Birth of sixth grandchild

Luz Maria's sixth grandchild, Edwar José Garrido Santana, was born at 3:30 a.m., April 26, 2007, to Sarai Santana de Garrida, my wife's youngest daughter. He weighed 3.55 kilograms.

Sarai's husband, José, is a construction worker. He has been steadily employed in Barinas, thanks to the Copa America construction boom. That's the upside for us; the downside is there is still a shortage of cement and workers to build the wall around our property as well.

The same week that Edwar José (no "d" on the end of Edwar) was born, there was a parade in honor of Primary Education Week in La Caramuca's town square. The children of our preschool marched in the parade behind a big banner with the name of the preschool, "Rayitos de Luz", on it. We thank God that our preschool is acquiring a reputation as one of the best private preschools around.

Meanwhile, back in Caracas, my fellow students and I completed our first semester of intensive training with the Juan de Frias Theological Institute. We now have a "break" between now and the beginning of the second semester in September. Of course, during our "break", we will be required to attend a series of five seminars, each lasting a week to two weeks. The topics include an introduction to the koine Greek of the New Testament. It's a good thing that I have here all my Dad's books on Greek vocabulary, grammar and syntax.

When I was a boy, I liked to look at the Greek, Hebrew and German books in my Dad's study and piece together the texts as if they were some sort of code. I don't imagine Dad ever thought I would borrow any of his books and take them to South America.

That's enough for now, I think.