June 7

Good morning. Summer is here and church members are planning their summer travels. As for us, Mary and I are staying put although I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic for a missions trip the first week of July.

I mentioned in the last blog we had two upcoming projects. Those are now behind us. The first was  a homeless outreach effort. We raised $195.00 through special offerings to help those people out. So many people begging (although not all by any measure) are addicted to a variety of drugs. It is so angering to see how their bodies and dignity are destroyed. A young man the other day came to me in Little Caesars and asked for a $1.00. I offered to buy him lunch instead but that was unappealing to him. I can never recall as a child or young man a stranger asking me for money. And, it never occurred to me to do anything like that. My friends who were born and raised on the island had the same experience as a child, no begging nor panhandling. Sin is a heartless and humiliating taskmaster. Surely those who lead people into addiction for personal gain will face severe judgement on the Final Day. Back to our benevolence program, our church provided twenty-five personal hygiene kits and through my associate's, Santos Torres' influence, two other churches joined the project.

If you will recall, I stated we would be painting the house of an elderly woman the end of May. That project was a success. Eight of our church members, two young ladies from a Boy Scouts of America Venturing crew (which our church sponsors), as well as ten college women from the US and their supervisors pitched in to paint the house inside and out...in half a day. Our church provided the materials. Later on this summer a couple of our people will return to install two interior doors and the project will be done. I should add, the team was also able to clean her yard the same day.

Well, that covers it! We will get back to you the end of June.  God bless you!

Johnathan and Mary