Rivers Baptist Church - Christ alone - and Him crucified

Dear praying friends

In summary
- Praise that we’ve paid our phone and electricity bills yesterday.
- Praise for a good week of Spanish classes last week and for good discussions.
- Praise God for better health.
- Continue to pray for us as we continue settling into our apartment (and purchase other items we still need).
- Continue to pray for us as I continue thinking and reflecting upon possible team strategies.
- Pray for Young Nam as she looks for a Venezuelan lady to live with..

Geof

The details

When I woke up yesterday I had no idea that the entire day would be spent paying our electricity and phone bills! On Friday night last week I had arrived home to find that our phone bill had arrived… and had to be paid by Wednesday (yesterday). With Monday & Tuesday both public holidays here the payment centres were closed and they never open on weekends. Thus yesterday was my first and last chance to pay the bill. So I made a trip to the bank and to my surprise I was in and out within 10 minutes. (I have never spent so short a time in a Venezuelan bank!). I then went to pay our phone bill… The queue was horrendous so I phoned Marion to cancel her plans for the morning and take my place in the queue so that I could get a place in the queue for paying electricity. Marion eventually arrived and took my place in the queue. She finally paid the phone bill more than 3 hours after I had first joined the queue! Meanwhile I had joined the electricity queue about 10:20am. At that stage there were over 300 people in front of me. With only 2 cashiers receiving payments I knew it would be a long wait. It was around 4:10pm when I finally got the chance to pay the bill (almost 6 hours after I had joined that queue). By the time I left there were still hundreds of people queued and the office usually closes at 4:30pm! I got to meet quite a number of folk in the queues, and I found there were only 2 types of customers. Firstly there were those who had received bills on Friday last week and all of their bills were supposed to be paid by Thursday last week! The rest of us have never received our electricity bills but suspecting our bills were due we were there to pay them. When I finally arrived home I found a final notice in our mail – mentioning that the electricity would be cut if I didn’t pay the bill immediately! As well as a good time meeting people and learning how the bill payment systems work (or doesn’t work) I praise God for 2 things:
firstly that I joined the queue when I did, and secondly that I had decided to pay the account despite not yet having received the bill! [PS:
The bill arrived today… 4 days after it was due.]

Compared to the previous week, last week was very ordinary, rather mundane and predictable. I went to language classes every day (9am to 6pm) and worked on homework each night. The language school is short on tutors at the moment, so I had almost the entire week with the one tutor, a devout Catholic, and we had many interesting discussions throughout the week.
Thanks for your prayers. Oh yes there was a bit of drama getting the washing machine installed even that was so predictable… Every day last week Marion called our salesperson who assured her the installer would be there that day. Marion organised her schedule to ensure that she was home most of the time but he finally arrived on Friday while Marion was out!
Thanks to mobile phones Marion was home within half an hour and the machine is now installed and working well… oh yeah the electrician arrived last weekend and has installed all the required power plugs. So, we now have a washing machine and dryer. The downside is that we have lost the use of our temporary table. Mind you I’ve been able to buy a second-hand desk and table, and I hope to pick them up tomorrow. [PS: With the help of a friend I picked up the table this afternoon, and we will probably collect the desk sometime next week.]

Michael continues to be a source of energy and good health. Thanks for your prayers for the rest of us. This past week we’ve all been much better health-wise. When I last wrote Segana had just come down with a form of conjunctivitis and a cold as well, but her health has noticeably improved and she’s now pretty much back to normal. Marion & I are keeping quite well although my throat is still not 100%.

Thanks for praying for me as I talked with Young Nam. She has taken the ‘bad news’ well. She has been living alone in an apartment but we both agree that she really needs to live with Spanish speakers. Pray for her as she seeks to find a Venezuelan lady with whom she could live.

Geof