November 16, 2021

Good afternoon from Puerto Rico.  Mid-November and time for a news update. We hope you are well and your walk with the Lord is strong.

Church outing: Nov 13

One of two
recently baptized

Let’s begin with Mary. Mary has spent a lifetime as an educator in Puerto Rico. Her record includes helping start a school, teaching at three Christian elementary schools, serving as principal at one of them and then teaching English for nineteen years at the University of Puerto Rico in Aguadilla where we live. She retired in June 2020. As of the first of November she is back to teaching! Okay, …until Christmas. She got a call about three weeks ago asking her to teach Bible at a high school for a few days until the regular teacher could recover from having a baby. As it turned out, the delivery was by C-section, so Mary was asked to stay on until Christmas break. We are up early, and she is out the door by 6:50 AM and gets home around 4:00 PM. She is quite a lady! I told her I expected an extra nice Christmas present with the extra money she is making 😊. Her comment was short, "NO WAY!" 

50 boxes for 
Samaritan's Purse

I am delighted to announce I was privileged to baptize two people since our last blog. Any type of evangelism/teaching has been hard due to the COVID issue. Visiting homes is still pretty much a “no no”. I have begun basic Discipleship classes with one of the two baptized and I hope to start with the other person shortly.

Opportunities to carry out the instruction of Ephesians 2:10 (For we are God's masterpiece, created in the Messiah Jesus to perform good actions that God prepared long ago to be our way of life.) continue to come our way. This year we participated in the Samaritan’s Purse project perhaps like your church. Fifty boxes were prepared by the church members to be sent to children around the world.

Our people seem eager to bless others. I have noticed any time there is a genuine need they step forward to serve food, give money, clothing, etc.. And, I should add we frequently have opportunities to bless others. Once again groceries have been donated to our church to be distribute to whomever, as the need arises. Also this past week some members brought in girls’ clothing 0-7 years old to be sent to the Dominican Republic. Also on our scope are used shoes for boys 2-10 years old. Santos Torres, a co-worker of many years, will be taking to the Dominican Republic the shoes, as well as medicines and teaching materials. He is planning a missions trip this summer.

Mary and I placing our lock of
commitment
on Puente Rosado

Last weekend, we did a church outing to Old San Juan and Cataño, a town bordering San Juan bay. We had thirty pile into the rented bus and left at 8:00 AM. We got home, exhausted, at 7:00 PM but what a great time we had! It was the first outing in over two years, since the pandemic began.

Coming up Sunday is our annual Thanksgiving celebration. A band playing traditional Christmas music will provide the program and we will close the day with a dinner on the grounds or pass out take home meals.

Well I have given you the highlights of the past month. I will stop here. Catch you next time. Thanks for reading the blog. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Johnathan and Mary

_______________________

Photos from around the island. Click on the photo to expand it.

Puente Rosado (Pink Bridge): Cataño, PR

Guajataca shoreline: Quebradillas, PR 
15 minutes from our home

La Fortaleza: Old San Juan

(Photographer unlisted)