Some of you may be wondering about our trip from Mexico to Canada. Yes, we did have some “drama”.
We thought a direct flight would help us avoid some of the complexity that often comes with our travel, but in this case it was not so! It appears that we got on our plane without being told that most or all of our luggage – that is, everyone’s luggage, not just ours – would not even be placed on the plane!
So when we arrived in Canada, there was no moving belt of suitcases. Only a long and slowly moving line of passengers filling out luggage claims forms.
According to the airline website, they spent the next few days trying to locate our luggage. After about 3 days, one of Shari’s suitcases arrived. The other three remained MIA.
About 5 days after we left home, the rest of our luggage finally caught up with us.
However, two of the suitcases will likely not fly again, because of the damage.
The airline should reimburse us somewhat, at least financially, though not for the hours we took dealing with the situation. But we have to wait another three or four weeks to find out. So we’re hoping that all that goes smoothly. But I kind of have a feeling that the drama is not over!
If you’ve been paying attention, you know one of the main reasons why we’re heading to Canada around this time – there’s a wedding coming! Our daughter Hannah and her fiancé Brandon are deep into preparations, and hopefully we are being of some help!
We will also be visiting some churches while we’re in Canada. We’re hoping to get to see some congregations we weren’t able to catch the last time around in Alberta, and then we’re going to Ontario to visit some churches and various friends and family there. It’s been quite a few years since we have reported to our churches in Ontario in person, so it’s important that we take the time to do so. If you’d like to see us, drop us a line and we’ll see what we can do! If we’re at a church in your area, we would love to see you there too.
I’ll try to get a church schedule in our newsletter, and maybe even here on the website if I’m ambitious. But as you can imagine things are pretty busy right now!
We would appreciate your prayers, as this will be a pretty intense and busy time. Pray as well for Hannah and Brandon, and also for Nathanael, who will be facing big changes himself. Pray that we would be able to be a help and encouragement to family, friends, and churches as we serve.
Pray also for the church in Las Palmas while we’re gone. Not that we’re indispensable – by no means! – but naturally our absence means more work for those we are leaving behind.
In spite of the fact that our church is called the Path of Life Bible Church Las Palmas (Iglesia Bíblica Sendero de Vida Las Palmas), since March of 2020 we actually haven’t been in the community of Las Palmas. But – we’re about to return.
Ezequiel and I went to look at one of the local properties for sale a while ago, and unfortunately it just wasn’t going to work for the church. So we do appreciate your continued prayers about that.
However, David and Ezequiel were able to check out a place to rent. We’ve been renting a party hall each Sunday morning. But for slightly less money overall per month, we now have a place 24/7. That’s a huge blessing, because we’ve been moving a lot of equipment every single Sunday! Plus, we now have a place for other activities if we choose to do something during the week.
Last Saturday a bunch of us from the church got together to clean and fix and paint the place that we’re now renting. There’s always more to be done, but I think it’s just about ready to go.
The next step will be, of course, to see how it all works in real life! This past Sunday we practised setting up the chairs, but this coming Sunday will be the real test when we have an actual service.
As I was looking back over the past (almost) 9 years of the church, I realized that this will actually be the very first time that we’ve rented our very own place. So that is a great blessing! Plus, we have separate rooms which we can use for things like Sunday school.
I’ve been thinking back to all the times we spent praying for that community. God has chosen to spread our reach further and to other places, but maybe He has further plans for Las Palmas itself!
Whatever the case, may God use this new place for His glory!
Thursday evening, I was off to my follow-up doctor’s appointment. It was raining, but who’s afraid of a little rain? And after all, the van is parked right in front of our front door.
Flooding, the day after the worst flooding…
I was, however, pretty soaked by the time I got into the van, and by the time I opened our gate (so I could move the van out onto the street), I had stepped in water deep enough to soak my shoes.
Shari suggested I maybe cancel my appointment. As tends to be the case, she was right. However, at the moment of the suggestion, the van was already out, I was trying to close the gate as quickly as possible, we were both getting soaked, and it was one of those split-second yes/no decisions. So, off I went.
As you can see, I cheated with the picture above – this was flooding on Friday evening, not Thursday evening. Flooding happens quite regularly around here, but nothing like Thursday. I was driving through lakes and rivers the whole time.
After many adventures, I was only 500 metres from the clinic, but then I remembered I was about to drive down a street rather notorious for flooding, and Thursday was no exception. With the rain still coming down in torrents, I came to my senses and began backing up, to see if by any chance I could make it home.
Backing up wasn’t so easy at that level of visibility. But then I realized that they were closing the road behind me – that is, where I needed to go. But the gentleman putting up the rope across the road saw that I was just leaving, and when I explained that I was leaving, he was kind enough to let me go.
The fun wasn’t over yet. And it wasn’t my imagination that this was unusual. Our area was apparently the hardest hit in the flooding. Firefighters were literally rescuing people by boat, where there used to be streets.
So there was no stopping if I wanted to get home (and no time for pictures!) – I drove through rivers and lakes, winding around to try to find the highest ground (or at least the least flooded ground). Every manhole I passed was now a little fountain 1-2 feet high of sewage water pouring into the street. (Genesis 7:11 – “the fountains of the great deep split open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” At least that water was clean!)
Finally with a busted umbrella and a jacket that could have been wrung out, I arrived home with some flood debris stuck on the bottom of the van. Our street was pretty much as it had been – which I’m thankful for. Our house was fine.
Not to say everything was fine – we did have some loss from the flooding, but I won’t get into that here. The short story – we’re fine, the house is fine, and I was glad to be home.
Many other people had worse problems. With a local sewage ditch overflowing, appliances and electronics were destroyed as water swept through houses.
Here’s an article – I ran it through Google Translate for you, but it gives you an idea and shows a picture taken very close to where we live, where I often do business: Flood in Ixtapaluca
So my appointment was cancelled (they messaged me to ask why I wasn’t there, so I explained – it simply wasn’t possible!). I rescheduled for the next day, attempting to avoid the rain, which tends to come later in the day. There’ are ‘s a tropical storm off the coast which is giving us dismal weather for a few days – “Delila“. But the rain started again before I left. As you can see in the picture above, there was still flooding.
But! Not nearly as bad as Thursday night. So lots of splashing, but no closed roads.
So – I saw my doctor a day late. And – yikes! Delila is getting stronger still, although it’s slowly moving away from us. Not much sun is predicted for the next 4 days. Those clouds are dark up there. Here we go again! Can I stay home tonight?
This month the Path of Life Bible Church Las Palmas made another move, to a place with a little more space.
The new place is a party hall called “Centennial Hall”, not far from where we were meeting before. Some of you may remember that we’ve met in party halls and gardens before, and the decorations that happen to be up always make things interesting!
Things are going pretty well there, although we’re still working out some kinks. The sound was a lot better this past Sunday, as we made a few adjustments. We do have to get used to having more limited time again, as we’re only renting the building for certain hours.
We’ve been enjoying some interesting times of teaching already. Oscar and I have been doing a series on false Christian sects. One of our goals is to be able to better share the gospel with the people we meet, in this part of the world with so much confusion regarding religion.
Ezequiel has been doing some teaching on how to live as a Christian in our modern world. And we’re also continuing in 1 Corinthians, which has been a major challenge because it’s most definitely touching many of us exactly where we are, talking about things that people are actively dealing with. Specifically, we’re about to dive deep into questions of marriage and singleness.
We’re thankful that we have the Word of God to guide us!
We appreciate your continued prayers as we look for a permanent place to meet! Also, please pray as we do deal with many issues individually and as a church. We’re thankful that these things drive us to depend on the Lord.
