God Supplies All My Need Phil. 4:19

God has certainly supplied all my needs! I have rented Mario and Doris' house here in Valle de Angeles at a most reasonable price with all utilities paid. What a blessing. The property is beautiful and has a fellow named Will( he and his wife just had baby number four) that takes care of the grounds and buildings. There is also Lobo, BIG German Shepherd that definitely takes care of me. Where I go on the property, he goes right beside me. And of course all is fenced in.

I attended my first wake here in the Valle. I don't know if this takes place in the city or if other small villages do it this way. But the family prepres the body, buys and places the deceased loved one in the casket(which has a see through glass above the face area) holds the visitation in their home, uses family or friends pick up truck and takes the body to the cemetary or to another location in town in order for all to pay their respects that could not go to the house where the first or the second message is given by the pastor. The body is then put into the ground. I did not go to the cemetary or to the service held here in town. The body has to be buried within 24 hours of passing away. As a child, I heard my Grandma tell of the same kind of wakes when she was younger. I thought how far we from the U.S. remove ourselves from sickness and death. We die in a hospital with basically strangers surrounding us, regardless of their compassion, and then our dead bodies are again given to strangers to prepare our bodies for burial. Interesting.

I woke up yesterday to complete darkness. And when I say darkness, I mean so dark I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. No electricity! I thought of one candle in the house. Woohoo! Alas! No matches-Well you would be surprised at how much light my cell phone and little alarm clock face can put out in total darkness! It came back on right after daylight. I stayed home to have cable and internet installed in my house. Well they called before they were to come and sure enough the power had gone off again. To make a long story short, it all was installed around noon. I must say it is nice to be connected to the outside world and to be able to have more than one channel( that came in not so good with only Spanish)to watch. Now for all of you that know how much I dislike computers and all that other stuff, I have to confess that here I appreciate it. In the states, not so much.

I have been praying for a tutor in Spanish. When I was ready to get on the van Mon. morning, a young lady that was standing near by asked if this was the bus to the school. I said yes and to my surprise she got right in and sat next to me. Wellllll, she had been hired as another teacher for the kindergarten, had lived in England for a short time, and therefore speaks some English. Praise the Lord big time. He just dropped us in each others laps. So we start this week helping each other with the language we need to learn. How awesome our God is. He has taken care of every little thing that concerns my life here. I stand in total awe of Him and His grace.
My classes at school are going very well. I started teaching the kindergarten teachers yesterday. Johnnny, the bus owner and driver is also coming to learn English. I'm sure since there is someone who can interpret for me, it won't be long before I am teaching Bible classes for the teachers at school. Will see how the Lord moves.

Today a team from OK is arriving to help with the building and finishing of new classrooms for the high scool, grades 7th-9th. We just have the 7th this year but will add a new class each year if possible.

I think I experience something new everyday. I told the Lord that He must be part Latino! because there is no need to get in a hurry here. And His time frame is not always ours. And as much as we hate to wait, we do have to learn to wait on the Lord, yes? I told Becky everybody there needs to come here for a lesson in patience!! But you know, everything gets taken care of that needs to be taken care of. So all is well here.

Thank all of you that have been praying for me. You don't know how much I appreciate it. Until later, may God bless and keep you.

New Home

Today I rented Mario and Doris' house in the Valley. It has 3 bedrooms, big living/dining room area, small kitchen, 1 1/2 baths, and a hallway. It has a porch that goes all the way around the house. They are charging me very little-a lot less than Becky allotted for in my budget. They pay for water,except my drinking water, electricity, and phone(ha ha guys, it's a land line!!). I just have to pay for long distance, but then I have that instument called a cell phone. Anyway the only thing I won't have for a while is the internet, but Doris is going to see how much it will cost to install the cable since it goes right by their house. I also have the use of the washer and dryer. And guess what else? It has a bathtub-don't laugh. Most places here have only showers. But I'll have one of those, too. The school bus/van goes right by the house! Lobo, the BIG German Shepherd also lives there. So you don't have to worry about my safety. There is a family man that also stays and takes care of the property, that of course is fenced in. It's beautiful and I can't thank God enough for supppying it. But then, He does all things well, doesn't He? I don't have to buy sheets, blankets, etc. I pray God will pour Mario and Doris out a blessing that they won't be able to contain, because that is surely what He has done for me through them. He has just worked out every little detail, and I know He isn't done, because school hasn't even started. So this is the latest.
THANK YOU for all your prayers.

(Doug, I'll work on the blog thing!)