Fall Bible study and a new friend

The ladies Bible study that I am a part of started this past Friday.  This fall we're using Beth Moore's "David--Seeking a Heart Like His," videos and book.  

Our group is fairly consistent from one study to the next.  However, this time, Alejandra's friend, Kathy, was able to join us. It was amazing to hear her tell her story and realize just how many similarities there were with our story.  Here's just a few of them:

• She and her husband, David, have been missionaries here since January, 2010--we came in June, 2010.
• Her husband was not a pastor.  
• She is a guitar player and singer.
• They are from Washington state, but have children and grandkids who live in Oregon--our daughter-in-law's family is from Oregon
• They just moved from Santa Tecla (where we used to live) to Escalon (where we live now.)  In fact, they live across the street from our building.

Those were just a few of the things we found out on Friday morning.  She even gave me a ride home after the study.  I mentioned everything to Stephen and we decided to see if they were available for dinner on Friday evening.  We met them in front of their house and walked to our favorite pizza place.  It was a great evening learning how God worked in their lives to bring them here.

We're looking forward to getting to know them better.  Just think, I may finally have a neighbor from whom I can borrow an egg or a cup of sugar if I get in a bind while baking or cooking dinner.  God is good!

   

Busy time in Lee's Summit

We are having a great time here at our "home away from home."  We flew in from California on Tuesday and were treated to dinner (at our favorite pizza place) by my brother and sister-in-law.  It was a nice time of catching up with them as they are going to be out of town for most of the rest of the time we are here.

One of the main reasons we came back was so that Stephen could have two procedures (colonoscopy and an EGD.)  He had both of them yesterday morning and, thankfully, the results from both were normal and we are praising God.

Last night we had dinner with two of Stephen's brothers, David and Michael/Denise.  Tomorrow his third brother, Mark and his wife, Tonia, are driving up from Oklahoma.  With everyone's busy schedules, it is normally impossible to get all four of them together, so we take what we get.

We don't have Internet access where we are staying, so blog updates will continue to be sporadic while we are here.  

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.

Day Trip

Our small group decided that the best way to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of IDEM was to "get-away" together for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, since Stephen had to play the piano at the hotel this morning, we could only make it a day trip.

The day started early as we met for breakfast at Pollo Campero before caravaning to Apaneca.

The little town of Apaneca and the hotel, Villa Bonita, were both very cute.  Like most small towns here in El Salvador, there was a very large Catholic church.  

We traveled a bit farther north to Ataco to have lunch.  We found a charming little pizza place--table for 20.  After lunch we walked through the park and market.

It was a great day and we were sorry we had to leave early.  It was a great day with good friends.  We made it safely back using Waze--a great GPS map program that's remarkably accurate here! 

Fun in the Sun (and Wind)

Jon picked us up yesterday and we drove to our home-away-from-home on Stinson Beach about 5:00 p.m.  We stopped to buy groceries on the way out of town so we were ready to settle in.  First stop, a walk along the beach and our first impression of the beaches in northern California--windy and cold, but beautiful.  Grilled chicken, fresh asparagus and corn-on-the-cob made an excellent dinner and a nice change to eating out every day since Saturday.   

We walked to the little town a few blocks away this morning and had a late breakfast.  Then drove up Highway 1 for about 10 miles and then south in to Bolinas--a quaint little town that loves it's privacy.  The townspeople are so intent on keeping their town hidden that they have been known to take down the highway signs at the intersection of Highway 1 and the main road into town.  Stephen read that fact on a website about the town and, sure enough, we missed the turn the first time because there wasn't a sign.  

We got back to the house about 1:30 and within less than 30 minutes, Daniel, Maleia and Josiah arrived.  Hurray for grandkids!  The temperature of the ocean didn't matter to them--there's nothing more fun than running along the beach and having the water sweep over your feet.

We took a walk to the park and while they played, Daniel and I stopped at the little market to buy a few pizza toppings.  Jon made his special homemade pizza dough and with everyone helping with the slicing and dicing, we had two delicious homemade, gourmet pizzas for dinner.  

The kids took another walk on the beach while I baked up a couple dozen Snickerdoodles.  Warm cookies before bed . . . . perfect.  The kids are settled in and the four of us are starting a card game.  

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!