Good afternoon from Puerto Rico. We hope all is well with you. Mary and I are pretty well in spite of us both getting COVID and all the "stuff " that goes along with it. I am now 100% and Mary is almost "there". She missed church three weeks in a row but not so much because she was so sick. Rather, because she didn't want to infect or raise concerns by being there.
There has been a lot of absence in church, all temporary stuff. On the same Sunday five families were out due to sickness and four others were absent due to vacation travels off the island. Most everyone is now back in the saddle, so to speak.
Years ago, around 51 to be precise, I would have never thought I could go from one language to the next in the same sentence. Oh how I wanted to be bi-lingual back then. Well years later that has become a reality. I can go back and forth without much effort. Along the way I have learned 5000-6000 vocabulary words...in another language. My scholarly brother had a vocabulary that far surpassed me. I somewhat beat myself up for lagging behind. But then one day I realized I knew 5000-6000 words, most of which he didn't. Sooo, I stopped haranguing myself so much. (He really was smarter than I was...I suppose 😄😄).
I shared the above to tell you that throughout the year I get calls to do funerals and weddings, counseling, and other pastoral duties, in Spanish of course. Years ago, when I did my first weddings and funerals in Spanish they were anxiety-producing moments. NO ONE wants to mess up a funeral or wedding. As the case may be, I (we) survived. And I learned being a loving person was more meaningful to the people than being a good orator. Jesus said his followers would be known by the way we love each other, love God, and love our neighbors.
In ministry like everywhere, there are a thousand mundane tasks that have to be done. Whether preparing sermons, classes, teaching new convert classes, getting everything ready for Sunday worship, making calls, doing hospital visits, cutting the church lawn, and occasionally dealing with unexpected obstacles such as broken lawn tractors and failed computers, there is always plenty of matters to attend to, even when there is nothing news-worthy to write about.
Last week we honored our graduates: Two pre-kinder boys, one eighth grade girl, one 12th grade young man (Valedictorian!), one from college with a Bachelor's in Biology( she graduated Magna Cum Laude), and one, Doctor Edwin Soto, Doctor of Internal Medicine!! We are very proud of all of them!
Coming up Sunday is Fathers' Day. It is never as big as Mothers' Day. Wonder why 😇? Kidding aside, the roll of a godly father still married to the kids' mom is profoundly important in determining whether his children will be Christians and church attenders later on in life. Fathers and their day of recognition is as important as the moms. So, there is a special program ready to go at church, including a short pantomime, a poem written for the occasion, gifts for the dads and of course the "ever popular" church dinner.
That pretty much sums up what we have to share this time. Thank you for reading the blog.
Johnathan and Mary
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