Saturday Post -- 27/06/15

Amanda with her trusty staff.

This being our last working week before heading back to the old country, things have been pretty manic. Indeed, two days away from leaving, our to-do list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Nonetheless, there have been a couple of highlights.

Before all of that, though, to the question that is on the tip of everyone's tongue: what about Ringo? Well, we have some cracking news. Though no small yolk to bear, we are delighted to inform you that we delivered him, intact, to social services (and no, before you ask, we didn't at any time shell out for a replacement). Gallingly, the psychologist, the very picture of solemnity a week previously, barely batted an eyelid as we marched into her office and triumphantly placed our pride and joy on the desk. And these are the people we entrust with our children?!?!?

Ringo's return brought the curtain down on a week of daily visits to social services, where we submitted ourselves to a series of interviews and psychological evaluations, answering such searching questions as, "When do you feel most powerful?", "What do you fear most in life?" and "Which animal would you most like to be?" (a whale, of course). We were even paid a visit at the house one afternoon, so that they could get a feel for the prospective child's surroundings (amazingly, there was no comment on the current lack of a bannister on a lower section of our stairs -- tiled flooring and all). 

We managed to get through the week unscathed, meaning that we will now be recommended to the judge as potential adoptive parents. There are one or two legal processes to deal with when we return here in late July and, assuming they go smoothly, it will be a case of waiting for a child to be offered to us through social services, while also keeping our ears to the ground for any possible unwanted pregnancies; indeed, an advantage of Trinidad's small-town mentality is that word tends to get around fairly quickly. In short, we might have to get that bannister installed sooner rather than later.

Earlier on Friday, we had something of an appropriate ending to our first 'semester' back at Fundación Totaí. While, once again, we have found ourselves with our fingers in oh so many pies (the best laid plans o' mice and men...), in general my prime focus has been on the church, while Amanda has chosen to concentrate on the personnel side of things at FT. You will know that Amanda has already been involved in planning special events such as the 'Pray for Fundación Totaí' evening, and has met regularly with individual staff members to minister to them. 

And yesterday morning, for the first time, we put up the 'closed' signs and devoted the whole morning exclusively to the staff, with breakfast served, team-building games played, and a half-hour slot in which you were to sit with a randomly-assigned member of the personnel and get to know them to the extent that you could answer a series of 'Mr & Mrs'-style questions by the end of the morning.

An added bonus was the visit of some contacts from the local deaf school, who gave an 'introductory' sign-language lesson (an important skill, particularly for the medical staff who work with many patients with hearing disabilities). What's with the inverted commas? Well, straight after the likes of 'Hello' and 'How are you?', our teachers reckoned the next natural step was, er, the human reproductive organs! And let's just say that, unusually for beginners in sign language, most people had guessed the correct words for each sign from the word 'go'! My advice would be to not ask questions and to file that one under 'Only in Bolivia'. 

Still, we reckon it was a most beneficial morning for all involved, and a really good way to say 'chau' to our 9-5 friends before getting out of here for a few weeks. And yet another confirmation of the Lord's will, as revealed to us during our sabbatical year. Indeed, now would probably be as good a time as any to look back on these past six months and reflect on the legion ways in which our calling has been further confirmed. 

Well, tough cookies. I have far too much packing to do. See you in August!

Prayer

• The road home, as you'll already be aware, is long and winding, and particularly drawn out this time. This time we're driving to Santa Cruz on Monday, probably leaving around 5am and getting there early afternoon (our car has an issue with the steering that needs looked at, and in this motorcycle-heavy town, few people are qualified to address it; we're taking it to a trusted contact in the big smoke, who will return it to Trinidad later in the week). On Wednesday morning we fly to Sao Paulo (Amanda will be on her Irish visa this time!) and then, on Thursday evening, we head to Frankfurt, where we will have to spend most of Friday before our flight to Edinburgh. Pray for safety and patience.
• Pray for Craig, who has one last sermon to deliver on Sunday morning (1 Kings 3).

Praise

• For big progress this week on adopting.
• For yesterday morning's event at FT.
• For a really encouraging six months back here (and, in all seriousness, if you're looking for highlights, you've come to the right webpage). 

"Don't you forget a-bow-wow-t me."

Finally, though our time in Scotland is limited, we will be giving a report at Shettleston New next Sunday (5th of July, 11am), and then two weeks later at Strathaven Evangelical Church (19th of July, 11am). Would be great to see you if you can make it.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post - 20/06/2015

This week has been quite exciting!!! Earlier in the month we received the notice from the local Judge that our request to be adoptive parents was approved and that we could now proceed to Social Services to start all the testing and evaluations. Yay! This was great news, until we realised that, once again, they had spelt Craig's name wrong on the paper. You see, no one here believes that Craig knows how to spell his own name. They see CRAIG and they think he must have meant to write GRAIG, or if they only hear his name they think his name must be GRAY. It has been a source of frustration for us during every stage of paperwork we have ever done in Bolivia. Bolivians are more likely to get our surname right than they are to get his first name right. So, our lawyer had to go back to the Judge's office and request the paper be rewritten. Sigh...

We waited on this for about a week and a half and on Tuesday this week we finally picked up the paperwork, having clearly convinced the Judge that Craig knows how to spell his own name. Maybe this was some type of suitability for parenting test? I think we passed. So on Thursday we arrived at Social Services and met with the Psychologist, named Gabriella, who was really pleasant and who spoke in a really soft and reassuring voice, maybe worried that she might scare us away otherwise. She first congratulated us on the decision to become adoptive parents and talked through the legal process that we needed to go through with various people in the Social Services offices. It was all quite encouraging and exciting and it really started to feel like we were making progress. We were told we would need to undergo psych and medical evals, a social work home visit and a parenting course (which is apparently new since KC and Maicol adopted Caleb). We were to return the next day for our medical evaluations and for the time table of all our other appointments.

I was worried that the whole process would take at least a month if not longer, and I was worried that our absence while in Scotland for the upcoming family wedding, would throw a spanner in the works, but thankfully not. We arrived yesterday morning and met with Gabriella again who assured us we could have everything all done by this coming Friday before we leave. So, every afternoon this coming week we are in Social Services having some sort of evaluation or parenting class for an hour or two.

So we now had our schedules and we were expecting to be passed on the doctor for the medical exam when Gabriella pulls two eggs out of her desk drawer and she says that we should each take one. We both just grabbed the closest one to us, not quite knowing where she was going with this. Then she asked us to return the eggs to her... okay... so we do. Then she puts both eggs on the desk next to each other and says, "Now you have to pick one egg between the two of you." We both just kind of stare at her, still not sure where she is going with this. I say, "Can we talk to each other about it?", thinking it might be some kind of trick or game. She assures us we can, so I look at Craig and he says, "I want the darker one", and I say, "Sure...". If this was some psych test to see how we make decisions I don't know if it worked... I mean it was an egg. When it comes to deciding if we are going to adopt a specific child or not, we are going to have more of a conversation than we did with the egg. I am not going to fight about which egg I wanted; I didn't particularly want one egg more than the other. Craig expressed an opinion, so we went with it. Hmmm... Does that say something about us? Should I be worried I am too passive in our relationship? Maybe I really did want the lighter coloured egg and I let the opportunity pass me by? Then I think... nahhh... Amanda does not equal passive. So Craig picks up the darker of the two eggs and now we have a new member of our family.

I would like to introduce you to Ringo Starr!

We were told that we have to look after this egg for the whole week. The only rule was that we couldn't leave it behind in the house if no one was home, but it was up to us how we divided the care of Ringo (I picked the name... Ringo Starr was recently the answer to two different questions in Trivia Crack that I got right, so the honour was passed on to our new addition). Gabriella told us that I could look after it all the time or we could share the responsibility. My following thought was, "Is Craig looking after it all the time an option or is that notion still too modern for here?" I think both of us at this point are thinking that this might be some sort of joke, but apparently not. Craig says his first reaction when we realised she was serious was, "I'm 32!". Mine was, "I wish in high school I took Home Ec where they had those programmed dolls, instead of taking Shop Class where I made CD holders and wooden pens". After everyone finally deciding that this was all really happening, we were taken through to see the doctor. 

The medical exam was dead easy... I explained that I've been diagnosed with infertility, which caused him to exclaim, "Great... approved." He essentially took our blood pressure and pulse as a formality and checked that we didn't currently have diabetes or high blood pressure, though due to my family history I am sure both are coming my way in the future (not that he asked about family medical history). He said that it's a good thing that we can't have our own kids because we wouldn't want to mix biological and adopted children. We just smiled and nodded, internally thinking that that is blatantly not true. Sure, its a concern that every family should consider, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with having biological and adopted children together. The doctor went on to ask about our egg, as he was clearly not informed as to this new method of psychological testing. He asked if we were carrying it around for luck... ummm, no... that would be very un-missionary like of us. We explained how we had to look after Ringo (though we didn't confess to the doctor that we had named it), and he couldn't quite believe we were serious either. He ended the consult with, "Good luck with the egg, if it was me, I'd eat it." 

At some point that morning I expressed to Craig that there was no way I was looking after this egg myself, which he agreed to of course. If he had disagreed he would have gotten to see how non-passive I can really be. We very quickly figured out who was going to take care of the egg at what time. Essentially the person who is in the situation where the egg is least likely to break gets custody at any specific moment in time. For example, Craig went fishing this morning with the Men's Ministry, I went to the Youth Group Leader's prayer meeting. Fishing vs. praying... yup, I got custody of Ringo this morning. We were, however, in a bit of a pickle yesterday evening when we went to the stadium. Craig went to run laps and I went to walk laps... but what to do with Ringo? Sadly, Ringo was left in the car as it was deemed the safest place for him. I would like to expressly state that Craig and I know that you cannot leave children locked in a car with the windows up. We know you can't do that to children; you can, however, do that with eggs. Also, this morning I had to do the grocery shopping and I again left Ringo in the car when I went into the various shops. This time I was more concerned that they would accuse me of theft when I tried to leave the store without paying for the egg. I'm not sure if we're breaking Gabriella's rules or not, but I think some flexibility is warranted; we are both mature adults who have full-time jobs and extra-curriculars. We do understand a child will change our schedules and priorities, but we both think an egg should not. 

So that is our how family of two humans and two dogs, became a family of two humans, two dogs and an egg. But only for a week... I hope. I mean, I'm not entirely sure Ringo is even hardboiled. 

Craig is speaking tonight on Deborah and Barak. We spent some time this week chatting about a game that would highlight the lesson he was trying to get across. We really struggled. We finally decided that we would blindfold someone in the middle of the room and give them a balloon which they have to try and protect from someone who is trying to sneak up on the them to pop their balloon. The blindfolded person is Sisera and the person doing the sneaking is Jael... get it? It might go down well, or it could be a disaster. I mean, if I were the person blindfolded holding a balloon that could pop in my arms at any moment I think I would freak out, throw the balloon at the encroaching danger and run. Balloons popping in my ear distress me. But, I think that some of the young people could really get into it. I think we might even draw a face on the balloon... maybe extra points for stabbing him in the temple? 

Hopefully next week we can let you all know how some of our appointments went and all the things we learnt at our parenting classes. 

Prayer:

• Protection for Ringo - in all seriousness, we don't want damage to this egg to hinder our chances of adopting in the near future. I'm not entirely sure what we're supposed to be learning from this exercise (eg. child care, division of labour, decision making?), but we would like everything to go as smoothly as possible. Please pray for all our appointments this coming week as well. 
• This coming Friday morning is our Team Building day at FT. I do have a lot of the activities organised, but I have still to organise a lot more things, like the food. Please pray that the staff find it useful, fun and encouraging. Please pray that this activity brings an even greater sense of unity to FT's workers. 
• This week saw the installation of our new digital fingerprint attendance system. I have no idea what they are called in English, but essentially from the start of July people have to clock in and out with their fingerprint; we are no longer using the sign-in sheets. Please pray for a smooth transition, especially since I won't be here. 

Praise:

• The safe arrival of the team from the States. The finally got into Trinidad this morning and KC has sent me a message saying that they are settling in well. Also, praise that due to our recent, frequent trips to Social Services we have been able to arrange for these volunteers to spend one afternoon a week helping out in Trinidad's orphanage, which was something they were all interested in doing.
• Craig's fishing trip this morning with the Men's Ministry. Attendance was low, as so many people had other things they had to do, but Daniel (Romina's husband) caught his first fish ever! Craig said those that were there had a good time. Praise that these males friendships could be cemented even further. 
• Praise for the progress we are making with the adoption process and that, hopefully, when we return from Scotland at the end of July, we can seriously start looking for a baby to adopt having finished with all the preparatory steps and procedures.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Saturday Post -- 13/06/15

A final group picture (with the camp caretaker on the left, of course).

Well, I can’t promise exploding houses, prospective pyjama parties or KD (that’s ‘Kraft Dinner’, for the hitherto unsullied) but if you give me five minutes of your time, I’ll happily tell you all about what went on last weekend, in a place where the reading of blog posts was about as likely as going the whole weekend without a mosquito bite.

Trinidad’s newly-launched Langham Preaching programme is the culmination of nine months of prayer and preparation. For me, the general outline of our sabbatical year in 2014, in terms of my thought pattern, was six months of encouragement as to the things I was learning, followed by another six months of continued encouragement, but also trying to think carefully about how my experiences at Cornhill would translate to a very different cultural context, as our return date loomed ever closer. I felt particularly challenged to address the area of Biblical preaching which, in this part of Bolivia, is severely lacking.

Eduardo (right) in action.

With that in mind, at the recommendation of friends both in Scotland and Canada, in September I got in touch with Langham’s representatives in Bolivia, who proceeded to put me in contact with Eduardo Rojas. We began a tentative discussion as to the feasibility of running a Langham Preaching course in Trinidad, and by the time we had arrived back here in January of this year, it was a case of gauging interest levels, with Eduardo more than happy to come here from his home city of Cochabamba should there be enough appetite.

Within a few weeks, having spoken to a range of groups around town, it was clear we could definitely cobble something together, and so Eduardo kindly came out for an overnight stay in late February, to speak in more depth with the interested parties as a group. From there, a local organising committee was formed, which I headed up, and despite the odd headache in the run-up to the conference (e.g., would we have anything to eat?), a group of 13 men and women from a variety of churches made it to the meeting point on that first afternoon, ready to roll.

Edwin Fernández.

It hadn’t exactly taken much thought as a committee to settle on a venue for the course. Eduardo had stipulated that the course was best delivered in some kind of retreat centre, free of outside distractions. There is only one such venue in this whole region, a municipally-owned centre about a 90-minute drive from Trinidad; indeed, it’s where our church has run its youth camps the last couple of years. Several churches here have their own camp grounds, but without the conveniences that we needed to enjoy a distraction-free time of it (though the two-hour power cut on Thursday evening rendered those advantages pretty much obsolete; mosquito nets were a non-negotiable too).

Best of all, there was next to no phone signal, making it really hard for outsiders to get in touch, though a touch frustrating when, say, trying to get one’s wife to bring out a projector cable.

The plan for the weekend was to help a group of people with a wide variety of preaching and teaching experiences to teach from a book of the Bible expositionally, in such a way that the same principles could be applied to all Scripture; this required us to get to grips with the text as a whole. And that made Philemon – one of only five single-chapter Bible books – a logical place to begin, when: a) many had never had experience of preaching expositionally; and b) we only had three days to prepare.

Getting together to 'Pray the Word'.

Each of the three mornings began with a tremendous exercise called ‘Praying the word’, which preceded the preaching of a section of Philemon, either by Eduardo or his colleague, Edwin Fernández. As a group, we would read the passage aloud three times, before closing our eyes and listening to the chairperson read each verse slowly. And after the reading of each verse, two or three minutes were given to open prayer of the kind that acted as a response to what was read. This served as a tremendous preparation both for the day ahead and for the upcoming sermon.

The rest of the day was largely given over to teaching on the various steps required to prepare an expository sermon – such as discerning the main idea behind a passage, thinking about how a letter written to a Hellenistic slave-owner applies to Trinidad in 2015, and forming a sermon body which reflects the passage structure – which we then put into practice in our groups.

Miguel-Ángel at the pulpit.

On Sunday (the final day), this work culminated in – how ever did you guess? – a sermon from each of the two groups, based on verses 17 to 25 of Philemon, the only stipulation being that the nominated preacher had to have limited experience in the area. It gave me no small thrill, then, to see our old friend Miguel-Ángel step up to the plate – correction, the pulpit. Miguel-Ángel serves on the church leadership alongside Elías and myself (he’s also the president of FT), and a more gentle, more unassuming man you would struggle to meet. Although he regularly chairs services and provides informal teaching at communion services, he has been reluctant to preach in our own church until now due to a lack of training and experience. However, in recent months, he has expressed his desire to address this, and my prayer is that his assured debut on Sunday afternoon will stand him in good stead.

Romina, also from our church, delivered the
other group's sermon.

Those two groups into which we were divided (one of six people, the other of seven) were not solely for the purpose of the training weekend. Because the course, in truth, lasts three years. The idea is that we will have two further conferences – one with a specific Old Testament focus, the other New Testament – in 2016 and 2017, about this time of year. But in the twelve months between conferences, the groups are to meet once a month as escuelitas (literally, little schools). In these escuelitas, one member of each group will give a 20-minute sermon on a specified text in Mark. But the other group members are required to arrive at the session having studied the passage in their own time, so as to be able to deliver constructive criticism of the sermon. As at the conference, the sermon is to be preceded by a session of ‘praying the word’, and some time is also to be given over to reading a book on preaching by, of all people, Eric Alexander.

The two group representatives put the finishing touches to their work.

Besides the necessary learning, there were regular breaks incorporated into the schedule (including the all-important post-lunch siesta stretch), which allowed for great opportunities to get to know the rest of the group. Having at times in the past wondered if the likes of Amanda and me were the only ones even halfway bothered about the quality of preaching in these parts, it was of great encouragement to meet other brothers and sisters with a passion for the word.

Indeed, on Sunday evening, Amanda and I accompanied Eduardo to a local church, where he had received an impromptu invite to give a sermon, and where a few other of the course’s participants were gathered. And as he preached on Acts 6:1-7, on the need to free up certain members in the church to be able to concentrate on word ministry – and the huge blessing that can bring to said church – he was met with a great response. We pray that, in the coming years, the word of God might indeed continue to increase in Trinidad.

Prayer

• For hard work and commitment from the Langham group as a whole, with the ball now squarely in our court.
• Our thoughts are beginning to turn to Scotland, where we will, God-willing, be spending a few weeks in July, due to Craig’s sister’s wedding. Naturally, that means there is a small mountain of tasks to be completed by the end of this month before we set off. Pray for patience.
• Craig’s penance for his upcoming month out of Trinidad is to give six sermons/talks within the next sixteen days: three at the youth group on Saturday evenings, and three at the Sunday morning family service. Prayer appreciated this weekend as he teaches the young people tonight about Gideon, and kicks off a new series in 1 Kings on Sunday.
• For the safe arrival of three volunteers from Seattle – Brittany, Haley and Juliana – who are due to land in Santa Cruz on Thursday, and who will be supporting the work at FT for two months

 Praise

• For the great help and encouragement that the Langham course provided to all involved -- including Eduardo and Edwin, who were very impressed by the group. They told me they often come to the end of these courses with concerns that the group might not run with the proverbial baton; not so with this group.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post - 06/06/2015

Craig left me all alone this weekend… he also left me with a punctured tire, an almost empty water tank and an empty gas canister. It is not that I am incapable in anyway, these are just jobs that Craig normally deals with. So I stepped up like a big girl and got the puncture in the tire fixed and I’m monitoring the water level in the underground tank like a grown-up. I have decided to forego laundry to conserve water, therefore I might be able to get to Monday morning and leave Craig to deal with calling the water guy after all. See? I can make real, adult decisions. And if it comes down to it, I can get the water tank refilled without a problem. However, I refuse to try and change the gas canister. I have this image of all the gas leaking out as I faff around with reconnecting it to the stove and the whole house blowing up. So I am not going to do it.

However, this leaves me with a significant problem when it comes to feeding myself. I was quite keen to not make any meals while Craig was away… why cook for one person? I can live on crackers and cheese… if I had crackers. But the truth is I was really looking forward to my boxed mac n’cheese. Not quite KD, but close. I bought two boxes in Cochabamba and I have to save them for times like these because Craig thinks they’re vile. I keep telling him he can’t insult a North American staple like KD but he won’t listen to me. I even have Heinz ketchup to go with it… but I need the stovetop to boil the pasta. So no mac n’cheese for me. I couldn’t even make my porridge this morning and I had to eat some of Craig’s cereal for breakfast… eeek… cornflakes… not enough sugar. I seriously considered adding sugar to my cornflakes. My lunch has been a papaya milkshake, because I might not have water and I might not have gas, but I do have electricity, so my blender works! Yay!

Things for me have been really relaxed since Craig’s departure on Thursday. To be completely honest I was kind of excited to have the house to myself for the weekend, because some repressed part of me reared its head and said, “Party Time!!!”, and that’s exactly what’s happening here tonight… a whole pile of young ladies are coming over to hard core party with a… wait for it… movie. I know, I’m wild. Mariana is trying to angle for some Just Dance on the Wii so that might really kick things up a notch. But I was looking forward to regressing to my late teens, early twenties… staying up really late, watching girly stuff and not cooking… but then Thursday came and I just got really sad. I didn’t want Craig to leave. And when he finally left, I felt lonely.

I have expressed this sentiment to many people and they all have said, “That’s a good thing.” And yes it is… I love my husband enough to miss him when he’s gone! Though I am still having the party tonight. Actually, I hope my Mom finds this very reassuring. I think she’s been worried about the state of my marriage since Craig posted the blog entry about prioritizing one’s marriage while in ministry. While that blog post was quite general, I guess it can easily be inferred that we had a trying week back then, and my Mom keeps asking me how we’re doing because she’s still worried. That’s sweet of her, but thankfully unnecessary. Mom, I like my husband enough that I want him to come back!

And to be fair, I’m not missing him as much as I thought I would on Thursday because I saw him yesterday. He was trying to contact me all Thursday night and finally got me on Friday morning. The cable for the projector they brought with them didn’t work… and would it be possible for me to drive and drop off another projector? Pretty please? He was very reasonable and said if I couldn’t make it, it wouldn’t be a problem… but there is a good chunk of our medical staff at the same conference as him, so the Foundation was always going to be quiet yesterday. It was a big ask in the sense that the camp ground is almost 100 Km from Trinidad, but hey… the sun was out, the windows down, there was some fast driving – as I’m not entirely sure what the speed limit on Bolivian highways is, music on the stereo, and company! Deborah Holmes, who is visiting us again from England after her three-month stint here in 2012, joined me on the one-hour trek there and one-hour trek back. And it was kind of good times… not a chore at all. And they gave us lunch once we got there. Even better… and I got to see Craig.  Yay!

So it’s really just today I won’t see him, because he comes back tomorrow. Yay!

From what I heard during our stop over at the camp grounds yesterday the Langham course is quite intensive. They are working on the book of Philemon and they are pushing the participants quite hard. But I am sure Craig will regale you with all the drama that can be found at a Bolivian preaching conference next weekend.

Other than the crazy good times that are going to be had at my way too crazy party tonight, my weekend is the same from all our other weekends. I was up early this morning for the youth group leader’s prayer meeting and I have to go do the grocery shopping at some point before youth group tonight. KC is speaking on Rahab’s faith as mentioned in Hebrews 11, so I’m looking forward to hearing more about that. Tomorrow is the first Sunday of the month so there is no communion service at 9 am, instead we’ll be sharing communion during the family service. All of our leaders are at this preaching conference so the timing worked out well in that sense. They have asked Maicol to lead the time of sharing and communion tomorrow and then they should be back some time in the afternoon. There is some debate as to whether I have to drive out there again to help bring people back as they crammed way too many people into the transport for the outward leg of their trip. I said I was willing, but I have to wait and see if I am needed. Regardless, I am looking forward to seeing Craig again… and regaining the use of my stove.

Thanks for reading this and in your way keeping me company on my weekend alone.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Prayer:

• For Craig, Miguel Angel, Elias, Romina and those from other churches at the Langham Preaching Conference. Please pray for their time there, that they would be challenged and grow in their understanding of studying and communicating the Bible. And please pray for a safe and uneventful trip back tomorrow. 
• For various Foundation workers who have recently started coming to different events or meetings that the church has organised. It has been encouraging to see relationships being solidified and more connections being made between the church and the Foundation. Please pray for our evangelism efforts in a specifically Catholic context, that the Holy Spirit would work to convict people of salvation by faith. 
• I am trying to organise a FT Workers' Team Building Day before we return to Scotland at the end of June for a family wedding. Please pray for these preparations and that taking the time to invest in our workers in this way will bear spiritual fruit. 

Praise:

• For the support of friends here while Craig has been away. 
• For the safe arrival of the conference participants to the camp grounds on Thursday.
• For a bit more clarity in regards to the ENT Surgeon position at the Foundation - once we know more for sure, we'll let everyone else know too. 
• A really good turnout at the prayer meeting on Thursday night despite all our leaders being away - Daniel Ricardo presented Cuba to us and lead us through the prayer needs of his own country.