Saturday Post -- 28/10/17

Cards on the table: this will likely be the very definition of 'workmanlike'. Another busy Saturday awaits, kicking off with United-Spurs in just over half an hour (as I write)! Essentially, this will cover anything that comes into my head, and will be assembled in no discernible order. So there.

Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of Fundación Totaí's founding and we marked the event with a special event for staff on Thursday evening at an indoor volleyball complex (no kidding) which also lays on big steak barbecues. The two hours of physical activity which preceded the meal made me all the more determined to eat far too much as ever. 

Friday, meanwhile, was a day off for staff. We've mentioned here before the preponderance of so-called 'Hallmark holidays'. Say it's 'International Day of the Lobotomist'. All such individuals are legally entitled to take the day off. At FT, with a range of staff across several disciplines, observing these would effectively cost us about a week of work across the year. So, instead, everyone gets the anniversary (anniversaries of any number also being a big deal here).

I've had a busy couple of weeks with preaching, Bible teaching and a whole swathe of other administrative jobs for the church. So when I realised I'd also have to prepare a short thought for a prayer meeting last week, I thought to myself, "This isn't exactly building a church free of missionary dependence, is it." So I prayerfully approached Diego, the 15-year-old I'm discipling just now, and he gladly took on the job! He already had a little experience with teaching children, so I knew he would be just fine. He really is a young man with great potential and a great love for the Lord, someone we'd really appreciate prayer for.

The event dominating today is the AWANA Olympics, AWANA being the Bible-memorisation-based children's programme we run in the church, and the Olympics being a cross-town contest between the various AWANA churches based on games and Bible quizzes. Next weekend we have a special film night at the church, showing the film Luther; we're encouraging people to invite as many friends and family members as they can. And the weekend after that...it's camp! This is why we take Mondays off, y'see.

At least we had a somewhat relaxing time of it last weekend (key word there: somewhat) as we drove down to Santa Cruz for three nights. The idea was to have some relaxing family time and, if at all possible, find a way of seeing the much-vaunted Blade Runner 2049 on Saturday evening. We even had a babysitter lined up through a contact of ours. Well, it didn't quite work out -- nor, indeed, did the whole 'relaxing' thing in general, if I'm honest! Sam up till now has proved himself to be immensely adjustable to new environments, but he was not for sleeping in that bed, and a mild fever the first night didn't help things either. At least we got to hit some of our favourite gourmet junk-food eateries, though Sam's inevitable exhaustion manifested itself in ever-more creative ways there too!

Still, it was great to wake up on a Sunday morning with the only key decision being which T-shirt to wear to church. From our perspective, that is a break! We touched base that day with our Latin Link mentors, Graham & Debbie Frith. This was especially good fun as Spurs were hammering Graham's beloved Loserpool when we got back to their place afterwards.

There'll be no such outcome today, of course.

Prayer

• For the big events coming up at church: the cinema night and camp.
• For Craig as he preaches tomorrow.

Praise

• For a break (of sorts!) last weekend.
• For FT's anniversary.
• For the encouragement of seeing young guys like Diego step up to the proverbial plate.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda