Another wedding and two more baptisms. August was a good month and was really packed
with activities. Starting with the usual
ladies event on the first Saturday which had 13 visitors to following up on
contacts we had from our campaign and then starting some new studies as well as
continuing with the ones we already had. Charlotte also conducted a teaching
seminar in San Salvador. Our biggest events for the month were having a
repentance study with Ana Vilma and Jorge at the end of which we asked them if
they wanted to have a civil wedding.
They have been together for several years which is very common here and
have a son Nelson who is six years old.
They said they were ready so we set the date for Sunday August 21st. They wanted to have the wedding on the
weekend so that Ana Vilma could invite her mother and some other family members
who do not live in Juayua. In the end we
had about 32 people. Jorge is Sister
Ana's son so she and all of her family came as well as several people from Ana
Vilma's family. Seily Lara performed the
legal part of the ceremony and her husband Mario did a religious part.
Together, they did a beautiful ceremony.
Cesar and Eliza were the official witnesses as usual. The wedding was in our house of course. This was the first time we had to miss Sunday
services in Salcoatitan but at least it was for a good cause. The last weekend of August was spent in a big
retreat for all the preachers in this area and their families. We started Friday afternoon at 3 at the
Vision Hotel here in Juayua. Noe spoke
first on the intimate relationship in marriage and did a great job. After dinner I did a session in group
discussion format on family ministry.
We had a couple and their baby spent the night in our house since they
were from out of town. We really enjoyed
having them and almost talked till too late in the evening. Saturday morning we started with breakfast at
Entre Nubes restaurant in Ataco followed by a lesson on finances by
Hector. About 10 we all headed out to a
small lake in Apaneca which was far back off the beaten path. We stayed there until 3:30 in the afternoon
and had lots of fellowship, some group activities and a cookout lunch. I think Charlotte and I were the only ones
who actually walked all the way around the lake. It was pretty in spots but you could not
actually see the lake most of the time.
When we got home we had another study with Ana Vilma and Jorge and asked
them what they were waiting for to have their baptisms and they could not think
of anything. Jorge said he had been baptized before and asked if he could be
baptized again so we studied about that and set the time for 7 pm. We called a few folks and then some just came
in who happened to be available so we had a pretty good group of witnesses. Ana
Vilma's sister, Flora, whom we had first met at the wedding was in town and she
came to the baptisms. Charlotte talked
with her about studying the Bible and she and Ana Vilma came over the next week
and started studying with Charlotte. Jorge
and Ana Vilma are a great young couple and have been very consistent in coming
to services even before their baptisms and we are very excited that they are
now part of our Juayua family. The
following day the children had their first program conducted during the morning
service with memorization lines from the Creation story and a beautiful
song. The good news on that was that it
brought in several visiting children and parents. Probably by the time most of you read this we
will be back for our September visit.
Little Charlotte will be 2 on Sept. 12th and we are excited
that the time is so near to get to see her and all of you in person.
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
August 31, 2016
New Contacts.
Dwaine and I started the day handing out Ladies’ Event announcements in
a new area, close to Hotel Vision. We
had a few good receptions, so we will see if any come to the event. It was good to door knock and meet new
people. There is still a lot of ground
to cover in Juayua. Then, we split and
Dwaine went on to Delmy’s with Cesar and I went on with Seily to Briseida’s. She was not in, but we covered three streets
with invitations. That was a good
opportunity to get the last of the invitations handed out. I think that distributed 80 invites. After lunch, Dwaine drove Ana Vilma and Jorge
go San Antonio del Monte. Ana Vilma
still had to complete some of her wedding papers and they still required
another visit Friday or thereafter. It seems to go on and on. They wanted to spend the night with Ana Vilma's mother she had told me it was a 15 minute drive from the mayor's office. While that might have been true, Dwaine said it was some 'off road' driving to arrive at her home! Arnoldo and Carolina came by for
lunch. Arnoldo walked on over to Cesar’s
to study with Eber, Michael and Mr. Rivas.
I stayed and studied with Carolina and then on to Socorro’s home. She joined us for the Wednesday service
and we took a car load from Sister Ana’s
home. It was a great turnout. The rain has been long and heavy this week,
but it did not deter anyone from coming.
August 30, 2016
New study.
Tuesday morning meeting. With our
upcoming departure, we didn’t have too much to finalize on plans. The Ladies’ Event was ready for September 3rd
and the Ladies’/Childrens’ Event for October 1.
It sure rolls around in a hurry.
We wrapped up about 11:30. Cesar
had taken Rolando to the doctor for a small surgery in Sonsonate, be he arrived
right at the end. Cesar and Dwaine
planned to study with Michael and Mr. Rivers for the afternoon and Seily and I
planned to go to visit with Sister Ana and her family. Right after lunch, a big lightning storm
arrived. In about 10 minutes, the electricity
went off and on for about 8 times. I did
get everything unplugged. Since we had
lost our modem, we try to turn off things when the bigger storms arrive. I thought there was a break in the action
about 2:30 and I headed to Seily. I
drove pass Cesar and Dwaine returning.
The rain had interrupted their study as well. When I got to Seily’s she said she did not
want to go out in the storm, so we visited and worked on the craft for the
Ladies’ Event. She is going to teach the
ladies how to make hair bows. We got all
the ribbon cut and after a couple of hours, I took them home to burn the ends
so they would not fray. That should make
us ready for this month. We will order
most of the food, and I will only make some cookies. When I got home, we waited for Don Santos and
Ana Vilma to arrive with her sister Flore.
Don Santos and Dwaine are studying Que Dice La Biblia and I stared
studying with Flore, Ana Vilma’s sister.
It was a late study for her, but she has a job caring for a baby each
day. Flor lives in Salcoatitan and the
last bus runs at 7. I mentioned if Ana
Vilma would make the drive with me, I would take her home to Salcoatitan. So, that worked well. We wrapped up about 7:30 and the trip was
fine. It isn’t far, it is just the
forever safety question. All was fine,
she lives very close to the main road, so we had no problems.
August 29, 2016
We tried to go by and visit with Sylvia this
morning, but she was not home. We had a
meeting on Tuesday morning, so we were hoping she might be in Monday morning. We
will have to drop by at a later time.
With a little extra time we went by Selectos and Dwaine walked up to
check with Don Santos to see if he was coming on Tuesday. He was planning to come. Next, we worked on some lessons through
lunch. After lunch, Seily and I went up
to the cemetery to study with Vilma.
Zoila, her mother also joined in on the study. It was raining, so we went inside. We visited a long time. During the study, Seily received a call from
her husband, Mario, that he had been in an accident in San Salvador. Thankfully, he was not hurt, as well as the
other person involved. However, he had a
good bit of damage to his car, and was going to have it towed. He did have some family in San Salvador to
help out. After a long study, we went on
to Amalia’s. She was supposed to go to
Salcoatitan before too long, so Seily did a study for about 40 minutes on
repentance. We were excited that we were
able to have both our studies. After
returning home, we had our New Convert’s class and talked about
evangelism. It was a great time to talk
about increasing contacts and warm receptions in the body. There was a great turnout and it was
especially good that Ana and Jorge were there as new converts and not as
visitors. Afterwards we got to visit
with Mario and Sara and share some wedding pictures with them. Next week we are planning a dinner for our
class members and we are excited about that.
Saga of the Traveling Roaches
Thought I would include the ‘roach’ story. On Monday night, we noticed a huge roach
tiptoeing across the floor. We leave our
sliding door open while we are up so Wicket can come and go. At times, we see a roach out the corner of
our eye entering and crossing our white floors.
The direct route, is to enter our bedroom. We jumped up and by now, it was traveling
fast. It was close to my open closet and
I could envision putting on my clothes with a visiting roach inside! No way!
So, in the end, we killed it and I was so thankful that I could sleep well
without worries. I get up about 4:30
each morning and as I was opening my computer, I saw another huge roach leaving
our room, laughing all the way. All the
night, we did have a visitor! What a
delusion! Well, in the end, this one
died too. Then, Tuesday morning….repeat,
another exodus. It died too. The rain has been heavy and often this month
and we think the roaches are just looking for a dry night. Rent is high and
they paid the price…..but how many stowaways are taking advantage of our
hospitality?
August 28, 2016
First children’s program. The children have been practicing for a
couple of months to present a dramatization of the Creation story. I had finished the costumes and Linda and
Gisela painted faces. The kids made one
last practice, especially our song. The
parents were really supportive and success! One thing was really funny. I led the song off to the side and my job was
to guide the hand motions. The children
were a little bashful and no one could muster the courage and do the
motions. I sure I was a funny site, but
most could not see me. We laughed
afterwards that everyone broke an arm instead of the tradition, “break a leg.” It was a big step for them. The good news was that it reopened the door
for Alba to come. She had her two
daughters and her niece to come and participate. I study
with the niece’s mom, Angelica, but she didn’t come because of the birth of her
son. Alba keeps coming and visiting off
and on. She is the lady who first caught
me in the street and asked where I went to church. The expression, “poco a poco” is a popular statement
here, little by little. I am prayerful
that over time, she will be a dedicated, involved, saved sister, along with her
sister Angelica. For the afternoon, Dwaine helped me get ready for Salcoatitán children’s
class. It was Brianna’s birthday....2 years old! Her grandmother made matching outfits for
Karly and Brianna and Linda celebrated in class with a big cake. The kids (and adults) were delighted!
Children's Program
Salcoatitan and Briana's Birthday
Happy 2nd Birthday Briana
August 27, 2016
Continuation of preacher retreat with a
fantastic conclusion…..I got up at 4 to cook some cookies. On Friday night we had served fruit breads and
coffee and we wanted to do this again.
Fatima wanted to help me, but I really didn’t want to wake her up at
this hour to cook. She got up about 5:30
and I had save some cookies for her help with.
All came together to leave at 7:40.
We drove to Entre Nubes in Ataco for breakfast and Hector to do a lesson
on finances. Afterwards we drove to
Apaneca to Lago Verde to have a cookout and fellowship time. Noe brought the
meat and Hector brought his grill. It took
an hour to do the cooking and we ate about 2.
Everyone was really hungry and the food was great. Next we had a dynamic to summarize the
weekend and we ended about 3:30. I had studied with Ana Vilma with Carolina for some time and
then when her husband George joined the study, Dwaine joined in. They came at 4:30, so we were trying to get
home in time for a short break and time to pick them up. We ran a little late because of the
passage….the last shall be first and the first shall be last….well a
paraphrase. So, we had arrived first at
the lake, but due to the narrow road, we were last to leaveJ!
So, within a few minutes of getting home, there was a knock on the
door. Ana Vilma and George had walked
over with Nelson and their nephew, Jose Raul.
The boys worked on some coloring pages and we had a great study with the
couple. Just last Sunday, Ana Vilma and
George were married and this night, they wanted to be baptized to marry
Christ! We studied for over an hour and
they wanted to make this decision tonight.
We had not tried out the pila at the church, so Dwaine headed to the
building to fill in and I took them home to pick up some more clothes. Ana Vilma’s sister (mother of Jose Raul),
Flor, joined us as well. At the
building, we called people off the street to join us as many people pass by
that we know and study with. Mr. Rivas
joined us and he was very convicted by the baptism. He had asked to see a baptism and it moved
him deeply. Cesar picked up Xiomara and
her family and that was good. Celia and
Terry walked by, but they wanted to go home first and come back. In the end, they did not join us. Several members joined us as well and it was
a blessing to have everyone. Being the
first time to use the pila had its own set of issues….how to turn, how to avoid
bumping heads, how to completely submerge, etc.
All came together and we celebrated two new births in the kingdom!
Preacher's Meeting
Jorge's Baptism
Ana Vilma's Baptism
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