10 Gringo Thanksgiving

Ten gringos joined together to celebrate Thanksgiving at Jeff and Paula's house. The meal was a joint effort! Between Paula Rhoades, Keeley Blackstock, Linda Pinnell and me we served up turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, pineapple casserole (Linda says this is a traditional Thanksgiving dish in North Carolina), rolls, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. We all enjoyed having Ryan and Keeley's girls with us--Avigail is 8 and Ella is 6. They worked on Thanksgiving crafts and took drink orders! After lunch there was some football and some Wii games.

I got pictures of the food, but, unfortunately, didn't get pictures of the people! Please do not think this is an indication of my priorities! :-)

We were also able to Skype with Daniel, Shannon, Maleia and Josiah. It was good to see all of their smiling faces. We didn't talk with Jon so I am unable to report on the success/failure of his pumpkin pie baking adventure.

Dia de Accion de Gracias

In order to avoid the early morning traffic, we left for school at 6:20. What a surprise--there was hardly any traffic and we arrived a full 50 minutes early! The kids presented the story of Thanksgiving and then sang "His Love Endures Forever" with Michael W. Smith. As you can imagine, phones were snapping photos and the video cameras were rolling. The day ended early with a breakfast for parents. We gave all of our kids a special "turkey treat" before they left for the day at 8:30.

Stephen's Birthday

Jeff, Paula, William and Gilma surprised Stephen by joining us for pupusas at Pollos Real on Saturday night. We came back to the house after dinner and celebrated with a strawberry pie I managed to make while he was out walking on Saturday morning.

Jeff and Paula picked us up for church at 8:30 and made a stop at Starbucks to buy Stephen his birthday Mocha. At the 9 am service at the hotel William surprised Stephen by leading the congregation in a rousing rendition of Feliz, Feliz Cumpleaños! Unlike our traditional and short Happy Birthday song, the Spanish version has 2-3 verses! After church, I had time to make one of his favorite meals--breakfast: bacon, eggs (sunny-side up, of course), biscuits, gravy, orange juice and milk.

We didn't have time for a nap after lunch because we left for Nueva Concepcion at 3:00. It was our 2nd to last Sunday with the church. Somehow the congregation found out it was Stephen's birthday so he was serenaded a second time. Paula and I worked with the kids--they made thank you cards for Topeka Baptist Church where Justin Rhoades is the youth pastor. His church collected money to pay for tables and chairs for the kids classrooms.

16 days

After 9 days in Costa Rica and 6 days in Guatemala we are now back in El Salvador. The trip was awesome . . . . there were more than 500 professions of faith in Costa Rica; over 200 kids joined us for VBS in Guatemala City. Lot's of things to be thankful for this month.

Next week 10 gringos will gather at Jeff and Paula's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I've got to find time to get my shopping done . . . wish I could just run over to Hy-Vee, but it's not that easy!

The Next 17 Days

We fly to Costa Rica tomorrow morning so this will have to be short. We are going a few days early to visit the family we stayed with when we were in language school. It will be great to see them. While we were living with them, I made Snickerdoodle cookies and they all loved them. So, I just finished baking Snickerdoodles to take with us.

The campaign starts on Sunday and we will be joined by a small team from Bakersfield, California, and a small team from North Carolina. Pastor Rodolfo received permission for the team to share at several schools. Although, we have been sharing in the schools in San Salvador and Guatemala City for several years, this is a first for Costa Rica. Please pray that the lesson, testimony and gospel will be well-received and that many students will pray to receive Christ.

At the end of the week, we will fly directly to Guatemala City to help Vida Nueva with Vacation Bible School. Another group from Bakersfield will be helping with VBS and a team from First Bible Baptist Church, Blue Springs, Missouri, will be conducting a soccer camp in the afternoons.

We will catch a ride back to San Salvador on November 19, with the Salvadorans who are coming over to help with VBS.