Catching Up--Part 1: Guatemala (7/31-8/5)

The first 10 days of August have been a whirlwind with no time to blog, so I'm going to play catch up over a period of several days.

We headed out of San Salvador with Jeff, Paula and Emily early morning July 31, meeting up with 40+ Salvadorans (2 vans, 1 bus) at the church. All of our luggage was wrapped in plastic trash bags and then covered in a tarp in the back of Jeff's pickup. You just never know when it's going to pour down and wet suitcases mean wet clothes. Several hours later we reached the El Salvador/Guatemala border where we had an usually smooth crossing—inside the customs building to have our passports checked before we left El Salvador, back in the truck to drive 100' to the Guatemalan customs building to get our passports “stamped in" to Guatemala.

We made it to the hotel, got checked in and ate the lunch we packed. Three groups from the states joined us: 13 from Missoula, MT, 3 from Jacksonville, Fl, and 17 from our home church in Lee's Summit, Missouri. This was the third time since we arrived in San Salvador that we were able to welcome friends from our home church.

The weather in Guatemala City was a welcome change—75 during the day and 60 at night. The city is huge (5 million) and quite modern. Our Saturday night campaign was in a gated community and members of Vida Nueva Guatemala City helped us set up the inflatables and movie. I can't even begin to count the number of kids we lifted into the inflatable that night!

Sunday morning service at Vida Nueva featured songs in both Spanish and English. We were so blessed to hear Pastor Phil Hopper from ALBC preach (in English) with Pastor Nelson translating for him. A nearby mall food court provided lunch all week. It's still an experience to order (even at fast food restaurants), and we've learned that we may be surprised when we get our order! This trip we somehow ended up with 4 meals at McDonalds (for the two of us) and were rescued by Emily's command of Spanish! Unlike El Salvador which uses US currency, Guatemala uses quetzales—I admit we did a double take when we saw the posted price of the Big Mac combo was 31.00; however, with a 8:1 exchange rate, the prices in dollars were close to normal. The week included sharing on the downtown square on Monday morning, sharing at schools on Tuesday and Wednesday and evening campaigns. Tuesday night was a rainout—it started pouring just as we arrived in the community, but we were able to share the remaining nights. The teams were so faithful to share the gospel in the schools and the evening campaigns; it is so amazing to see God at work in Central America.

We left early Thursday morning to fly to Kansas City (the team stayed until Saturday), for our nephew's wedding. Our flight to Miami was right on time and customs was very smooth; Miami to Charlotte was great (even had time for a trip to Starbucks), but Charlotte to Kansas City was delayed by 1.5 hours. Our son, Jon, was waiting for us (he flew back from California for the wedding); Steve and Terisa picked all three of us up and after a 45 minute wait on the I435 parking lot, we made it to Lee's Summit after midnight.

Packing and more packing

We've spent today packing for our trip to Guatemala, to Kansas City and to California. In addition, we're emptying out the refrigerator, leaving money so Jeff and Paula can pay our bills while we're gone, unplugging everything that doesn't need to be on during our absence and, in general, getting ready to leave the country for almost 3 weeks.

We are riding to Guatemala in the truck with Jeff, Paula and Emily. We're putting our suitcases inside trash bags and under a tarp in case it rains on the way. We're also taking empty bags so we can bring back more stuff--I have a long list of things to get while I'm stateside.

Pickup time in the morning is 7:00 a.m. We're heading to the church to meet up with about 40 Salvadorans who are going along to translate and help with follow-up; we hope to get on the road by 7:30. Stephen and Jeff had very little trouble crossing the border when just the two of them went, but it's not so easy with almost 50 people, their stuff, inflatables, etc. Please pray that everything will be smooth and easy without any unusual delays. We will be meeting the teams from the states at the hotel, including the group from ALBC, our home church.

We have now finished 6 weeks of Spanish classes and with this trip will have a 3-week break. It's great timing as our brains are worn out and it will do us good to be able to review what we've covered before we start up again. I've attached a picture of us with Beatriz from the restaurant where we took her for her birthday. We really miss her, but are slowly getting to know Guillermo.

Well, that's it for now--I just thought of another thing I need to do!

Reflections

Almost everyone we talk to asks "how are you doing?" "was it the right decision?" or "what do you miss?" Now that it's been almost 8 weeks, I thought I would take a stab at answering all three of the questions.

1) We are doing great! We love our little townhouse and our neighborhood is very nice. It is gated, self-contained with 102 townhomes around a central park. The park has a basketball court/soccer court, playground equipment, picnic tables and lovely landscaping and trees. Stephen bought a basketball and occasionally has time to shoot baskets with Douglas or Jacob. We have a living room, dining room, kitchen and half bath on the first floor. A sliding glass door leads out to the patio (backyard) and laundry/storage area. Several rose bushes, hibiscus and my herbs are outside.

We have met several of our neighbors, especially the kids who ride their bikes and play outside. Yesterday Gabby was waiting for us when we came home . . . she had kicked her small soccer ball over the wall between our houses (about 10 foot tall) and had to wait for us to come home so she could get it back.

We're comfortable going to SuperSelectos (grocery store) and Vidri's (hardware store.) The local pharmacy has all of my prescription medicine and it's very reasonably priced. We can also drive to "Wal-mart" by ourselves, but haven't learned the way to "Costco" yet. It will have to wait until we get back from the states in August.

2) It was absolutely the right decision. When God has a job and place for you, that's exactly what you want to do and where you want to be. We've loved the people here since the first time we came (2007) and nothing about that has changed. Everyone is so helpful and patient with us . . . even though our Spanish is terrible or non-existent. We're excited about what God is doing here and anxious to work with the students at New Life Christian School beginning August 24. Stephen loves playing the piano in the band--he has practice on Thursday night (same time/night as at ALBC.) He plays for the Friday night service and for the 3rd service on Sunday morning. Several times we've talked about what we could have been doing in our retirement . . . but this is exactly what we want to be doing and where God wants us to be working.

3) There are some things that we miss and, of course, family and friends are at the top of the list. (Even if we had moved someplace else in the states, we would have missed family and friends.) So the things I miss are: getting the mail (not sure why on this one), going to the library to check out books, being able to meet friends at Custard's Last Stand anytime we want, good pizza from Minskys or Spin (sorry Pizza Hut--it's just not the same), Pastor Phil's sermons (at this point, any sermon in English sounds good to us), Kingdom Seekers class on Sunday morning, a dishwasher (other than me), getting drinking water from the tap and being able to communicate with everyone to name just a few.

Even though no one has asked, I want to mention a few things we love about El Salvador: pupusas (traditional Salvadoran dish) are awesome (Stephen thinks I should learn how to make them so I can share them with family and friends back in the States), working with and being mentored by Jeff and Paula, singing awesome Spanish worship music, getting to know new friends from this country and around the states and, most importantly, being able to serve our Heavenly Father to help bring the gospel to the people of El Salvador and Central America.

What a week!

This week has been filled with so much it's hard to describe. It was so amazing to have Steve & Terisa here with us--we thank God for such awesome friends who know us and are completely comfortable whether we're sitting around watching Spanish TV, eating biscuits and gravy, working at a campaign or playing a game of cards.

They weren't just here to see us, but also to take the first steps toward getting Mario, who is at the Remar orphanage, a birth certificate. This week included meetings with their attorneys, signing a power of attorney and talking with the Christian counselor who works with the orphanage. We also visited Remar on Friday afternoon (some pictures included) and got a chance to see Mario again. The evening campaign on Friday night featured the inflatables and a great drama by the youth of Lourdes. We finished off the evening with pupusas at Pollos Real! Yum.

We took Steve and Terisa to the airport on Saturday afternoon and then joined Jeff, Paula, Emily and the team from Tennessee at a family festival in a Lourdes neighborhood. We had a great afternoon meeting people from the neighborhood, including Jose, Vilma and their son, Ferdinand Jose, and Raphael and his two children, Diego and Paula. The giant slide captured the attention of all the kids and the youth presented two great dramas, followed by a message by Dr. Joe from Tennessee.

Stephen and Jeff are at the early service this morning, but will be here later to pick Paula, Emily and me up for the 11:15 service at the hotel. We're taking Beatriz, our "former" tutor, to lunch today after church.

Tomorrow should prove to be interesting for two reasons. First, we will meet our new Spanish tutor tomorrow morning and second, we should be able to pick up our truck in the afternoon. Please pray that we will "like" both of them.

Happy and sad!

Yea, for planes that bring friends from the states! Steve and Terisa arrived just before noon yesterday. It's definitely an understatement to say we were glad to see them. We surprised them by going with Jeff to pick them up. I've posted a couple of "we're really glad to see you pictures." We relaxed yesterday afternoon and almost got caught up on news from home. We were also able to Skype with Michael, Carmen, Ethan and Chloe. Ethan wasn't very happy that he couldn't "get" to his "papa" through the computer. We enjoyed tacos for dinner last night which were made even better by the Rotel that they brought with them. A special thanks to Paula who brought over her Pace picante sauce because I forgot to buy it at the grocery store!

Steve and Terisa are with Herbert, their attorney, taking care of some of the paperwork necessary to get the adoption process started for Mario.

Stephen and I didn't have Spanish classes yesterday, but when Beatriz came today she told us that Friday is her last day. She has a new full-time job with the Salvadoran government which starts on Monday. We are very happy for her as this will be a steady income and benefits, but we are so sad that she's not going to be able to continue as our tutor. She promised that she will find another tutor that we will like. I was going to surprise her with Snickerdoodle cookies for her birthday next week, but will instead make them for her last day. :-(

Stephen and Jeff are running errands this afternoon, including stopping at the agent's office to pay for insurance on our truck and picking up the copies of our residency documents from the translator.

The rest of the week will be busy . . . there's a team coming in from the states on Thursday that will be working with the church in Lourdes. Friday afternoon we will go to the orphanage with the team. Steve and Terisa are excited about being able to see Mario--March was along time ago. We will take Steve and Terisa to the airport on Saturday (hopefully, in our new truck) and then help with the family festival in a neighborhood in Lourdes.

Please pray for us as we begin working with a new tutor on Monday.

Biscuits, gravy, a rolling pin and a crockpot!

Well, it doesn't take much to make my day, I guess. I started the day making homemade biscuits. Thanks to Jennifer, a great friend from ALBC who sent down McCormick's Sausage Gravy Mix, we felt like we were at Neighbors in Lee's Summit for breakfast.

We were able to get some additional items for our house today including a ceiling fan, some bathroom light fixtures, a mirror for the guest bathroom, pillows for the guest bedroom, etc. I can't wait for Stephen to put up the ceiling fan in the kitchen--it really gets hot in there when I cook.

I found a rolling pin at Vidri (think Ace Hardware) and I can now make various and sundry pies; well, except for two things: (1) I have yet to find a pie plate and (2) I've realized that an oven with only a top heating coil is not great for things that need to be crispy on the bottom (like pizza dough and probably pie crust.) Stay tuned, I'll let you know how my first pie turns out. Vidri's also had a crockpot (hurrah) and it was only $35.00. The only other one I have seen was almost $100.

We will be helping with a campaign next week at VidaNueva Lourdes (Thursday, July 22 to Wednesday, July 28), we leave for Guatemala on Saturday, July 31 and then fly to Kansas City on August 5 for our nephew's wedding on August 7.

Please continue to pray for our ability to grasp and retain the Spanish we're learning!

Random Musings

Our Spanish lessons went a new direction today--we wrote our first paragraph and let me tell you it wasn't very eloquent! Beatriz, our tutor (picture attached) gave us a "happy face" even though it wasn't even close to "perfecto." The good news is that we don't have any homework tonight. We're so thankful Beatriz was assigned to us--she's patient and funny--just the right combination for us! I baked my mom's oatmeal cake last night and we shared it with her. She thinks I have a future as a baker in El Salvador. :-) I was just happy that I could find all of the ingredients here and that it tasted just like home.

Yesterday the wife of VidaNueva's worship pastor came over to work on our backyard. She's great with plants and was able to prune our giant rose bushes and hibiscus to more manageable sizes. She brought over the beginnings of my herb garden (picture attached) and I now have fresh cilantro, basil, rosemary, mint and two other spices that are yet to be determined. She speaks a little English and I speak even less Spanish so I'm not sure what the other two pots contain.

The car alarms have been going crazy the last few nights--who knows why? It's been beautiful during the day (blue skies and around 85-88 degrees) and raining at night. It came a gully washer (bet that doesn't translate into Spanish) last night with both thunder and lightning for about an hour. My cake was in the oven and I was praying that the electricity didn't go off before it finished baking!

We sent our first newsletter to ALBC today and I've posted it on a support page on the blog. Please let me know if you would like to be added to our email list. Stephen is heading to band practice tonight so I will have a quiet evening at home catching up on email, planning the menus for next week and reading.

News flash--just felt my first tremor while I was finishing up this posting! Didn't last very long, but noticed the screen on my laptop shaking. Paula just called to ask me if I felt it. Yes! Welcome to Central America; I can now check that off my list of things to experience.

Juntos Together--What a week!

Juntos|Together, a conference for college students held at VidaNueva Baptist Church wrapped up on Monday. There were 43 students from three churches in the US and almost 100 students from VidaNueva. The week was non-stop as the students combined to teach English to college students in the morning, share the gospel at elementary schools in the afternoons, worship in Spanish/English four evenings and hold evangelistic campaigns on two evenings. In addition, one day was spent with kids from two of the Remar orphanages in San Salvador.

Made to Love was the theme of the conference and Jeff Rhoades challenged the students to love Jesus and love others. The youth band, which included Stephen on the keyboard, led the students in both English and Spanish and did an amazing job. The students' shared testimonies about what God did in their lives during the week. Everyone was sorry to leave and promised to return next summer for Juntos|Together 2011!

Please pray that the students will return to their lives with a new sense of what God has planned for their them.

Juntos Together--briefly

Tonight was the final night of Juntos Together and tomorrow morning three groups of students (one group from Ocala, FL; one from Bakersfield, CA and one from Lee's Summit, MO) head home. The service was great from start to finish: worship music to start, including "Made to Love" the conference theme, unveiling and distribution of the 2010 Juntos Together t-shirt, great sermon from Jeff Rhoades, challenging all of us to love others by forgiving them, and personal testimonies from students who talked about what the week meant to them.

Pictures and more thoughts about the week tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks, your prayers for an awesome week were answered. Pray that the impact of the week will continue long after the plane trip home tomorrow.

Campaign in Aguilares

Two big buses, two vans and two cars headed for Aguilares yesterday afternoon. The first stop was at an elementary school where about 700 students were attending the afternoon session. (There is a morning session with another 700 students.) Our groups of US/Salvadoran college students shared a lesson, testimonies and the gospel with students in their classrooms. Afterwards, almost everyone came to the basketball court/soccer field for PE. There were all kinds of activities going on: teams of gringos and Salvadorans playing soccer and/or basketball, ping pong with the boys vs. the girls, spontaneous cheerleading lessons for some of the girls and other games for the younger kids. The PE teacher was very grateful that his kids had the opportunity to interact with our group. We felt the same--there's so much we can learn from these kids who are happy without all of the "things" we Americans believe are so important.

When we left the school, we headed for a small park (a big field and yes, there were recently cows in that field) to set up the movie and inflatable. Groups of students went out to the neighbor to invite families to the movie and share the gospel one-on-one. As always, kids seem to appear out of nowhere when you set up an inflatable--there was a line the whole time. The crowd for the movie, drama and gospel presentation was really big. Jeff indicated that this was the first campaign in that neighborhood.

We returned to VidaNueva for dinner after packing up. Stephen and I drove (Jeff and Paula's car) and enjoyed impromptu Spanish lessons from our friend, Kevin, and his dad, all the way down and back. They are so patient with us!

First Birthday in El Salvador

Yesterday was my "first" El Salvador birthday! The day started with a phone call from Terisa, followed by our tutor bringing me 3 roses and ending with a special gift from the Kepleys (a couple from our church who is here for Juntos Together.) It was also awesome to get birthday greetings from my Facebook friends, including a special "happy birthday" video message from my favorite 2 year old, Ethan.

The picture is from July 4 when Gilma, her daughter, Amy, and I were celebrating our July birthdays at Jeff and Paula's house.

Quiet Independence Day

We made our first solo drive, in Jeff/Paula's car, to church at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We made it through the roundabouts without any problems! The music was awesome and the service was crowded--people who came late were having trouble finding seats. Pastor Julio finished his sermon series on the generosity of the Macedonians.

After church we went to lunch with our worship pastor and his family. His wife and I share a birthday! After lunch it was back to the Rhoades' house for birthday cake.

It's 9:30 and all is quiet in the neighborhood . . . the only evidence that today is the 4th of July is the red, white and blue outfit I am wearing. Really, I don't miss the noisy fireworks . . . . but the ALBC all-church picnic is another thing. Celebrating with the church family and baptisms at the lake is one of my favorite summer events.

Tomorrow Juntos Together starts and we have 43 college students heading our way. Please pray for us because with classes in the morning and working with the college kids in the afternoon and worship services in the evening, we will be going non-stop this whole week.

Lunch with the teachers

Today Pastor Julio and his wife, Patti, asked us to join them and the teachers at New Life Christian School for lunch. We took a taxi to church and they provided a ride to the restaurant, "Clavo & Canela" (Cloves & Cinnamon.) The 13 of us had a private room upstairs. It is getting easier to order as we learn more Spanish words for food. Not surprisingly, Stephen ordered a pizza; I had pasta with chicken and spinach. Desert was a small piece of caramel cake along with coffee. It was a very leisurely lunch with lots of conversations going on at the same time.

New Life Christian School opened four years ago with 6 students. They are adding a grade each year; this fall they will have pre-K to 3rd grade and are expecting more than 80 students. Class size is 15 or less. School starts on August 23 (reminds me of my past life) and classes start at 7:00 a.m. Primary grades finish their day at 2:30 p.m. We will be working with Roxanna Mendoza to set our teaching schedule so that we are still able to take Spanish classes and be available to help with the mission trips this fall.

It's so exciting to see how God has provided a place for us to serve here in El Salvador and we are looking forward to serving Him and the children of New Life Christian School.

Cooler Days and Bills Paid

It's been amazingly cool the last two days; I think the high temperature has been in the upper 70's or low 80's. We actually slept with the window closed and ceiling fan off last night. We've seen some people wearing jackets--give us a year or so and I'm sure we'll be doing the same.

I promised to tell the story of how bills are paid, so here it goes. Bills arrive in the "mail," which means that the company delivers it to your house and slides under your front door. (Yes, there's a gap between the door and the floor which would allow "delivery" of a variety of junk mail, catalogs and magazines, if we actually received mail.) The first bill we received was an electric bill which happened to belong to the tenant who moved out before we got here. Since it was only $3.17, Jeff and Paula suggested that we pay it as our "trial run" of the process. First step is to take the bill and the appropriate amount of cash to your favorite bank. We walked to Banco Agricola at Plaza Merliot (about 15 minutes.) Second step--take a number (reminded me of the local license bureau.) Third step is to wait in line with 40 or more of your closest friends until your number is called. Our number was 56 which of itself isn't a problem until you realize that they just called number 18. It was a bit tricky listening for our turn and it was a good thing we practiced numbers with our tutor last week. There were 6 cashiers open so it only took 35 minutes to be called up. Luckily, laying the bill and the cash on the counter was all that was necessary--no talking required. Several moments later we're exiting the bank with our receipt!

We decided that it makes sense to try to find a date when all/most of the bills can be paid and make one trip to the bank. By the way, this method is also used to pay rent; the only difference being that you must go to the bank where your landlord has an account. Our landlord has an account at Banco Agricola so we can use the same place, thus making our successful trial run a confidence builder. We will pay our rent in cash as we cannot open a checking account here until we have our residency. If we don't have a vehicle by the time our rent is due July 9, we will probably have Jeff and Paula drive us to the bank. It doesn't seem like a great idea to be walking to the bank with $500+ in our backpacks.

Well, that's the cultural difference story for today. Stay tuned for more details as we learn the ropes here in El Salvador. Thanks for your prayers for our transition--they mean alot to us.

Guatemala Trip

Jeff and Stephen left for Guatemala at 5:15 a.m. this morning; they made it in just over 3 hours and had no problems at the border. Stephen sang the special music and Jeff preached. The trip back was uneventful except for the on and off downpours and the bad roads. Paula, Emily and I went to church here in San Salvador. It was a great day in the Lord's house and I hope your Sunday was also great.

We were able to Skype our kids in California and "talk" to and "listen" to our granddaughter, Maleia. Of course, we think she's the cutest baby around and we love her little voice. It seems like she's decided that Grandma is "Bah Bah," but I'll take it! We will see her in just over a month when we return to the states for our nephew's wedding.

We didn't get our homework done tonight, so we will have to find time in the morning before our lesson starts at 9:00. Somehow that reminds me of my past--waiting till the last minute!

That's it for tonight . . . next week I'll tell the story of paying our electric bill--quite an interesting process to say the least.