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 2nd,
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. 6th 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
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