Final Campaign of 2015

We landed in El Salvador at 10:15 p.m. on Tuesday, November 24, spent three quick days at home, and flew out at 7:00 a.m., Saturday, November 28.   The early morning (4:00 a.m.) airport trip was a flashback to the previous trip on November 19.  In fact, we checked in for the same Panama flight, but this time we had an hour layover before our flight to Bogota.

The last campaign of 2015, with Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, Bogota, started on Saturday evening.  Only two team members arrived in time for the Saturday night event in the La Felicidad neighborhood, near Pastor David and Pastor Alex's apartments.  The small, but mighty group, along with members of the church, shared one-on-one before the family festival.

Instead of an inflatable (which isn't safe due to the frequent high winds in Bogota), there was a trampoline for the kids.  Pastor David's wife, Carolina, brought her popcorn popper and the kids (and some adults) loved it.  They also had a gentlemen who did a short, dog show with his two dogs and it was a big hit.

John and David did the gospel presentation and there were hands up among the crowd.  At the end of the evening, there were 25 professions of faith. Praise the Lord for a great start!

Getting Ready

Vida Nueva's women's retreat is this weekend.  There's been so much preparation for this weekend and we're praying that the 140 women who attend will be richly blessed.  The theme of the weekend is "Cambio de Rumbo," which is translated, "Change Direction."

  

We will be completing a study on the life of Jonah--God asked Jonah to change direction and go to Nineveh.  However, Jonah made the decision to change his direction and go toward Tarsus--miles away in the opposite direction of where God wanted him to go.  Jonah's bad decision had consequences for him and for his shipmates.  I'll save the rest of the teaching for after the retreat.

The ladies of Hilo, Aguja y Biblia started preparing the craft for the retreat about six weeks ago.  We thought we were finished, but the women just kept enrolling.  I made 10 more whales this week and then yesterday, Maria Elena and I assembled 110 bags (have 30 more to do today) with the whale, buttons, needle, instructions, etc.  I'll be helping her during craft time on Sunday.

We weren't the only ones working on the retreat, Ena and her leadership team worked all day yesterday and are still working today to be sure everything is ready.   

Pray that all goes smoothly and God is glorified!

Juntos Together

Juntos Together started tonight.  It is a combination mission trip/mission's conference.  A team of 8 came from The Bridge Church in Fresno and another 33 came from Valley Baptist Church in Bakersfield.  These teams join with the youth of Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva to learn and serve.  

We started the week with orientation this afternoon, followed by the first night of the conference.  The theme for the week is "Stand Firm/Se Firme."   The theme song for the week is Fix My Eyes by Kings Kaleidoscope.  Click here to hear the song.

Fifth Time--Residency

Today we started the residency process for the fifth time.  I am happy to say we had all of the papers ready, they accepted each of them and gave us an appointment for Monday, June 8, at 1:00 p.m.

We have a campaign starting on Saturday.  We will, however, be done with the morning activity in time to make our appointment.  Keep praying that the process goes smoothly and that we are able to wrap up everything at our appointment on Monday.

Are you clinging?

We were privileged to hear Koky Lopez preach at the hotel last Sunday.  Koky is the campus pastor at Lourdes and usually he is called on to preach at that site.  However, this last weekend, he preached all four morning services in San Salvador and the afternoon service at our Apopa campus.  

It was our first Sunday back in El Salvaldor and, as always, after being gone for awhile, it takes a great deal of concentration to get our "Spanish" ears tuned back in.  Thankfully, the praise and worship time helps to get us ready for the preaching.  Koky's sermon was both timely and convicting, asking the question, "Were you satisfied with your personal relationship with Jesus in 2014?"  If not, what do you need to do to build a solid relationship with Jesus in 2015?  

His text was John 6:51-69, which is the point in Jesus' ministry that many of his "disciples" abandoned him because they found his teaching too "hard."  For the most part after this point, only the twelve stayed faithful.

Here are Koky's points (they all started with A's in Spanish, but that's lost in translation) for how to build a solid relationship with Jesus:

1)  Be nourished by the Word, John 6:39

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world.”

2)  Cling to Jesus, John 6:67-68

From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.  Then Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you also want to go away?” But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

3)  Affirm who Jesus is, John 6:69

Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

I loved the picture of the rock climber clinging to the side of the mountain that he used to illustrate the second point.  He challenged us to remember that Jesus is the rock, enormous, powerful and unmoving, and we need to cling to him in all our circumstances.  I needed to hear that and to remember that building a strong relationship with Jesus means I must cling to him like he's the only thing that's keeping me from falling down the side of the rock cliff--He is, after all, my Savior.  Only when I abandon all my own efforts to "climb" can I understand what it means to rest in Him and his marvelous promises.

I'm praying that this image and the following song will be my focus throughout 2015!  

So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross, And exchange it some day for a crown.

The Unexpected

Our "flying" day on Friday was long, long, long!  We left Daniel and Shannon's house at 6:00 a.m. and arrived at our apartment just before 11:00 p.m.  Our flight was delayed out of Houston--we didn't take off until almost 7:00 p.m. (original departure time was 5:40 p.m.)  Once we made it to El Salvador the immigration line was as long as we've ever seen it and we even had to wait on the luggage.  There was only one person working the customs line so that also took a long time.  The unexpected (for Stephen)-- Nelson and Rosemarie were there to pick us up and it's a good thing because with six pieces of luggage I don't think we could have fit in anything other than a van.

Yesterday, we slept in and tried to get back on Central Standard time.  We put away everything in the suitcases, including getting our new drapes (thanks, Daniel and Shannon) up in all three bedrooms.  We didn't leave the house yesterday--well, we did, but not in our truck.  The unexpected--we walked to La Pizzaria and had a great dinner.  .

This morning we had quite a few things to take with us to church, so we thought it best to drive.  The unexpected--our truck battery was completely dead.  Unexpected--the walk to the hotel was less than 15 minutes.  It was great to worship at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva and have the privilege to hear Koky Lopez preach this morning.  (His sermon will be the subject of another blog post later in the week.)  

William and Gilma brought us and the jumper cables back to our apartment, and we were able to get the truck going.  The unexpected--evidently, the life expectancy of a battery here in El Salvador is about four years.  So you can imagine William and Gilma's surprise when we told them we've had the same battery since we bought the truck in July 2010.  Guess it shattered all the records.  

Our next stop was Pricesmart where the mechanic announced that our battery was operating at less than 38%.  We are now the proud owners of a new battery and will mark our calendars for January 2016, when, most likely, this new one will fail.  

At least we were able to do our PriceSmart shopping at the same time.  The rest of the afternoon was "as expected."  Stephen went for a run and watched the football games while I went to the regular grocery store.  

Even with the unexpected, we're happy to be home and looking forward to a restful week before we travel to Bogota, Colombia for the first campaign of the year and first ever campaign at our first church plant in South America.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year and last day in California, bittersweet, as always.  We've had a fun day playing with the kids.  

Goodbye old year

As everyone says, it's hard to believe we are saying goodbye to another year, but we are.  Once again as we look back, God's grace was evident.   So thankful for everyone who joined us on a trip somewhere in Central America.  We loved serving along with you and seeing how God used you.  We are grateful for your willingness to invest your time and money to share Jesus with the people of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica.

We are thankful for our family and dear friends wherever they are tonight.  We are praying for God to reveal himself to you and us in new and deeper ways in 2015.  We are looking forward to another year of serving him!