FIVE YEARS TODAY

It's been exactly five years today!  On June 8, 2010, about 10:00 in the morning, our son, Jon, took us to KCI to catch our flight to El Salvador.  We checked four large duffle bags, each weighing 50 pounds, and each of us carried on a medium size duffle weighing 30 pounds.  Jeff and Paula Rhoades picked us up at Comalapa Airport and, thus, began our journey!

We're not the same people who arrived five years ago today.  Now we speak Spanish and are able to communicate with the people around us and we consider El Salvador "home." 
  
However, the most exciting things that have happened over these five years have not come as a result of what we have done, but what God has done in and through us.  Here's just a few highlights:

• We've been blessed to meet thousands of people from churches all over the US who have come to share the gospel on a mission trip 
• We've shared our testimony and listened to other's testimonies in hundreds of school classrooms.
• We've seen the gospel shared door-to-door and in the evening family festivals during more than 60 mission trips.
• We've seen hands raised in response to the sinner's prayer thousands and thousands of times. 
• We've been part of a great church that preaches the gospel and focuses on discipling new believers.
• We've made life-long friends as we've loved and been loved by our church family in all of the VidaNueva churches.  
• We've relied on God to lead and direct us in the work of the ministry here.
• We've witnessed what God can do with believers who are faithful to share the good news.  

We still have much to learn . . . and are still very much in the process of growing into the people God intends for us to be.  It's only fitting that we have an appointment at immigration today to renew our residency visa for another year.  We don't know what the future holds or how much longer we will be here, but we trust God to let us know when it's time to move on.  Thank you for being part of our journey; please continue to pray for us as we work here.

Here's to another five years.

June campaign with Christ Chapel Bible Church

The family mission trip started today with 19 team members from CCBC in Dallas.  There are nine adults and ten kids.  They landed at 11:30 a.m. and were greeted by Guillermo and the bus.  After a quick lunch at Wendy's they settled into the hotel for a rest.  

We left the apartment about 1:30 to drive to the church in Lourdes so we could pick up the inflatable and generator.  Unfortunately, a traffic accident along the route caused the usual 15-minute drive (on Saturday) to be almost 45 minutes.  In addition, it rained like crazy.  By the time we arrived at church, the rain and let up enough to get everything loaded.  We just barely had time to swing by our apartment before we joined the team for orientation at the hotel.

We returned to the Santa Teresa neighborhood of Apopa where we tried to have a family festival during the May campaign.  Unfortunately, like last time, the rain continued to fall so we were only able to share door-to-door.  The kids in the neighborhood were excited to see us return, but disappointed again when the rain prevented us from setting up the inflatable.  They want to know when we're coming back to try again.

Tomorrow the team will attend the 11:30 service at the hotel.  Please pray for the rain to hold off for the rest of the week.

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.

Mother's Day in Managua

I flew to Nicaragua on Friday afternoon and Rodrigo and Miriam picked me up at the airport. Miriam and I spent the evening practicing the lesson, finishing the decorations and making last minute plans for the first-ever women's event at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, Managua, Campus Los Robles.

We were up early Saturday morning--the event started at 9:30 a.m.  Miriam was so nervous, but everything was perfect.  There were 23 women in attendance (a great start for the first event) and the morning went very well.  They listened and took notes and made it easy for me to share with them.  

Saturday afternoon I went to Felix and Dinora's house so Lorena (their daughter) and I could practice for the event at their campus.  We left the house at 8:00 a.m. Sunday morning and took everything we needed for the day.  After the morning service we had a quick lunch and then set up the room for the 3:00 pm event.

There were a little over 50 women at the event.  The decorations, food and time of worship were awesome.  Lorena did a great job translating everything I said--I added quite a bit as I went along.  I pray that something I shared would make a difference in their lives and in their children's lives.

Prayer Request

I'm flying to Managua, Nicaragua, this afternoon to speak at the Mother's Day event at both of our campuses.  In Nicaragua Mother's Day is celebrated on May 30, so this weekend's events are very timely.  The Los Robles campus event is tomorrow morning and the Bolonia campus event is Sunday afternoon.  I will return early Monday morning.

Here's the title slide for my presentation:

which translate to:  God's Recipe for a Godly Mother.  Unfortunately, my Spanish is not sufficient for me to present this without a translator.  Miriam Diaz, the pastor's wife at Los Robles, will translate for me on Saturday; Lorena Canizales, the pastor's daughter at the Bolonia campus will translate for me on Sunday.  

Please pray for the ladies who will attend; many of them will be invited guests who don't know Jesus as Savior.  Please pray for the ladies to hear God's message through me and that my translator and I will be able to communicate clearly.   

41 Years of Happiness

We celebrated our 41st anniversary on May 25 with a movie, dinner and a night at the San Salvador Courtyard.  It was much simpler (and economical) than our big celebration last year.

We saw Tomorrowland in the afternoon, checked into the hotel, went for a swim and then had dinner at the new Longhorn Steak House.  

We paid for our room with Marriott points; when we checked out the bill was $19.62 (breakfast.)  Love celebrating in style without paying big bucks.

May Campaign--Day 7-9

This campaign was unlike any other campaign because we had two distinct groups and each had a different arrival and departure date.  The small group from Alabama arrived on Saturday, May 16, and departed on Saturday, May 23.  The larger group from Truett-McConnell College in Georgia arrived on Monday, May 18, and departed today.  They spent yesterday at the beach, so as far as we were concerned, the campaign ended on Sunday.

Friday and Saturday morning we went door-to-door in two different neighborhoods; Sunday morning they attended the first service at the hotel.  Friday through Sunday evening we held family festivals.  

At the end of the campaign there were more than 640 professions of faith.  It was a great week.

May Campaign--Day 6

On Thursday morning we visited a large, all-girls school.  It was our first visit there and, instead of sending small groups into the classroom, we met in an auditorium.  It wasn't as personal, but we were able to reach all of the girls with the lesson.  

Thursday evening we made our way to Apopa for a family festival.  The rain started just after we arrived and, although we waited 30 minutes, it never let up.  The team didn't even get out of the bus . . . . it was a short night, but it did feel good to get home early.

May Campaign--Day 5

Wednesday morning we shared at a very large high school.  The principal asked us if we could add another group, so we reorganized a bit and shared in ten classrooms instead of just nine.  The kids were very receptive with more than 147 professions of faith.

The team from Truett-McConnell college included many members of their girl's soccer team.  They played a scrimmage against the girls team from the high school.  It was a fun afternoon of friendly competition and testimony sharing.

We ended the night in a neighborhood called Atlacatl in central El Salvador.  

May Campaign--Day 3 and 4

After devotions on Monday morning we had time to come back to the apartment.  Since there were only five people, they took the morning to visit the volcano and go to the gringo market.  I, on the other hand, finally had time to go to the grocery store and re-stock after our three weeks in the states.

The other team, a group of 28 from Truett-McConnell College was due in around noon, but . . . .  But, like our recent flight, they were delayed (mechanical problems) and didn't arrive in time to go to the evening campaign.

Instead only the Alabama team was able to go up north to El Paraiso (Paradise) for the family festival.  This is Pastor Manuel's newest church plant and it is being directly supported by Pleasant Grove Baptist.  They were excited to see the building they are renting and to meet Pastor Manuel.  One of their Sunday School classes sent a $300 gift--the money was raised by selling fresh eggs which are donated by one of the class members. 

Tuesday morning the whole team was in place for morning devotions,  Pastor Steve shared and then we headed out to our first school of the week.  The new value lesson, kindness, was well received by the students.  There were 100 professions of faith.  We shared with two sixth grade classes, but they met outside because they are part of the afternoon session.  Unbelievably, almost all of the students in the class came in the morning to hear the lesson (even though they had to return for their regular classes in the afternoon.)

Tuesday evening's family festival was in Santa Tecla and it was well attended.  It was the first campaign for the team from Truett-McConnell in Georgia, but they all got right to work sharing the gospel.