There is planning, and there is doing, and never the twain shall meet...?

The weekend campaign, while not going as I expected, went very well. There church in Chorerra - just outside of Panama City - brought a group of about 35 folks to canvas the area for two days, and have nightly meetings as well. We are in the midst of the dry season here, which means, of course, it rained, twice. The group was staying in tents, and it was pretty cool with the rains, but they were troopers!
I am still learning that nothing is ever concrete when it comes to planned activities here. The plan was for 4 days of classes in the afternoons, with nightly meetings and visiting in the mornings. The group was providing all the food, materials, everything necessary for the work, and we would hold nightly meetings at 7:00 for the adults and another class for the children. A group from our church that lives in Dolega was to stay at our house for the four nights as it is a full hours travel for them to get here. Yari, Dani and I spent the entire week preparing the house.

So, this is what actually happened: The group arrived from Chorerra at 5 am Saturday instead of Friday night - bus troubles. On Saturday part of the group from Dolega came up, but decided to stay with the campers, then at 5 in the afternoon the other part of that group (4 in all) called to say that they would like to stay here. I said that was fine, we were ready. There were no classes or activities on Saturday, as they spent the day visiting and handing out flyers. Saturday evening no-one had shown up at our house, but our neighbor told us that there would not be an evening service. I called Frank, the preacher, to verify and he said, yes there would be evening service at 6:30. About an our later another member of the church called to say that the service would be at 6:40. I called the neighbor back to tell her, but by then all of our church family in our neighborhood had made other plans. Yari and I went to the building at 6:30 and the service actually started at 7:15. After the service we guided those staying with us to our house and got them settled in. Then it rained.
Sunday morning we got up and visited for awhile before heading off for morning worship. I got there to find they had cancelled my class in order to keep the whole group together. Then about 30 minutes into the class I got sick and had to leave. I was in bed the rest of the day.

The group had lunch together then all went out visitng and handing out flyers through the afternoon. (noteworthy - the food was all provided by our church as the group had not brought food or cooking utensils.)
At 9:30 last night those staying here returned to sleep, then this morning they left at about 9:00 to see the Chorerra group off before heading back to their home in Dolega. The campaign had been cut two days short, not exatly sure why. Though I did not get to participate much, I hear that the campaign was a success, with the building overflowing last night.

Fellowship is always good, and I am certain that the community is more aware of where we are located, and our beliefs due to the visitations. The singing was great! We learned some new songs and the speaker was very charismatic. I think most everyone was uplifted along with the name of the Lord. So, it was different that I expected, but it was good.

Saly is about to pop! Our dalmatian is due. NOW. She spent the night in so much pain that she chewed up part of the wall. Today she is very restless, and absolutely HUGE! As you can see, she just can't wait much longer. I expect tonight I will be a grandma!

Yari continues to recuperate and has been given a clean bill of health! She is almost walking normally, but the doc has cautioned her not to run, bike, or lift heavy thing s for another 6 weeks. No more cane, or crutches!

Lynn comes home next week! I am missing the cute lil' guy! I think he is missing me a little too! I can not help but stop and say "Thank you God!" that we will celebrate our 28th wedding anniversary next week. Many of you know just how close we came to not ever celebrating together again. Praise God for his love, mercy and guidance!

Richest Blessings!