Dinner with Friends

I totally forgot to take pictures on Tuesday evening, but we had a great dinner with friends here at the apartment.  My two co-leaders from Hilo, Aguja y Biblia, Maria Elena and Isabel, and their husbands, Mauricio and Luis, joined us for dinner.  

The menu was Italian all the way, including Artichoke Salsa (recipe) as the appetizer, Baked Chicken Kiev, whole wheat pasta and spaghetti sauce, green salad with poppy seed dressing (recipe) and garlic bread.  Dessert was a peach pie cookie (recipe) with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce (recipe.)  The dinner was as healthy as I could make it.  As far as the loaf of garlic bread and vanilla ice cream, they are part of the "all things in moderation" category, right?.  Thankfully, everything turned out delicious.

However, the company was even better than the food.  Besides being good friends, Maria Elena and Isabel are sisters-in-law.  Isabel is married to Maria Elena's brother.  It was nice to spend time with their husbands.  Mauricio is an artist--one of the well-known painters in El Salvador.  Some of his paintings hang in the national art museum.  Here are some examples of his beautiful work.

Isabel's husband, Luis, graduated from Texas A&M, is an engineer who works with installations of water wells and facilities to bring clean water to the people of El Salvador.  

It's wonderful to see how God brings people together . . . we were honored to have these wonderful men/women of God in our home.  I've loved getting to know Maria Elena and Isabel and we are looking forward to spending more time with both of these great couples.  

Cycle 6 IDEM

Last night we wrapped up the sixth cycle of IDEM--hard to believe that it has been two years since we started.  The third and final year begins mid-October.

Having shared so much over the past two years, our group of 8 couples is like family.  So, what does a family do to celebrate an anniversary?  Have a party, of course, but not just a regular party, an overnight party.  As of last night, we have a couple who is looking for a "hotel" or other "retreat" center in the mountains where all of us can stay the last weekend in September.  

I'll keep you posted on the progress . . . . it could be very interesting! 

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.

Night Under the Stars

Saturday night's event was wonderful in every way.  The tables looked awesome with their centerpieces that spelled LOVE.  Menus, name tags attached to felt hearts and boxes filled with candy were at each place setting.  The view was also amazing.

There were 26 couples at the dinner sitting at 8 different tables.  More than 50% of the couples had never been to the church, but, instead were invited to attend by a couple from the church.  The food was delicious (as you can see from the pictures.)  Stephen played the piano for over an hour while we visited at the tables and had dinner.  He had time to eat when Pastor Nelson shared a brief message about the type of love that it takes to have a successful marriage and finished by sharing the gospel.  The evening ended with some friendly games at the table and then competition between the tables.  All of the couples were invited to the upcoming couples retreat.  The good news is that one of the couple was at church Sunday morning and both made professions of faith.