A Trip to Hayward

One of the amazing things about cataract surgery is that the recovery period doesn't come with a lot of restrictions.  It's pretty much limited to don't press or rub your eyes and don't let shower water hit you directly in the eye.  Otherwise, he's free to do whatever he wants, including playing golf and running.  

We knew before we came to California that Pastor Julio and Patty were going to be in the area while we were here.  They are presenting a family conference in a Hispanic church in Hayward; so we told them we would come to one of the evening services.

Because the rush-hour traffic across the Dumbarton Bridge between Sunnyvale and Hayward can be crazy, we left about 3:00 p.m. and arrived with no major delays.  We were able to explore the city and walk through the rather quaint, but almost empty (more shops were out of business than were open) stores.  The city hall and other government buildings were quite impressive, though.

We also had time to drive to Garin Regional Park and do a bit of walking.  We weren't dressed for hiking, so we didn't wander far from the parking lot.  These two pictures don't do justice to the scenery--the rolling hills were much greener than they appear.  

Iglesia Bautista La Roca wasn't too far from the park so we were one of the first to arrive.  Pastor Julio and Patty are in the area all week talking about how to have strong marriages and families.

We felt right at home in the Hispanic service!  Pastor Julio even played the piano for one of the hymns we sang.

After the service we went out to eat with Pastor Carlos, his daughter, Rebeca, (his wife, Isa, is battling cancer and her counts were too low for her to come to the service), Pastor Julio and Patty.  Carlos and his wife are both Salvadorans who worshipped at our church in San Salvador before moving to California to plant their current church. 

Women's Ministry Opportunity

The women's ministry of Christ's Chapel Bible Church in Fort Worth, TX, has invited eight of the women's ministry leaders from Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva to participate in leadership training at their church.  I have the privilege of being one of the eight and am very excited about this opportunity.  

The eight of us met last week for a pre-trip planning session, which included discussing cultural differences, making arrangements for airport drop-off and pickup, planning for the hostess gifts we will take and more.  Groups of two will be staying in four different homes.  

We will all fly into Fort Worth on Tuesday, September 27, and then return to El Salvador on Sunday, October 2.  

Seminary Conference

Our church, Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, has an accredited seminary.  From time to time, the church asks a  professor who is here to teach classes if they will offer a three-night conference for the congregation.   

Through this seminary program, last August we were fortunate to attend Dr. Ken Sheppard's three-night conference on Biblical geography/history of Israel.  Tonight, we were blessed to hear Dr. Phil Roberts sharing his expertise with regard to religions and other sects/cults. Tonight his theme was:  Unmasking Mormonism, tomorrow he will talk about Jehovah's Witnesses and Wednesday he will finish with the philosophy of salvation taught by the Catholic church.

Compared to the amount of material he shares in the seminary class, the two-hour conference agenda focuses on the big picture, rather than all of the details.  In addition, translating from English into Spanish also reduces the amount of material that can be covered.  Nevertheless, it was extremely interesting and we're excited to go back tomorrow night.  

Dr. Roberts enjoying pupusas with his host family.

First two days in Bogota

I am more than a week behind on blog posts about the first ever campaign in Bogota.  We were busy, with limited downtime, so I used my Internet access to post pictures (each afternoon and evening) on Facebook.  Now that we're back in El Salvador, I am taking time to blog about the week.  Today's post is about the first two days.

As my previous post indicated, we arrived after 8:30 p.m. on Saturday evening so we didn't see anyone until Sunday morning breakfast.  There were teams from Valley Baptist in Bakersfield, CA, and Cooper Springs Baptist in Fresno, CA.  There were five more from three other churches in Missouri and Louisiana.  

The team had orientation with Pastor Steve Kern from El Salvador and Pastor David Guadron from Colombia before the service on Sunday morning.  As you might imagine, it was unlike most of our orientations which focus on "how things work."  This orientation was more about how we don't know what "things will work" in Bogota because this was the first time for everything.  The schedule for the week included a little bit of everything:  family festivals, a one-night conference, a visit to a senior citizens' home, a visit to an orphanage and one-on-one sharing on the street.  

Pastor David (and family) and Pastor Alex (and family) arrived in Bogota at the beginning of September so the work is very new.  With more than twenty gringos and about eight of us from El Salvador, the service on Sunday morning was full.  

Because the weather is cooler in Bogota than in the other countries where we work, David and Alex decided to start the family festival at 4:00 and end before sunset, about 6:30.  They contracted with a company that specializes in children's parties for the music, inflatable, face painting and other games.   Most people live in high-rise apartments, which we do not have permission to enter, so we had to depend on the music and inflatable to attract the attention of the apartment dwellers.  The team spread out on the streets around the apartments and shared one-on-one with everyone they met.

Monday was a holiday in Colombia so we shared all morning in Simon Bolivar Park, which was full of families enjoying their day off.  The park was enormous and very beautiful.  Except for the sunburn gringos, the morning was huge success--people were very receptive.

Sunday evening, Pastor Steve preached an end-times message at the hotel.  We invited everyone we talked to on Sunday evening and Monday in the park.  Four visitors (two from the family festival and two from the park) attended the conference--Pastors Steve, David and Alex were amazed by God's faithfulness to bring people to hear the message.

Pink Sunglasses and Blue Hearing Aids

On Saturday and Sunday afternoon we joined about 40 other couples from all four of the Vida Nueva sites at the "Love and Respect" mini-conference.  Sandy and Lori Shook, the conference leaders, came all the way from Bell Shoals Baptist Church, in Florida, to share with us. 

David translated as Sandy and Lori presented

 One the church's 2014 goals is to begin a ministry to strengthen couples/marriages.  So, this conference was the first step.  Sandy and Lori presented the material they use in the classes they give at their church, but, in addition, they taught the group "how to present" the material to others.  The goal is that many of the 40+ couples who attended will form the base of the new ministry and that there will be Love and Respect classes/small groups formed in all of four of our sites.

Sandy and Lori are gifted teachers; they are transparent about their relationship (both the highs and lows) and their love for each other is obvious.  We laughed along with them as they explained that women see through "pink" sunglasses and hear with "pink" hearing aids, while men see through "blue" sunglasses and hear with "blue" hearing aids.  No wonder that, from time to time, it can be difficult for couples to communicate clearly.  They encouraged us to follow God's marriage plan: Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church; wives see to it that you respect your husbands!

The materials they covered came from Dr. Emerson Eggerich's book, "Love and Respect" and Gary Chapman's book, "The Five Love Languages."  Each couple had the opportunity to take the love language quiz.  Now each husband and each wife is aware of the love language of his/her spouse.  This knowledge can be a very powerful tool in strengthening a couple's relationship.

The conference finished with a dinner on Sunday evening.  Wives were served by their husbands!  

 One of the 40+ happy couples!

Group photo on the stage at the Lourdes church

Husbands in the food line while wives wait at the table.