My co-worker Marcee is back after a two month visit home to Canada. It’s very good to have her back…she makes the BEST squares and cakes for our weekly Bible study. I’ve missed them…uh…her. =) Actually it is great to have her home. We missed her lots and it’s fun to have someone else to talk to in English. She’s always got great insights and things to share at the prayer meeting thing we do too…I’d forgotten how much I appreciate what she says.

Anyhow…this is just a quick note to let you know a couple of things. I’ll start with the grumpy news and end with the good stuff. Grumpy…we lost the house we were looking at. Long story short, the owner is out of country and can’t get back anytime soon. So he’s getting friends of his to move in for the next year until he comes back. He has to be here to sign the contract with, so if he’s not…nothing can happen. So the search continues… Please pray! We really need to find something. Isabel and I are off to look at some other places tonight. But now it’s going to be harder…this last place was amazing and it’s hard to not compare other options to that.

But good news…or at least encouraging news…or at least encouraging. It’s not really news… I had a couple of great days with some of the guys. I’ve mentioned before, the three older guys who live in a small room on the edge of the property of the home. I’ve been a bit worried about two of them…they just seemed more and more distant lately. So Friday night I took pop and cookies and we had a “fiesta” in their room. It was a great time to just hang out with them and reconnect. We had some good laughs.

Then on Sunday two of those guys and Ticua (one of the guys who’ll be in the new place) wrote their entrance exam for university (which is crazy hard by the way). Afterwards the three of them, four other guys who aren’t at the home anymore and myself, all got together for lunch. It was just a really fun time of hanging out away from the home. We don’t get the chance to do that much. One of the guys, Franz, has been away for a year doing his military service. Sunday was the first day we’ve seen him since last January. So that was great too.

There are still a couple of difficult situations I have to deal with this week. I can’t really get into it, but I would sure appreciate your prayers. And keep praying for the staff relationship at the three homes…mostly between the leadership and the foreign staff (North Americans). It’s difficult at times and can be a cause of stress. We all really want to feel like we’re on the same page and moving in the same direction.

Thanks for praying everyone!

PS: Oh yea…one more funny aftermath of Carnival. There are four white geese who live at the house next door to me. They are my sworn, mortal enemies. Well…at any rate, I don’t like them much. I used to have this great palm tree plant on my deck until they ate it. They also poop a lot in front of my house.

I saw them yesterday…painted all the colours of the rainbow. Victims of a gang of little kids with paint in their water guns no doubt.

I laughed and it felt good.