Rivers Baptist Church - Christ alone - and Him crucified

Dear Praying Friends

In summary

- Praise God for a timely and productive time away, and good flights
- Pray that I’ll get my flights booked tomorrow.
- Praise God for the sense of being back home in our church here.
- Pray for the kids as they return to school (Wednesday) and for Marion taking the kids to school each day.
- Continue to praise God for all of us in OK health.
- Continue to pray for Jorge (car accident - March), Natalie and their daughter
- Pray for Bolivia – and the shortages of food & fuel.
- Pray for Caracas to be transformed into a city which glorifies God

Geof

The details

Our time back in Australia was fantastic and very timely. Our flights all went well (with no exceptions) for which we praise God. We got back to Caracas Monday night last week.

The reality of being back has hit, and hit hard. Our time home went so well that we notice the problems and inefficiencies here even more. This past week I had 2 major tasks which I set out to accomplish: paying our rent, and organising tickets for my trips next month to Peru and Thailand.
Both tasks were considerably more time consuming than I had anticipated.
(I expected to complete both within 2-3 days at the most). I finally paid the rent this morning but still have not got my tickets organised yet. The airline has been far from helpful. I particularly ask prayer that they will be able to finalise my bookings tomorrow.

The past week has been one in which I’ve been unable to see much productivity but yet hours and hours have been consumed completing even the little I’ve done. I have been in need of the encouragement and this came at church yesterday. My Bible Study went well and our friends were so thrilled to see us again. But what really impacted me the most was the sensation of belonging, and the sense that we had finally come back home. In some respects I was surprised as we’ve only been here a year. In other respects I know I shouldn’t be surprised in that we are sure that this is where God wants us. For me it was a special reminder that despite the problems and inefficiencies here, it is where God wants us at this point in time, and I was so glad to be back at our church.

There are a few changes taking place at the kids’ school, one of which is the starting time. School will start 7.30am each morning (½ hour earlier) and finish at 1.30pm (¼ hour earlier). This means that Marion and the kids will need to leave by 7am each day.
Marion is not looking forward to the earlier starts. Pray for Marion and the kids as they start back at school on Wednesday.

Pray for complete healing for Marion who has had a sore throat (and been unable to talk). Michael & I both feel on the brink of coming down with colds. Pray that our bodies will be able to fight it off. Apart from that we’re all in good health (ie even with our not being 100% it is doing little to thwart what we’re trying to do) for which we praise God.

Pray for Bolivia which has internal strife and problems at the moment.
We’ve heard from several sources that fuel and food are almost exhausted in the cities.

Geof