Sunday and No Power

No pictures today, sorry--look tomorrow.

Saturday the team from NY was taken to the airport by Louis & Amber and Brian & Lois. The 4 of them had a brief retreat and had a wonderful time. The Pines is a terrific place but when you are here 24/7 you really do need a break. Susan and I watched Meredith and had a good time too.

Saturday night the power went out and was out until noon on Sunday. This place is really dark at night with no light. Last Sunday there was no water!

Sunday was a wonderful day. Susie & I led church and had a great worship time with the children. We began by asking for favorite songs--needless to say the children just started singing. They sang for 1/2 hour and their repertoire began to fade. We figured they knew about Noah so we focused on the covenant and rainbow which they also knew about. After teaching on the God's covenant we split up and worked on worksheets and coloring pages depending on age. We got back together and sang and prayed. What a neat time to see the keen sense of God in these children. You can really see spiritual growth in the children who have accepted Christ.

COLD. B&L say it is hard to describe the cold here so...here is my attempt. Imagine turning off your furnace in March in Iowa. Yeah, it would be cold in your house. Here, in general, people do not use heat. This past week it has been down to 32F or close every night. It gets up to 60-70 during the day so it is really nice outside. I have been wearing my coat anytime I am in any building. On Sunday Susan and I were invited to someone's home for lunch. We walk in and it is COLD inside and everyone was sitting outside on the patio. It was very nice outside--with my jacket on. We were sitting close to the open door to the house and could feel the cold air coming out of the house! Today I went to the grocery store for lunch meat for the team that just arrived. It was colder inside the store at 7:30 am than it was outside! BRR. (side note--one of the cold cuts that I bought was bologna made from beef tongue! Please don't tell the team! OK, I did try it and it was good) Fortunately, B&L have portable heaters so we can heat up our room before bed. They also put floor heat in the bathroom and it takes the chill off. Just so you don't think we are over here suffering. I would hate it if anyone felt sorry for us! We love it here!

Can you handle one last story. It is easy to forget the pain and hardship that goes on here. I was made aware of it this morning. I was shopping for some supplies and stopped to pick up a newspaper. I got back into the car and looked across the road where a pickup truck had just stopped and 20 guys swarmed around it talking to the guy. I didn't know what was going on so I just sat there and watched. While I was watching a guy came up to my window and asked me for a job. There were at least 25 guys working this intersection hoping someone would come by and give them a job. Reports indicate 80% unemployment in this area. Wow.

Liam is growing stronger and cuter by the day. Everyone loves him. Thanks for reading!