June 27

Hi everyone. We are almost into July. Wow! Since our last blog we have had several things going on including a trip by Mary to Chicago. She will be in Chicago until July 11. Our daughter-in-law had surgery so Mary is helping out until she mends; so I am "roughing it" by eating a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Fathers' Day was a fine day at the church. We had twenty-eight people from a church in KY here to do a missions trip. That, in addition to the crowd of 105 of our own people, filled the building to overflow capacity, with one-hundred and thirty-two in attendance. Each father received a gift, enjoyed a slide show, and was blessed with a special sermon and songs by a guest couple from the other side of the island. Afterwards, almost everyone stayed for a nice dinner. Finally, at 3:00 PM, I closed up the building.

Out attendance has been up and down this summer, which is an annual summer occurrence. We never know if there will be seventy-five like last Sunday or one-hundred and thirty-two as we had on Fathers' Day. It is a surprise package from one Sunday till the next.

We also had a youth event since our last blog. These activities are planned every four or five weeks with five churches taking their turn sponsoring the activity.  One of the churches in San Juan organized the most recent event. In two weeks we are scheduled go to an event sponsored by a church in Vega Baja, a town located about an hour from where we live.

Last Sunday we had a guest speaker, Brian Norman. Brian and his wife Mari live in Dallas, TX. Mari grew up in the church in Mayaguez where I used to minister thirty years ago. It was nice to see how her (their) life (lives) is (are) developing. How great to see they serve the Lord in various ways in TX.

Coming up in two weeks is the children's day camp. We rarely do these events. In years past it seemed like a free baby sitting service with little commitment from parents in the community. So we stopped for years. But, this year we decided to do something for our church kids and are asking them to invite their friends. We are shooting for twenty or thirty.

In addition to the children's day camp, still to come this summer is a campout for the youth, and an all church excursion. And we will also have missions teams in and out all summer long led by Chad and Chandi Mayes, new missionaries to the northwest side of the island. Some of the teams will worship with us but work with other churches in the area. We will be available to assist if our help is needed.

Lest you forget our faces, here are pictures of Mary and I with our granddaughter Nicole.

I believe this catches you up. Blessings on your lives.

Johnathan and Mary