Quilts, Rain and a Tremor

Last weekend, Jeff and Paula helped us hang up four of the quilts I brought back in August. Our "home sweet home" finally has something on the walls! The quilts are providing the "pop" of color that has been missing! When you see the pictures, you may remember that three of them were hanging up in our house. I made the El Salvador quilt after our first mission trip in 2007. I was able to buy material at the market here in El Salvador and use it for the border. The red heart in the middle is made from 17 different red fabrics, each fabric represents one of the 17 families who came on the trip. I have missed having my sewing machine down here; I'd like to bring it down when we come back at the end of December. I've got a couple of projects I would like to do, including making a wall hanging for the living room. I've only seen a couple of stores that sell fabric, so I'm not sure what's available. I need to ask some of the quilters at the church where I can find quilting fabric, otherwise I may have to get organized and buy it when I'm back in Lee's Summit.

It didn't rain here as much as the last few days--we even saw the sun for an hour or so. Yesterday, Steve Kern told me that he hasn't ever seen a rainy season like this one and he has been here for 25 years. Even with the rain and slightly cooler temperatures, it still feels like summer so I'm having a hard time believing that tomorrow is the first of October.

We had a tremor tonight--longer and stronger than the last one. Stephen said it was the first one he has felt since his childhood in southeast Missouri. Paula told us that there are more tremors as the rainy season ends and the dry season begins. I suppose that we will get used to them at some point.

School Pictures

Today we were able to show each class a video clip that pertained to their recent lessons. We set the computer and projector up on the wall of the auditorium. This location was much better because it was very dark and quiet. I found all of the videos on YouTube!

First Grade--alphabet song--they sang along quite well.
Second Grade--alphabet rap--B is for Ball, BBBBBB, C is for Carrot, CCCCCC
Third Grade--How the Leopard Got Its Spots, from Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories

All three groups seemed to enjoy the lesson today! They were quite good lining up and making their way downstairs for the surprise!

I've posted several pictures from previous classes, as well as a couple from today: 1. 2nd grade made "pizza," Stephen cut 30 pepperonis, 25 mushrooms and about 100 yellow triangles of cheese.
2. 1st graders watching the alphabet song
3. At least some of the 3rd graders are listening--not sure what's going on over to my right!
4. First graders Kamila and Eduardo. Kamila gave me the sweetest hug while we were watching the movie.

It's been raining almost non-stop for 3-4 days and tonight/tomorrow are supposed to be worse, so the government has declared a Red Alert and all schools have been canceled for tomorrow.

Great day at school

We had lot's of fun playing an alphabet game with the first graders today. The game "board" in their book was filled with letters of the alphabet and school supplies. We pushed two desks together and handed out the game pieces (a small round circle with a 1 or a 2 on it.) They listened really well as I rolled the dice and announced the moves. Back and forth, Ones--move to the letter D, Twos--move to the yellow eraser, Ones--move forward 4 squares, building to the finale! The "Twos" were so excited to win the first game! Not surprising, the "Ones" won the second game. Prizes were a small heart, circle, star, rectangle or square shaped sponge--blue for the boys and pink for the girls--inexpensive, educational and safe. Everybody had to say the name of their shape in English. They could hardly believe that it was theirs to take home.

Teaching is made up of so many small successes and the opportunity to start fresh everyday. I wish we had taken pictures, but Stephen was playing with Ricardo because only 11 students were in class today.

Third grade has been reading the Rudyard Kipling story, "How the Leopard Got Its Spots." Tomorrow we are watching a short video of the story--the church has wi-fi and Jeff is letting us borrow the projector he uses for mission trips. One of these days, we hope to be able to find the funds to buy a projector for the school. There are so many exciting things we could do if we had one available on a daily basis. Of course, my mind goes to other equipment like a SMART board in every classroom--can't help it, it's my background--so please pray with us about equipment for the school.

We will take the camera tomorrow and take some pictures . . . . I owe you some shots of the kids! Be prepared--they're cute and you will love them like we do.

24 hours of rain

Although the tropical depression named "Matthew" has moved past Guatemala, we are still getting the remnants of the storm. It started raining yesterday afternoon about 5:00 and it has been raining since. We haven't seen any flooding in our area, but I don't know about outside the city.

Today VidaNueva started simultaneous English translation of the sermon at the hotel. There are talented translators in the church! We know that this is just a short-term solution for us until our comprehension of Spanish improves; nevertheless, it was great to hear the sermon in English!

We're going to wait

After talking to the experts (Jeff and Paula) here, we've decided to wait until after Christmas before we go back to the immigration office. We will be in Lee's Summit in December and can get new good conduct reports from the LSPD and have them stamped by the Secretary of State. Once back in El Salvador, we can have them translated and then go back to immigration.

We are leaving the country three times (Tampa in October for our niece's wedding, Costa Rica in November for a mission trip and California/Lee's Summit in December for the holidays) between now and the end of December, which does not give us a sustained period of time to get our paperwork completed.

Well, it's off to the bank to pay our electric bill and our cable bill. We have some pictures of the students at the school and I will try to get them posted tomorrow.

Trip to immigration--interesting, but not successful

Well, the trip to the immigration office was interesting, but not at all successful. There are at least 6 documents that you have to bring from the states--originals of birth certificates for each of us, original marriage license, good conduct reports from the local police station as well as a letter from our sending church. All of those documents have to be "apostiled" by the Missouri Secretary of State. We brought them with us when we came this summer. Once here, they have to be translated into Spanish by one of the Salvadoran government approved translators--we got that done in late July. We took our documents as well as the documents from VidaNueva indicating what we are doing while here in El Salvador. We were hopeful that everything would be in order and after review we would be on our way to residency.

Well . . . . . not that easy! We were told today that since we left El Salvador in August (we returned to the states for our nephew's wedding) that our good conduct letters from May 2010 (before we left) were no longer valid. We must have new letters before our paperwork can be considered complete. All that said, we're not sure how we can get this done since we are here, not there. When we got them from LSPD, we each had to go request the letter in person. If and when we are able to get them, they will need to be aspostiled, brought to El Salvador and translated.

We return to the states (Tampa, FL) in October for our niece's wedding; we will not be back to Lee's Summit until December 17 . . . so, perhaps, the entire process will need to wait until that time. Please pray for wisdom on how to handle this situation . . . if we proceed we believe we will need to have everything completed and accepted prior to leaving the country on October 20--it will likely be very difficult to accomplish everything in the next 30 days. If we request the letters, but don't get everything processed, we will be in the same situation--any letters we receive will be invalidated once we leave the states again on October 20. Our heads are spinning tonight--tomorrow we will begin making calls to see what, if anything, can be done from here. Of course, there are fees to be paid for each step of the process, so we will incur additional costs for redoing the documents, getting new apostiles and having them translated a second time.

On another note, we also found out because we have been in the country for more than three months, that in addition to the good conduct letter from the states, we will need a similar document from the police in El Salvador. William says that the lines at the police administrative office will not be short!

We know that this is where God wants us, so we will trust Him to work this all out in His timing, whether October or January.

Residency--the process begins

Tomorrow we will make our first visit to the office of immigration in El Salvador. William Flores, worship pastor at VidaNueva, is going with us to "run interference." At this point, we believe we have all of the necessary paperwork to complete the first step, but we won't know for sure until after our visit tomorrow. There will be two lines: one will be very long (El Salvadorans trying to get visas to leave) and a much shorter line (foreigners trying to get residency for El Salvador.) We will be in the short line!

Jeff and Paula said not to be surprised if it takes multiple visits to get the initial paperwork completed correctly and accepted by the office. More steps follow, but for now we are taking one step at a time.

Nejapa Medical Campaign Pictures

Dental Assistant for a Day

Two vans, 2 pickups, and a couple of cars left the church this morning around 7:30, heading for Nejapa. The team of 35 church members from VidaNueva set up a medical clinic at the school in Nejapa. There were people waiting at the school when we arrived. At the first station, the ministry team shares the gospel with each person/family. The second station is the clinic where doctors talk with each patient. Patients who need dental work are sent to the dental clinic. The final stop is the pharmacy where patients can pick up the medicines prescribed by the doctors/dentists and find the glasses they so badly need. (I can't even imagine trying to make it through my daily life without the "readers" I have tucked away in every room and still manage to lose.)

Dressed in scrubs, Paula and I spent the day in the dental clinic. There were three dentists available most of the day. Thanks to on-the-job training from Paula and the dentists, I now know how to load needles and anesthetic for injections, prepare a tray for extractions, and provide the instruments needed for the procedures. I don't know how many people we saw today, but it was a constant stream for more than 5 hours.

Stephen worked the crowd--entertaining the kids who were waiting in line for the dental clinic. As he said, he "pulled out all the stops" today showing them card tricks, demonstrating the moon walk and taking many, many pictures. I've attached some great ones.

It's definitely hard work and my feet are tired, but we are so fortunate to work with the members of VidaNueva who are faithful to share Jesus with the people of Nejapa while they are meeting their physical needs.

NEW DETAILS: Just heard that the team saw 475 people today!

Independence Day

Tomorrow El Salvador celebrates their Independence Day with parades and sometimes protests. Today on the way home from school, we saw a marching band (in full uniform) returning to their buses after practicing. It nearly brought traffic at the roundabout to a standstill.

With the national holiday, we don't have school or classes tomorrow. We will stay tucked in at home away from the parades, parks, traffic and protests, if any. Stephen does have band practice tomorrow night at 7:30 so, hopefully, all of the celebrating will be done by then.

Today they interrupted all the cable programming to recite the pledge to the flag which, by the way, is really long--paragraphs long and definitely isn't committed to memory. I guess that's why they read it aloud on TV the day before the holiday.

We've heard a few fireworks, but not many because there aren't any fireworks stands set up. Evidently fireworks are mostly reserved for Christmas Eve at midnight and New Year's Eve at midnight.

We are setting up a one-day medical campaign this Saturday in a very poor neighborhood outside of San Salvador. If you were part of the ALBC mission trip last March--it's the neighborhood around the school where they were fumigating and we met outside to share with the classes. We also returned in the evening to set up the inflatables, show a movie and present the gospel.

Stay tuned for more news from here in El Salvador.

25 years and other odds and ends

Last night VidaNueva Baptist Church celebrated Steve and Pam Kern's 25 years in the ministry. They came to El Salvador in 1985 in the middle of the war. One of the statistics they showed last night was that there have been over 220,000 professions of faith during their 25 years on the field. God has done an amazing work through them and their faithful service. There is a link to the service on Facebook if you are interested in checking it out. The evening was topped off with the gift of a trip to Hawaii for the two of them.

Today has been a very productive day--always a good thing. The Mazda dealership called on Friday and said that the bed liner for our pickup finally made it through customs. William went with Stephen to get it installed and although it took longer than they planned (not surprising for here), it's done. We can now haul various and sundry items without (Stephen) worrying (too much) about the bed getting scratched.

I stayed home and did laundry, including the kitchen and bathroom rugs. It was sunny so I hung them outside to dry--makes them smell good and doesn't use any electricity. Our electricity bill seems to be expensive relative to the size of our place especially when you consider that we don't have air conditioning, so it's great to save when we can.

Lesson planning, "grading" and recording papers took up my afternoon. I'm going to have to figure out a way to work faster because with campaigns I am not going to have all day Saturday to work. Stephen walked to the mall and bought a new basketball net to replace the torn one on the court here in our neighborhood. Last Thursday the doorbell rang and a couple of players wanted to borrow Stephen's pump to air up their basketball. I think he is becoming the equipment manager for the neighborhood.

This date is also a time of reflection. Today is one of several historic dates for which I can remember exactly where I was when I heard the news. We watched a 9-11 special on the History channel last night that followed the timeline of the event. We pray for the United States and El Salvador--both need real, lasting peace that only God can bring.

Thanks for joining us on this journey!

Favorite things

So far the 3rd graders favorite things are: 1. Mr. Stephen showing them how he can moon walk, 2. Bald eagle story (did you know their wingspan can be 2.5 meters?), 3. Mr. Stephen's card tricks and 4. My imitation of the way a penguin walks. They were working hard on their animal comparison chart today and, if they didn't finish, it's homework that's due on Tuesday.

Second grade: 1. Using the glue sticks I bought, 2. Drawing pictures on the white board with Mr. Stephen and 3. Trying to help us learn Spanish words.

First grade: 1. Going to the board to point out English words and then being able to give the marker to the next person, 2. Getting drinks of water and 3. Using the glue sticks.

We wrapped up the second week today! We've been getting to school around 12:20 or so--about 40 minutes early. All of the students are eating lunch so we get a chance to talk English with them.

Tomorrow--Spanish class for us, maybe a trip to PriceSmart (Costco), planning for next week and church at 6:30.

What this parking pass for anyway?

Every time you drive into a mall parking lot, there is a guard shack and the guard hands every car a laminated "pass." We remember Jeff telling us to be careful with the parking pass and not to lose it. So, when we have been to a mall we would put the pass on the dash so any guards who walked by our car would see that we had it. After awhile, I asked Stephen why they gave us passes in the first place as it just didn't make sense to pass them out and then collect them when you drive out.

On Saturday we went to La Gallerias (mall) with Jeff and Paula. It's farther than the other two places where we normally go, but worth a visit. As Jeff was driving in he got the typical parking pass and I asked him why they hand those out. He said it is to prevent car theft, i.e. if someone walks into the parking lot and steals a car they won't have a parking pass to give to the guard when they exit. Oops--guess that means we shouldn't be leaving it in the truck! We didn't know it, but we were inviting car thieves to take our truck by leaving our parking pass in plain sight on the dash! Yikes--lesson learned and we will now be taking it in the mall with us! Thanks for divine protection during our naive stage!

Lazy, Rainy Sunday Night

Church was great today . . . . I know I'm really going to enjoy Pastor Julio's sermons when I can understand more of them. His sermon series on Sunday mornings is in the book of Mark--today it was Chapter 6 where Jesus visits his hometown and they are "underwhelmed" by his teachings. As Pastor Julio said, "deciding to believe or not to believe is a decision." According to verse 5, "he could do no mighty work there." Their refusal to believe translated into a lack of faith and faith is the catalyst for Christ's power in our lives! Please pray that our faith will never limit what Christ wants to do through us!

On the home front, it was a lazy afternoon with only a trip to the grocery store. Rainy evening with fresh, homemade peach cobbler to make it cozy!

Tomorrow is a regular work day for us . . . . Spanish lessons in the morning. (By the way, Guillermo didn't met us at church today, so we will try again next Sunday.)

First week wrap up and Friday night's sermon

We finished up our first week of school on Thursday. We had a great time with the 3rd graders who were very interested to hear about bald eagles. I have to admit I was amazed by some of the facts myself: they have a wingspan of over 8 feet! After dismissal, Stephen was playing the piano in the sanctuary while the kids were waiting to be picked up. It caused quite a stir as I heard kids saying, “Mr. Stephen is playing the piano,” and then they ran in to see him playing. A few minutes later there only Sofia was left. Stephen played a chord and she would play a few notes—they played quite a song and Stephen got the sweetest hug from her when she left. :-)

Pastor Julio is preaching through Ecclesiastes—tonight's message was from Chapter 3:14-22. Between his PowerPoint and my ability to recognize/understand more Spanish words than 2 months ago, I can usually get the big picture (at least.) He mentioned the latest Steven Hawking news; if you haven't seen it, according to Hawking, God wasn't necessary for the creation of the universe. Good grief—this is what I say to him:

“By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap; he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast. The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought; he makes the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the LORD standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.” Psalm 33:6-11

I intended to get this posted on Friday night, but our Internet was out when we got home from church. It's now Saturday morning and we're back in business.

Hope all you Americans who are living in America enjoy the holiday on Monday! We will be working away here in El Salvador!