Paul

From: Paul & Anne Marie FITZGERALD [mailto:p.am.fitzg@tiscali.fr]
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2007 01:44

My health has been behaving itself, which is a blessing! I'm still working on and off for Bea's translation agency but most of the time I just help here and there with translations and proofreading.

Do you have photos of the wedding we could look at.? We now have broadband, it's not super powerful but much better than what we had before. So we can receive photos and see videos, etc...

In August we had the visit of Simon and Shayne Cleminson. I think Sue remembers Shayne. Perhaps you knew her too, I can't remember. Anyway, she hasn't changed much!! It was great to have them here for several days. Simon helped Paul to dig (with a digger) a long trench to keep our house from flooding as we've had some sudden heavy rains sometimes and our house got flooded once. The second time Paul spent 3/4 of an hour bucketing water out of the porch so that the water would not come in! Since the trench was done, we've had heavy rains but the water runs down the garden. Thank the Lord for brothers and sisters!!

Well, we've been back for about 12 days now but our heads are still full of pictures... We don't have a numeric camera but Joanna took some photos with her mobile phone. They're not great but it will give you some idea...

So we visited Theo and Charlotte in their appartment in Los Boliches. They look just the same except more frail. Theo is 95, I don't know how old is Charlotte. We talked about you, gave them your last news, they send their love of course. Theo goes for a walk every morning along the Paseo, has his coffee in the bar nearby. They both go to a fellowship that meets in Calahonda. I understood that the Calahonda building actually houses several fellowships that meets at different times. Mijas church building is on sale. We went to look at it. It looks quite abandonned but we saw some clothes on the line, so there must be someone living there. The building cannot be sold as a home, it's a public place and has to be sold as such. It's a real shame, when I think of the fight it was to get the permits to build it! Anyway, we mustn't be attached to buildings.

So we stayed about two hours with Theo and Charlotte, they had planned on inviting us to the chinese restaurant but we had already arranged to be at Miguel and Irene's for lunch, so we did not stay. Anyway, we felt so blessed to be able to see them again!

We stayed in Coin, in the house of a sister from Miguel's church. Coin has become a touristic place. It has extended a lot and at first we could not believe our eyes. It's the same for Alhaurin el Grande. There are new houses everywhere. Lots of English people are buying houses and living there in some sort of autarky, there are foreign shops with all the English stuff.

Of course the streets of these villages, which are towns now, are still very narrow and up and down the hill. there is a LOT of traffic, which makes driving around quite scarry at times! Spaniards never used to be the best drivers but when we lived there, we did not notice. Now they have prospered economically and have acquired powerful cars and they drive like maniacs!.... We thought of Theo driving up and down the coast, but he's been used to this kind of traffic all these years so I suppose he feels quite all right.

We visited Ullie and David and saw Christian and Andrew. They are two big boys now. Christian is the dynamic young businessman, very active, doing sports, etc... he's buying his own appartment and should be moving out of his parents' home soon. Andrew is just the opposite. He's just shaven his long hair and wears white instead of black now, but is still looking for his identity. He did two years of catering school but has now given up and is taking time to think (and sleep, says Dave). Ullie and Dave live behind the "Muebles Benitez" in a nice urbanisation. They are part of a Baptist church. David is in the leadership and teaches. Ullie is involved with the Sunday school. They're both just the same and I suppose they'd say the same of us. We're just a bit older... but when we meet it's like time has disappeared. Praise the Lord!

We went to Antequera one afternoon. Dan, Rhoda and Debbie had recently arrived from the States. We saw Dan coming towards us, his cap on, more grey hair (no wig) but the same smile, the same Dan. We spent a good while in his office talking. He's involved with radio programs and TV programs (with REMAR). He's got projects and plenty to do. He'll be 74 this July. We then went to their appartment to greet Rhoda and Debbie and Sylviane who'd been praying with Deb. I hadn't seen Debbie since she was a kid!!! She must be around 38 now. She is a lovely person, really nice. We ended up having some "community dinner" together, it was really nice to be together again. This again is a miracle as we really did not think we'd be able to go to Spain at that time and meet Dan and family.

Sylviane has been in Antequera for 5 months. She does not quite know what the Lord wants her to do but she's restoring her spiritual health for the moment. We keep in touch regularly.

We spent most of our time with Miguel and Irene. We gave them your greetings. They just married their eldest daughter Saraï. Their son Miguelito works in Madrid as a technician on planes, he wants to be a pilot. Their youngest daughter, Nerea, is almost 16. She and joanna had a great time together.

Miguel has transformed the house they bought years ago into a lovely place and he just added a very nice swimming pool. Shame we could not use it, they were just filling it when we were there.

Glad to hear of your soon coming up trip to Alaska, this is really going to be something else!!! May the Lord bless you enormously and keep you safe. May He bless the girls abundantly.