How Hot is HOT?

Recently someone from our church got in contact with us for the first time, and she had some questions for us.  I thought you might be interested...

 An interesting thing about where we live:  we don't get a lot of wind here, in fact, even breezes are a treat!  In reading one of our boys' books on oceans, Josh found out that where we live is considered the "doldrums"!  Like when a sailboat is stuck out in the ocean because there's no wind.   It's flat here and very humid (humidity ranges from 70-90%).  Our annual rainfall is around 106 inches compared to 33.8 inches annually on average in Milwaukee.  The temperature during the day is high 80's to high 90's even if it rains.  A couple of days of rain can  bring the temp down to the high 70's (and when that happens we break out the hot chocolate!).  It doesn't often get below 80 degrees even at night.

You asked about power and using a generator: The power here fluctuates on how bad it is.  When we got here in March '07 it was very predictable - the power was out 1 full day and one half day each week.  Then it got worse and was a pattern of being out for an 8 hour stretch each day, on for around 6 hours and then out for about 4 hours.  An angry group of nationals held a demonstration of sorts at the house of the person in charge of the power here in our city, and then it was on almost all the time again for several  months.  We had several weeks where it was bad but they had a broken generator (the city did).  When they replaced it the power was stable again but took a couple of week to get it.  Lately it's been getting worse and worse again. 

We do have a generator and can run one air conditioner with it, but even with that it's hard to get cool some days!  Josh has to quickly start the generator each time the power goes out to avoid shutting down his computer--less of interruption if he doesn't have to reboot!  We do have a UPS attached to Josh's computer and it gives him around 10 minutes to get the generator started before the computer dies.  It's a bit of an interruption to have to shut down the (desktop) computer several times in a day when the power goes out.  Sometimes the power is only out for 10 minutes at a time, several times a day.  Part of what takes so much time is that when the generator runs we can't run more than 1 A/C, so we have to go shut off the "big" one (which is not energy efficient and came with the house), turn off the fridge, the water cooler, etc - anything that draws a lot of power so that the generator can get started.  The fridge can generally then be turned back on once the generator is stable.  

Hot weather means grilling out a lot - right?  

Not here! - this is the BIGGEST grill we could find!

We would love for you to pray for us.  There are the usual things to pray for - like health (dengue fever is a risk here) and safety (traffic on the roads is quite random - cutting people off is "normal driving").  Also please pray that we'd put our walk with the Lord above our ministry and family life - it's a struggle each day as I believe that the evil one does not want us to be faithful.  Pray for patience and stamina as there are days that the power goes out numerous times.  It's SO hot and SO humid and sometimes it's hard to cope.  

We'd love prayer for decisions we need to make in the near future - like our planned trip home for 11 months beginning in fall and potentially returning in summer 2010 as longer-term workers.   It will be an opportunity to reconnect with supporters, friends and family whom we haven't seen in 3 years.  If we are able to return, we will need additional monthly financial support (sponsors) to function at the recommended level of support.  

I hope this peek into correspondence with a new prayer partner gives you an idea of what life here is like.  We've had incredibly hot, dry weather for the past few weeks, and suddenly we've had 2 days of rain!  What an incredible blessing!  I'll be sleeping well tonight!  Not only is it cooler but the SOUND of rain is SOOO relaxing...   Ahhhh!