Woke up early and was ready to start the day. Very good night’s sleep.
I got up and did some Chronological Bible ready/study. Then I reviewed Spanish a little before getting breakfast and a shower.
I was planning on walking to class, but German came by to do an errand and was leaving soon and asked if I wanted a ride. I haven’t had the chance to spend much time with him and talk since we are all so busy with our own parts of the ministry. So I decided to accept the ride. A bonus was that we went by his house to pick up his wife and I got to see Ishmael and Mariangel (and Joanna’s mother, who was going to babysit) for a little while. I miss them a lot. Our schedules haven’t allowed us to all be together for weeks.
I got to class right on time, and of course, Juan was late, but it gave me more time for review. Not having class all last week made me a little rusty, but happy for the things that are sticking to my brain. We had a great class, discussing many things in Spanish, like what all the team did last week, how Mary is, etc. I had taken some Christmas Carols to translate and we worked on a couple. I spent more time trying to explain the carols than on translating them into Spanish. I’m becoming more aware that North America has lots of frivolous stuff that the rest of the world doesn’t deal with, especially for holidays, and even more so for Christmas. It makes me even more aware of how far western culture has deviated from the true meaning of Christmas. Of course, here, they worship Mary for Christmas and put Jesus on a backburner, so there are challenges wherever you go to spread the Gospel.
I walked home from class and Sherry had made taco salad for lunch. Taco salad is more of a North American food, but everyone here likes it. Me especially.
Mike and I met for a little bit about administrative stuff for the ministry and the plans for the future of the Women’s Ministry here. We also talked about my future and the options for my financial support. Sherry, Manuel and Joceline went swimming, Leslie looked over the notes for this week’s Women’s Bible study, Mary read a book and Mike worked on his computer. It was a very peaceful afternoon.
Mary was itching to get out of the house for a while, since she doesn’t go anywhere except church, Bible studies and out to eat with the group. She and I had planned on going shopping to buy flip flops this afternoon, but the meeting with Mike took a little longer than anticipated. But Sherry, Mary, Joceline and I ran downtown for about an hour and got flip flops and then some ice cream. We walked to La Unión grocery store and the girls bought cold sodas while I ran into the sewing notions/craft store next door. I got some ribbon and another crochet hook. Leslie’s husband, Jorge, picked us up in his taxi and brought us home. We had a quick dinner of snacks and then it was time for the VOH weekly Bible study.
While at the park downtown, we ran into Joe and Marcela. It was so good to get some hugs!! I can’t wait until we can spend some time together.
Oscar came to the study and I teased him about smelling extra nice for tonight. Joceline is his girlfriend and now that she is living here, he is putting his best foot forward. Manuel, Mike and Sherry’s son, is in love with Joceline and is planning on marrying her. He has told Oscar in no uncertain terms that Oscar is out of the running and to find another girl. On Joceline’s cell phone, she had a picture of her and Oscar as the wallpaper. Manuel deleted it. He gets serious about his ‘girlfriends’, but luckily, he changes girlfriends often, especially when teams come down, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Jaasiel said that Manuel did very well in his schoolwork today. He had a week off last week, too, since the team was here and Jaasiel worked as a translator for us. His new medication is slowly kicking in to make him more focused and even out his emotions. Meds and prayers are the order of the day. It’s good to see his sweet smile with those cute little dimples.
VOH Bible study was good and Oscar and German joined Mary, Sherry, Mike and me. Jonathan and Salvadore weren’t here and I missed seeing them.
I messed around with some crafty stuff this evening while downloading stuff on my computer. I downloaded some Christmas songs from iTunes, which would normally take a few seconds per song. Here it took about 5 minutes per song. Then overnight I downloaded app updates for my phone.
The internet company, which was supposed to show up 2 weeks ago, then last week, then yesterday morning, is supposedly coming this morning. We will have ‘higher than what we have now’ speed internet and it will be wireless. That means I can get on it any time and since I don’t have to use the usb connector, I can use my printer while still on the net. It will be almost like normal! Ha
I was thinking about anything unusual that I saw today, keeping in mind that unusual is a very relative term down here. One thing sticks out in my mind. There was a guy in a wheel chair that had been rigged up with the pedal part of a bicycle for him to use with his arms to get around. You could tell that it was home made.
Another funny thing is that there is a guy at the corner by the ice cream shop who takes it upon himself to direct traffic with a very loud whistle. Everyone ignores him and he never helps the situation at all, but he’s very serious about his self appointed job.
All in all, it has been a great day. I love all the blessings.
No comments:
Post a Comment