Birthday Breakfast

Nine of us got together for breakfast to say "happy birthday" to our good friend, Patty Contreras.  She is the second on my left.

One of the best things about going out for breakfast here is that many of the restaurants have 2 for 1 specials--my breakfast cost $3.25!  

I am so honored to be a part of this great group of women, and I count them all as dear friends.  I don't know why I was designated to take the "selfie," but it didn't turn out so bad!

February isn't just for Valentines

Valentine's Day is celebrated here in El Salvador, but it's known here as the "Day of Love and Friendship."  As a result, the celebrations don't just focus on husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, but on all types of friendship.  To that end, the celebration is too big to fit on one single day; instead, friendship is celebrated throughout the month of February.

Our traditional to have a women's ministry "friendship breakfast" was held yesterday and more than 120 women attended.  Dr. Marta Colato shared the awesome friendship story between Jesus and Lazarus.  

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.

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.  

Why we love visiting Guatemala

For us, there's nothing better than getting away to Guatemala City for a few days.  Yes, the country is beautiful and, yes, the weather is amazingly comfortable.  However, the real reason we love visiting Guatemala is these two amazing people:

Nelson and Rosemarie Rivas

When we're here in Guatemala, we just "do life" with them.  Yesterday, Rosemarie, Fabi, Cami and I left the house at 7:00 a.m.  The first stop was to drop Cami off at school.  The three of us made our way across town (the short cut took a little over an hour) to a home where Rosemarie is leading the Beth Moore, "Breaking Free" Bible study.  We were a little early, so we stopped for coffee/tea at McCafe.   After an ample "snack" the study started about 10:00 a.m.  I think we finished about 1:00 p.m., made a stop to buy Cami a pair of tennis shoes and then worked our way back home.  

There's always a concert when Stephen and Nelson get together--the piano is set up in the living room!  Stephen and Fabi also find time to "jam."

In the afternoon, I helped with preparations for the next ladies event--a celebration of Mother's Day at the end of May.  Washing and drying plastic containers, cutting felt, gluing and more.  Look at the cute favor they're making for each woman.  

This morning they treated us to Capistrano--our favorite breakfast place.  Today equals more work on the favors; Stephen is also helping to clean and then paint bottles.  

LIke I said, we enjoy doing "life" with them.  We love them and their girls, and we know it's true that "friends are a gift from God."

One more Friendship Event

On the last day of February, we celebrated the final friendship event for the month--a women's ministry breakfast.  This active ministry holds three breakfasts and one retreat each year and we always celebrate friendship in February.

Today I worked at the registration table with two other women.  We helped check in the more than 100 women who attended.  I was really surprised at how many of the women I knew--I guess that should be expected as we are closing in on five years at Vida Nueva.  I think I was the only "gringa" in the room today, as neither Rachelle nor Tiffany were able to attend.

A few pictures:

Day of Friendship and Love

For some reason February 14 is not called Valentine's Day here. So, instead, we celebrated "Day of Friendship and Love" three different ways over two days. 

FIRST CELEBRATION:  On Saturday morning the 14th we had a potluck breakfast with our discipleship group.  Not wanting to miss the opportunity to share "gringo" food, I signed up to bring biscuits and gravy.  This became a possibility when I saw that SuperSelectos, my grocery store, began carrying various kinds of Johnsonville sausages, including traditional breakfast links.  Of course, the down side of biscuits and gravy is that there are no canned biscuits here--they have to be made from scratch.  So bright and early Saturday morning I was making a triple batch of my mom's biscuits and a huge pot of gravy.  It's hard to believe that not everyone at the breakfast wanted to try them!  Ryan, Keeley, Stephen and I managed to eat our fair share.  Several weeks ago Stephen and I ate breakfast at State's Diner and I posted a picture on Facebook with the caption, "best biscuits and gravy in El Salvador."  However, after Saturday, the four of us decided to amend that statement to "second best."

The company and the rest of the food was also great, as we hadn't had the whole IDEM group together since November.  

SECOND CELEBRATION:   After being up early to cook, we decided to go out for dinner.  We really didn't know what to expect in terms of whether the restaurants would be busy, but decided to risk it.  We walked to our favorite Chinese place which is called 168, and found it less than busy.  The food is always good and, in fact, when we were in Kansas City over the holidays we thought our former favorite Chinese place was just okay.  Guess we've come to appreciate the restaurant here.  It was a great night to walk, and we're loving the fact that we're in a safe neighborhood and the 4-5 block walk is something we can even do after dark, as long as it's not too late.

THIRD CELEBRATION:  Sunday afternoon I was privileged to share with the single mom's ministry at our church.  This month's theme was "friendship" so we learned what some famous people had to say about friendship, including Helen Keller who said:

and Charles Dickens who said:

and, of course, we passed out Hershey's kisses after reading this quote.  Got to keep your audience involved!

However, we spent most of our time talking about what the Bible has to say about friends and friendship. Not surprisingly, it's quite a lot, including telling us about the friendships between Job and his friends, David and Jonathan and Paul and Barnabus, to name a few.  It was so much fun to share with them and Ena did a great job translating for me!