Even with the seemingly endless rain, church attendance is still increasing.  We had 170 there on Sunday, nice round number of 85 kids and 85 adults.  We had 45 in our ladies class yesterday.  I got to teach, and it is different teaching 45 than it is 15-20!

We did have a small miracle yesterday: it was sunny out and we had water, so I washed tons of clothes that I haven’t been able to do for the past week because there was no sun to dry them!  We also finally got our roof fixed, so the rain water is no longer leaking down my kitchen wall and into my cabinets.  When we got back from the states we had glasses full of water!  Turns out our home owner was too cheap to overlap the sheet metal the right way and the water was leaking through the joints.  And here we were looking for holes!!

I was reflecting Monday about the customer service revolution in the states, and wondering why some of that couldn’t make it’s way down to Nicaragua (if coke and pizza hut can make it, customer service can!).  We wanted to get a house warming gift for Giovanni and Carolina who just moved into their beautiful new home on the church property, and we knew they wanted a bathroom kit (you know, soap dish, toilet paper holder, etc) from the store because we were with them the other day and they mentioned they liked it.  So, this is the largest hardware store in Nicaragua.  To purchase something, you have to pick it out, find a employee to help you by writing up an invoice, take the invoice to the cashier and pay, take the receipt to another person who goes and finds the item for you in the warehouse, but oops, one of the items is in the other warehouse so after he gives you one, you have to go outside to another guy who will get you the other thing.  When they find your items, they have to stamp your receipt and you have to sign something saying you received your items.  This takes about 30-45 min after you pay!  Surely there’s a better way!  So, everyone take a minute and say thanks for having more efficient shopping systems.

David and I are back from a wonderful vacation to Texas.  We had tons of fun with the family and our adventures included a wedding, 5 year old birthday party, trip to the zoo, circus, full day of swimming, lots and lots of shopping and I’m sure other things that I just can’t remember right now!  Like most vacations, we feel like we need a vacation to recover from our vacation, but it’s not to be. 

Church attendance has been great at about 145-150 people on average for the past month or so.  I always sit in the back row to take attendance without having to turn around or get up during services, so I’m really pushing for an addition to our roof, as I’m half an inch away from sitting in the rain!! 

And raining it has been.  The whole two weeks we were in the states to be exact.  I wasn’t too excited to return home to see that the roof had leaked into my kitchen pantry.  One of my glasses held a cup full of water!  On the other hand, I was very excited to come home to see the day before we got home Carolina and some of the ladies came over and cleaned up the dust and mold that had grown during our trip (our office furniture grows mold literally overnight!). 

I would promise pictures of our trip, but our computer has decided to stop sending info to our monitor.  Giovanni is taking it into the shop for us tomorrow, so pray it is fixable, as I just finished downloading all of our banking info before I realized I have to place to put it!  Yikes!