Celebrating 5 Years

Pastor Manuel invited Stephen to sing at the 5th Anniversary celebration of our Vida Nueva church in Nueva Concepcion.  This is the church that we helped Jeff and Paula plant in 2011.  

We made the hour and fifteen minute drive and arrived with plenty of time to spare so that Stephen could get his piano set up and connected to the sound system.  Pastor Manuel likes to have lots of music, so Stephen wasn't the only musical guest.  

 

In total, the praise/worship music lasted and hour and fifteen minutes.  Pastor Manuel's sermon was about the same length.  

Dinner was served after the service, but Stephen and I didn't stay.  Insteaded we headed back to San Salvador and stopped at Pollos Real for pupusas.  We hadn't eaten pupusas for quite a while and they really hit the spot!

Women's Ministry Breakfast

I picked up Misha this morning to go to the women's ministry breakfast.  We parked at church and took the "shuttle" to the restaurant because parking there is very limited (like 25 spaces or less.)  

Although the original reservation was for 100 women, the restaurant was willing to accommodate 180 women by the time everyone arrived.  The addition of so many women at the last minute created some difficulties with the seating arrangements, table groups and the craft.  However, our ladies are nothing, if not patient, and eventually everyone was seated and working to decorate their own box.  Look how cute the boxes are!

Breakfast was served; it took quite awhile because of the number of women and because it was very close quarters with the wait staff having to make many trips with small trays.

After the singing, my good friend, Maria Elena, did the teaching on friendship.  She used the story of Elizabeth and Mary as her text.  Her talk was interspersed with humorous dramas which is something our ladies love.  The morning ended with the recognition of invited guests and distribution of a special treat.

Passport Renewal--Check

Our passports don't expire until January, 2017.  However, due to the fact that many countries won't accept a passport within six months of expiration and that we will be starting our permanent residency process in May, it seemed wise to go ahead and renew them early.

We had new pictures taken on Monday--why is it that the photos are always SO bad!  Our appointments at the US Embassy were yesterday morning.  Given the traffic, even though we left an hour early, we just barely arrived on time.  Once there, I remembered that the appointment allows them to control the number of people who enter, but it's not a guaranteed time.

Entry to the embassy requires passing through a metal detector, having all of your possessions screened (like at the airport) and "checking" all electronic devices in the secure lobby.  There were about 30 people sitting in the waiting area after we passed through security.  At the first window, they confirm your citizenship, take payment for the service you are requesting (passport renewals are $110) and give you a number for the next step.    I'm not sure how long we waited before we were called back to the window to submit our renewal form and hand over our passport pictures.  After that came the long wait (almost 2 hours.)  Stephen passed the time playing cards with Margarita, a 10-year old girl who was waiting with her mom.  

About 11:00 p.m., they called us back to the window and told us that everything was approved and our new passports would be ready to pick up on March 9.  In the meantime, they returned our old passports in case we had to travel before the new ones come in.  All in all, more efficient than mailing them in so it was worth the time investment.

Hilo, Aguja y Biblia--On the road

February has been a very busy month for the Hilo, Aguja y Biblia ladies.  We've had four different activities:  breakfast for friendship month, baby shower for Pastor David and Maritiza, regular Saturday meeting to make up packets to donate to a school and a trip to a school in Aguilares (yesterday) to share the gospel in three classrooms.  

Breakfast:

Baby shower:

Packing bags for the schools:

School evangelism in Aguilares:

I'm so proud of this group!  They've worked hard, studied hard and had lot's of fun over the past month.  

Armor of God Bible Study

Thanks to Paula Rhoades who bought the DVD's and books, our ladies Bible study group started Priscilla Shirer's "Armor of God" study several weeks ago.  Although the group changes a bit each session, I've been in Bible studies with the group since we arrived in 2010--it's easy for me because the study is in English!   

We had our first meeting at the Florence restaurant in Plaza Futura.  It was a time to introduce ourselves to each other and welcome new members to the group.  

We meet in Yvette's home on Friday mornings and after a time of prayer and discussion, we watch Priscilla's lesson on DVD.  I always look forward to Friday mornings with this group of Godly women.  They are supportive, caring and fun.  

Secretary for a Week

It's been a long, long time since I worked as a secretary in an office, but I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle.  The only problem is that this time I'm communicating in Spanish.   

Unfortunately, over the past two weeks both of the church secretaries left and Pastor Julio's wife, Patty, in addition to her regular duties as the administrator of New Life Christian School, was serving as the receptionist and "switchboard" operator.   Another one of the church employees has been helping out between her regular duties, as well.  However, Pastor Julio and Patty left on Wednesday for nine days in the states.  They are visiting their daughters in New Orleans and he is also going to preach at a missions conference in Texas. 

On Monday I spent the morning "training" with Patty.  She was especially concerned about having someone in the office to receive tuition payments from New Life parents.  It seems they come to the office various days and times to make their payments.  She also showed me how to answer and transfer calls.  Using the phone will not be the problem, instead, the challenge for me will be understanding the callers.  

Today is my second day and, so far, there haven't been any big disasters (as far as I know.)  This will be the most challenging task I've had in the last several years!  As I told Patty, I think I'm going to be "just a little better than nobody at all."  Please pray that I will be a help and not a hindrance.

Casa del Juicio--Final Weekend

I'm definitely running behind getting things posted, but it's taken a couple of days to recover from the final weekend of Casa del Juicio.  Saturday was busy because I had a baby shower in the morning and then was home about and hour and a half before leaving for Lourdes at 2:00 p.m.  Stephen was still feeling bad so I went alone.

Counseling was set up in the sanctuary separated from the preaching by a wall of plastic.

The first group started at 3:00 p.m. and  we finished about 9:30.  Almost 400 people saw the production and there were 50 professions of faith and about 30 rededications.  Even though I was able to leave about 9:30, a group of people from the church had to take down everything that was inside the sanctuary so they could have church on Sunday morning.  

Stephen still wanted to play for church on Sunday morning so we walked to the hotel, as usual.  After playing in the second service, we walked to Plaza Futura for a Valentine's Day lunch at Olive Garden.  It was quick, but nice; we were in and out in less than an hour.

I got away a bit later, but still arrived before most of the counseling team.  Sunday was almost a repeat of Saturday, with nearly 400 people going through.  The decision numbers were down just a bit to 42 and 15, respectively. 

At the end of the night, the whole team gathered outside the church for a prayer of thanksgiving for everything that God did through Judgment House 2016.