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...