FBFI Conference

So far it has been really good! I'm looking forward to the rest of the week. You can check out the messages online here . The date is listed, and those with the word "bilingue" in the title include translation into Spanish. The message last night by Mark Bouslog was especially good.

Jumbled Thoughts

We're very busy here getting ready for the FBF conference on Sunday, as well as beginning rehearsals for Christmas program songs. Because of that, I haven't had much time to sit and blog. So, here, in no particular order, are several thoughts and "stories" that have ben stewing in my head for the past couple of weeks.



1. This week in our Wednesday night service, we had a couple walk in that I recognized. They have a open air restaurant just off the beach in Pinones, and when visitors come, we take them there for pinchos and pina coladas. This couple has 3 girls in the school, so I wasn't too surprised to see them, but when Pastor got up, he gave some encouraging news. He told us that this couple got saved on Monday night in visitation. It was so exciting to hear that! Sometimes it would be easy to get discouraged with making visits, and making visits and making visits and not seeing fruit, but this was another encouragement to keep going. The couple's oldest daughter is a junior in high school, and has been in the school for 8 years. That means that this couple has had teachers in their home for visitation for 8 years, and in the most recent years up to 3 times in a year (because of the three daughters), and now they have finally been saved. A good encouragement not to give up-you never know when God is going to work in people's heart to open them to the truth. It may take years!



Obviously I never got past one thought, and this is 5 months later-this couple is still faithfully attending Wednesday night services.

......Or Not

Yesterday around five, we got an email saying that school was canceled because the governor had canceled everything for today. I didn't actually get that until this morning because I don't have internet at home, but I had heard from several admin people that we didn't have school today. I still got up this morning, though, at 5 to listen to the radio for school closings. Every time they made the announcement, they said our school was closed. For some reason, I couldn't go back to sleep, and around 6:40 (teachers are supposed to be in at 7) the announcement when they got to our school was "CBCS is....um....we're not sure.....we think they're open" How's that for indecisive? I called my supervisor, and she suggested coming in, so I started to get ready. As I was getting ready, the announcement every time was that we were open. Honestly, I prefer to be at school than at home by myself.

Hurricane Omar

Well, school has just now become interesting-they've decided to suspend all after school activities (late stay, homework help, etc) as well as the evening service at church tonight in light of possible weather and road conditions (flooding, mudslides, etc). School tomorrow procedes as usual until further notice. So, parents are starting even now to come and get their kids early.We're under a tropical storm warning and hurricane watch for the next couple of days. The hurricane is not supposed to actually make landfall here-it's supposed to hit St Croix in the middle of the night. But, since St Croix is not that far from here, the eastern coast of Puerto Rico is going to see more of the effects than we are here in San Juan. We're still cautioned to bring everything inside, etc.

More rain

Apparently, we have another storm forming on top of us. This time, however, instead of starting as a group of storms, then becoming a tropical depression, storm and finally hurricane Kyle, like what happened in September, tropical storm Omar has formed to the south of Puerto Rico and is expected to hit us on Thursday. I'm not sure if the projections are for it to be a hurricane by then, or not. Some roads have already been closed from the rain, preventing at least one of my students from coming to school. One of the teachers was hoping for school off tomorrow, but I would rather have the time off during the last two days of the FBFI conference, because having school and conference at the same time is draining. If we don't have to have hurricane days (like some of you in the States have snow days) then we will get those last 2 days of conference off.

Fall Fest

Fall Fest is almost here! I've been going a little crazy making sure everything is ready-ordering 200 cookies, buying and coloring 120 oz of icing, etc. Should be lots of fun. At least I didn't have to make the sign-Mrs. Zimmer did that for me. I'm also working on auditions for a Christmas program choir. Why do the most beautiful voices have to come from the children with the worst behavior?

Weekend fun

This weekend I spent some time organizing my apartment, hoping to have some girls over Sunday afternoon. Didn't happen. When I got to the next to last turn on Sunday morning, I noticed that the temperature gauge had begun to rise, and I heard an odd hissing noise. I thought, "this sure can't be good." Those of you who know how much trouble my car has given me this last year will know how discouraging that sound was. I was able to make it to church, and when I stopped the car, I still heard the sound, and honestly, I didn't even want to know what it was that was gonna cost me a lot more money. I finally decided that I'd better at least look, so that I'd know whether or not I'd have to get a ride home after church. When I opened the hood, the radiator hose was doing its Old Faithful imitation. At least since I saw it spewing, I knew exactly what had happened, and what needed to be replaced. After Spanish service, I told Mrs. Jacobson that I didn't know for sure whether or not I was going to have transportation for choir practice, and she told me she'd come get me if she had to, but if someone took me somewhere for the after noon (happens occasionally) to let her know. After the service, Mrs. Santana asked me what I was doing for the afternoon, and I told her that I wasn't sure because I was going to have to find a ride home. They invited me to eat lunch with them, and before we left the church, Mr. Santana asked if I would show him the problem with the car. I showed him, and he said that we could stop at an auto parts store after lunch. We went to Macaroni Grill, which was excellent, as always, and had a good time. As we headed back, we stopped at Western Auto. Not only did Mr. Santana buy the hose, coolant, and a funnel, but he also went by his house to get the tools, and when we got back to church he rolled up his sleeves and changed the hose and put coolant in the car. I'm especially thankful because I wouldn't have known what to do about it myself, and I probably couldn't have gotten it to the mechanic during business hours for a couple more days. It was exciting to see how the Lord takes care of me even when I start to panic and forget that He's in control and he knows what he's doing.

Our volleyball game on Friday went ok. We lost, but we took it to 3 games, and I saw improvements in all my girls. I can live with the loss if we're doing our best.

Tonight is college choir again, and when I get home I'm going to straighten up the apartment and stir up some colored icing. Tomorrow night I'm having some girls over to make and decorate cookies. I've ben testing things for fall fest (we're going to have a cookie decorating activity) and I have some leftover icing and cookie mix that I need to use up. I'm looking forward to it-the first time I've had anyone over for a while. Before my car died last year I had people over a couple of times, but when I got it back towards the end of the year, things were so busy that I didn't really have the time. Hospitality has been something the Lord has been challenging me about, so hopefully this will be a continued thing. We'll see how it goes.