004, adapting it, of course, for culture and the needs of the couples
(Pastor D., we can't find those messages on the EFCC website).

One of the couples, Eduardo and Arelis, that we have been discipling is doing well. They are attending a little church in another town, and trying to grow in their walk with the Lord. This couple has been together for 10 years now, but they are not married. They are actually afraid to get married. It is kind of a superstition,  thinking that if they get married, they will break up. We really enjoy our time with them every week.

There is another couple who accepted the Lord a year ago. He had stopped drinking, even some other people in town had noticed his change. When we went to visit them this week, we found out that he is back drinking and going to dances, and he almost hit his "wife" recently. They are not married, either. Please pray for Walter and Yesenia, that he can stop drinking again. Too much drinking and alcoholism is the main issue in this town because that causes all sorts of problems.

The other couple that we are trying to reach has not accepted the Lord yet. They are legally married and have two little girls. We are going there tonight, but we will just have a short talk about the Bible, and mainly visit with them.

Now about Saturday night:

Saturday was the first couples Bible study. The meetings have always been at Luis and Irene's house, but they broke up, as I mentioned last week. We talked to Irene, and she was willing to still have the meetings at her house. Everything was set, but she just could not bear to be there. At the last minute, she decided to spend the night at her sister's in another town. She left everything ready for us and her cousin, Diana, in charge. We all felt terribly that she had to leave. The mood was very subdued all evening. The meeting was supposed to start at 7, and right before, when we were just on our way, it started to pour. We couldn't even see out. Two couples texted us at that time, telling us that they couldn't make it. This, and the fact that it was raining so hard discouraged us. We even considered turning around, but we knew that Diana had made dinner for all of us, and we thought we needed to go. Besides, it was Diana's birthday, and I had baked a cake for her. Well, everybody made it, except for the two couples. The meeting was a little sad, as I said, as people found out that Irene wasn't even home, but we decided to go on with the meetings. We will have them at the little house that we rent from Irene for Sundays. It is smaller, but we will try and see how it goes.

This is Diana, the little girl is not related. She just wanted to be in the picture.

All this bouncing around the road has finally taken a toll on my back. As I write this, I am sitting with a heating pad on my back. I can barely walk today. Please pray for healing, since there is no improvement for the road. It is really the worst we have ever experienced.

We had lunch on Monday with friends across the street from the beach

This was our view from the restaurant

Prayer requests:

That the Lord will gives us wisdom as we teach and counsel.

For Irene, as she deals with her emotions.

Traveling mercies during this heavy rainy season. 

For the couples' retreat on August 19-20. May the Holy Spirit work on all our hearts.

That the Lord will keep together the rest of the families we are involved with.

For Walter and Yesenia - that Walter will stop drinking.

Safety and health - keep us free from mosquito-transmitted diseases.

Pray that my back pain will be healed.

That our family back home remain safe (Our youngest granddaughter was bitten on her mouth by a pit bull. She had shots and antibiotics and she seems to be fine, but it really upset me because we couldn't be there for her).

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

First Week

Sorry about the rain drop!

Hello, Friends! Here we are back at the beach. It has been a week already! I know this because I am doing laundry. :) We arrived Tuesday night safe and sound. There were no delays and our luggage was not checked. We were concerned because we were bringing a condenser for the car air conditioner and a golf club for John. The latter just barely fit in the suitcase, and it made it look a little crooked. I should have taken a picture. Our friend Gardy from town now has a van, so he was there with his wife and daughter to greet us. It is so nice to be greeted by familiar faces and big hugs from everybody.

The cutest girls!

On Wednesday, we just went shopping and got settled, but Thursday we talked to both halves of the couple who separated. We had Irene for breakfast (3 hours) and we had him for dinner (another 3 hours). Irene is, of course, devastated. She remains strong in the Lord and was able to forgive him. Luis is adamant. He says things haven't been well for a long time, but he never told us. This was not news to us because we have been talking to Irene all this time. He has a girlfriend, but he would not say that to us. We are very concerned for their child who is very sensitive. He actually has a skin condition that erupts when he is under emotional stress. So, Dad is renting a studio apartment by their house and stills goes to pick him up at school as usual, comes by frequently at night, and all day on Sundays. We know that this is an unsustainable situation because the girlfriend will eventually demand that he spend more time with her. The way things are right now, we don't see reconciliation. We told him we are his friends, but that doesn't mean that we agree with his decision.

Friday morning we went to town early in the morning to walk and pray. The roads are so bad, that we drove all the way on first gear. There is no way to avoid the potholes. The Lord allowed us to see most of the women who come to the Bible Study, so they all know that we are back. Irene wants to continue having the Bible Studies at her house. It was decided to meet on Saturday, August 5 for the first time. Saturday morning we went to the guy who fixes the A/C with the part we brought from the States and a couple of parts for his car.  He has three small children. The oldest boy is six, but the two little girls are about four and two. As soon as I sat down, the two little girls climbed on my lap and stayed there a good hour. Their mother made us the typical local breakfast: rice and beans, scrambled eggs and a slice of local cheese. It is a very healthy breakfast that stick to you the rest of the day. This family is not local really, but from the Dominican Republic. When was the last time you had your car worked on and had a complementary breakfast? Saturday night we visited a family where we have another Bible study, and had dinner with Irene and her two boys.

We went to church on Sunday. The pastor and his wife came, and he led a very good Bible study. This pastor is a very good Bible teacher, but the problem is that he works full time and spends no time visiting or establishing relationships in town. He lives about 45 minutes from here. It turned out that Sunday was Gardy's daughter's birthday, so he invited to go to the movies with them and Randall, Arleth and Yirardi (Gardy and Arleth are brother and sister). We all went in the van pass the airport to the nearest movie theater and saw Spider Man. We got there an hour before the movie, so we had coffee and dessert. After the movie we went to McDonald's for dinner. Leaving McDonald's, it started to pour. We couldn't even see out. Gardy had to drive very slowly. I was praying the whole way. We finally got home at about 9 pm, thankful that the Lord kept us safe.

Yesterday evening we had dinner with Francisco, Luz and his family, but they also invited the pastor, his wife, Randall, Arleth and Yirardi. We really did not want to go because we were afraid of the rain and to get caught in a flash flood; however, the Lord again was good and it stopped raining. We had a great time together, and again, the pastor brought a short devotional. Today Sergio, the other divorced man, came over for breakfast because it was his day off. He also stayed three hours. We meant to visit two other families today, but they both cancelled on us, so I decided to do laundry and blog.

We thank the Lord for our safety and health.

Prayer requests:

• That the Lord will gives us wisdom as we teach and counsel.
• That Luis and Irene will reconcile.
• That the Lord give their son peace.
• Traveling mercies during this heavy rainy season. 
• For the couples' retreat on August 19-20. May the Holy Spirit work on all our hearts.
• That the Lord will keep together the rest of the families we are involved with.
• Safety and health - keep us free from mosquito-transmitted diseases.
• That our family back home remain safe.

 Please keep us in your prayers. We count on you!

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