Last Two Weeks - Strike!

Philippians 4:6-7

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Thank you to all of you who are praying for us. It is a great comfort to know that we are covered with your prayers. We are scheduled to leave tomorrow. I just checked the news. As of this morning, the airport here in this province is open and the police is actively patrolling the access road to make sure that there is no blockage. Most of the demonstrations are in the capital. Just to be on the safe side, we are leaving here 5 hours ahead of our flight. It will mean that we will spend a long time sitting at the airport, but we want to be safe and stress-free. 

Alexis and Eilyn Faxas

Left to right: John, Eilyn, Alexis, Jr., Daniel, Alexis Sr., David, me

Last time I wrote we were waiting for the Cuban family to arrive. They ran into a strike and took them eight hours to get here. It was a different strike from what is going on now. It had to do with the fishermen. That was a week ago last Friday. Their names are Alexis and Eilyn Faxas. They have three sons, 16, 15 and 9. They are really a delightful family. There is a lot of humor and laughter in their family dynamics. They liked the town and are opened to come here to establish a permanent ministry, but first they have to start a business because they want to be tent makers. Their plan is to wait until the school year ends here (early December) to make a move. They want to rent a business space in the beach town nearby where there are a lot of tourists and open a bakery-cafe. They have already explored how to do that. It will be a matter of finding an affordable commercial space. They also need to rent a house in our town. For the first 6 - 8 months they will concentrate on getting the business off the ground. Once that is accomplished, they will start working on the ministry. They have owned a profitable business before, although it was a different type of business. He is an ordained Baptist minister, recognized here in this country and in the US. We took them around the area twice, and they also went to the Bible study with us Saturday night, but we did not asked them to speak because we were still getting to know them. Humanly speaking, this family is the best prospect we have had, but we are trusting the Lord. 

Yoglan and Paula

We finished all the Bible studies in the different homes last week. They are really growing in the Lord. The most recent addition to our Saturday night group are Yoglan and Paula. They are very young and live with Yoglan's mother, next door to Yuan and Diana. Yoglan and Yua are cousins. Interestingly, we were walking back Tuesday afternoon from our study at Yua and Diana's and ran into Yoglan's mother who was walking in the same direction. She took the opportunity to tell us how grateful she is that they are attending the group because she is already seeing a change in her son. For example, that weekend there was a huge rodeo in another town. As usual, it involves a lot of drinking. She said Yoglan always went to the rodeo, but he and Paula went to the Bible study instead. We, of course, gave the glory to God. It is not what we do, but the Holy Spirit working in these lives. I am sure that if we had a "church," she would be attending also. 

Christian and Daniela with their daughters

Christian and Daniela have also changed a lot, especially Daniela. Last trip we brought them a book of Bible stories for children. They tell us that their older daughter, who is in second grade and knows how to read, reads it to her sister every night. They told us that one night they were out, so Christian's mother was staying with the girls. It was late, and they were scared (I guess Grandma was sacred also), so the eight-year-old got her "Bible" out and read and prayed. They were not scared anymore. We are concerned about their health because we found out that Christian has sickle cell anemia, and the girls have the gene also. Christian also has very high blood pressure. Because of appointment issues, he did not take his medication for a month and ended up in emergency twice. We told him that he can't do that. He most take his medication every day.

Gardy, Paola and Nazaret

Gardy and Paola are dealing with the financial impact of the accident. They have tough decisions to make, but Gardy is at peace about it. Eduardo and Arelis are still undecided about getting married. Now they are talking about January. Walter and Yesenia just celebrated their one year anniversary. We took them out to eat Sunday night. They let us know that, for the first time, Walter was able to refuse his relatives about drinking. Yesenia was very happy. We know that there will be times where he won't be strong, but it is a step in the right direction. Men around here get a lot of pressure from family and friends. If they refuse to go drinking, they tell them that their wives are ruling the home. 

Eduardo, Arelis and Evans

Ricardo and Miguelina

Keylor and Priscila

Prayer requests:

• That we would make it out of the country and home safely
• For the Faxas family - that the Lord will guide them in all their decisions
• For all the couples here that they will remain faithful in spite of family pressures

Thank you for your prayers!

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