First the torturous details. It is not painful (for us) to be in 85
degree weather again. Not painful at all. It may be painful for you to
hear about it. I know you will feel so sorry for us to hear that at
times today we were very hot. A little sunburned, even, just from riding
in the bus with our arms hanging out the windows to stay cool. Various
smart-alecky types were trying to do the Disney voice about keeping arms
and legs inside the moving vehicle at all times. B ut we didn't. It was
just too hot (I know, boo-hoo).
Our wonderful Dominican Republic Missionaries, Joseph and Ellen
Anonby, arranged for transportation for our group from the airport to
our hotel. We had a nice night last night, although I could have used a
couple of more minutes of it. This morning we had a nice buffet
breakfast of fresh fruit, hard boiled eggs, and sausage. Pastor Lirano
was ready with the bus as we finished up from that, and we headed out to
Padre Las Casas. It's a four hour trip, but we managed to do it in 6.
After we got here, we checked into our hotel. We are happy to
discover that some of us have showers, and some will even have hot
water. Nice.
I set up our little print shop, and we started printing post-card
sized flyers inviting people to services. Our first service just ended.
It was basically a meet and greet time. Joyce, and Luke and I shared
about how God got us here. Now the team is about to have dinner, whilst
I write you-all this email.
The team (all dressed in the identical blue shirts that Daniel St.
Armand designed for us) flyered the town for n hour before dark tonight.
We think we got about 300 pieces of literature out. Flyering after dark
is not a good idea when vehicles move very fast, and may or may not have
headlights. Tomorrow we plan to get a lot more out. My printer is
already feeling the strain perhaps. But we get 4 flyers per page, and we
are feeling pretty thrifty about that. Justin brought a scissors (and
about everything else one can think of), so we were set for cutting and
preparing them.
We are an hour ahead of you. Some of our phones work here, some do
not. For all of us, a phone call is expensive- about $3 a minute, we
discovered. Nevertheless we love hearing from you if you choose to. My
Sprint phone does not work at all here in Padres Las Casas, although in
Santo Domingo it worked great. The bottom line is, you may not hear a
lot from us during this time. (we think you might even be relieved a
little about that)
Tomorrow, our guys really want to go to work on the church, but it's
Sunday, and this culture is still one of those blessed with a belief in
taking a day off. So we plan to help with their burgeoning children's
ministry ion the morning, and the adult service tomorrow night.
Frank, Justin, and Jeff couldn't wait to see our construction site,
so they walked the 5 blocks or so to see it. The people have already
torn off the existing roof, and prepared the foundations. Monday we set
to work building a concrete floor where the roof was, on which the
second story will stand. Our services tonight were held on the second
floor of the local hardware store, which, it turns out, is a very nice
building. We should have some great services in their this week!
So, I should probably go to dinner now.
Thanks everyone, for investing in Missions! I believe the Windows of
Heaven will be open on you because of your generosity, and your faith.
Let's believe God for a mighty harvest coming back as a result of those
powerful financial seeds that we sowed, and the good that we are
empowered to do when God blesses us to do it.
I love you-all! Wait... no... yeah, I do!
Gerry
No comments:
Post a Comment