July, 2015 Newsletter

We spent the first week of July having all our studies in Juayua on our own because Cesar and family were in the States for 2 weeks.  We also put out fliers, finished securing the room for classes and doing the other things we could to get ready for our group from Central to arrive on July 6.  One fun part of our getting ready was trying out some of the restaurants in Juayua that we had not been to before because the group would be eating dinner out in Juayua each night.  On July 2^nd, we said goodbye to Lucky and took her to the airport.  We had become fairly close over the month she stayed with us and hope she will still be able to return to work here in the future.  We have only one main, continuing study in Ataco area and that is with Natividad.  We had several studies with her throughout July and she still has not made a decision yet, but she says she is very close.  We spent Saturday, July 4, sitting in front of the room we had rented for the English classes and registering students.  After 2 ½ hours of work we had only about 35 students singed up and were a little disappointed.  Turned out that was a good number for the space and number of workers we had.  Monday, July 6, our group arrived.  We drove our car to the airport to avoid having to get up at 3 a.m. to ride with Hector who was taking another group back to the airport for a very early flight.  James Mosley and Clifton rode back with us and they and Jim ended up staying with us for the week.  It was an incredible week, both with all the cooking that Charlotte did to have lunch that we took for the group each day as well as all the work of teaching and door knocking.  We were a little nervous with this being our first group to be responsible for, but it went really great.  Everyone worked so hard and we now have several new contacts, 5 of which we have already begun studies with and several people who are now visiting our services who had not been before.  Jim studied with Julia, William Rivas and Jose and Kelly, all of whom have come to services one or more times since the group left.  He also studied with Omar during the English classes and he and his sisters have come to two English classes and have brought two friends with them. They are coming to Sunday night services and we began studying with them last week.  We had a beautiful graduation at the end of the week with students and family members and lots of pictures. We had an offer of some workers from BICA to work in the Juayua area the last week of August and actually decided against it because we have so many contacts and studies going right now and we will be back in the States from the end of August till the end of September. Cesar will have a ton to keep going on his own.  We had seven visitors at one evening service and routinely have at least 3 or4. We now are studying with 12 people on a weekly basis and asked Carlos our English student yesterday if we could start studying with him and he said he would like to.  We sure are looking forward to getting to see all of you and our families in person but we will sure be torn with all the relationships here that we are having to miss while we are there.  After the group left we have enjoyed Clifton being with us for the rest of the month. It is great getting to take him with us on our studies and taking him to visit people he had become close to last year.  He also had outings without us with Noé and Carlos.  He has had lots of opportunities to practice Spanish, has made good comments during studies and has led prayers during studies and services.  We heard late this month that my one year visa had been approved and was waiting to be picked up.  Because our papers were separated, mine were sent ahead and Charlotte does not yet have hers yet. But, we are not expecting any problems and hope to pick both them up Thursday Aug. 6^th when we take Clifton to the airport.  As a closing note, this month has been a very bad and violent month for the country of El Salvador, including 9 bus drivers being killed by gang members in an effort to shut down the transportation system in San Salvador and it worked for a few days.  Now there are soldiers at the bus stops and on the buses.  Pray for peace in this country and keep us and all those God has blessed us to reach out to in your prayers.

                                                                          In His love, Dwaine and Charlotte

Group from Huntsville

at English Class Graduation

July 31, 2015

Off to the races.  We got a real treat Friday.  It was the last day of school before a few days of vacation.  Instead of having classes there was a huge race competition.  It included not only all of the students of all ages in the school across from our house but also students from some other nearby schools and some adults even.  The street was absolutely packed and very noisy.  It all began 7:30 and there was a big build up that lasted at least an hour before the races actually began.  There were first, second and third place prizes for all different age groups with the first place person in each category getting a trophy.  After everyone had finally headed out, the very loud speakers that had been blasting the announcements were used to blare out worthless music mostly in English while the students were in the process of getting back to the school.  We all three were literally sick and tired of the noise before it finally terminated with the end of the award ceremony at about 11:30.  Four hours of nonstop very loud noise right outside our door. Charlotte had actually planned to go to a hot springs near Santa Ana with a few of the teen girls for the day, but it was cancelled.  Some of the girls could not get permission to go due to the violence in the country.  It may be on hold until our return in September. After lunch Charlotte and I rode to Juayua to pick up Pedrito so that he could participate in the youth seminar on Saturday.  We also needed a few items from Selectos.  We stopped there on the way to Pedrito’s because Charlotte wanted to get a birthday cake for Nelson to use as refreshment on Saturday at the end of English class.  She was hopping to leave it in the fridge at Regina’s overnight.  As we drove up Pedrito was waiting for us at the door and as soon as he saw us he closed it and did not have a key to get back in since he was home alone.  We had to take the cake back to Ataco and then bring it back on Saturday after all but it made it fine.  Clifton had stayed home still not feeling well.  We spent the rest of the day cleaning and cooking to get ready for the Seminar. 

Starting to Gather for the Races

Large group now with a few leaning against our car.

Think the car is safe?

Almost time.

Line-up

They're off!

Trophies are waiting for the taking.

July 30, 2015

Too sick to go.  We had planned to go to the canopies to zipline early this morning, but Clifton was really under the weather.  He just did not feel like making the effort to get out, especially something that took so much effort.  So, we had been wanted Edgardo to go with us to a study with Natividad.  We have been studying for several months and we think she understands us, but she has not made a decision.  We wanted Edgardo to go and make sure we were communicating.  She said she understood everything, but she just wasn’t quite ready.  Edgardo gave a good illustration.  He started with the first 5 verses of John.  He asked Natividad if the house she lived in was hers.  She said yes.  Then he asked, “What if you came home and someone else had taken your keys and you couldn’t get in, how would you feel?  Even if you knocked, no one would let you come in to your own home.” He said that Jesus owned us.  He wants for us to let him in.  He wants to dwell in what is already his.  But since we occupy ‘our house,’ we won’t let him in.  We’ve locked him out.  It was a great illustration.  He went on to share a couple of further illustrations, but that was a good one.  I had planned to have Sister Concepion over for cooking, and we were back at our car.  I understood she lived close by, so I wanted to ask if she just wanted to ride back with us.  At that moment she walked up and she said she would just come at 1.  Edgardo rode on back for lunch and just as he was leaving, she arrived.  She said she wanted to learn a couple of American recipes.  The difficulty is finding things that she has equipment to cook with.  She has a plancha, which is a like a big grill and two stove top gas eyes.  So we cooked marinated salad, Italian chicken, stove top potatoes and onions and baked mango bread.  She can’t cook the mango bread, but she wanted to include a bread.  When we finished we had a small plate for a taste test. Dwaine had stayed upstairs for the afternoon mostly putting his finishing touches on his lesson for the teen boy seminar Saturday. It was approaching 4, so we wanted to take her home because it was raining.  I divided the food into two parts.  One I wanted to send to Nester’s family.  Nester is a boy of 11 or 12 and he just had a three part, serious operation.  The other half I wanted to send with Sister Concepion.  She was really surprised. It was a nice surprise.  A little after 5 we headed to the Bible study and took the food.  Nester was looking good.  I know the week had been really hard for him, but he always has a smile on his face.  There was a good turnout for the study.  About half way through, Linda asked me very quietly to move to the only empty chair from the sofa because their might be a leak to develop where I was sitting.  After I moved across the room, I second guessed myself and wondered if I understood her correctly and if everyone was wondering why I moved across the room suddenly.  So afterwards, I asked if that was what she said and it was.  I was relieved that I wasn’t just playing musical chair in the middle of the studyJ.  Anyway, Clifton didn’t go to the study either because he felt so bad.  We are working on some different meds and hope one kicks in quickly for his last week. 

Sister Conception after cooking for the afternoon.

Heading home.

Forgot to put the picture of our mosquito netted bed I 

had posted about last week.

July 29, 2015

Houses anyone.  We left early this morning to start out at the lady who was the mother of one house owner and the grandmother of another.  She said she had talked to each of them and they said they would be in Juayua for a couple of weeks at the end of the year and if we were still looking for a place then they would talk with us.  So we went back to the lady we had talked to a couple of times before and she helped us to find the owners of a house down the street from her and we looked at that.  It was small and strangely laid out so no go.  Then we went to an area where there were supposed to be some houses available and began asking neighbors.  We looked in one house that had a nice living room and a garage but no real kitchen and it was also shared with another family- no again.  Then we spoke to a lady who had a house that was going to be empty on Friday.  She had pictures and it looked really good and like new but she could not go with us so we went to look at the outside of it.  She had said it was in a really quiet safe location but it was really out on the edge of town with dirt roads- no again.  Then we went to a study with Julia and after the study she said she would come to services at 5:00.   We did not have time to study with Mr. Rivas but we stopped by for a few minutes and asked if he could come at 5:00 and he also said yes.   Then we went to lunch.  As we entered the restaurant Cesar spoke to a police man who was standing in front and asked him about houses.  When we came out he said he had some leads for us and he spent about 30 minutes going with us to try to run them down.  Nothing really developed though we looked at one place we thought was a house but was only a front and was intended for a business.  Then we went on to our study with Mario and Sara.  After that we were running late so Cesar, Regina and Pedrito went to visit Sister Anna and Charlotte and I went to our first studies with Omar and his two sisters.  I studied with him and Charlotte with the two sisters.  That went good and about 10 to 5 I told Charlotte we needed to head on to the 5:00 study.  About 5:10 we realized we had forgotten Mr. Rivas and Julia so I jumped in the car and took off to get them.  After much apologizing they both came and we had them and three other visitors which is good for a Wednesday night.  One visitor came for the first time.  This was Marina and she is the daughter of Sister Ana, who has arthritis.  After we dropped them off we went by and visited a few minutes with Kelly and Jose.  We still had to make a Selectos run because it is our last time in Juayua before the youth seminar on Saturday.  Side note, Clifton had gotten a stomach bug so he stayed home for the day.  He still was not feeling real great when we got home.  Hopefully he will be better tomorrow. 

Fumigating with a blower.

Would hate to have this job.

One house we saw.

Kitchen with no sink.

Upstairs bedroom in shared courtyard.

Nice insect along the way.

Studying Saul.  Word for rules is the same for ruler,

as in English.  So we did a word play.

Working hard.

Nice work! 

Go Ruby!

Edible crowns!

Go Cesi!

Omar has joined us for about a month  now!

July 28, 2015

Another piece of the puzzle.  When Charlotte was here last October with Caleb and Della for their last week, the car was transferred to Charlotte's name at least on paper.  When we went to pay the annual tax we were told that we would have to go through a legal process to get the transfer recognized by the DMV.  That day we did not have time to do everything but we wanted to make sure we got it done before we came back for our month visit to the states because by the time we got back the document Charlotte had would be almost a year old.  We got up and left at 8:00 and picked up Cesar at 8:30.  We went through Los Naranahos to go to Santa Ana from Juayua and it is always a beautiful mountainous drive.  As we were on our way we passed a bus with all the people standing outside with their hands behind their heads and policemen with guns.  Cesar said that they were being searched for weapons.  We saw another load in the same place on the way back doing the exact same thing.   The gangs here have started killing bus drivers to try to shut down the transportation system, and it is working.  They killed 5 drivers on Monday alone and no buses were running on Tuesday in San Salvador because of a driver's strike.  We had not heard as much lately and had hoped that things were getting better but no such luck.  When we got home Charlotte did some looking on the web and found there have been twice as many murders this year here compared to the same time last year.  El Salvador needs prayers but even though we have definitely seen an increase in police in our area we have not heard of much violence except in San Salvador. When we got to the DMV they said Clifton and I could not go in so Charlotte and Cesar went in and Clifton and I went back and waited in the car.  All went well though Charlotte said the lady had to re-fill out the papers that Cesar had filled out and they got into three or four wrong lines.  The main thing is that now the car will be registered in Charlotte's name and if the day ever comes when we want to sell it we will be able to.  Cesar lived in Santa Ana before he moved to Juayua so he needed to go by a credit union to close an account.  We were glad to get to help him do something because he is always helping us.  After all that was done it was near lunch and we went to Burger King since there is not one near Ataco or Juayua.  After lunch we went a few miles past Santa Ana to the home of a family who orders and distributes the hymnals that we use here in all the churches.  We got 10 for the church in Juayua and 2 as gifts for other people.  We enjoyed visiting with the family.  The man and his wife were pretty old.  He had quit his job many years ago to become a full time preacher, he had actually been an elder for some years which is really rare here, and they have a son who is a preacher and a daughter whose husband is a preacher.  After that we headed home and dropped Cesar back off in Juayua on the way.  We were so worn out we all rested for a little while then we got to skype with Caleb and little Charlotte some before we went to the evening study at Zoila's.  At the end of the study two different people asked for prayers for relatives who were police in San Salvador.  Charlotte said we should mention that the last 3 night we have been getting a net amount of more sleep though we are not sure about the gross amount.  She said that Saturday night something bit her in several places and she itched all night so we decided to try the mosquito net for the bed.  I sure was glad Clifton was here to help set it up.  We have not had any bites since setting it up.  It does require some zipping to get in and out but is worth it.  

Bus Search for Weapons on the way to Santa Ana

Bus Search for Weapons returning from Santa Ana

Brother who works on the street, has all the DMV papers.

Got this in the States?....Nacho Whopper!

Burger King in Santa Ana!

Stopped by Chalchuapa to pick up song books.

Brother was suffering from Chikungunya.

July 27, 2015

Strange day.  We started last week going to Juayua earlier for a new 1:30 study with Mario and Sara.  Today we went on about 10:40 so that Charlotte could talk more with Joli about the new project they shared with us last week that they are starting for the ladies who are already Christians here in El Salvador.  Clifton and I snoozed, he in a hammock and I in their new glider-rocker recliner (gotta git me one of those when we get back after our visit back to the States and we get moved).  Then we picked up Cesar at 2:30 and went by to speak to a lady we had talked to on Saturday and who was going to try to check on some possible houses for rent.  She said she knew of one and she locked her door and got in the car with us.  Charlotte drove and Cesar, Clifton and I sat in the back.  As she directed turn after turn, first Clifton and then all of us realized that she was taking us to the very same large house we had seen a couple of weeks ago.  The owner thought it was pretty funny that we were back again.  She said she thought a medical group was going to rent it and pay the $600 per month but if that fell through she would let us know if they decided to take less.  We got to see an additional 2 large bed rooms.  We said if we did get that house we could accommodate any group that came to visit in our own house.  Then we went to Don Pollo for lunch.  It is the only truly fast food place in Juayua and sells only fried chicken and a few sides.  Not even drinks.  Anyway it was pretty good chicken and we will probably use it from time to time.  Then we went to the study with Mario and Sara and that went well.  Cesar had to leave us after that to go to Ahuachapan and pick up his car that was in the shop and then go to Turin to a preacher’s meeting over an issue that is ongoing with a problem of a preacher in the area.  We dropped him off at the bus stop and went to a dress boutique someone had told us about where the owner might have a house for rent.  The worker called the owner and said someone was on the way over.  While we waited outside Julia walked up and we got to talk with her for a little while.  Then Kelley and Jose walked by and we spoke to them.  We are getting to know folks on the street in Juayua.  A man walked up and said he was there about the house but the only thing they had was the boutique with an adjoining house and they wanted to rent it all together and if they did rent it would not be ready until the end of the year.  We had heard of another house that was supposed to be empty and what people do here is just ask the neighbors about it.  So we went to the house and asked the people next door.  They sent us down the street and the people there sent us to another house across town.  When we got there I and Pedrito went in and the lady said she was the mother of the owner of the house we looked at.  The owner had moved to San Salvador and might rent the house.  She said she talked to her every night.  She said she had a cabana she wanted to show us.  I got Charlotte and Clifton and she took all of us to a very unusual house behind her house which was very pretty.  It belonged to her grandson, who is a pilot for a European airline and never uses it.  It was amazing, you can see the pictures below, but we are still hoping to look at the other house also.  She was not sure of course if her grandson would want someone living in the house.  After that we tried to do a follow up visit with a lady whom Charlotte had met during the campaign.  She was home but not very interested.  We had a little time so we went by a smoothie shop and got a small smoothie each.  Then we went to Raul and Anita’s.  He was out but we had a good study with Anita and he arrived as we were finishing up.  We managed to leave Juayua without stopping at Selectos. 

Bike race in Ataco

Second time to see this house.

Nice backyard.

One bedroom of 5

Vines on the wall.

Living room.

Yard of the Cabana.

Nice plant.

Front of Cabana.

Alright Buckhorn fans.

Lee and Tyler this one is for you.

Fireplace in Cabana.

Table with neat figures on top. 

What a kitchen for El Salvador.

Looks American style.

Dining Table.

Large picture pose.  Catch the bird in top right corner?

Street view from the cabana.

Yard view.

Open for seeds.

Really heavy fruit.

Tree full.

Can you tell how large this is?

Multi colored flowers. 

Barbecue pit.

Garage

Truck, along with about 5 other vehicles in 

neighbor's yard.

Ana carrying a sack on her head.