It's Red eye Time Again

Sitting at the gate at San Francisco International Airport waiting for 1:15 a.m. to roll around.  Not my favorite thing to do--which I believe I may have mentioned in previous posts.  Tonight we got here even earlier because Daniel had a red eye to New York that left at 11:15.  

Had to say goodbye to these two cuties!  It will be four long months before we see them (except for Skype) and meet their new baby sister!  

Great Way to Spend a Monday

We were able to watch the kids this morning because Shannon went to her BSF planning meeting.  We read books and drew pictures.  It's too bad we have to say goodbye to these sweet faces on Tuesday night.

Spent the day with Jon

We spent the day with Jon yesterday.  We drove to Santa Cruz and went to lunch at the Delmarette in Santa Cruz.  After we walked over to our favorite candy/nut shop (Nut Kreations) and spent more money than we planned!  Unfortunately, it's hard for me to pass on their make-you-own-trailmix combos as they have a incredible assortment of roasted nuts and dried fruit, like salt/pepper cashews, honey roasted mixed nuts, ranch flavored corn nuts, red walnuts, dried golden raisins, cranberries, blueberries, banana chips, pineapple and much, much more.  Okay, enough about the trailmix!

We drove to Watsonville (about 20 minutes from Santa Cruz) which is a farming community.  We saw pickers harvesting strawberries and I realized that I must be more thankful when I eat strawberries.  Row after row, bending over to pluck them from under the plants--how their backs must ache after a long day of work.

We walked down 100 steps (I'm not kidding) to get down to Sunset Beach.  Even though it's beautiful, the ocean is so cold here in northern California that it only takes dipping a couple of fingers to decide that it's best to stay on the beach.  Although we discussed it, we decided not to be corny and write our names and the date in the sand.  Then came the bad news--the car is back up the 100 steps, which reminded me that I've got to start up on the elliptical message when we get back.

Jon showed us his new chair project and all of his most recently completed projects.  I'm amazed at his skill.  He gave us a new wooden box with a leather covered lid.  The mitred edges are beautifully done!  Don't know exactly what I will use it for, maybe jewelry.  

We finished off the evening at Bantam Pizza, a swanky pizza place in Santa Cruz.  There's nothing ordinary about their pizza which means that we had to have the waiter explain various ingredients, i.e. crescenza (cheese), panchetta (bacon), stracciatella (cheese), calabrians (spicy red peppers), etc.  We settled on a Margherita pizza and a Salchichero (pepperoni) pizza.  Delish!

Time is flying

Just checked and, yep, my last blog post was 5 days ago . . . . . time is flying here in California. 

Yesterday we went to the park.  Maleia and Josiah had so much fun playing together.  Today we went to swim lessons with them--the swim school had a great viewing area where we could watch without distracting the kids.  I'm amazed at how well Maleia is doing--front floats, back floats and kicking her way across the pool with a couple of quick breaths.  Shannon was with Josiah in the moms/babies class.  He loves the water, so no crying from him.

Tonight Shannon's oldest brother, Michael, and his wife, Emilee, and her youngest brother, Brian, joined us for tacos.  It was quite a spread.  I made the traditional after-a-taco meal dessert:  oatmeal cake with cream cheese frosting.  Actually, it's really just a Parris tradition that has nothing to do with tacos.  Maleia asked how to say "yummy" in Spanish!  Her dad told her "delicioso" but she preferred to say the slang, "jummy."  Josiah kept saying, "I'm ready for my cake."  

Fun times-- 6 days left.

Two days in California

Had an excellent dinner with the whole family tonight.  It's so great having everyone together!  

Spent the day reading books, playing with cars and listening to stories--not much more fun than that.

Two weeks away

Tonight is our last night in El Salvador for two weeks.  Tomorrow we're flying to California to spend time with our children and grandchildren.  We're excited because we haven't seen them for more than 4 months and you know how much grandkids change in four months.  

Paula left today for the states because she is going to be doing her counseling internship at Abundant Life Baptist this fall.  So, we went to dinner at Chilis with Jeff.  

Tonight you get Stephen and Jeff, but the next few posts will be filled with cute pictures of Maleia and Josiah! 

Last night of the campaign

We finished the Lourdes campaign tonight.  Although we are in the middle of the rainy season, not once this week did the rain stop our events--it was amazing.

The small (7,) but mighty team from Antioch Bible Baptist Church worked energetically and faithfully all week, sharing the gospel in more than 36 classrooms in three different public schools, helping work the inflatable, performing the puppet show they prepared for the kids, serving tea and cookies and showing the love of Jesus to everyone all the way.

One of the biggest blessings we have serving here in El Salvador is meeting Christian brothers and sisters from all over the country.  It is always an honor to work with them.

25 Baby Quilts

We added added our custom-designed (by William Flores) Hilo, Aguja y Biblia labels to the 25 completed baby quilts.  The label translation is:  An Embrace of Love from Hilo, Aguja y Biblia," followed by our church name and bridge logo.  

Here are a few other pictures from today.

September Campaign in Lourdes

Today was the second day of this week's campaign in Lourdes.  The group from Antioch Bible Baptist Church is small, but mighty.  The seven of them arrived on Monday.  Yesterday we did a morning session and an afternoon session at the school in Nejapa and then hosted a Kid's Club from 4:30 to 6:30 at the park next to the school .  We did the same thing today at a large school (1000 kids in the morning and 1000 kids in the afternoon) in Lourdes.  We held the Kid's Club in a neighborhood in the Nueva Lourdes subdivision.

Here are some pictures from the school and of the Kid's Club activities--puppet show, story time, Bible verse and sharing the gospel.

1st Day--Fall Bible Study

Today was the first day of the fall on-line Bible study with Good Morning Girls.  If you are looking for a Bible study group, but can't find the time to "meet" with a group of women OR if you are looking for a way to start/continue/strengthen your daily quiet time, I encourage you to take a look at the Good Morning Girls website today:  http://www.goodmorninggirls.org/.  The fall Bible study, "Loving Like Jesus," a study of Luke 17-24, began today, but it's not too late to join.

I'm really excited about this study and about the opportunity to get to know the ladies in my group. They are from 3 different continents, all walks of life and all seasons of life.  What could be more exciting than sharing with them?

This first week we are studying:  Loving Like Jesus--learning to forgive.  Check out today's blog post here.  Here's today's reading from Luke 17:

1 Then He said to the disciples, "It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. 3Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."

One of the insights I received today is that Jesus is so serious about offenses against others that he tells us death is better than offending.  Imagine how it would change my life if I avoided offending others like I would avoid taking risks that might be fatal to me.    

Here's this week's memory verse . . . . even if you don't join Good Morning Girls, let me encourage you to memorize this great verse.  

Quilting Time

It's been quite a long time since I've had time to sit down at the sewing machine.  However, over the last two weeks, I've made it a priority to finish up some projects that were "in process" for way too long.

I don't remember exactly how long ago (probably a couple of years) I bought fabric when I was back in the states and brought it down here to make a small quilt to hang above the TV in our living room.  I designed it (both color and shape) to coordinate with the pillows on our couch.  I started working on the blocks when I first brought down the fabric, but life got in the way.  I dug out the nine finished blocks and decided today was the day to finish the quilt top.  Sewed the last three blocks this morning and just finished sewing it all together.  The quilting and binding will have to wait for another day.  

All in all, I pleased with it;it will bring some much needed color to our white walls.  Hanging quilts in my preferred way to accessorize and brighten up our home--this will make number five.  

 Quilt top laying out on my dining room table.

Laying over the couch with the pillows.

Working around the rain

It is not the "norm" for us to be home in El Salvador during August.  The past three years we have hurried back to the states after our last mission trip of the summer (first week of August) to visit family for 2-3 weeks before I started school.  This year since I'm not teaching, we're going to visit the kids in California in the middle of September. 

All of that to say we don't know whether the torrential rain we've been having the past 2-3 weeks is normal for August or not.  It really seems more like our normal late September, early October rains.  I have to go outside and cross my back yard to get to the washer and dryer.  Except for towels, sheets and a few other things, most of our clothes line dry in the "normally" bright sun.  This month, I'm having trouble getting laundry done and dry in between the rain storms!  Can't tell you how many times we've had to run outside to get things off the line before they  got soaked.

Jeff and Paula have a team coming in on Monday for a week so please pray that the rains don't impede us from our work.  We will be going to schools in the morning and afternoon so the rain will not cause a big problem, but the late afternoon kid's clubs/family festivals could be impacted.

Took this picture from my dining room so you can see my little back yard.  The arched door in the back wall leads to our washer and dryer.  Both are outside, but under a roof.

Final Missions Conference Service

We wrapped up the mission conference, Export Life, on Sunday morning with a combined Koinonia service at Crown Plaza Hotel.  Hopefully, the impact of the conference will bring fruit for years to come.  Here is a wrap up of the last 3 days from Pastor Julio:

If you were at the missions conference Export Life 2013, Rudy Garrido, guest pastor from Colombia, preached three compelling messages about missions.  In the first, "Why Missions?" (Thursday at Lourdes) he clearly outlined the daunting task that God has given us as a church to bring the world the knowledge of the love of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. On Friday in Miravalle, God showed us, in an unforgettable way from the book of Ephesians, the responsibility we have to grow individually as believers so we can be ready to fulfill the mission God has given us. Personally, not for many years had I heard so strong, so solid and so Biblical an argument in favor of the local church or heard a sermon so strong against  the current tendency for some immature believers to be nothing more than "spiritual tourists."  These "spiritual tourists," move from church to church without committing or without relating and, thus, cause damage to the church because they are not doing their part to edify the body. On Sunday at the hotel, the challenge to our church and to individual members was to start contributing to missions through Faith Promise.   It was an an appeal to rededicate our lives and finances to the missions ministry. The challenge was to commit to seek God's guidance to understand how we can push the kingdom in this area through the local church and the answer to this challenge will happen in the coming days.  This conference has been excellent . . . . now we wait for God to confirm in the heart of each member the way to risk more for missions through MetroAmérica 0-20.

I end with a few pictures of the day . . . . thanks for praying for us!

 Praise team leading us in our them song, "Cuenta Conmigo"

 View of the congregation during Pastor Rudy's preaching.

Guest Pastor Rudy and his wife, Rocio, Pastor Julio and Patty, and Pastor Steve and Pam

Annual Missions Conference

We start our annual missions conference tomorrow night.  The theme this year is "Export Life," which, of course, is encouraging us to take the amazing gospel to the whole world.  Pastor Rudy Garrido will be sharing in the services Thursday night, Friday night and Sunday morning.  His wife, Rocio, will be sharing at the women's breakfast event on Saturday morning.  They are visiting from Bogota, Colombia, where he has been a pastor for many years.  They are dear friends of Pastor Julio and his wife, Patty.

If you've been following the blog for very long, you know that we're "all about missions."  It's something we live everyday here in San Salvador.  Please take a minute to pray for all the missionaries you know!  I can assure you that they need and appreciate your prayers.

God's Miracle for Elizabeth

I just wanted to update everyone on Elizabeth's progress since the kidney transplant surgery on June 28.  It's barely been six weeks, but the doctor's have released her to normal (and not so normal) activity because all of her important "levels" are in the normal range.

I say "not so normal" because Ron and Jane drove her to MU last weekend so she could move in and begin practicing with Marching Mizzou!  I think classes start this week and God answered our prayers (and hers) to be a "normal" college student.  Of course, she still has a lot of medicine to take and regular bloodwork and blood pressure checks, but compared to where she was just 6 weeks ago . . . . . it is God's miracle for Elizabeth.

Here's a picture of our beautiful niece . . . . . thanks for praying her (and my sister, her donor) through this process.