Would you believe? Mondays
are still supposed to be our off days.
We thought we were going to start teaching English on Monday mornings at
the school next to our house. We went
and observed one week, and the next week when we went prepared to teach they
were having Valentine’s Day parties so it did not work out. The next week when we arrived the teacher
said it was exam week so that didn't work out so Charlotte said maybe it was
God trying to tell us that was not what we were here for. We decided to not go again until the teacher
had another chance to talk to us so this morning we decided to go by and see
how Kelly's sister, Melissa, had done in her surgery on Sunday and invite them
for dinner next Monday night and try to have one more study before we leave for
two weeks. Jose and both kids were home
but Kelly was still in San Salvador and is supposed to return on Wednesday. We asked them to be sure to come to the
Wednesday night meeting at the building and I told them I would be teaching and
then we asked them to come on Thursday night because that meeting would be in
our house again. Of course, they said
they would because people here never say no.
Then we went door to door giving out invitations to the Ladies event
here in Juayua on Saturday morning. We
had a pretty routine time with two exceptions.
First, for me, Charlotte, I stopped by the car repair place where I had
tried to study with Floramarina. She was never home, so I had not gone by for
several weeks. To give an invitation,
looked like a good time to try to renew this interest. When I walked into the garage, Celia, our
regular study was visiting with Floramarina.
After the invite, she asked me if I was going to Santa Catherina
Saturday after the Ladies’ event. Now
that was a strange question because we had only announced that at church. How could she know? Santa Catherina is having an evangelistic
thrust for three days and they plan to cap off the week with a lesson from
Carlos and Cesar. Floramarina said that
her entire family went to church in Santa Caterina and she wanted to go with
us. Then, Celia spoke up and said she
would also go. I actually was
shocked. I told Floramarina, that if her
entire family were Christians, she needed to have that in her life! She knows the truth! Well, it is a start that she wants to make
this trip with us. It was all strange
and exciting. The second unusual event was right after Charlotte's. She spoke through an open door and said hello
and a man inside said in English “What do you want” she told him and he came outside. He said his name was Angel and he was from
Puerto Rico but had grown up in the US as a ward of the state. He said he was a staff sergeant in the Army
and helped to capture Saddam Hussein. He
said after he got out of the army the CIA sent him to El Salvador to infiltrate
the drug trade but that the drug trade offered him so much money he decided to
join them. He said that recently he had
been studying the Bible and was trying to turn his life around. He said that normally he would have told
anyone with a Bible to get lost but that maybe God had sent us to him. He said it seemed like things had only gotten
worse for him since he had begun to try to change. We talked for about 30 minutes and he
promised to come to the Wednesday night service so we will see. Charlotte said she was not planning to take
that long at one place and that I got a little carried away. I said that it was so exciting to be able to
speak freely in English that I just forgot myself. But, she did invite them for
lunch if they could come on Sunday to service. After lunch she went back up to
Seyli's to go to their study with Amelia, Mr. Riva's grandmother. Her daughter
Sonja was not home. However, Amelia’s
brother arrived from working in the coffee fields and he sat in on the study
and contributed to the conversation. I
stayed home and worked around the house and Cesar came by about 2:30 so we
could work out the money for the rent for the Church location. Afterwards, Charlotte and Seyli came over with Ulma, a sister from Apaneca. Charlotte is meeting with each month's Sunday school teachers to help them with ideas and supplies. Most do not have access to the internet, so this is a small way she can assist teachers. For the most part, the material only has one idea and one to two verses to work with. So, she meets with each group that will be teaching in the upcoming month. We did have a fairly quiet evening and just
skyped with the kids some.
No comments:
Post a Comment