November 23

Winter is upon you and Puerto Rico is starting to be in its glory; low seventies at night and mid-eighties during the day. Mary and I hope all is well with you. It is a little early but nevertheless, Happy Thanksgiving. Our lives have been very busy. Let me give you the details.

In our last blog the youth were ready to do their weekend retreat (October 2-4). It turned out wonderfully. I believe we had thirty-six campers/faculty attend. Our new youth leaders committee, composed of eight adults, is doing a great job. Just last week I met with them and we planned events through July. Speaking of youth, on October 18 they were put in charge of the worship service. Eighteen participated in some aspect of the service, including the message. Afterwards, they provided a dinner as a fund raiser for their activities.

Another recent event in our church was the participation in an outreach to the homeless and those of limited resources in Aguadilla. An organization called "Love in Action" involved several churches, civic organizations, hospitals, doctors, councilors, chefs, and others. Together, a variety of services were provided for this sector of the community. Eighteen people from our church participated in the event. One of our couples helped organize it. Some sorted clothing, or worked in the service booths, while another provided special music. A few donated personal items as well as water and money. Over one-thousand plates of food were served and countless waited on.

Also, along with many other people, our congregation helped one of our church families who did a two week missions trip to the Dominican Republic. Different items such as reading glasses, personal effects, and money were donated for their trip.

All of this has been done in addition to participating in "Forty Days of Random Acts of Kindness"; an idea I borrowed from a campaign I had seen on TV a few years ago. This coming Saturday, a trip to an old folks home will be our penultimate event of the year. We have had nine benevolence projects scattered through out the year. The church is very generous to so many in need. God has given them a character of kindness and goodness. As a church member told me yesterday, "This church is full of many good people." That sums it up nicely.

Attendance over all has been very good. We have had a couple of down Sundays but generally, we are over one-hundred. Yesterday was a capacity crowd. We had to put extra seats down the middle aisle of the auditorium. The last five Sundays have registered, 104, 93, 116, 85 and 126 (yesterday). I should add that yesterday was the church's annual Thanksgiving dinner. That helped boost our attendance I am sure.

Finally, Santos Torres and I had the delight of baptizing a believer into Christ last Saturday. Two months ago I visited this man in the hospital where he was at the point of death. God had mercy on him and extended his life. Now he rarely misses the Sunday morning service. Little did I know he would announce to me last week, "John I want you to baptize me."

I suppose I should stop. It is getting a little long. As always thanks for your interest in our work here. Blessings.