Saturday Post -- 14/10/17

Craig with fellow Mr. Bolivia contestants MCB new membership candidates.

During a dramatic week of World Cup qualifying, one of the big headlines was Panama's president declaring a national holiday the day after their first ever participation in the tournament was secured. The slapdash nature of this was certainly a key component of the story. I joked with a friend that, were the same thing to happen to Bolivia, we'd probably get a week! For spur-of-the-moment days off work are standard practice down here, so much so that we're struggling to remember the last time Sam attended school for a full five days.

(Utterly irrelevant tangent alert: Bolivia, like Scotland, share the honour of having played in the opening game of the World Cup, Bolivia against Germany in Chicago in 1994, and Scotland against Brazil in Paris in 1998. And Bolivia, like Scotland, have since failed to qualify. See also: Senegal, South Africa.)

Local holidays and the like, curiously, have taken on a strikingly different complexion since Sam started school, with things reaching something of a nadir this week. Two consecutive days went down the proverbial, with the added bonus of being announced only on the afternoon of the day before. Wednesday was international women's day so, naturally, all members of the fairer sex were entitled to an impromptu day off (at no inconvenience whatsoever to their employers, one would vouch), while a a maintenance mishap rendered the school unsafe for Sam and his toddler cohorts on Thursday. 

The circumstances were not ideal, not least for Amanda, who had flown solo on the parenting front from Thursday till Saturday of last week, thanks to a conference I attended. This was the annual national assembly of Misiones Cristianas Bolivia, our church's denomination, which, for the first time in its 57-year history, was taking place in Trinidad itself. This was my first time in attendance as a delegate (my membership was confirmed on the opening day), with two others in our church already among the membership. Essentially, the national assembly was an extended business meeting, with a significant chunk of time given over to reviewing the body's constitution (so long that much of it will have to be reviewed via email communications over the following year). A necessary evil, then, if not quite my idea of fun. 

That said, it was a great opportunity to meet like-minded individuals from across the country. Like Mark and Carol, an older American couple who run a seminary in a rural part of the country. Or Mario and Helen, who are commended from the very first church I attended as a boy back in Hamilton. Or Felix, a Bolivian missionary who works with a tribe who are based 12 hours' from the nearest major city. No electricity + no internet + no telephone lines = a calling!

Helpfully, the fellowship opportunities were extended beyond the conference itself. In the evening, three special services were held for the Trinidad churches to attend, with a series of talks given on the Reformation. One of the main speakers was Canadian Jürgen Schultz (or 'Jorge' to Bolivians) whom attentive readers may remember as being our speaker at camp last year -- and a very good one at that! It was good to catch up with him, too, and his 40-minute overview of the life and impact of Martin Luther was soul-stirring.

At the Foundation this week, the annual ENT surgical campaign has been in full swing and Amanda has been helping to keep things ticking over. Meanwhile, I've been preparing more teaching materials for church: a sermon for this Sunday and, for Thursday, a new Bible study based on a book called 'Living in the Power of the Gospel'. It's a book that was recommended to me by a missionary friend as having had a powerful impact on pastors and laypersons throughout Bolivia recently. We began by reading the first couple of chapters and thinking particularly about Colossians 2:6, with its encouragement to the believers to live their lives 'just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord'. In other words, it is the same power that saved us that now sanctifies us, and not an ounce of this comes from within ourselves. If you've read the blog of late, you can see that this ties in nicely with some of the issues that have arisen in the light of our sermon series in Galatians.

Anyway, best get on with the rest of my day. After all, Sam never seems to have classes on Saturdays!

Prayer

• This week we met with a young couple called Cristhian and Milena, who are having some marriage difficulties. They have a three-year-old son. Please pray for them, and for wisdom for ourselves in counselling them.
• For our work as board members at the Foundation, where we are occasionally having to deal with some difficult staff issues.

Praise

• Craig and the rest of the Langham Preaching group had their first meeting this morning since the Level 3 workshop. Give thanks for a good start.
• For a great initial Bible study on Thursday.
• For a good first MCB meeting for Craig last weekend.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 05/09/15

In Bolivia, vegetarianism is a mere rumour.

First of all, we had been hoping that by this point we might have something more substantial to say with regard to the adoption process. Things, however, haven’t moved quite as quickly as we had hoped, and so, for now, we’ll ask that you continue to uphold that whole situation in your prayers.

One upshot of what happened last week is that the judge deciding the case in question has recommended that we visit the prospective adoptee as often possible, in order to demonstrate our suitability and our caring intent. This we have done over this past week, though inevitably, we have only grown closer, which would make any decision that goes against us even tougher to stomach.

In addition, then, to the points outlined last week, please pray for emotional protection for us both right now. This is really as much as we can say right now on such a public forum, but we are happy to respond in more detail to any emails or private messages.

Many happy returns to this purdy lady.

While dealing with all of the above, we’ve had plenty of other things to distract us, not least the arrival of Amanda’s mother, Selene, at Thursday lunchtime. Her flight was booked some time ago, but we are naturally delighted to benefit from her practical and emotional support at a time when we really need it. And not just because of adoption issues! Amanda bid farewell to her twenties on Friday, and to celebrate, we’re hosting the mother of all parties at the house on Sunday afternoon, replete with a rented trampoline, 25kg of prime steak (note to supporters: it’s really cheap here!) and about 60 friends from work, church and elsewhere. We’ve never hosted an event on such a scale, but we’re delighted to be able to open the house up to so many dear friends.

Meanwhile, last Sunday, we hosted a more intimate social gathering, inviting our good friends Maicol & KC round for the evening. 15 years since KC first arrived in Trinidad on a missions team, they and their son Caleb are due to leave Bolivia for the USA at the end of this month, and we are going to miss them all greatly. What with Selene’s visit over the next two weeks, and the inevitable chaos involved in packing-up-one’s-life-for-good, we knew that we had to act sooner rather than later to get any face time with them pre-departure. Three hours disappeared as we looked back on our time together here over the last six years, and how God has been so faithful to us all. We certainly hope to see more of them before they go, but if last Sunday were to prove our last meaningful time with them in Bolivia, we wouldn’t have much to complain about.

Nor do we at church, where we continue to be encouraged by what we are seeing. The Dig Deeper Bible study seems to be only growing in popularity, with most of the books we ordered for the church now having disappeared. Thursday evening saw us consider the importance of parallelisms; if it all sounds a bit technical, I can assure you that our study of the parallelism in Hebrews 1:1-2 was immensely emboldening and affirming to us as a church in this ‘Jesus-plus’ evangelical culture.

It was also of great encouragement to us to see FT president and church elder Miguel-Ángel take to the platform on Sunday to deliver his first ever sermon (you may remember that Miguel-Ángel had been among the main beneficiaries of the Langham conference back in June). This will prove a huge help to me and our pastor, Elías, and we pray that the church would be challenged to see another of its members expound God’s word.

So much to be praying and giving thanks for this week, and again, we ask you to uphold the adoption situation before the Lord in particular (see last week’s post for more specific prayer points). In addition…

Prayer

• For Maicol & KC as they prepare to leave Trinidad in just over three weeks’ time.
• For the various individuals with whom we usually meet for discipleship each week. Our current challenging circumstances have caused this to largely be put on the back-burner at the moment. Please pray that this would be a time in which those individuals can experience growth in their faith, and that we, in particular, would depend on God for this rather than developing a messiah complex!
• Craig and the elders again had to address a challenging pastoral situation involving church members this week. Pray for continued wisdom here and for a softening of hard hearts.
• For a great time tomorrow afternoon with friends and family.

 Praise

• Speaking of Langham, Craig’s small-group met last Sunday afternoon, and the momentum from June’s conference has largely been maintained, with both small-groups continuing to meet once every month. Give thanks for this.
• Give thanks, too, for the young women’s Bible study, who met once again in our home last Sunday, and who continue to experience a deepening of fellowship.
• Finally, give thanks for the Lord’s great faithfulness in Amanda’s life over her three decades to date.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 16/05/15

My time last year at Cornhill Scotland yielded several benefits: practical tools to aid me as a preacher; deep and meaningful fellowship four days a week; a piece of paper with my name on it. But better than all of these was that at 32 years of age, I finally learned how to read the Bible.

Indeed, I was struck pretty early on by the realisation that, though I obviously regarded the Bible as a unique text, my approach to it was often uniquely stupid!

Behind any text, whether it be a WhatsApp message, a newspaper report, or a journal article, the writer is attempting to convey a meaning. I may come away from it with a range of thoughts as to what I may do with this information -- indeed, I may even disagree with it -- but I have no right to decide for myself the meaning that was being conveyed. So, if Amanda asks me to pick up some lettuce on the way home, I may have wished the message said 'ribeye steak', but if I turn up at home with aforementioned cow-cut, I won't get away with saying, "this is what lettuce means for me".

And yet, this is precisely what we as Christians so often do with a text we supposedly regard with such esteem as to consider it 'God's word'. "I think this means," or, "What this is saying to me", are phrases with which we have become all too comfortable in Bible study groups. As a young man, in evangelical circles, I was often encouraged to read the Bible "to find out what God was saying to me today". To which thinking, the venerable Dick Lucas has replied, "It wasn't written to you, stupid".

(to which I would also add, "It wasn't written about you"; if the Bible is God's self-revelation, then it follows that the enriching information we seek is primarily about him, and not me)

None of this, of course, is to say that the Bible is not 'living and active', or that all Scripture is not 'useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness'. Rather, what I learned at Cornhill is that, if anything, we blunt the Bible's message to us today by losing sight of what the likes of Moses, Isaiah, Mark and Paul were conveying, in the Spirit, to their original readers.

Respecting the Bible book and its author by, for example, investigating the cultural context, picking up on repeated words and phrases, giving consideration to the structure of the text as a whole, is an infinitely rewarding task. You will think again about asking to have 1 Corinthians 13 read out at your wedding when your realise that Paul was demonstrating how genuine love stood in stark contrast to the wretched behaviour of the supremely arrogant Christians at Corinth. 

And yet, I can well understand how we have come to such a point. For one thing, it demonstrates just how firm a grip post-modernism now has on our thinking. And, more practically speaking, such an approach necessarily demands of us time, effort and brain-power.

Which is why, though generally buoyed by my studies last year, I had some reservations at the back of my mind about helping people here to read the Bible in a more responsible way. This is not a culture which generally encourages people to engage with information; the range of material available for reading is limited and expensive anyway. And though Trinidad is relatively relaxed as a city, young people in particular are now armed with smartphones and assume that their gratification will be increasingly instantaneous; not exactly fertile ground for encouraging in-depth study.

However, I am becoming increasingly convinced that my supposedly well-founded doubts did not so much reflect my experience of life in Bolivia as my lack of faith in Scripture's trans-national sufficiency, and the Holy Spirit's 'translation' work across cultures.

Because, since coming back, having given these matters renewed emphasis in our preaching, teaching and other discipleship strands, we have seen a tremendously positive response from the church, with our brothers and sisters taking pleasure in attending to a need that they may not have realised existed (just like me last year); such enthusiasm is natural, as to do so is to begin to understand the meaning of the truth (John 17:17). 

This was evidenced on Thursday evening as I began the series of twice-monthly studies in the Spanish translation of 'Dig Deeper' (here's the Amazon link: it's well worth your time and your tenner) which, in a nutshell, teaches principles I learned at Cornhill in a concise and easy-to-read fashion. Each chapter furnishes the reader with a 'tool' to apply to their reading of a Biblical text (such as author's purpose, structure or genre), with a simple explanation as to its application. 

Thursday's session was very much introductory, as we began to consider the pitfalls of reading the Bible subjectively, and then think about what it means for us for the Bible to be both a divine and human book. And the turnout well exceeded my expectations, with double the numbers we would normally get at our Bible study (I would reiterate my suspicion of the numbers-game in church; I share such information to reflect the passion that exists in the church for this topic, something for which I am thankful). And judging by the several absentees who have approached me in the last couple of days asking for the relevant photocopies so that they can catch up, the response from the attendees has been very positive.

So we'd appreciate your continued prayers as we seek to establish such principles at the core of our Bible reading in church, and please give thanks with us, too, as in re-discovering Scripture's awesome sufficiency, we echo these fine words of Timothy Dudley-Smith:

Lord, for that word, the word of life which fires us,

speaks to our hearts and sets our souls ablaze,

teaches and trains, rebukes us and inspires us:

Lord of the word, receive your people's praise.

Prayer

• For Amanda, who tonight will be teaching the youth about Jacob, with a particular emphasis on what Hebrews 11 has to say about the old scallywag.

Praise

• Amanda has had another really encouraging week of staff interviews, with further opportunities to get to know the personnel better, disciple the believers, and share something of Jesus with the rest.

Finally, we will, God-willing, be in Cochabamba next weekend, visiting friends and enjoying a few days out of Trinidad. The blog, therefore, will be getting a well-earned rest (not so sure about its authors), but expect normal service to be resumed -- hopefully with pictures -- on the 30th.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 21/03/15

In recent weeks, I (Craig – sorry, you’re stuck with me again) have graciously been granted a first-hand glimpse into the workings of our great God.

Those who know me will be aware that I enjoy setting myself targets now and again, in the hope of infusing my ever-hastening days with structure and purpose. During our time away in 2014, I managed to pick up a cut-price copy of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, which has already established itself as something of a classic in evangelical scholarship since its publication in 1997 (it’s also a bit of a doorstopper – handily for us, this version was in a digital format). Bearing in mind the relative lack of in-service training opportunities available to us out here, I resolved to study one chapter every Sunday afternoon upon returning to Bolivia. Thus far, I have barely dipped my toe into the first major section, on the word of God, but I already feel greatly enriched for the study.

Grudem’s work transcends the academic in its endeavour to apply Christian doctrine to the life of the reader and with this in mind, each chapter closes with a series of questions for personal application. A couple of weeks back, I noticed that, not for the first time, there was a question about how the particular doctrine of that week might challenge the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; perhaps Grudem has previous in this area. And not for the first time, I felt unequipped to answer the question. To the best of my knowledge, at no point in my life had I had any engagement with a Jehovah’s Witness, and (probably as a result) I’d never really taken the time to study their teachings and see how they measure up with Scripture.

Having been forced to skip a JW-related question for the second week running, I felt this was perhaps a little prompting from the Lord to venture down this particular rabbit-hole. Not that I was motivated by a mere lack of ability to answer homework questions. I knew fine well that I could hardly engage such people without having first gotten to grips with the tenets of their faith. And this would potentially be of even greater benefit here in this corner of Bolivia, where the Jehovah’s Witnesses are more visible than back in the UK – not that I had yet had an opportunity to converse with one.

And so, I spent some time the following day doing some research into the beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in the process learning more about the reasoning for their reading of the 144,000 in Revelation, the various day-and-date proclamations of the world’s end, and the sharply contrasting claims (with us evangelicals) as to the divinity of Jesus. I wasn’t exactly ready to write a PhD on the topic, but I certainly had a better understanding as to where they were coming from – though, if anything, I was all the more perplexed as to why anyone with half a brain would give it all more than a moment’s thought. In any case, I would be prepared to engage a Jehovah’s Witness on these issues if and when an opportunity arose.

Five days later, seemingly unrelated circumstances were taking place. I was enjoying lunch with Amanda, not so much for the food as simply the opportunity to relax for the first time last Saturday, having attended the monthly 6am joint pastors’/leaders’ meeting before setting off on the odyssey that is the Saturday Morning Shop (stepping in so that Amanda could write last week’s blog entry). But I knew that I had better make the most of my plate of pasta. In mid-afternoon, I was scheduled to attend the weekly church music group’s practice, with the youth group to follow. But seeming light years ago, when energy levels were sky-high (i.e., Tuesday) I’d pencilled in another appointment for Saturday afternoon: a visit to the hospital, where FT’s former patient Hernán, the 19-year-old quadriplegic, had recently been transferred.

One morning at the Foundation, I paid Hernán a brief visit to read Scripture and pray with him. He mentioned that he really loved films and I suggested I could maybe come round with a DVD. I never quite got round to this when he was with us at the Foundation, so I felt it was only correct that I right this wrong – hence my pledge to come and visit last Saturday.

And so, I made my way to the hospital, but practically running on empty. I resolved in the car that I’d just watch half of the film with him and come back the next weekend (i.e., today) to watch the remainder.

But, as it happens, we both rather got into the film in question, and I thought to myself, “I have time, I might as well stay till the end”. But we didn’t quite get there.

About three-quarters of the way through the film, a medical team came to carry out a routine check-up, and so, to give Hernán and his mother some privacy, I stepped outside into the corridor, only to feel a pamphlet being thrust into my open hand and unwittingly open the door for the very first time in my 32-and-a-half years to…

…a Jehovah’s Witness!

This, surely, was providence writ large. And so I politely declined the copy of the Watchtower, explained that I was a follower of Jesus Christ and (unfortunately for Hernán, it must be said!) spent the next half hour in discussion with the woman in question and her friend, taking them to verses in Scripture that clearly contradict the teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I take no pride whatsoever in saying that they were unable to give satisfactory explanations; their general reaction consisted in their presenting verses to me with total disregard for their context and for biblical genres (a particular favourite was Daniel 2:44 – yet when I asked the women what the overall ‘story’ of Daniel 2 was, they could not tell me).

The discussion ended, unfortunately, with the women walking away while refusing to answer my latest question (one of them, a tad cheekily, explained to me that my being a non-native Spanish speaker was a contributing factor to my inability to understand the New World Translation!). But in the meantime, perhaps sensing the tension, ‘a crowd had gathered’. And for another half-an-hour, I held something of an impromptu Bible study with some of the onlookers, to expose the false teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and point them in the way of Biblical truth as to the person of Jesus and the end times. Alas, at 6:20pm, I realised the youth group meeting was just 40 minutes away, and I would have to take my leave of these people and, of course, Hernán (turns out we’ll be finishing the film today after all).

The spring in my step as I dashed to the car was Super Mario-like. My one slight regret was that the discussion with the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves ended so abruptly – I do hope that it was not down to any aggression on my part (I did try really hard to keep my emotions in check!). But, overall, I was simply in renewed awe of ‘the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’ (Romans 11:23).

A few key lessons have hit home as I have digested these occurrences; I do believe they are of universal application.

1.     This chain of events was set in motion only when I became aware of my limitations. If I hadn’t studied these topics a few days earlier, I would have had little to go on in exposing the false gospel of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But this study only arose out of a deep sense of ignorance on my part. Surely this conviction was of God, and he used it to bring glory to himself.

2.     ‘Nothing in my hand I bring’. 95% of me on Saturday afternoon was saying ‘stay at home, get some rest, Hernán will understand.’ I cannot take a modicum of credit for what happened. It was all of God.

3.     The ‘part of pain and pleasure’ of recent weeks could only be fully understood at a later juncture. I sat down to study these matters in the hope that they might be of use some distant day in the future; God, meanwhile, had other plans, determining to throw me in the deep end that very week! More profoundly, what of Hernán’s circumstances, which have been documented here over the past couple of weeks? Naturally, as a church, while endeavouring to care for him as best we can, it has nonetheless been tough to have a ring-side seat on such suffering and trust that there is a purpose. It is certainly not my place to make sweeping pronouncements regarding such a sensitive topic. All I know is that, occasioned by Hernán’s situation, Saturday was my first proper visit to Trinidad’s hospital, and unbeknownst to me, God had a little missionary work lined up in its corridors.

Prayer

• Today’s entry was written yesterday – if you can get your heads round that – as this morning we’re off with the youth group to the local lake resort for a morning of fellowship. It'll mostly be a time of relaxation, but one of the leaders will also be showing them how to share the gospel using balloons! Pray for safety and for listening ears during the talk.
• We have had one of those weeks in the house in which the proverbial rain has been of the ‘pouring’ variety. Just one thing after another to be fixed. Pray for patience and for provision to meet these costs.

Praise

• We had another really encouraging meeting of the men’s group last night. We’re beginning a Bible study using the film ‘Courageous’. Film-buff that he is, Craig would not readily admit to usually enjoying Christian movies (speaking of Daniel, would it be overly-spiritual to say they have been artistically ‘found wanting’?)! However, as a teaching aid, it’s excellent, with themes applicable to men across all cultures, particularly touching on the responsibility for male Christian leadership at home.
• Amanda was in need of a little mending herself over the weekend, coming down with a 48-hour stomach bug not long after she finished putting pen to paper on the blog (ominous!). Give thanks for a full recovery.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 05/10/13

The Birthday Boy, with friends and family, church and otherwise.

Forgive me for bleating on about the weather yet again, but I write in the midst of another south wind, the second this week, and easily the latest such occurrence we have experienced here. Searing, unquenched humidity tends to dominate in October, as referred to in last week’s post. Not this year. Indeed, my suspicions that something really is askew with the weather are only confirmed by reports from Scotland of temperatures pushing 20 Celsius.

Who knows? Perhaps this is a little blessing from the Lord to help us endure the Furlough Countdown. The reality of our looming exit, however, is really beginning to kick in now, with Maicol, KC and Caleb entering their final week of ensuring ‘i’s are a-dotted and ‘t’s a-crossed before they leave Trinidad for the States a week tomorrow. In eight days’ time we will be the last missionaries standing.

Going back to the weather, it has not been without its difficulties, as the south wind has been accompanied this week by copious amounts of rain. This has battered our abysmally-installed patio doors upstairs and we have spent far too much time with a mop! As rainy season is now not too far away (or, at least it would be in a normal year!), we’ll probably need someone to come this week and fix the whole thing good and proper. Immensely frustrating, but very typical of this part of the world, where pride in one’s work is considered of little importance.

The week at work has been fairly routine, with a province-wide shutdown declared on Wednesday (in protest at the ‘results’ of last year’s census) breaking things up nicely! Still, I had a sermon to write and, as I’m the kind of person who needs a lot of preparation time on these things, I was able to make take advantage of the day off to make significant headway. Philippians 4:1-7 is the passage, on standing firm in the Lord through joy and prayer. As ever, much to dwell on before I even started typing.

Amanda has been putting in her usual shift in Audiology in the mornings since coming back. However, her afternoons tend to be dominated by church/social work. This week she and Rachel (back from Scotland for another short visit) spent some time planning a 1^st birthday celebration which, it is fair to say, probably wouldn’t have taken place without them.

This time last week, as I was waxing lyrical about last Friday night’s praise event, so ably put together and led by Carlos, something really quite tragic was taking place. Carlos’s younger brother, Rafael, had taken a fatal blow to the head at his boxing gym. By the time they’d flown him to a half-decent hospital in Santa Cruz, he was clinically dead, and in the early hours of Sunday morning, he passed away. Carlos being the responsible older brother, he accompanied Rafael both to Santa Cruz, and on his final journey back to Trinidad. ‘Rollercoaster’ barely begins to describe the emotions felt by Carlos within the space of 48 hours.

However, Carlos excelled himself in appalling circumstances, and represented the family with great dignity at Rafael’s wake and burial. And in the midst of great tragedy, Carlos continually looked on the overwhelmingly positive side of things: that Rafael, a believer, is now in heaven.

Carlos & Carla, with Kenny Cristobal.

As we’ve probably mentioned previously here, the mourning process is fairly brief in this culture. Indeed, Rafael was buried less than 36 hours after his death. Still, as you can imagine, Carlos and Carla’s attentions were somewhat distracted from their son Kenny Cristobal’s looming birthday. So, in stepped Amanda and Rachel to give Carla a hand in putting on a big party, for what is always a big occasion in this part of the world. Everyone had a good time and it was a particular blessing to see so many of Carlos’s family there, enjoying a moment of familial joy after a turbulent few days.

Prayer

• Two youth group items today. First up, we are wrapping up the Sex & Relationships topic tonight. Incredibly, we embarked on this subject a couple of months ago, anticipating we would have it wrapped up in a couple of weeks. But the youth have posed so many interesting questions – reflecting the deep confusion in this culture regarding these issues – that only now are we able to wrap it up. Anyway, please pray that the youth would really be thinking about, and applying, the lessons learned to their own lives.
• Secondly, we met this week to begin preparations for our first ever camp. As anyone who’s grown up in a church will know, youth camps are a big deal. Up until now, our youth have gone along to a camp run by another church, but this year we’ve decided to start out on our own. The proposed dates are the 16^th and 17^th of November (we’ve decided to keep it to one night – but two full days – to ease ourselves into this whole business). Please pray that, as leaders, we’d keep preparation for camp high on our to-do list, busy as we are in many other areas.

Praise

• Further to what I mentioned above, we’ve also been meeting with Carlos & Carla on Tuesday evenings to study the Bible together. This week, naturally, we ended up just reflecting on the events of the past couple of days. Still, we are finding these times to be of real blessing and encouragement for the four of us.
• We were able this week to book our flights to Canada for next summer. God-willing, Amanda will arrive there on the 30^th of May, while I, with studies to complete, will travel three weeks later, arriving on the 22^nd of June (we already have some church dates booked, too). We’ll then return to Scotland on the 14^th of September. Give thanks for God’s provision in enabling us to book these seats early – when they’re cheap! 

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 31/08/13

You find me this morning with only the dogs and your dear self for company. But never fear – my solitude is of a most temporal nature. For last night, Amanda upped and left me for the bright lights of Santa Cruz with the stated mission of rendezvousing with her mother and aunts, who are themselves due to arrive there in the very early hours of Sunday. God-willing, they will then take the overnight bus on Sunday night, arriving in Trinidad on Monday morning. We are excited to see some more family members, to welcome yet more first-time visitors to Trinidad, and, of course, get to sample Trinidad’s finest eateries on the ‘family tab’.

Naturally, we’ve had a few minor jobs to do around the house in anticipation of their arrival. In between all that, however, things have been busy enough. Amanda has once again been left in sole charge of Audiology, with Odalys not returning to Trinidad until yesterday afternoon. And I, all keenness personified, have been bashing out a sermon which isn’t due till next weekend, hoping to clear the schedule for time with our guests.

On Tuesday evening, we had the opportunity to spend a little time with Carlos and Carla, a young couple from the church (you may remember that the Lord did a mighty work in Carlos’s life about two years ago, restoring him – as an alcoholic – to sobriety, and rekindling his desire to serve him). A while back, they had been meeting regularly with our fellow missionaries Kenny & Claudia Holt (Carlos and Claudia come from the same family). We had grown aware recently that they were maybe in need of continued encouragement, with the Holts having returned to Scotland in July – and it turns out that they had too! So, on Tuesday, when we proposed meeting together on a weekly basis to study the Bible, they were extremely appreciative of the offer. We already have positive relationships with them – I with Carlos through the band, Amanda with Carla through her young women’s Bible study – and are looking forward to deepening these.

As with my own parents’ visit, we are anticipating the next few weeks to be pretty busy, in the best possible sense. At the tail end, we have taken some time off work in order to accompany Amanda’s mum and aunts to Santa Cruz for a few days, and we’re hoping to stay there a little longer ourselves post-departure. So we shall once again put the blog into shutdown mode, probably returning at some point before the end of September. Should anything urgent come up, we’ll be sure to notify the Facebook community. In the meantime…

Prayer

• For safety for Amanda’s relatives, who are currently travelling south from Toronto, with a short layover in Panamá. And, indeed, for safety for all of our travel between Trinidad and Santa Cruz over the next few weeks.
• For a really blessed, refreshing, encouraging time with family.
• Please remember Tuesday evenings in your prayers – i.e., our times with Carlos and Carla, a couple who need a lot of encouragement.
• Continue to remember FT’s need of an Otoacoustics Emissions machine in your prayers – Amanda and Odalys could really do with replacing the ones that broke some time ago.

Praise

• For a really encouraging start to the ‘Sex & Relationships’ topic at the youth group. Lots of open, relaxed, Bible-based discussion last week.
• For those participants in the R.E. classes who are coming to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus – a few more this week.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda