Today was, theoretically, a ‘day off’, but days off don’t often happen here! So I began packing when I could, with what was originally a breakfast date with Dario and his family moved to lunch…so we did get a bit of time to do some final bits of shopping in centro, the city centre. It was also the last opportunity for Gerard, Elise, and Lydie, to

have one of friend Manuel’s wonderful fresh fruit juice drinks. It was hardly an exciting shopping trip, as it involved getting two extra sets of apartment keys cut: the mystery of where the others went still remains… Chris left them on the living room table with my phone, but they must have been raptured! There’s absolutely nowhere to lose them…. We had a wonderful time with Dario at lunchtime: his family and his mum, Lileana, were there, and his pet parrot from the ‘finca’ (mountain estate), Lulu, was also there, pecking at our feet while we ate! Dario’s a bit like the apostle Peter’s brother Andrew. He can’t resist asking other people to to come and meet us so we can pray for them. We had a great lunch, and then Erica (Dario’s lovely wife) ‘s mum and aunt turned up, then his brother, and a few others!

It was great getting to know his family better, and I had a lovely chat and pray with Lileana, while Elise, Lydie, and Gerard talked and prayed with Erica’s family. The friendship with Dario and Erica has become something very special, and he often says to me ‘you’re always in my heart’ which is such a blessing, and yet on a purely ‘human’ level, such an ‘unlikely’ friendship, if you remember a little of the story. We had a truly lovely time praying with them, and their ‘home-help’ (maid here), Elsy… I lost count of the number of the number of hugs, with the whole family, including their lovely daughter and son. God is so clearly in this friendship: and the peace and presence of God was in the house the whole time. All being well, I’m seeing them again tomorrow before I head to the airport at about 6 pm. Gerard, Lydie, and Elisa go at 11 am, so I’m Billy-no-mates for a few hours, except for seeing this lovely family again. There’s much I CAN’T say about the last few days, but if you’d just pray for the family, that’d be wonderful. And so to more packing 🙁

I love this city so much,