March 13, 2015

The Frontier.  Yesterday was really amazing.  It was the 2^nd monthly preacher meeting since we have been here.  I met Carlos at the bus stop that is at the edge of Ataco.  He picked me up at 6:50 and we arrived at Hector’s house in Apaneca at 7:00.  He was waiting in his van with another brother.  We were waiting for several other brothers who arrived about 20 minutes late.  We headed out and picked up three other brothers who were just waiting for us beside the road out in the country or in some town we passed through.  We got to a town called Izalco about 9 and met several other brothers there.  There were too many to fit in Hector’s van so we waited about 30 minutes for a larger vehicle to arrive but it never came.  Finally as many of us as could got back into Hector’s van and the rest rode with Noe in his van and we headed out.  We drove about 1 more hour and the last good distance was on very rough unpaved roads with the van frequently bumping the ground and almost getting stuck.  We did finally make it at about 10:30 and met for about 2 hrs.  At the end of the meeting when everyone was hot and tired and thought we were done I said I would like to say something.  This is what I said in Spanish-“It doesn’t seem possible that we have already been here a year.  But the other time I came to this meeting I was only 60 and now I am 61.  And I had made a promise to myself that when I had been in El Salvador for a year I would be able to speak Spanish well.  So since I can speak Spanish well now I am going to give you a discourse for about 1 hour.  Fortunately for all of you and certainly for me this is a joke.  Thank you brothers.”  At least we ended the meeting with a laugh.  Hector announced to the group that Charlotte and I along with Cesar and his wife would be working in Juayua.  Then we had a good lunch prepared by the ladies there and headed back.  Carlos and I got back to Ataco at 3:30 and he said he was not going all the way to his house in Ahuachapan because he had a home Bible study in Ataco at 5:30 so he came in our house and rested, had some coffee and cake and visited until time for the study.  We really enjoyed the time to sit and talk because there doesn’t seem to be lots of time for that with everyone here so busy (imagine that).  I told him I was a little disappointed that people were not knocking on our door and asking us to teach them the Gospel.  He laughed and said that was not going to happen but there was lots of opportunity here and he felt Juayua would be a really good place for us to work because the work was so new there and here in Ataco most of the doors had been knocked on once or more because it is so small.  Keep us in your prayers that we will find many open hearts and minds.  Oh yeah, I forgot to say that the brothers in the van were joking about our being on the frontier because we were so far out in the country where everyone was a farmer with large hogs or cattle with horns like in the old west.  Carlos later told me we were not near any frontiers.  Sorry I did not take the camera.