Last day of school

Today is "our" last day to teach this year.  The kids have another week or so, but we're off!  To celebrate, we made homemade ice cream after lunch.  If you're wondering, a 6-quart White Mountain ice cream freezer does make enough for 50 kids, 5 teachers and a few other adults.

Some of the kids helped with the cranking even though they didn't know what to expect.  I'm guessing that this is going to have to be a last day of school tradition.

Stephen and I finished today because we are going to Guatemala on Saturday morning.  We'll be studying Spanish in Antigua for 8 weeks.  We're praying that this will be our final "formal" course in Spanish.

Still happy

One of the bad (good) things about living in San Salvador is that we don't have very many of our old pictures with us.  So, try as I might, I couldn't find a 38-year old wedding picture to post!  I know there may be some of you out there who remember that day.

As I say repeat every year, "Where has the time gone?"  Looking back over almost 4 decades, it's easy to see the many blessings of the past 38 years, including, but not limited to (that's attorney speak in honor of Stephen) Daniel, Shannon, Maleia, Josiah and Jonathan; our families, my Dad, brother and sister and Stephen's parents, brothers and sister; great friends in the states (Steve and Terisa, Jim and Debby and too many others to mention), great friends all over Central America (Jeff and Paula, William and Gilma, Koky and Ena and too many others to mention); a supportive pastors and a great church family at Abundant Life Baptist Church and, most of all, a faithful God.  Only He could have known that our 38th wedding anniversary would find us serving Him in El Salvador.

School's Almost Out

We have 5 days of school left--we finish on Thursday, May 31.  We are taking our ice cream freezer next Thursday and the 4th graders are going to help us crank vanilla ice cream.  We're hoping that the 6-quart freezer will make enough for all 50 of our students to have a taste.  Well, of course, we want to give the teacher's some, as well.  It should be lots of fun and a great way to end "our" school year (the kids have to go another 2 weeks) and start "our" summer vacation.

Residency Process--Year 2

Our residency process for year two is underway.  We brought back our 2012-13 support letter from Abundant Life when we were there in April.  Last week the government-approved translator finished his work.  This week Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva is working on their part of the paperwork--it should be ready tomorrow afternoon.

Thursday all of my school kids at New Life Christian School have a field trip so I don't have classes.  Instead of making the trip with them, we've decided to take our church paperwork to the attorney/notary for his signature and stamp.  Once we have that, we will take everything we have to the Immigration Office.  If things go perfectly, we could be done submitting the paperwork Thursday.  If not, we can make the necessary changes and return to the office on Friday.

Please be in prayer for this process . . . . our cards expire June 29, but we will be leaving for Guatemala in early June (more about this in another post) and it would be idea if we had our new cards before we left.  If not, we will have to return to El Salvador before the end of June to pick them up.

Colors of the Stage

Music was all around us this weekend!  Friday night we had the opportunity to hear the Youth Orchestra of Central America in concert!  There were more than 100 very talented youth from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic and El Salvador (including Ena and Koky's son, Rafa.)  The music was amazing!

Then, Saturday night we went with William and Gilma to see Jesus Adrian Romero, our favorite Christian Hispanic songwriter/singer, in concert at one of the football stadiums.  I'm guessing we were one of the few, if not the only, gringos among the crowd of  10,000+.  We sing some of his songs at church and it was great to hear them live with the crowd singing along.  He had sung for about an hour when it started to sprinkle.  Unfortunately, the wind and rain moved in and they had to stop the concert early.  Even so, we had a great time with great friends!

Growing the church

There were 15 people here last week--4 from Abundant Life in Lee's Summit, MO, 3 from Louisiana, 1 from Fresno, California, and 7 from Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California.  Together they made up our "mission team" for the week.

This week we were focused on growing the church in Lourdes.  On Saturday and Sunday we set up the inflatables in private neighborhoods and hosted a coffee/pastry reception for the neighbors.  The event included a puppet show and a gospel presentation.  On Monday and Tuesday evening we returned to the same neighborhood and hosted a Mother's Day event and dinner, featuring pupusas for the whole neighborhood.  Once again, we had the inflatables up for the kids, the youth performed their drama and a team member shared the gospel presentation.  Several lucky mother's received early Mother's Day gifts from the church.  Everyone who made a profession of faith or who expressed an interest in coming to the church in Lourdes was invited to a special Mother's Day breakfast being held Sunday morning.  Jeff, Pastor Steve and Koky were thrilled with the turnout--we served more than 300 meals each night.

Monday through Wednesday during the morning, the team visited schools and shared the sexual purity lesson with high school students.  It is amazing to see the Holy Spirit moving among the students as many of them commited their lives to Christ.

Wednesday evening and Thursday morning and evening, we worked to help church plants in Aguilares and Apopa.

 Yes, sometimes Stephen does run the inflatable!

 Kids in Lourdes watching the puppet show.

 Donna and the girls from one of her classes.

 I'm not making pupusas, but I'm waiting to help serve them.

Jim, Donna and Kevin sharing during the door-to-door time before the movie and gospel presentation.

Koinonia--Sunday, April 29

On Sunday all three locations of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva met together at the Crown Plaza Hotel.  This "Koinonia" service happens every 3-4 months.  The worship music was awesome--I have really come to appreciate the Spanish praise and worship songs.  In fact, when we were at ALBC last week, the music just didn't sound like "home" to me.

Pastor Steve Kern and Pastor Julio Contreras shared the vision for the church for the next three years.  The vision has two parts.  First, there is physical expansion which includes updating the sound, lights, and seating at the main church facility in Miravalle and a completely remodeling the facilities, including a new sanctuary, at the church site in Lourdes.  The second part relates to spiritual expansion or spiritual growth among the members of the church.  This process of growth is known by three S's or S3 (seguidor, siervo, sacrifcio) for short.  The concept is captured in this beautiful butterfly logo:  

The meaning is clear in English, even if the words don't all start with the same letter:  The Process of Transformation at New Life Baptist Church:  Follow, Serve and Sacrifice which encourages all believers to continue growing and maturing in their walk with the Lord.

I'm so thankful that we are able to sit under Pastors Steve Kern and Julio Contreras who, week after week, share the truth of God's word from the pulpit here in El Salvador.  We are blessed!

Family Time

We traveled to Lee's Summit, MO, in April to meet up with our son, Daniel, daughter-in-law, Shannon, and two grandkids, Maleia and Josiah.  Once again our dear friend, Sam Hizer, shared his van with us.  He picked all six of us up at the airport!  We stayed at the Abundant Life Baptist Church mission home and what a blessing it was!  We kept a low profile, staying at home most of the time (except for a couple of doctor/dentist appointments.)  In typical Kansas City fashion, the weather varied from cold, in our opinion, to hot, in Daniel and Shannon's opinion.  One day we had the heat on in the house and another day the air conditioning.

Staying together in the missions house gave people the opportunity to come to us and minimized the need for getting the kids in the car multiple times per day.  On Saturday, we took Maleia and Josiah to the Kite Festival at Longview College, where, unfortunately, there was so little wind the big kites could not get off the ground.  Our good friends, Jim and Debby, their son, Garrett, and granddaughter, Camdyn met us there.  The kite festival was just the beginning of a great day--hurray, we were able to go to Gates for lunch.  I know there are many barbeque opinions, but for our family, a beef sandwich just doesn't get any better than the one at Gates.  I think Daniel and Shannon bought 3 bottles of sauce to take back to California.  By afternoon we were back at home and waiting for Stephen's three brothers to arrive.  The four Parris boys played a quick round of golf at the Longview Executive course.  It was great to have everyone for dinner at the house; a special thanks to Shannon, Denise, Mandi and Tanya for helping with the Lasagntons!

Sunday we worshipped in the 8:00 a.m. service at ALBC and then visited and briefly shared in our Community Group (Sunday School class) at 9:30.  It is always fun to see new faces and connect, if even for just a few minutes, with friends at our home church.  We appreciate everything ALBC does to support us and the ministry here.  We couldn't be here if not for their faithful prayer and financial support.

We caught up with my family at lunch on Sunday afternoon.  I'm telling you that the 14 of us made quite a few trips to through the Chinese buffet at Legends of Asia.

We had hoped Stephen's parents might be able to make it to Lee's Summit, but his mom's health restricts her ability to travel.  So, instead, Stephen, along with his brother, David, traveled to West Plains on Sunday afternoon to visit his mom and dad.

There was a quick trip to the plaza and another one to Town Center, but otherwise, we just hung out with the kids and grandkids.  Okay, we did make it to Custard's Last Stand a couple of times!  Except for the two places mentioned above, we didn't eat at any of our favorite restaurants this time--we didn't even have pizza.  We did, however, eat two meals, in the Guenther kitchen!  Just can't beat Terisa's pot roast, potatoes with all the trimmings for the first and then hamburgers, brauts and dogs on the grill for the second.

I've attached a couple of pictures--enjoy!

 Four Parris brothers, Mark, David, Stephen and Michael

My family--me, my dad, my sister, Kristi, and my brother, Ron.

 Our chunky and very happy grandson, Josiah!

Maleia and Josiah hang out in the front yard with grandpa.