Sunday, April 28, 2013

ALBC at Lourdes

Sunday morning worship at the "new" church in Lourdes was amazing.  The worship music was awesome and included "Now is the Time to Worship," "Revelation Song," "How Great is Our God" and "His Loves Endures Forever."

Pastor Phil preached a great sermon from Joshua that urged the church not only to remember where they came from, but also to keep looking to the future.

Enjoy a couple of pictures from this morning.

 The whole team at the new entrance to the church.
 "Revelation Song"
Pastor Phil preaching; Pastor Steve translating
 
Jeff, Paula, Kristi, Pastor Phil and us!

Saturday, April 27, 2013

They're Here!

The team from Abundant Life Baptist Church, Lee's Summit, Missouri, arrived right on time yesterday afternoon!  We gathered them all up in the big yellow school bus and made the trip up the mountain from the airport to San Salvador.  It was great to see old friends and meet new people.

We came home while they checked in to the Crown Plaza, had a quick lunch and a couple of hours to rest.  They left at 3:00 a.m. yesterday morning, so I know they appreciated the downtime.

Pastor Phil preached last night and Pastor Steve Kern translated.  It is always a great blessing for us to hear sermons in English and even more so when they are being preached by our very own pastor.  Here are a few pictures of the day!

This morning we start with orientation at 8:30 a.m. and then go door to door inviting neighbors to the family festival tonight.  Please pray for divine appointments this week and boldness to share the gospel.





Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Next Campaign Coming Up

Our next campaign is almost upon us.  A team from Abundant Life Baptist Church will arrive on Friday morning. We're so excited to have a group from our home church in Lee's Summit coming here to work with us.  It will be a busy week.  Stephen will be going out with the group in the morning, but I will be teaching.  We will both go out in the evening.

Please pray that we will have many opportunities to share Christ's love with the people of El Salvador.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Now there are SIX

The ladies of Hilo, Aguja y Biblia met today and we now have finished SIX baby quilts!  Our goal is to have 8 done in time for the Mother's Day celebration the second Sunday of May.  So, unless all of the machines break before our next meeting on May 4, we should easily achieve our goal.  We will be giving two baby quilts away in each of the four services on Mother's Day Sunday, May 12.

There are at least 15 more basted and ready to be quilted and another 10 or so ready to be assembled and basted.  I believe there should be more than enough to take us through the summer months.  It's so exciting to see the ladies using the sewing machines for the first time!






Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Prayer Request


Our daughter-in-law's oldest brother, Michael (age 33), has blood clots in his lungs. He is in the hospital and they are treating him with blood thinning medicine. He, as well as his father and several other siblings, have a genetic blood coagulating disorder called Leiden Factor V which complicates the situation.  Although this is something he was born with it has not cause any problems in the past.  Please pray that they are able to dissolve all of the clots and that no new clots appear.
Thanks for lifting him up!


Sunday, April 14, 2013

I'm dreaming of BLT's

Paula Rhoades brought tomato seeds from home.  Gilma Flores planted, water, transplanted and brought two of the survivors to me.  I've done my best not to kill them.  Yesterday I noticed, the first tomato!  Can't wait for this little hard, green tomato to be red and ripe!  I hope that it's not the only one!


Saturday, April 13, 2013

Pretending we're in Kansas City

We're having a Kansas City dinner tonight for our friends, Matt and Marcela.  Matt is Steve Kern's son, but he lived in the states for about 8 years so, I'm assuming, he's familiar with BBQ.  Marcela, his fiance', is from El Salvador, and, perhaps, this will be her introduction to BBQ or not.  The menu is:  baby back ribs, baked beans, cheesy corn and salad.  Hopefully, it will all taste great and they'll both love it.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

My fourth graders have been learning about recycling!  We've talked about ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.  I found a recycling coloring book which included one page for each type of item that could be recycled, i.e. bottles, milk jugs, tires, car batteries, etc.  Each student selected a page, colored it and learned (some memorized) the information on the page, in English, of course.  We also learned a Recycling "chant" from our textbook:

Reduce!  Reuse!  Recycle!
Today we're learning a lot
About how to help our Earth
And make it a nicer spot.

We usually throw away many things
We like to go places by car
Today we're learning to be different
It's really not that hard.

Yesterday, we presented the book and it's contents to Ms. Roxana, our principal.  We started and ended the presentation with the song.

Here's a few pictures of the students presenting their pages.  I am really proud of the work they did to learn the information.  I hope that this new knowledge will help them to be a part of the solution,  Unfortunately, in El Salvador, tossing the trash out the window of the car or dropping it on the ground whenever you're done with it is all too commonplace.  

 Jorge welcoming Ms. Roxana and presenting the book.
 Andrea giving an overview of each item that can be recycled.
 Laura talking about "Dottie Bottle" who represents glass that can be recycled forever.
 Kenneth explaining how to recycle "Tire Guy" and listing things that can be made from recycled tires.
 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!  Fourth grade class (missing 2 absent students) with Ms. Roxana.

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Baby Quilts in the Works

No jumping to conclusions that the birth of two babies in the last 10 days has me knee deep in baby quilts--no, quite the opposite.  The ladies of Hilo, Aguja y Biblia meet today and continued their work on baby quilts to be given to the nursery at the church and given to children in one of the orphanages that the church has worked with in the past.

As of now, we have completed two, have two more almost finished and have 16+ basted and ready to quilt.    Unfortunately, one of the 3 sewing machines we had a broken needle and we didn't have a replacement.  Next time we meet I must remember to bring some extra needles as we have broken 3 needles in the last two sessions.  With just a few additional minutes, we would have had 2 more completed quilts--oh well, next time.  Our goal is to have all 5 of our sewing machines up and running for our next meeting on April 20.

Today's Bible study was lead by Isabela--I love to listen to her teach.  She is easy for me to understand and she has such great illustrations/stories to help us understand the subject of the lesson.

I forgot to take my camera, so no pictures today.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Happy Day of Birth

Welcome to the world, Hudson Benjamin Parris, son of Aaron and Ally Parris.  Hudson was born at 1:02 p.m. today and weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces.  Congratulations to the proud parents and grandparents, David Parris and Marcy Reynolds.  Since I don't know Ally's parents, this isn't a comprehensive grandparent list.

Maleia and Josiah have two new Parris cousins in the last ten days (see my post on March 28.)  Too bad the Parris cousins live all over the country:  2 in California, 5 in Kansas, 2 in Florida, 1 in Wisconsin and 1 in Missouri; sure makes family reunions difficult.

Hudson Benjamin Parris, 4/4/13

Robert Matthew Rivera, 3/26/13

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City here we come!

Well, not until June, but the tickets are bought!  We're sandwiching a trip in between two mission trips, so it will be a busy time for us.

If you're interested in getting the dates on your calendar, they are:  June 20 to July 4.