A Trip to Usulutan

On Tuesday, we left San Salvador at 8:30 a.m. and drove 2+ hours to Usulutan, a city fairly close to the ocean, which meant that the temperature was considerably higher than what we are used to in San Salvador.  Lucky for us, we had to take the inflatable so we followed the bus in our pickup.

More than twenty years ago, Vida Nueva helped plant a local church in the city and the youth pastor, Jonathan, arranged for us to present the sexual purity lesson at a local private, Christian school.  The students really enjoyed our time there and many of them made professions of faith.

After the morning in the school we all went to Wendy's for lunch and then went back to the church to rest before the family festival.  We also had a time of prayer for the church, it's pastor and the festival.    

The evening campaign was in the city park,  right in front of the Catholic church, but it didn't stop us from sharing the gospel one-on-one, playing games with the kids and preaching after the drama.

The local church was very appreciative of our efforts and, especially grateful for the professions of faith that were made.  They will do the follow-up, and we are praying for "fruit that remains."  They invited us to return whenever we have the opportunity.

We ended the day with a two-hour bus ride back to San Salvador--it was a long, but rewarding day.  

Long, but good day

Today started with devotions at 8:30--I translated for Guillermo which is a little more stressful than just attending devotions.  To make me more self-conscious, Pam Kern came in while I was translating.  Pam is Pastor Steve Kern's wife; she has been in El Salvador for 30 years and her Spanish is perfect.  She was gracious enough to tell me that I did a good job.

Next stop--a small school in Santa Tecla.  There were only 7 classrooms in the school, and only 5 of them were open for one of our teams to share the lesson on using time wisely.  

After the school, we stopped for lunch at State's Diner, a local restaurant run by a Christian foundation.  We always try to have lunch there when we have a team in town.  It was a special blessing to have Marshall and Betty treated us to lunch, or to breakfast in Stephen's case.

For the first time ever, we had a family festival in the town of Armenia, about 15 minutes outside of Lourdes.  We knew there would be many kids so we took both inflatables.  The crowd was enormous!  There were more than 100 professions of faith tonight!  

Monday (in pictures)

Saying goodbye to the grandkids

One of the things we try to do before we leave California is to discuss/decide/plan our next trip.  Although we talked about we didn't make any definite plans.  I just know I won't be able to wait too long . . . . we're thinking maybe late May or early June.  Even so, Aviah will be six months by then and will have changed so much!  

Here's a photo review of our trip!

 Happy, happy girl!

 Grandpa getting back in practice!

 Day at the park

 Adventure with the fireman (see earlier post)

 Maleia practicing her cursive with Shannon

 Uncle Jon came to see us

 Talking to Grandma

 Decked out for roller skating

 Yes, Josiah drew this car all by himself.  Did I say he's 2 1/2

Took a few minutes off playing with cars to get a lesson from daddy

 What a hit!

What a morning!

Day at the park while Aviah had her 2-month appointment turned into car fire (not ours), firetruck, firemen and grandpa helping put out the fire. Josiah and Maleia got junior firemen badges when it was all over and then the tow truck came. What a morning!