Lazy Days

There were supposed to be two July campaigns this summer, but both of them were canceled due to worries about the Zika virus.  As a result, we've had a lazy July with time to relax and catch-up on things.  We're not used to the time off!  Of course our regular activities have continued (band practice, Bible study, seminary class).

This week we will start preparing for the triple trip which is coming in less than two weeks.  Good News in Action will be hosting three trips in three different countries at the same time.  A team of 45 is coming to Guatemala, a team of 46 is coming to Costa Rica and there will be 24 in Nicaragua.  All of this means that Vida Nueva will be sending many, many translators and other support persons to each of the three countries.  

Stephen and I are going to spend the first two days in Guatemala.  We'll be riding the Vida Nueva bus over.  On Monday, we will fly to Costa Rica to spend the remainder of the week.  Pastor Steve and Pam are starting their trip in Costa Rica, which allows us to start in Guatemala. This will be the first time we've visited two countries, but a team from First Baptist, Ferguson, MO, is coming to Guatemala and we want to be there to welcome them.  Pastor Steve and Pam will fly out of Costa Rica on Monday and we will fly in.

Please pray for the teams who are coming from the states, our teams as they prepare for the trip and each local church.  

How did it get to be the end of July?

Where is this year going?  It's unbelievable that it's been 7 months since we rang in the new year!  I guess the old saying that "time flies when you're having fun" is true.

Yesterday was a long day with quite a bit of time spent in the horrible traffic we have here in San Salvador.  I made my way to Denny's yesterday morning to celebrate Kathia's birthday with several other women from our IDEM (small group.)  If not for the accident that snarled traffic, I would have been early.

Just after noon we ventured out to pick up our truck at the dealership after it's 24,000 kilometer checkup.  Jeff and Paula let us use their truck while ours was in the shop which makes it easy to pick ours up after they finish the work.  The traffic is always crazy at noon, but at least my stop at the bank to pay rent (early because of the Costa Rica trip next week) didn't take as long as normal.

Tuesday is our regular small group night and our leaders, missionaries Ryan and Keeley Blackstock, were back from their summer furlough to share their ministry and update their supporting churches.  Although we left a few minutes later than normal (due to the fact that we couldn't find Stephen's reading glasses,) it really didn't matter because it was one of "those" traffic nights.  You know it's going to be bad when the cars on the ramp you need to use are sitting at a dead stop and are backed up to the highway you are on..  Even though we've lived here three years now, we still haven't mastered this crazy city, so we have limited options for avoiding bad traffic.  We managed to bail out and go another way, but that route was crazy, too. We finally arrived at 7:45 after being on the "way" for over an hour. By the way, it's about 5 miles and without traffic takes less than 10-12 minutes.

Like I said, it was a long day with more traffic time than we like.