July, 2016 Newsletter

Our Campaign!!!

            As I mentioned in our last report Omar and Emily were baptized July 1^st and their mother, Xiomara and sister, Gisela wanted to be part of our congregation.  They have been a tremendous blessing already.  During the visit of our group Xiomara and Emily came at 6:30 every morning and helped prepare breakfast, Omar went with Jim each day to be his translator and Gisela went with Charlotte each day on the evangelism teams.  We spent the first few days of the month making final preparations for the arrival of our group including making a run to Sonsonate on the first Saturday and a run to PriceSmart in San Salvador on the second Saturday with Ricardo, Yoli and Linda as well as Charlotte and I to pick up a literal truck load of food items.  This was the first trip in the car since I had gotten the AC worked on again and it performed great.  I was so thankful we would have AC for picking up Leanna and Della from the airport on Monday.  We had rented a 70 passenger bus to pick up the group but we had to go early because Leanna arrived alone before the rest of the group.  Cesar rode with us to the airport and we went by immigration where we found that my new one year visa was ready but not Charlotte's.  They had separated us again!  Even the lady at the desk said she did not understand why.  After immigration we went by the dentist because Charlotte had broken a tooth the night before.  It was such an amazing blessing because when we called they said they were filled with patients but we decided to go by anyway and Charlotte's dentist was standing up front because someone had not shown up and he took her back immediately and in about 40 minutes he had capped her tooth and said it was good and she would not have to come back.  We were a little unsure if we had enough money because we were pretty low before the group's arrival but it only costed $25.  She has not had any more problems with it since.  The time with our group was both wonderful and hectic but all went well.  We had great ladies events and evening preaching as well as lots of fellowship and door knocking.  We were especially thankful that Della and Suzie worked so hard to give their talks in Spanish!  We are still trying to follow up on those that the group said were their best contacts.  Allen's lessons were really great and everyone got a lot out of them.  I told him it was clear we had made the “Wright choice” in asking him to come.  Our Saturday classes with lunch at the hotel were especially good and some said they wish we had continued with afternoon sessions after lunch.  I was glad our group got to have some time off on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and at least several got to go to the beautiful waterfalls here. We also especially enjoyed our Sunday evening leaders' dinner and evaluation of our campaign.  Every event is a learning experience for us but that is good.  We took Della back to the airport to leave with the group and picked up Christina who came for a week while Clifton and Leanna were still here.  The week after the campaign was certainly the closest thing we have had to a vacation since we came here.  Each day we tried to take some sightseeing trip- zip lining, souvenir shopping, eating out, going to the beach on a rainy day, visiting Osvaldo's family in Ahuachapan and going to their service, and even going to the large beautiful lake near Santa Ana, where Charlotte and I had our first jet skiing experience, and visiting the water park where minnows nibble on your feet.  On Saturday, Clifton and I rode a van with our group back to Ahuachapan for an all-day family seminar while Charlotte spent the day with Leanna and Christina (since they would not have understood any of the lessons and it was their only chance for a ladies day).  Sunday we attended both services with more shopping in between.  After getting them all off on Monday the 25^th  we went back by immigration and Charlotte's visa was ready this time.  Tuesday we finally got back into our routine with a leader's meeting to again evaluate the campaign and restart all our other activities.  We are continuing with the new convert’s classes on Monday nights in our home as well as we got to host two Thursday night group studies in our home in a row.  We did have a new contact from our group's door knocking (husband and wife) who came to the last one and we have also begun a new study with Ana Vilma and George (Sister Ana's son) and so far it seems very encouraging.  We ended the month with a trip to a congregation near San Salvador where there were 6 different congregations represented for a 5^th Sunday group service.  We rode all the way in a bus with 31 people from Juayua (including several visitors) as well as about 15 people from Salcoatitan and about 18 from Santa Katarina.  It was quite a month and before long we will be back for our September visit.  But one more report before then, hopefully, with more good news.  Keep us in your prayers.  Dwaine and Charlotte

July 31, 2016

Early start.  Time of departure rolled around in a hurry this morning.  We were trying to get off about 6:40, but we were out the door about 6:45.  We dropped by Ana’s home and picked her up first.  Several had already left because the car would be too full.  We made it to the building about 5 til 7.  We lacked a few above the church, so Dwaine headed out to ask if anyone else was going.  Celia needed to go get medicine for Terry and someone in Claudia’s family had to go to the hospital.  But Jose and Kelly with Kiki and Nicole were just heading out.  Kelly’s shoe broke and she had had to go back and change shoes.  George was able to help Ana into the bus.  We had worried about that, but it went smoothly.  We had about 30 from Juayua and still had to go by Salcoatitan and Santa Catherina.  Each of them had around a dozen, so we were quite full.  I was especially excited that Alba came with Katherine and Jacquelyn.  We arrived about 9 at Santa Tecla and it was a good crowd with many visitors.  This was our 5^th Sunday meeting that we committed to participate in for a year.  It is a great opportunity to fellowship.  We had done our time earlier and it was a joy to be together again.  They had both a class and sermon.  Dwaine assisted with the Lord’s Supper and I helped Patricia from Santa Tecla and Linda teach the children.  They broke the children into three age groups, so all was very manageable.  We enjoyed a nice meal together and it left about 1 to go home.  During the lunch, I sat beside Alba and she said that Katherine wanted to start back studying and wanted to be a part of the church.  While she is young, she always sat in on every study and did all the scripture reading.  So, we sat up another study time for Monday morning.  While it may be focused for Katherine, I am excited for Alba to hear the message again.  I am praying that we will keep the door open and she will see the need in her life to obey the gospel.  In speculation, I think her husband has not made any connection and is holding her back.  He is almost always working on Sunday, so we hope, as everyone here says, little by little the word can make an impact in her life.  We arrived home and rested a few minutes and then headed up to visit with Edgar and Rachel, but they were not home.  We stopped by on the way home at Selectos to get some ice cream on sale and some cokes to make floats for our Monday night class.  It will be a changeJ. 

Starting to load the bus.

Passed a religious walk that closed one side of the highway.

We were uncertain exactly what the purpose was.

Patricia teaching the children.

Teachers of our class.

Lunchtime

Enjoying the fellowship

Each Church by groups that visited: 

Juayuya!

Salcoatitan!

July 30, 2016

Last October, the Ataco church hosted the first teacher seminar with close to 100 attending.  Rachel had wanted to make this an annual event, so she had planned a meeting for Saturday morning.  So, I stopped by Salcoatitan to pick up Linda and Luzelena and Betty came from Ahuachapán.  We met for about 3 hours and still planned one more meeting before October 8^th.  It is approaching fast with lots to do.  However, everyone had been working hard and things should be ready.  I think there are 17 churches that being invited, so it is growing.  Dwaine did some work at the building and helped load up some items for Ricardo.  Ricardo, Carlos and Omar are going to Santa Tecla to set up canopies for the multi church gathering scheduled for Sunday.  After lunch, we started cooking for our dinner guests.  When most was ready, we left to make a trip to Regina’s and Ana’s.  Regina has been sick for about two weeks now.  She has a lot of trouble with high blood pressure and has been having severe headaches.  She has been to the doctor and has taken meds, but has not had much relief.  She has to stay in bed for the most part because of her headaches are worst when she gets up.  We had wanted to offer if we drove our car instead of traveling on the bus, could she make the trip.  But, she said no.  She was just in too much pain.  After prayer, we left to go to Ana’s.  She thought she could get the bus with some assistance, so we planned to pick her up at 6:45 on Sunday.  We got home around 5 with an hour and a half to finish up dinner.  At 6:30 Omar came by to say they would be a few minutes late.  Some were still out from day excursions.  It wasn’t long and everyone arrived and we enjoyed a nice meal together.  They all brought their Bibles, but we had not particularly planned a study.  So, we talked about many spiritual things, but mostly tried to get to know each other better. 

July 29, 2016

Friday morning I picked back up the study with Nicole and Kelly.  Dwaine picked them up, and the arrived close to 8:30 at the house.  Dwaine took a stack of clothes for Jose and Kiki and when the ladies arrived I gave Kelly a few things that the team left too.  A couple of the things she will recut and make a couple of dresses for Nicole.  We are so blessed to share these clothes with that the Central group left.  They are much appreciated.  We also talked about making some Bible costumes for the children.  At the end of August we are going to try to have a children’s program for the days of creation.  It will take a lot of work, but we are excited to focus on the children for this event!  Dwaine left about 9 to go to Sonsonate.  We had a low tire during the week and in fixing the tire, he noted the wire was showing on the two tires that he had not replaced recently.  We had planned to replace them, but the problem was more pressing now.  Ricardo had gotten two tires in Pricemart in Sonsonate so Dwaine just needed them changed and balanced.  He also had several errands to run as well.  After this study, I walked to Socorro’s.  We had a study for over an hour.  She was really tired and had a bruise and sore spot on top of her foot.  She is diabetic and it is always concerning when something heals slowly.  After lunch it started raining hard.  I had planned to head out at 2, but it was raining hard.  Finally, about 2:30 it slacked some, but was still raining.  I headed out to pick up Seily and we walked to Angelica’s and Claudia Veronica’s.  Both her out.  At this point, I am about to give up on Friday afternoon.  Almost always, people are out getting ready fo the weekend.  With a little time, we thought we would try Reina, but she too was out.  We missed getting to see her this week as well.  Since I got home early, Dwaine and I decided to try to go visit one of Clifton’s contacts near the building.  Edgar was out at the gym, but his wife was home.  She was busy, so we didn’t go in.  However, she did know where the church was and gave us some options to return.  It was great to meet her, Rachel and we are prayerful for the potential.  We had a quiet evening and watched the story of Walt Disney. But, while we were out we stopped and invited Omar, Gisela, Emily and Xiomara for dinner.  They accepted, so we made a grocery run so I could cook early Saturday morning.  

Nice walk along side the cemetery.

July 28, 2016

Thursday began with a study with Claudia.  I was glad that Gisela could go to the study with me.  She is very quiet, but very eager to serve.  I always need someone to go out with me, so I am thankful that she will go when she is available.  Dwaine and Cesar went to Eber’s.  Next, we went by Tatiana’s but she was sick with an ear infection and a stomach ache as well. So, we decided to do some visiting.  We went by Marlena’s first.  She was a new contact.  She was happy to see us but she had some visitors, so we did not stay.  I was glad I could relocate her home.  She had come to a ladies event for the first time when the campaigners were here.  So, we wanted to try to go by a contact that Della’s group had, Luz de Maria.  Her daughter, Dena Margarita was home, but Luz was not.  We felt we should wait until Luz was home before going in, so we did not stay.  Along the way, we talked to Socorro and changed that study to Friday morning and we talked to Jennifer, who has been to a few ladies’ event.  We gave out some invites and called it a morning.  Dwaine and Cesar had gone to Rolando and Blanca’s to give the first Que Dice la Biblia and to invite them to the Bible study that would be in our home tonight.  They got to go in and talk some as Rolando is quite a talker.  So, for the afternoon, we did some house cleaning and then Ana and George came over for a study.  That went great and we were going to talk to them about some personal issues and thought they would need to go to the school for their son at 4:30.  But at 4:10, they said they were supposed to be there at 4:00.  Dwaine scrambled on out the door with them and we thought we might invite them for dinner soon.  For the night, we had a great turnout, about 2 dozen.  Rolando and Blanca came and that was a blessing.  Many other visitors, including Celia, Don Santos and Eber came.  Afterwards, it took Dwaine two trips out to take people home.  I visited with Xiomara and family and then we had a study for about an hour afterwards.  They were really tired as Omar and Xiomara had gone to Santa Ana for the day and Emily had headed out at 3 a.m. for a class in Santa Telca near San Salvador.  She will have to go 3 days a week for a class for the semester.  We wrapped up about 8:30ish and called it a night.  

July 27, 2016

We left early this morning to go by and visit with Celia and Terry.  We were hoping to catch them both at home since Terry was going to be off.  However, Celia had gone out to the clinic to get her diabetic medicine.  So, we studied with Terry what we had last studied with Celia.  We kept it short because Terry now tires very easily with her heart condition.  Next, Dwaine went on with Cesar and I connected with Seily.  We both had a study, Dwaine and Cesar studied with Rafael and Seily and I studied with Briseida.  We met back afterwards.  Arnoldo came to lunch and said that his mother still was having a lot of trouble with her blood pressure and could not come to church tonight.  After lunch, Carolina came over and we studied.  Dwaine, Cesar and Arnoldo left to go study with Sister Ana and to take Carolina home.  I left to go to Socorro’s, but as I rounded the corner, I saw her door was closed.  So, I called and she said she had to go to San Salvador for a doctor’s appointment.  So I worked on class material and for the evening we headed to church, picking up several along the way.  It was a full house.  I was especially glad that Claudia came and many other visitors, Celia, Don Santos and others.  

July 26, 2016

Get going!  So, time has arrived to jump back into studies and start working on the new con ftacts….and meetings.  So, a meeting was scheduled for the morning in Salcoatitan.  I had planned a study with Amalia with Seily, so I left at 10:30. What part I went to, we discussed ways we could improve our planning and participation for the group visits.  I was thankful to find Amalia at home, but leaving for the school to pick up a child and she told us she had had a heart attack the week of the campaign and had been in the hospital in Sonsonate for five days.  She was better, but appeared tired.  Amalia is in her 80’s.  We drove her to the school near our house and back to her house.  Mr. Rivas was there and he was studying Que Dice la Biblia when we arrived.  So, he sat in on the study as well.  We studied faith.  Dwaine and I met back at the house for lunch and then I left at 2.  Dwaine and Cesar and I drove up to Seily’s and we stopped by Kelly’s to wish her a Happy Birthday.  She turned 33 today.  We had some gifts.  Jim had wanted to impart some pictures form their wedding.  I had ordered them during the campaign and we had picked up some frames.  Christina brought the pictures with her, along with several sets of 4x6’s for various people.  I had also found some material in San Salvador I got for her.  Christina and Clifton had left some pictures and I had to holders.  One, was the family picture with Clifton with Jose because he doesn’t like good-byes.  So, they just left a place for him in the photo.  The other was a family picture with Christina and Leanna.  So, it was a nice birthday.  Dwaine and Cesar went to study with Delmy, who turned out not to be home.  Seily and I went to study with Sister Ana and their family, but they had gone to a funeral.  Later we found out that that the 88 year old brother of Ana’s husband had passed.  So, we returned and Dwaine and I ended up with about an hour to spare before Don Santos would come.  We walked to Rolando’s home where we talked for about an hour.  He and his wife Blanca, who was not in, are active in a church, but he was the gentleman that had read much of the pamphlet that the group had left.  Since he was a reader, we talked about sharing Que Dice La Biblia with him that has 11 lessons and studying those topics.  He said he was open to coming to a study and we said we would stop back by in a day to let him know the location of the study that would meet in houses for the week.  Don Santos came about 6:30 and he and Dwaine continued their study in Romans and I worked of lesson preparation. 

July 25, 2016

Happy Birthday and Good-bye. Today is Happy Birthday for Christina!  I could not have imagined that we might share a part of this day with her, so that was great! We were almost ready to go and there was a knock on the door.  Alba came by around 8ish to ask if we might have a prayer of thanksgiving for her daughter Jacquelyn.  A few weeks ago they had asked Seily and Mario to take them to Sonsonate to the hospital with Jacquelyn.  She had a nosebleed that they could not stop.  About Salcoatitan they could go no further because of bad visibility due to the rain.  So, they returned and called an ambulance.  They did get the bleeding stopped and Alba wanted the congregation to have a prayer of thanksgiving.  I told her I would check and then I would get back to her on in the week to let her know.  We left close to 8:30 for San Salvador.  We made it without any problems and had final farewells at the airport.  Dwaine and I did not have any stops on the way home except Burger King in Sonsonate after 1 for some lunch.  When we got home we cleaned some, rested and prepared for the New Converts class.  We had planned two subjects, but we started a few minutes late waiting on some arrivals.  Dwaine went first, so he just used the time for a study on tithing.  We had Mario and Sara and Kelly and Jose and families.  It was funny, Jose and Kelly arrived first and Jose broke out in song in English, “You are not alone…”  by Michael Jackson.  We laughed a long time about that one.  We were certainly blessed with a spiritual family and was a great few weeks having so many of our distant spiritual family and physical family with us.  

Birthday greetings Christina! 

Great visit Leanna!

Two months with Clifton!

What a blessing to have family here!

July 24, 2016

Last day.  So, today was the final day before departure for our family.  So, there will be many good-byes.  Other than the services, we didn’t have too much planned as everyone needed to pack and get ready.  After the morning service, several wanted to take photos.  Kelly said that Jose said that he would leave and then would be right back.  But, he never returned. So, Christina and Leanna got photos with Kelly, Kiki and Nicole.  Then, Clifton took a final photo with Jose is absentia!  That was funny!  For the afternoon, they all wanted one last walk through the market and they went to the reptile show, mostly so Christina could hold the big snake….tradition.  For the evening, we went to Salcoatitan and there were more photos!  Leanna went to the children’s class with Linda and me.  Afterwards, we had a quiet evening packing.  Anticipation of departure is sad. 

  

July 23, 2016

Going our separate ways.  Dwaine and Cesar rented a van for the quarterly family event in Ahuachapán.  We had a good number going from Juayua, more than two cars could take.  Clifton and Dwaine both went.  Clifton had invited Paulo to come so they could visit one more day.  They left about 7ish and the event was supposed to be 8:30 to 3.  Because the speaker was native, there would be no translating.  Because Christina and Leanna cannot speak Spanish, I decided to go out with them for the day.  They still wanted to look for some souvenirs and we wanted to go out for lunch for Christina’s birthday.  We tried to connect with Seily for to go to a coffee shop of our friends here in Juayua, but she had to go to Santa Ana for the day.  So, we walked around Juayua for a bit and then had coffee at the shop.  They got to meet Oscar and Kayla and that was good. Next we drove to Ataco to look around and eat at a pizza shop there.  It poured down rain.  True to my memories, when it rains hard in Ataco, it floods along the sides of the streets and it is hard to cross from one side to another.  Of course when the pizza was due to be done, we were on the wrong side of the street and had to wade to get to the restaurant. For the rest of our time there, we dealt with flooded streets.  At one point, a shop owner brought us out chairs to sit and visit while we waited the rain out.  We headed home about 3 and Dwaine got home just after we did.  It was a nice girl’s day, which is an extremely rare event these days.  Dwaine said there was a good turnout for the event.  The topic was fidelity in marriage.  That was a good follow-up for all the visitors and members from here in Juayua after the campaign. 

July 22, 2016

Lago Coatepeque!  This was a great day out.  Wow!  What a view!  This lake was a volcano crater lake near Santa Ana.  We had tried to go with our group of leaders about a month ago.  However, we had so much rain, we did not go.  We were told the roads around the lake get very muddy.  When we arrived we could see why.  We drove around the lake for about 30 minutes, but could not get an opening.  It was all personal residences.  We finally found one place that said they would take us on a boat ride around the lake for a reasonable charge.  But, the kids wanted to find a place where we might could rent a boat or jet skis that we could rent.  So we got advice where to go and headed back.  We found one place that did tours, had one kayak and one jet ski.  After a few minutes the man said he could come up with another jet ski and we could rent both for 30 minutes.  There was an island in the center of the lake and he said that was enough time we could circle the island.  So, we did it.  Christina and Clifton drove one ski and Leanna drove the second with Dwaine and me in back.  We definitely went at a slower pace.  Then, we realized we really did not look closely what dock we left and we had to creep along the shore to find the right dock.  At any rate when we got back, he said we had 5 more minutes.  I said I wouldlike to drive, so Leanna and I left for my once in a life time experience.  I went a little faster, but the funny part was the wave attack we had from Clifton and Christina.  So, while we had stayed dry for 25 minutes, we got soaked in the last 5.  We were in astonishment that those 2 would do that!  Ha!  If we had more experience, we would have reciprocated, but alas I didn’t have the wherewithal to do that.  It was funny and fun.  Afterwards, we drove back to the entry and ate at the ‘8^th wonder of the world’ restaurant.  Clifton and I got fish, the girls chicken and Dwaine some shrimp.  It was all good and the view was spectacular.  It was one of the prettiest sites we had seen since arriving.  Next, we thought we had time to check out a swimming park that was famous (at least by Caleb, Della and Clifton), for have hot springs that had minnows at the bottom that would bite your feet.  So, we went there and laughed and laughed at the dozens of minnows nibbling away.  Clifton, Christina, and Leanna went to go down a few slides, but they didn’t get far since the park’s closing time arrived.  We only were there about an hour and a half, and had no idea it was about to close.  So, we headed home.  Friday night we had not planned anything at the house, so we came home to watch Panda 2.  It was a good movie and the rest was nice.  That just leaves two days before departure time.  It has been a full week of some good times!  Wish Caleb, Della and Charlotte were here with us! 

Lake Coatepeque!

July 21, 2016

Los Chorros de Juayua.  This was a neat day because we got to share our children with some close friends.  Mario, Isela and Carlos, as well as Jose, Kelly, Nicole and Kiki went to the Juayua falls with us.  Mario is a guide as his mom lives at the last house before the trip down to the falls.  He took the group on Sunday from the campaign, but Dwaine and I didn’t go.  Jose said he used to live close by and came often as a child.  But he had not been in a long, long time.  We parked at Mario’s and walked down.  There were lots of butterflies along the way and Christina snapped a ‘few’ photos on the journey.  Jose and Kelly said that when Sister Ana and Rosalidia were young, that was the only water source in the city and everyone had to wash clothes in the falls.  Because it was so crowded during the day, they would go two to three times a week between midnight and four o’clock in the morning.  What a journey with a load of clothes!  I cannot imagine going in the night!  When we arrived there were a few people there and two policemen.  We had heard off and on it could be dangerous in that someone could be robbed, but we felt very safe.  The water was cold!  I think everyone got in.  For the part we saw, there were a series of three falls with pools at the bottom.  We got some interesting stories.  They said that originally, it was all natural.  But in the 2001 earthquake, some of the falls were destroyed and they had to be reconstructed at the bottom of the falls to reform the pools.  I asked if anyone was killed in the earthquake and they said yes.  There were several rocks that had landslide down the cliff into the water.  They said that in the earthquake, especially the second pool was most affected and was full of people washing clothes and all were crushed and killed.  Yes, we swam in that pool too.  In fact, we took the dare so to speak and traveled the tunnel.  Each fall was separated by a tunnel.  We were told the water level was too high and over the tunnels on Sunday but today, they had an opening about upper shoulder to head high.  Mario said we could go through the second tunnel, but he had to go first.  It was fairly long and completely dark.  Mario went first, then Clifton and then me.  It was hilarious and scary.  Dwaine, Christina and Leanna and some of the kids followed in the second group.  When you approached the next pool, Mario had the progression blocked to make a sharp turn out to the pool.  He said that if you continued you would die!  He said it was a sharp drop to the bottom!  So we turned.  The walk back was very rocky and painful because no one had shoes.  It was fun and we walked back.  When we got to the road where only 4 wheelers Dwaine went and got our car for me and a few to drive back.  Dwaine, Christina, Clifton and a few others took a short cut through the coffee fields.  We arrived back about the same time.  We mostly rested for the afternoon and cleaned for the weekly Bible study at our home for Thursday night.  It just down poured just before the meeting.  We still had just over 20 and Mario gave a good lesson on Matthew.  It was a great day and a good break to recoup after the campaign. 

Los Chorros

Waterfalls

Bible Study

in our home