Final Thoughts

 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:6

Hello from the beach!

I have decided that this will be my last blog, even though we won't leave until Monday, July 17th. We have spent time everyday with friends and acquaintances, catching up without actually saying good-bye. That would be too hard.

         Yua and Diana

We took Yua and Diana to McDonalds one more time. They just love it, specially McFlurries! There is a brand new McDonalds that opened in January only an hour from here. It is very nice with all the latest technologies. They don't have a car, so they don't get out of town much. They are the last couple to get married at our place here.

Pastor Alejandro and his wife, Alba, came over for dinner the other day. They pastor the church plant near here. Alba keeps in touch, occasionally asking  for prayer; therefore, I knew that they have gone through very hard family problems. This last year has been very hard for them. Just a month ago, their son was riding a quad with his daughter and got into a serious accident. They both had multiple fractures. Their son had to use a wheelchair for a while, but he is walking again. The granddaughter was taken to the children's hospital in the capital for a month of multiple surgeries. She is 12 years old. She still cannot walk, and has to go back to the hospital for more surgeries. Please pray for Brianna. We talked about the ministry. The church plant is not growing much, but he has two Bible studies going on in two different towns. He works full time in his business (he builds swimming pools) and tries to pastor these groups. We always try to encourage them. They thanked us for that. They say it is always a respite to spend time with us. We will still see them on Sunday at church.

             Yunior and Glenys

We also had dinner with the Cuban couple who live here permanently and are supposed to take ove the ministry in town. If you see my last blog in 2020, I stated that I was not sure they were even going to last here because I did not see a call to missions (apostolic spiritual gift), nor the gift of evangelism. They are very nice people. Since they are Cubans, I enjoy their company, but they have not done anything in three years. We, of course, introduced them to the couples group, but then COVID came, people couldn't get together, and the group disbanded. Everybody in town says that they are very nice people, but that's it. The reason they are still here is because they bought a lot in town and built a house.  His brother is a pastor for the Spanish congregation of a big church in Texas. The missions committee of that church has organized short-term trips here, they helped building their house (presented as a house for a missionary to their church), and they are now building a small community center and a house for hosting visitors. It is the old fashion belief that if you build a building, people will come. The brother is actually arriving here Saturday with another group. This time they got permission to do an activity in the town hall, like we used to do. This town is very hard. One must make friends before trying to talk about Jesus.  It is still our hope that the Lord will use their efforts and build His church here.

          Christian, Daniela and girls

         Walter and girls

The town itself has changed. Here in the Hacienda, they are building over 100 houses. All those workers have temporary housing in town. At night they wonder around with nothing to do. There are a lot of drugs and alcohol. The women do not walk alone after dark because they get harassed. In fact, even some of the men say that they do not go to town after dark to avoid problems. 

I know that all of the above is kind of depressing, but we still know that the Lord is in charge. He will bring His work to completion. As far as we are concerned, we know that our season here has come to an end. We feel that we would be interfering with what people here are trying to do; therefore, we are not planning to return, unless the Lord brings us again.

John went fishing with the guys one more time

       We had fish tacos at Francisco's house that evening

Praises:

• We praise the Lord for all the years of ministry and blessing in this area
• For the people that the Lord allowed us to meet and fellowship with
• For the privilege of living in this beautiful place 

Pray:

• For complete healing for Brianna and her father
  
• For Pastor Alejandro and Alba
• For Yunior and Glenys
• For all the couples who we were able to disciple and love

Thank you for all the years of prayers and encouragement!

One last time … from the beach...

Playa Avellanas