Hayden is Here--Day 2

We walked to the hotel for the  9:00 a.m. service and Hayden ran into more friends from his last two mission trips--that boy is popular.  After the service, Hayden and I walked back to the apartment; we planned to go to the grocery store.  Unfortunately, we didn't realize that Stephen had the keys to the truck.  So, instead, we walked back to the hotel and waited for Stephen to finish playing for the 11:30 service and then ate lunch at Olive Garden.

We probably watched a baseball game in the afternoon; I don't really remember!  Then David and Maritza game by and we drove to Los Planes de Rendero to introduce Hayden to all th ings "corn."  He was a good sport and tried everything we put in front of him, although the crazy corn with mayo, mustard, black sauce and cheese was a little too much.

Later, Koky and Ena joined the five of us for pupusas at El Atico.  He definitely like the pupusas and the great view!  Of course, the company was outstanding, as well.  

Finished Strong

We wrapped up the El Salvador campaign in Apopa last night.  It was a great week, with more than 500 professions of faith.  

Yesterday morning we went to a "new" school and the kids were so excited to have us there.  

Don stayed with us this week, so at lunch he invited us, Koky and Ena to join him at Restaurant 168, his favorite Chinese restaurant.  

The campaign was in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Apopa and the team was able to meet Pastor Chitty for the first time.  After going door-to-door for an hour and having several kids games and time on the inflatable, the drama team performed the "Everything" drama and Harry presented the gospel (with Vladimir translating.)  

The Unexpected

Our "flying" day on Friday was long, long, long!  We left Daniel and Shannon's house at 6:00 a.m. and arrived at our apartment just before 11:00 p.m.  Our flight was delayed out of Houston--we didn't take off until almost 7:00 p.m. (original departure time was 5:40 p.m.)  Once we made it to El Salvador the immigration line was as long as we've ever seen it and we even had to wait on the luggage.  There was only one person working the customs line so that also took a long time.  The unexpected (for Stephen)-- Nelson and Rosemarie were there to pick us up and it's a good thing because with six pieces of luggage I don't think we could have fit in anything other than a van.

Yesterday, we slept in and tried to get back on Central Standard time.  We put away everything in the suitcases, including getting our new drapes (thanks, Daniel and Shannon) up in all three bedrooms.  We didn't leave the house yesterday--well, we did, but not in our truck.  The unexpected--we walked to La Pizzaria and had a great dinner.  .

This morning we had quite a few things to take with us to church, so we thought it best to drive.  The unexpected--our truck battery was completely dead.  Unexpected--the walk to the hotel was less than 15 minutes.  It was great to worship at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva and have the privilege to hear Koky Lopez preach this morning.  (His sermon will be the subject of another blog post later in the week.)  

William and Gilma brought us and the jumper cables back to our apartment, and we were able to get the truck going.  The unexpected--evidently, the life expectancy of a battery here in El Salvador is about four years.  So you can imagine William and Gilma's surprise when we told them we've had the same battery since we bought the truck in July 2010.  Guess it shattered all the records.  

Our next stop was Pricesmart where the mechanic announced that our battery was operating at less than 38%.  We are now the proud owners of a new battery and will mark our calendars for January 2016, when, most likely, this new one will fail.  

At least we were able to do our PriceSmart shopping at the same time.  The rest of the afternoon was "as expected."  Stephen went for a run and watched the football games while I went to the regular grocery store.  

Even with the unexpected, we're happy to be home and looking forward to a restful week before we travel to Bogota, Colombia for the first campaign of the year and first ever campaign at our first church plant in South America.

Fruit That Remains

If you've read my previous post, you know that our first evangelistic campaign of 2014 finished last Friday and that it was a week filled with more than 800 professions of faith.  Even more exciting was the following picture and comment which was posted by Pastor Koky Lopez after the service at the Lourdes church last Sunday morning.

These 12 adults (and 9 children) visited church Sunday morning as result of the 

campaigns last weekend.  What a blessing!

Here's the news from Pastor Chitty Escobar after the evening service tonight at the Apopa church.

Wednesday night service at the Apopa campus with visitors
from the recent evangelistic campaign.  

Please pray for the follow-up teams from each campus as they continue the important work of following-up with each individual who made a decision.

Not that kind of stitch!

Stephen helped me load up the truck with sewing machines and fabric so I could go to Hilo, Agujo y Biblia this morning.  As usual I can depend upon the guards at the church to help me unload.  It was great catching up with the ladies and showing them all the great baby things that were donated by several community groups at our home church.  We are going to give the baby things to one of the public hospitals here in San Salvador along with the baby quilts the ladies have been working on for the last 3-4 months.  We have completed more than 15!

Jeff picked up Stephen and they also came to church to load up one of the inflatables for an activity tomorrow.  The  inflatable storage area is small and the ceilings are low.  Unfortunately, a nail caught and cut Stephen on the top of his head.  Everyone says that head wounds bleed alot and, from what Jeff said, his was no exception.  I was inside the church so I didn't hear about it until after he was somewhat cleaned up.  Thankfully, Dr. Lopez (Koky) was in his dental office which is on the church property.  He promptly installed Stephen in his dental chair and stitched the wound closed.  After all, it's not easy to use a butterfly bandage on the head and I doubt you find many of those bandages in dental offices.  Stephen's last tetanus was in 2007; so he is good.  Koky prescribed some antibiotic cream which he will use 3 times a day.

That's just how we roll here in El Salvador!