The river rose and almost swept away my friend Jim and his van full of people in route to a Missions Banquette we participated in Saturday night. It was the most dangerous Missionary Banquet I have ever attended! It has been raining for about 3 days straight. The road is littered with fallen trees and boulders the rain dislodged and that rolled down the mountains around us. I counted about five avalanches, mud slides and various trees and boulders covering the road as I drove my college students back to their dormitories tonight.
Combined with the heavy rains has been a lack of water! Because of all the mud stirred up by the storm, we have been without water for three days. Since then, I have been hauling water to flush toilets and do dishes. The really difficult thing is to have an entire family and two houseguests take baths Sunday morning using only a Tupperware container full of water and still getting everyone to church on time.
The road to our church was blocked by an avalanche, the rain was torrential and the attendance very low. Never-the-less, we had a great service. An back-row sitting church member that I have wanted to preach for a long time has finally agreed to preach once a month. His name is Wilfredo. He is doing a great job. Our deacons wife, Margarita, is very quiet, but I finally persuaded her to sing a special this morning. She was great and the "Amens" from the congregation were sincere. So despite the danger and inconvenience around us, the work goes on and we are happy to see real progress within our congregation.
