Our visas have been approved!  Last Wednesday I went to Chicago pick up mine, and was pleasantly surprised to find that Kay's and Ian's had been approved as well.  Not only that, the consulate stamped all of our passports so that Kay and Ian did not have to make a special trip.

After arriving alone and sick last Friday, I'm feeling much better physically and emotionally as I look forward to Kay and Ian arriving in two days (Ian still had final exams so could not travel yet).  In the mean time I've been blessed by the generosity of friends, including Alberto and his father with whom I've been staying.

The global recession is certainly evident here.  Alberto was released from the auto company he worked for; he's repairing cars in his garage.  Luis was the victim of his company going bankrupt a couple of months ago.  He worked long hours for 29 years for a man he thought was a friend.  That man ran the company into the ground, declared bankruptcy and went into retirement, leaving Luis and the other workers with no severance pay.   I spent a couple of hours with Luis yesterday, he's devastated.  He tends to believe all people are basically good and his faith is shaken.  That's not a bad thing, Luis isn't even sure he believes in God!

I've started looking at apartments, but will wait for Kay to make a decision on a permanent place to live.  Unfortunately there is no place in our old neighborhood to rent at this time.  There are a lot of places for sale, but they all need to pay off a mortgage.  There are some possible rentals relatively close.

It was a blessing to attend the church we helped start Sunday and see new faces.  Our intern, Alejandro, did a good job leading the worship.  There is a leaders' meeting Saturday morning.

It's good to serve the Lord.  Thanks for praying for us!

Mark