Sword Sharpening!

Dr. Shelton Smith is preaching at the "Sword of the Lord" conference this week in Puerto Rico. The "Sword of the Lord" is a Christian newspaper featuring great sermons and good source material for pastors. It is a 3 hour round trip to the conference but I have found it worth the long drive. After about five sermons in a day, there certainly is a lot to think about on that ride home! The fellowship was great as I met the speakers and my missionary friends at the conference. It is all good. Thank you Dr. Smith and friends for encouraging us!

Wishing

Our daughters Bethany and Rachel are in college in Pensacola, Florida and we are on the mission field of Puerto Rico. The good news is that they will get 5 weeks off for Christmas. The bad news is that it will cost about $1000 for two round trip tickets. The girls work on campus during the Summer, so it will be an entire year before we can see them again if we miss this opportunity. We want to go ahead and to buy the tickets. It is expensive, but we love our girls and really want to see them again!

I Kill Something Scary!

Sarah went down to feed the cat after Prayer Meeting tonight and came back up the stairs again very quickly. "I just saw the biggest spider I ever saw in my life!" she said. Tina and I went downstairs and saw some huge spider legs and then we saw the tarantula. Tina said, "If you don't kill that spider, I'm never going to leave this house!" I soon found myself alone with just the spider. I thought to step on it, but I object to stepping on animals that are so big that you can identify their separate internal organs afterwards. I had a can of wasp spray and used that to slow it down and then threw a rag over it and whacked it with a broom. All this had the desired effect and I was rewarded with shouts of joy from my family who where keenly interested in the outcome. I suppose none of this may mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly was a big event at our home this evening out here on the mission field of Puerto Rico!

Prayer Meeting Tonight. Every Wednesday we pray, but it is not a very well attended service. Let us not forget the importance of prayer! These soldiers understand that prayer changes things, and there are a LOT of things that need changing! 

A Promise Kept. I promised a picture of the youth rally we had in our church and here it is. I think the official count was eighty, but it seemed like a hundred to me! Thanks to our great youth group (see last entry) the youth rally was a great success!

Our Church Youth Group Takes a Breather! After planning and working so hard with such great results, it is time for some ice cream! Hosting an island wide youth rally can work up an appetite! Now we are gearing up for the Christmas play and will be getting and making costumes for our teens. Another church has asked us to travel to their town and put on our Christmas play for them. So far we have resisted going on the road, as we have a lot of work to do in our own town. Instead, we have invited them to visit us. So it looks like we may be hosting another activity soon. It makes us tired just to think about it right now, but it was a lot of fun and had some great results, so...Ok! Please pray for our health, energy and that we may focus on the important things.

The Little Things We Take for Granted - Priceless!

Many Puerto Ricans serve in Iraq, even though no one here can vote in the elections. We hear on the news of the sacrifices the Puerto Rican soldiers have made in Iraq. Here is a soldier stationed in Iraq, in what could be described as a big sand box. He asked his wife to send him dirt, fertilizer and some grass seeds so he can have the sweet aroma and feel the grass grow beneath his feet. If you notice, he is even cutting the grass with a pair of a scissors. Sometimes we are in such a hurry that we don't stop and think about the little things that we take for granted. Let us remember to say a prayer for our soldiers that give up so much for us.

Accidental Missionaries!

Our youth group hosted a youth rally with some surprising results. They started a youth group in another town without knowing it! I met a fellow church planter Saturday who told me the story. He said that his church had no youth group. When he received our invitation, he used our activity to visit and motivate teens to come to his church. He brought a group to the rally and now as a result of our activity, his church has a youth group of eight teenagers!

We are happy to be missionaries in a church with a heart to help others. We are proud of our young peoples group for reaching out to other teenagers and helping other churches. We consider them a great help, even when they don't know they are doing it!

Under the Weather. I guess last week was a bit much for me. Tina and I both were tired and our resistance was low. She had a little bit of a sore throat, but I could hardly talk or eat solid food for about two days. I also hurt my foot somehow carrying around some heavy objects in the church in preparation for our big youth rally. I am looking forward to a bit of rest. Saturday is our pastor's conference in Aguas Buenas, we have church services Sunday and I have College classes to teach Monday. I hope to rest some from Monday night to Tuesday afternoon.

This One is the Winner! We had a couple of family photos taken and selected this one to be on our new prayer card. If you want one, drop us a line and we will send you a couple. 

No Water! The water company is on strike! We have rain every day but no indoor water. I have to haul water for washing, drinking and flushing. We bought a distiller from Sears and are purifying what we drink. The strike got a bit nasty today. Union members are not allowing trucks with chlorine to enter the water purification plants. We have a meningitis outbreak and untreated water may delay the recovery of our island from the epidemic. Please pray for our health and safety during this man-made drought. 

100 teenagers? Today we invited other churches to bring their youth groups to a big rally and dinner hosted by our church. We had about a hundred teens! We had bible skits, "Sword drills" (bible verse searches) and a bible memory competition. We awarded some very nice trophies. Our teens won the drama/bible skit trophy! We are so tired we can hardly walk, but are VERY happy for the great testimony our teens now have among the Puerto Rican Churches. Time for an aspirin! I will write later with more pictures.