January Newsletter 2016

Happy New Year.  The end of January marks one year since we arrived in Ataco.  We have now moved into our 4^th different house and are involved in the beginnings of new churches in two places.  Jan. 3^rd was the first service for the church in Salcoatitan and Jan. 10^th was the first service in our new location here in Juayua that is only for the church and has a sign out front.  The first half of Jan. was one long celebration with parades, lots of loud music and tons of food and sweets for sale in the streets.  We successfully avoided the sweets and the street food, survived the loud music and took in the parades.  We also started several new studies in Jan. as well as continuing most of the ones we already had going.  This month is also the time of coffee harvest when many people work long hours because of the extra work available in the coffee fields.  Because of that and the celebrations we often had hit and miss on our studies with people not being at home.  We did have good attendance at our services with several visitors coming for their first time.  Just this past Wednesday night our former landlord's family came to our night service and he had also come to our first service in the new location.  Then on Thursday night we had 20 people in our house for a congregational home study.  Jose, Kelly and their 2 kids came and it was the first time for Jose in months plus Socorro came and it was her first time to any service.  We also had most of our members who live here in Juayua.  We had a husband and wife who are in the church move to Juayua, actually they moved into the house we moved out of, they are Mario and Seyli Lara and he has been a preacher for many years and they will be working with our group as well as the group in Salcoatitan.  Though we did not have a big event in the month of Jan. we did continue our weekly meetings with the Salcoatitan team and now we are alternating meeting in our building one week and theirs the next.  We plan to spend most of the meetings in Feb. discussing what our team from Huntsville will be doing when they come in July so that Charlotte and I can share that with those who are coming when we visit back in March.  We had lots of illness in our church group this month but so far Charlotte and I have been able to stay fairly well.  She continues to cook tons as we often have people over as part of our ministry or fellowship and just last week we started having free sweet bread, cooked by Charlotte of course, and coffee in front of our building to try to talk to passersby and invite them to services.  On our first Saturday we had 28 people stop by.  At least we are getting more and more familiar with the people here and have studies on almost every street and several on some streets surrounding the new location.  It is a lot better with the space we have for adults and nice class room space for the kids.  We are continually being blessed far beyond what we could possibly have hoped and are praying fervently that several of our studies will soon bear fruit and we ask for your prayers also for Jose & Kelly, Nelson, Don Santos and Sonia, Wendy and Oscar, Alba, Socorro, and others I cannot think of at the moment.  

January 31, 2016

Fifth Sunday and 1yr. Anniversary.   We arrived in El Salvador on the 31^st of January 2015.  It has been an amazing first year.  When we went out to walk Wicket we wanted to get some bread for sandwiches for lunch.  We stopped at one shop but told her we would possibly come back by since she did not have much selection.  Then we walked a couple of blocks to the stand where I had gotten French bread for the Friday night dinner.  We decided on some rolls and headed back.  Sure enough the lady from the first shop was closing up and saw us walking by.  She asked Charlotte what kind of rolls we were looking for and said hers were of better quality.  Charlotte said we would have to try them next time we needed some.  Of course, bread is one thing we are trying to avoid so we only buy it when we have guests.  The rolls we got were 10 cents each and seemed pretty good to me.  This was also a fifth Sunday and our 4^th. Sunday in our new location.  We picked up Regina, Elizabeth, Kenia and Arnoldo and went by to check on Mario and Sara but their door was locked.  At 10 it did not look like we were going to have very many people show up but then along with several members arriving we also had Kelly, Kiki and Nicole, Mr. Rivas, Wendy and Oscar and then about 10:30 Nelson walked in for his first visit to our new location.  It sure was great to have so many visitors.  Bro. Mario Lara preached on Jesus as our lawyer.  After the service and a while of fellowshipping we took Wendy and Oscar to our house for lunch.  We actually had leftovers from the big meal on Friday night but we had plenty.  After lunch they said they needed to leave about 1:30 so we sent dessert with them to be eaten later.  We did get about an hour of rest before we picked up Arnoldo and Mr. Rivas to go to the service at Salcoatitan.  They had decided to have a fellowship meal after services on each 5^th Sunday so we had a good time eating together.  They did have several visitors, mostly family members from out of town and brothers and sisters from other congregations.  We still got home about 6:45 and had time left for dishwashing, Charlotte working on crafts for the ladies first meeting next Saturday and to catch up on blogs. 

Making edible trees for Zaccheus.....Zaqueo!

January 30, 2016

Nahuizalco.  Up and going early for our second bread and coffee.  We arrived at the church building at 8:30 with three loaves of carrot bread and a big pot of coffee.  Caleb said we were serving gourmet bread.  We had about 25 people stop by and a couple sat and talked for ten or fifteen minutes.  We were very thankful that it was great weather.  Our first time was so windy and today was nice and calm.  We had planned an afternoon out with Kelly and Jose and family instead of a study this week.  So, we finished up the bread and coffee about 10.  We met with Jose and Kelly at noon.  It actually about an hour for everyone to gather and get off.  We were heading to Nahuizalco, the home place of Kelly.  We had visited there when she picked up her birth certificate.  It was quite picturesque.  However, Jose, warned us that there were many areas close to the park that were very dangerous, especially in regards to robbery.  Even when we arrived in our walk, Jose showed us a place across the street from us that was an area of robbery.  When we arrived, about a 30 minute drive, most of the eating places were already closed and we were planning lunch there.  So, we walked around for about an hour, visiting the Catholic Church and many little tourist shops.  We laughed so much.  One time, Kelly told Nicole of age of about 10, not to touch the trinkets…..In a minute, mom was picking up a trinket and Nicole quietly said, “Don’t touch the trinket….”  That turned into the line of the day.  We finally decided we were all hungry and we went into the market to find some little shops serving food.  Because it was the market, we ate with raw meat hanging close to the tables.  Yummy!  Dwaine and I got chow mien noodles.  We don’t actually see that much here.  Jose ate all the tortillas and we all laughed at that.  Afterwards we walked through some streets and Kelly told us some stories of her childhood.  We got home about 4ish.  It was a good outing and we are prayerful that our continued relationship will be a positive example for them.  When we got home, we worked on lessons for Sunday. 

Bread and Coffee

Bread and Coffee

Tasty chicken feet!

Dragon painting coming out of the volcano..,

Museum was closed...

  

Dwaine liked the looks of these....

Catholic Church

View inside

Still had a Christmas scene

Tall tree with lots of leaves.

View from the park.

Charlotte, Kiki, Kelly, Jose, Nicole

Kelly, Kiki, Jose, Dwaine and Nicole

January 29, 2016

This morning we headed out about 9:30 to try to have some studies.  Bro. Mario had said last night at our house that he would like to go on studies with us when possible so we were going to see if he could go to Rafael's house for a study.  Charlotte went with his wife Seyli to try again to study with Reina.  We did find Rafael home and had a good study with Cesar leading.  Charlotte and Seyli did not find Reina at home so they went by several different homes and talked with some ladies but did not have any actual studies.  We finished up about 11 with a short visit at the home of Mario and Seyli (our old house).  We spent the afternoon getting ready for Alba, her husband Marcos and their daughters to come for dinner.  I went to pick them up at six.  Their oldest daughter Kathrine (who is 9) came down on time to visit with me and say her dad had just gotten home and was getting ready.  They came on down in about 15 minutes and we headed to our house.  Charlotte had another delicious dinner and we had a good visit.  We did not have an actual study but did talk some after dinner about the idea of following only the Bible and looked at a few verses.  The girls sure had a fun time playing fetch with Wicket.  About 9 I ran them back up and dropped them off at the end of their street.

Dinner with Marcos, Alba, Katherine and Jacqueline

January 28, 2016

Big crowd.  I was able to have a study with Wendy and invited her and Oscar to service on Sunday and then lunch.  She told me the doctor had scheduled her delivery for the baby on Monday!  I know that she is excited about that.  We are all in prayer that she has not had the Zika virus during her pregnancy.  She has had a couple of sonograms, and they have looked good. She said that they would come to the service if she didn’t go to the hospital before then.  She said last week that Oscar had played football, soccer, and that is why they didn’t come.  Reina, Wendy’s neighbor, was working, so I did not get to study with her.  For the afternoon, I had scheduled a study with Floramarina.  She wasn’t home.  I was excited to start that study, especially after a good visit earlier in the week, but she may not really be interested.  I will try to take an invitation by for the next ladies’ class on February 6^th and see if that will respark some interest.  Dwaine and I walked by Evelia’s, but she wasn’t home either.  We didn’t have a time set with her, but just wanted to stop by for a visit since she had come to our Wednesday night study.  We had spent some time cleaning the house throughout the day for the weekly Bible study.  Since the church building is a little distance from the original church house that met at Regina’s we had wanted to continue with a meeting on the original side of town for members that could not come on Wednesday night.  We had already met in homes the last two weeks and tonight was our turn.  We had worked on making some calls and visits to let people know and we did have a big crowd, about 20 people!  Not only did a lot of members come, but we also had some visitors.  Jose, Kelly, Kiki and Nicole came.  This was great that Jose came because he does not usually come to group events.  He feels uncomfortable in a big setting.  Then, we also had Socorro.  She is always working at her hostel, but locked her door to come.  It is only a block away.  This was the first event she has visited, so that was especially great.  Bro. Lara led the lesson on Matthew’s account of John the Baptist.  The fellowship was great afterwards. 

Dwaine washed a mountain of dishes! 

Road work in front of our house.

No water for a time....

True bug

Bible study in our home

Bible Study

Bible Study

Bible Study

Bro. Lara leading the class.

Bible Study

January 27, 2016

Better days.  On our walk, we stopped by a small restaurant where a friend, Jenny, works.  She had asked us about tutoring her son in English.  We had stopped by about a week ago to visit a minute.  Her husband was a chef from Italy and he had helped us look for our first house in Juayua.  He had also cooked for our campaign group that came last year.  They had closed that restaurant and had opened a smaller, more El Salvadorian style restaurant.  But, he was really unhappy here and left to go back to Italy.  We didn’t know her well, but we wanted to try to get to know her.  We decided against tutoring, because that would be too time consuming, especially with preparation.  However, we did invite her and her children to dinner next week.  She said she would come. For our studies, we started out our day with a study with Ana Katarina.  We had studied with her only once before and she was home this morning when Charlotte passed by to see if Suleyma was home.  It was only our 2^nd study with her and Cesar led a study on the importance of the Word.  After this we went to Wendy's and left Charlotte to study with her. Cesar and I went on to Delmy's and had our first study with her since last year since she had been so busy working during the festival days.  We began a two part study on baptism and it was really good.  Then we went across the street to visit Mr. Rivas and Charlotte joined us after she finished her study with Wendy.  We didn't really have time for a study so we just visited for a little.  He said he was going to Turin to visit relatives this afternoon and would not be back in time for the 6:00 service but could come to the one tomorrow night at our house.  Sister Ana was not available for our weekly visit today so we had a little more time in the afternoon.  Arnoldo came by for lunch and then helped Charlotte get ready for the children's class tonight. He set up an appointment with his English teacher for next Monday so we could talk to her about helping with the class once or twice a month.  Hopefully, it will be a way of making more contacts. I made a wooden platform with rollers to put the dryer on so I could move it out to the garage when we wanted to use it and to a back room so it would not be seen on Sundays.  At 3 Cesar walked over and said that Mario was waiting outside the school for his daughter to finish kindergarten.  After having a cup of coffee he walked back to sit with him and to tell him we could give them a ride back to his house when they were ready.  It ended up being about 3:30 so when we got back to Mario's we did not really get into a study we just talked some.  He said things were a little difficult because Sara was working long hours 6 days a week.  We offered to start studying/marriage counseling some with them next Thursday afternoon which is her one day off and he said he would talk to her about it.  At 5:40 we picked up Sister Regina, Elizabeth and Pedro to take them to the Wednesday study.  Carlos led the study and he started a series on the Church of Christ in the world and his text for tonight was Acts 2:36-47.   At first we had no visitors but several members then Don Santos, Sonja and Jimmy came in and then the lady who cooks tortillas and pupusas next to the new location that Charlotte had invited several times.  Her name is Evelia.   Charlotte asked her afterwards about studying and she said just come by and she would if she could.  Jimmy went to Charlotte's children's class and afterwards Don Santos said they had enjoyed the meeting.  It sure was encouraging that they had come, they are usually working at the hardware store till almost 6 each night.  It turned out to be a pretty encouraging day.

Two flowers for one....One flower was growning inside the other.

Jimmy making seasonal trees in class.

January 26, 2016

Time?  We had invited Don Santos, Sonja and Jimmy for dinner along with our study, but the day was packed full, so I was uncertain how the meal was going to come together.  Early, before heading out, I cooked some breakfast bars for our weekly meeting with the Juayua-Salcoatitan group.  I also cooked some cheesecake for the evening meal and one loaf of carrot bread for bread and coffee on Saturday. Once the sweets are made, I feel like I can move forward.  Our meeting was scheduled for 9 and our building.  We met first last week in Salcoatitan because we did not have electricity.  Things were in place this week.  Some ticket items were preacher’s meeting is set for February in Salcoatitan, ladies class is set for February 6 in Juayua, teen events in both cities in February and some outreach scheduled for Santa Telca.  Santa Telca is near San Salvador and especially Ricardo and Yoli have worked in this area for some time and I have helped with one ladies’ class.  Hopefully, there will still be continued contact and work among the congregations.  It is a busy time and each congregation is additionally working on their own individual events.  After the meeting during lunch, Dwaine and I both worked on some of the dinner menu items.  At 2 I picked up Seyli and Eliza for a study with Sonja, Ana’s daughter.  While the study went well, they were preparing tamales outside the door and smoke poured in the whole time.  It was almost overwhelming and everyone was coughing and wiping tear filled eyes.  Socorro’s study was set for 3:30 and I was able to connect with her about 3:40.  Dwaine went by the church building to have everything prepared for Wednesday night’s class.  Next, we met back at our house to finish cooking.  Dwaine had plugged in some crock pots and with his help, we got everything done by the time they arrived about 6:15.  Dwaine led a study and Don Santos asked several questions.  We ate afterwards and the meal turned out nice.  Most everything I cooked was a new recipe, so I was uncertain.  I sure am thankful for the internet so I can keep some fresh ideas going.  They left about 9 and promised to bring some pizza for dinner for next week’s study.  

Is it a stick-up....no, Cesar just has a cold!

Weekly meeting with Juayua and Salcoatitan

January 25, 2016

Second resting Monday.  This morning Charlotte wanted to try back to visit a lady named Floramarina who works at a small tortilla stand in front of the garage where we had our car bumpers repaired.  We had gone by earlier this week but she was not there.  This morning she was in so after Charlotte had sat down in her house I walked up the street to our old house to ask Bro. Mario Lara if he wanted to teach either the Wednesday night or Thursday night classes this week.  He said he would do Thursday night which will be at our house this time.  Charlotte came on up pretty soon because the lady had said she had too much to do today so they just had a short visit and set an appointment for later in the week.   Then we walked over to Celia's and she was washing clothes but said she always had time to study the Bible.  We had a good study and by the time we finished it was after 11 and people here don't like to study that close to lunch.  We decided to run on to Selectos because we needed to get some items for having Don Santos and family over Tuesday night for dinner and Charlotte wanted to start working on getting some of it ready.  After we got everything and I was waiting to check out she said she would walk on over to the Family Dispensa to look for a couple of more items.  When I got the bill it was $91 and it did not seem we had that much at all.  As I started to leave the store one of my bags slipped out of my hand and a large jar of taco sauce broke and got all over everything else in the bag.  After cleaning it up and getting the other items into another bag I took everything to the car and then had to go back through and get another taco sauce.  I looked at the bill and discovered Charlotte had picked up a large container of Parmesan cheese that cost almost $18.00!  Hope it goes a long way.  She said she would not have gotten it if she had known it was so expensive but it had not price marked on it. Just before lunch, we got a call from Rachel.  They had some friends visiting from the States and they wanted directions to the church building so that they could drive by both Salcoatitan and Juayua churches.  We told them, we could drive to the building and meet them so that they could see the inside. The group was working in Honduras,   but were in El Salvador for the day.  There was one lady from Fayetteville, TN and she had met Caleb, Della and Charlotte in Fayetteville while they were visiting with the McCauley’s.  In all, there were 5 visitors and one couple was from Gainesville, FL.  It was short, but a nice visit. After lunch Charlotte spent most of the afternoon helping Leanna with her Physics homework.  I didn't do that much other than washing a ton of dishes, washed Wicket and spent an hour cutting her hair after she was dry, spent quite a while cutting a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood with a hand saw so we could block our bathroom door to keep Wicket out when we are not at home and then at 5 I picked up Bro. Jose Manuel and we went to the new meeting place for the church and spent 2 hrs. getting a plug installed so that we could use our dryer there to at least dry shirts and blouses once each week.  I had suggested we just run it direct from the circuit box in the garage because that is where I wanted to use the dryer but he said it would be better if we used a wall outlet near the garage.  After about 1 ½ hrs. he finally decided the wall outlet was only 110 and we ended up running out of the circuit box after all which only took about 20 minutes and worked great.  Well, at least we now have access to the dryer for some things and if we need it when the rainy season starts back.  We had considered having 220 put in the house we moved to but found out that was going to cost about $250.  Bro. Jose said he thought $3 was enough for his work so I gave him $10 and he asked if I wanted the change back and I assured him I did not.  We spent the rest of the evening after dinner catching up on blogs but as you can see we did this one on Wednesday night and sent it out Thursday. 

 Stateside visitors to see the church.

Wow, who knew....$18 for 24 ounces parmesan cheese!

Wicket, cleaned and cut!

January 24, 2016

Unfulfilled hopes.  Saturday at the end of the study, Kelly said they would be there for services Sunday.  When I headed back home from dropping them off I saw Wendy and Oscar in the street and they said they would be there also.  On Saturday during the bread and coffee several people said they might come for services the next day and Mr. Rivas and his grandmother both said they would come.  In the end Mr. Rivas was our only visitor.  I remember when I was in college and rooming with the young man who baptized me.  I would say I might come to services and then often not bother.  I could not understand why he was so clearly disappointed when I did not show up.  It is disappointing to us now but to people who are not Christians making it to a service just isn't important so we have to just be patient with them.  We have also been told that here people especially do not like to say no so they always say yes to everything but don't really mean it.  We did have a good number of members including some who were visiting from other places. Charlotte taught the children’s class along with Eliza.  Bessie, her mother-in law Isabella and her brother-in-law Giovani and his two kids plus Bessie's daughter came and we invited them over after services for lunch.  We did not know they were coming so it took us a little bit to get lunch together and by the time they left it was almost time to go to the services in Salcoatitan.  They had at least one visitor also, a man who has come several times now.  I always sit with him and visit since I met him at the family breakfast back in December.  He always sings a word or two behind everyone else and it is a challenge not to get messed up when sitting beside him. Charlotte helped Linda with the children’s class, mostly helping with her youngest child, Briana.  We gave sister Regina and Arnoldo a ride there and back and brought Elizabeth back, she had ridden a bus there.  It was a good day just need to keep working and trusting. 

Great time of fellowship over lunch!

January 23, 2016

Coffee anyone and meet ‘til you drop.  We had talked for some time about trying to offer bread and coffee on Saturday mornings for passer-byers.  We wanted to invite people to service and offer some reading material and visit.  So, we decided to get going on that this Saturday.  I had made 2 large loaves of banana bread and several small loaves as well.  We took our big coffee pot and headed to the building.  Of course, it was one of the windiest days we have had.  We know January has the reputation for being windy, and sure enough we got to experience this firsthand.  It wasn’t anything like the stateside snow totals, so I shouldn’t ‘complain.’  It was hard to keep the napkins, breads, coffee cups, etc. form blowing away.  Even so, we had 28 people to stop by for a try!  We were excited about that.  Even though we are inviting people to services, we also are trying to get more and more recognition among people in the area.  So, we are prayerful this will be a way to get to know people.  We plan to do this every Saturday for at least a month to 6 weeks to see if we can shave an impact.  This was originally Caleb, Della and Lucky’s idea in Ataco and we are just following their example.  Dwaine mostly worked on cleaning while Cesar and I greeted people.  We started about 8:30 and it was our goal to finish about 10 to 10:30 so we could get home.  I was fixing lunch for Eliza, Yoli and Linda so we could meet about lunch for the preacher’s meeting and plan the ladies’ class.  Everyone arrived between 12 and 12:30 and we enjoyed some chili and fixings.  The menu was the easy part and then on to the ladies’ class.  We talked about this for quite a while.  We did settle on a theme, Flowers for Me…a lesson on self-esteem in Juayua on Feb 6^th.  We planned food, décor, games, devo, master of ceremonies door prizes and crafts.  We met until 6:30ish. Wow, who would have known it would take so long.  The good side, was that we covered a lot of ground, had great fellowship and the following ladies’ classes should be easier to organize. Dwaine had spent noon till 3 cleaning and scrubbing floors at the building.  When Kelly, Kiki and Nicole arrived, he drove them to our house because he wanted to use the internet for a particular study. Cesar came for the study too and it went well.  Afterwards, I worked on Sunday school preparation and Dwaine did some studying.  That makes for two days of getting up about 3.  I was thinking of getting to bed a little earlier, but alas, it was almost midnight. 

Bread and Coffee

Meeting with Yoli, Linda, Eliza and Me!

January 22, 2016

Lesson learned?  To be honest, here it is Monday, and we are writing Friday's blog.  You should hear us trying to remember exactly what happened.  In the end, we decided we need to have a sheet of paper out and at least write down names for each day so if we are too busy to keep up, we will have a reference.  What a round of discussion.  So, this is what we remember.  First, we visited three hotels. We are looking around Juayua for event possibilities and rooms to stay in when our team comes in July.  Our first stop had the nice view.  Dwaine had visited this location after we first arrived with Cesar, but it was my first time to go.  Enjoy the pics on this one. When we were leaving, we ran into our friend we call, Elvis.  He had lived in the States at some point and speaks a little English.  It seems we run into him often and he generally calls us Dad and Mom.... Anyway, he is schizophrenic, which he developed from severe depression after losing a game point soccer match years ago.  Apparently he was a really good player, but one time he missed the game winning point and it was too much for him.  We got to meet his mother and see his home.  Since his mom was there, he called Dwaine, dad, and me his grandmother.....ha, ha!  Next we went to the Hotel Juayua.  They could not accommodate too many visitors, but the outside was nice.  Finally, we went by a place for sale. It was large, but really dark on the inside so I couldn't get any pics.  They were uncertain if it would be available for anything in July in case it had sold before then.  We are still working on plans and places, so we were just getting ideas.  After lunch, I had planned a new study with Floramarina who I had met on the street.  She wasn't home, so I walked up toward where Cesar and Dwaine were planning to have studies.  Delmy was still working with events, but said routines would be more normal next week.  Mr. Rivas was home, but busy.  They said they would come back. So, they headed to Rafael's.  I met them in route and they said they would walk me to my next study with Reina.  She lives in a more secluded place, so I don't go alone.  She was home, so we had a study.  I called Dwaine when I was done and he walked back to get me.  They had finished with Rafael and were studying with Mr. Rivas.  I wanted to both check on Floramarina again and also to talk with Mr. Riva's grandmother, so I waited.  They really had a good study with Mr. Rivas. We pray for his decision to come soon.  Afterwards, his grandmother came to speak to me and she said that she would study with me on Monday morning and they would come to church.  We all walked up to Floramarina's but she wasn't home.  We decided to go a little further and visit with Annabella and her daughter, Yaritza, who was housesitting for Bro. and Sis. Lara.  They had gone to Honduras to take their son to Baxter.  We called it a day after that and went home for the night. I had some cooking to do because some ladies were coming for lunch on Saturday.  

Visions Hotel and Suites

 

Hotel Juayua