All Kinds of Bugs! AWANA and Dengue take a toll!

There are good and bad ways to lose students. We lost one in a good way last night. I found out that one of my night school students is being promoted to be in charge of AWANA International (a ministry reaching children) in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Latin America, so he won't be able to attend our Monday night classes. He is off to the States for some advanced training and raising support for his new mission. I am happy for him for many reasons: he is a quality student, others have recognized his gifts and because he will be putting them to good use where they are greatly needed.

We lost some in a bad way too. It is sad when students catch a tropical disease and become too weak to study. Dengue seems to be making in-roads all around us. Besides Irving, who helps in church planting in Comerio, two other of our students have got it. My Monday night Greek class in Ponce (2 1/2 hours south of San Juan) started with six students. I lost one to AWANA, but two fell sick with the Dengue fever. They survived it, but were too weak to begin classes and fell too far behind. One of them, Victor, is a man we are training to pastor a church in this area. He is trying to catch up and I am giving him a way to do it, so he can get his Institute degree in a timely fashion.

Church planting and discipleship are full of surprises! One day it is the Dengue and the other AWANA! You just never know! But SOMEONE does, and as long as HE is in charge, that is good enough for me!