First day of school!

Today was "our" first day of school and, as usual, I couldn't get to sleep last night. There's just something about the first day no matter how many years you've been teaching!

We arrived early and had a chance to talk to Roxana (principal) about last minute things. Then . . . . it was time. We are teaching English as a Second Language (ESL)so, ideally, the classroom is to be a SOE (speak only English) environment. We started with second grade--7 girls and 1 boy. You wouldn't think a classroom of 8 could keep two people busy, but it did! :-) Introductions all around--Miss Cheryl and Mr. Stephen. They have difficulty with "Cheryl"--first, CH is usually pronounced like chart and chip, and then Spanish doesn't have words with the "ryl" sound. At this point, I will answer to anything close or even just "Miss" which is what they say for their regular classroom teacher, "Miss Daisy." The vocabulary test featured two words for every letter of the alphabet. If they knew the word, they were to circle it. As we thought, the directions are the most difficult part as they require us to use words that the students don't know yet. One of the girls in particular, was good enough at English that she was translating what we said for the other students--nice, but, not exactly what we had in mind? When it comes to spelling, they are having the same problems that Stephen and I have . . . . if I say that the second letter is "a," they write the Spanish vowel "e," rather than the English vowel "a." It will take a lot of reinforcement of the English alphabet and sounds for them to be able to use the textbook. It was the first class after lunch, so they were still quite lively, I think their favorite thing we did all day was cut out pictures from their workbook.

First grade was next; there are 8 girls and 5 boys. They talk very quietly, so the introductions were hard to hear. When they have questions, they ask in Spanish . . . of course, we don't understand most of what they are saying! At this age, it's difficult for them to put their questions into English as their vocabulary is still limited. We will start on lessons from their book on Wednesday . . . and will need to work on vocabulary as we go. It was a good day--we had introductions, finished the vocabulary sheet and got their names on their books.

We finished the day in third grade--only 30 minutes for this group of 9 boys and 3 girls, which includes twin girls, Gabriela and Jimena. This group was the easiest to talk to because they are the most familiar with English. Their vocabulary test had 78 regular words and 10 challenge words. I'm checking the papers tonight, but I believe these students were most realistic about the words they knew and didn't know. School is dismissed at the end of the 30 minutes, so Roxana came to help. We ended with a prayer, putting away books and lining up to go downstairs to meet their parents.

All of the students are so cute in their matching uniform shirts and even after one day, we can see their individual personality's showing. One of the best things about school is that each day brings a new opportunity to open the minds of these great kids. It's going to be fun watching and helping them learn.

After a stop at Office Depot to pick up a few more school supplies we arrived home at 4:30. I just can't tell you how grateful I was when Paula called to say she had homemade soup and cornbread to bring over for our dinner! Thank you, Lord, for great friends who support us physically, mentally and spiritually.

Well, I have papers to check and seating charts to complete . . . . somehow I remember that a teacher's work is never done. I'm glad it's just 3 days a week because, as a student myself, I need to review the Spanish verbs we learned in our class yesterday.

Fifth Sunday

When a month has a fifth Sunday, VidaNueva Baptist Church holds one service at the Crown Plaza Hotel. Last night Jeff and Stephen spent 2 hours helping move equipment over and getting the screens and projectors set up. The technical and sound guys were there for hours longer. It's so much work, but having the whole church family worship together is really awesome. There were about 650 adults at today's service and probably another 100 kids. The service was amazing, with great music from the worship band and praise team, music from two guest singers, a video about plans for growing the church and expanding ministry options and an insightful sermon from Pastor Julio. You might wonder how we fit everything in, well, it's not that difficult when the service is 2.5 hours long! Of course, everything has to be broken down and returned to the church building when the service is over. I think it was almost 2:00 when we got home.

Our schedule is about to change with the addition of three days of teaching each week. We have Spanish classes on Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning from 9 to 11. We teach on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoon from 1 to 3. Stephen has band practice every Wednesday evening at 7:00 and we have church on Friday night at 6:30. Please pray that we are able to balance all areas of the ministry and be good stewards of our time.

Stephen has been hanging out at the basketball court with some of our neighbors. They are pretty impressed with his shooting. :-) Just tonight two of the high school boys asked about our church, and said they might want to go with us sometime. Please pray that we can be Godly examples for these two boys and that they will be go to church with us on Friday.

We are continuing the process of pursuing our residency in El Salvador. The next step is for the church to start putting together the paperwork necessary to apply for a religious visa. We're hoping that we we will be able to make our first trip to immigration by the middle of September--stay tuned for updates.

Back to School

Yesterday was our "back to school" day for our Spanish classes. We spent several hours on Sunday reviewing all of the material so we would be prepared. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long for us to forget what we know and get confused about the new stuff. We keep telling ourselves that everyone who learns a new language must feel the same way . . . but since we are the only people in the class we have no way to confirm it.

Today we met with Roxana Mendoza, principal of New Life Christian School, to discuss our teaching schedule. We mistakenly thought that school started yesterday, instead it starts next week. We will be working with 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students three days a week in the afternoon. Our schedule is 45 minutes each with 1st and 2nd grade and 30 minutes with 3rd grade on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Lesson plans are "due" on Monday of each week--reminds me of past life. :-) Roxana said that the 3rd graders will be a challenge; the class has 3 girls and 10 boys! I'm praying that my years of rearing two boys will be of help!

Stay tuned as I'm sure this experience will produce some interesting blog topics!

Home Sweet Home

We landed in El Salvador at 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning and I can safely say that red-eye flights will never be our favorite time to travel. All of our luggage made it safely and Jeff was waiting to pick us up.

It was about 8:00 a.m. when we made it home. We decided to turn on our cable modem, TV and wireless router so we could email or call our family to let them know we made it back--bad idea! After about 30 minutes of trying to get things up and running, we gave up and went to bed. A call to Jeff around noon confirmed that his cable was working. There's no quick way to call about service here, so he and Stephen went over to Tigo to report the problem. Amazingly, they had a serviceman at the house at 2:30 p.m. and he worked his magic and we were soon back in business. We managed a trip to the grocery store for absolute essentials and then ate a quick dinner of pupusas at our favorite restaurant.

Still jet lagged on Thursday, we were very glad we didn't schedule our Spanish classes to start until Monday. The truck is very handy to have! We ventured over to PriceSmart (Costco) on our own and filled up with meat, frozen food, etc. We also bought a 6 ft.table and cube storage bins to put an office and sewing room in our spare bedroom. I say office for now because my sewing machine is still safely in my dad's basement in Lee's Summit.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking 3 of our 4 suitcases. Thanks to so many friends at ALBC, our kitchen is now stocked with hard- or impossible-to-find items. I've already used a can of the beans, and I have to promise myself to use the items sparingly as they have to last until Christmas! Stephen had band practice so I set up the office and storage shelves.

We went to church to pick up the textbooks for our English/phonics classes. We will be working with 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders--I spent 21 years in the classroom with students in grades 7-12, so this is going to be a real challenge! School starts on Monday, but we won't start phonics for a week or two while the students and teachers get their routine established. Please pray for us as we undertake this new ministry.

After a day full of laundry and cleaning, we made our way to the Friday night service. We love worshiping with our Salvadoran brothers and sisters; it was great to see everyone as we were gone almost 3 weeks.

Today is another catch up day: preparing/sending our August prayer letter, blogging and getting our financial reports up to date. So, since the letter and this blog are now done, it's now time to sign off and catch up on my financial report.

Comings and Goings

We are sitting at the San Jose, CA, airport waiting for our 8:00 p.m. flight to Los Angeles. We will depart LAX (and the US) at 11:30 p.m. and arrive in San Salvador at 5:30 a.m. It will be a long night!

It has been so wonderful to spend time with our friends and family. We've spent the last 7 days in California with Daniel, Shannon and Maleia. She is a beautiful and happy girl! She's pretty independent for 17 months, but says "please" when she needs help of any kind. She loves to "hide" and then be found or hide her baby and then find her. You can almost see her little brain soaking up new things! Stephen was quite a photographer following her around like the paparazzi and getting great shots (a few pics are included here.)

We are excited to return "home." Our language classes start again on Monday, August 23 and then we begin helping with English at New Life Christian School on Tuesday, August 24. We covet your prayers for this new phase of our ministry.

Catching Up--Part 2: Kansas City (8/6-8/10)

The next five days were all about family and friends. Golf (Stephen), lunch with friends, rehearsal dinner, lunch with family, haircuts, wedding, wedding reception, church at ALBC, lunch with friends, church at ALBC, game night with friends, errands, lunch with family, dinner with friends, Custard's Last Stand with family, packing and back to KCI, some running (Stephen) and sleeping was sandwiched in where appropriate. I've included several pictures from the wedding--5 Parris cousins (only Daniel was missing), a GQ pose by Jon and Stephen and a family shot!

It was so awesome to be at ALBC for the early service (hurray a sermon in English) and then in our Sunday School class. The class gathered items we have trouble finding in El Salvador so we are going back stocked with BBQ sauce, lime jello, orzo, Rotel, black beans and many other goodies.

The time was so short that we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see . . . . our trip home for Christmas is longer so if we missed you, please check your calendar and let us know when we can “get together” over the holidays.

Catching Up--Part 1: Guatemala (7/31-8/5)

The first 10 days of August have been a whirlwind with no time to blog, so I'm going to play catch up over a period of several days.

We headed out of San Salvador with Jeff, Paula and Emily early morning July 31, meeting up with 40+ Salvadorans (2 vans, 1 bus) at the church. All of our luggage was wrapped in plastic trash bags and then covered in a tarp in the back of Jeff's pickup. You just never know when it's going to pour down and wet suitcases mean wet clothes. Several hours later we reached the El Salvador/Guatemala border where we had an usually smooth crossing—inside the customs building to have our passports checked before we left El Salvador, back in the truck to drive 100' to the Guatemalan customs building to get our passports “stamped in" to Guatemala.

We made it to the hotel, got checked in and ate the lunch we packed. Three groups from the states joined us: 13 from Missoula, MT, 3 from Jacksonville, Fl, and 17 from our home church in Lee's Summit, Missouri. This was the third time since we arrived in San Salvador that we were able to welcome friends from our home church.

The weather in Guatemala City was a welcome change—75 during the day and 60 at night. The city is huge (5 million) and quite modern. Our Saturday night campaign was in a gated community and members of Vida Nueva Guatemala City helped us set up the inflatables and movie. I can't even begin to count the number of kids we lifted into the inflatable that night!

Sunday morning service at Vida Nueva featured songs in both Spanish and English. We were so blessed to hear Pastor Phil Hopper from ALBC preach (in English) with Pastor Nelson translating for him. A nearby mall food court provided lunch all week. It's still an experience to order (even at fast food restaurants), and we've learned that we may be surprised when we get our order! This trip we somehow ended up with 4 meals at McDonalds (for the two of us) and were rescued by Emily's command of Spanish! Unlike El Salvador which uses US currency, Guatemala uses quetzales—I admit we did a double take when we saw the posted price of the Big Mac combo was 31.00; however, with a 8:1 exchange rate, the prices in dollars were close to normal. The week included sharing on the downtown square on Monday morning, sharing at schools on Tuesday and Wednesday and evening campaigns. Tuesday night was a rainout—it started pouring just as we arrived in the community, but we were able to share the remaining nights. The teams were so faithful to share the gospel in the schools and the evening campaigns; it is so amazing to see God at work in Central America.

We left early Thursday morning to fly to Kansas City (the team stayed until Saturday), for our nephew's wedding. Our flight to Miami was right on time and customs was very smooth; Miami to Charlotte was great (even had time for a trip to Starbucks), but Charlotte to Kansas City was delayed by 1.5 hours. Our son, Jon, was waiting for us (he flew back from California for the wedding); Steve and Terisa picked all three of us up and after a 45 minute wait on the I435 parking lot, we made it to Lee's Summit after midnight.

Packing and more packing

We've spent today packing for our trip to Guatemala, to Kansas City and to California. In addition, we're emptying out the refrigerator, leaving money so Jeff and Paula can pay our bills while we're gone, unplugging everything that doesn't need to be on during our absence and, in general, getting ready to leave the country for almost 3 weeks.

We are riding to Guatemala in the truck with Jeff, Paula and Emily. We're putting our suitcases inside trash bags and under a tarp in case it rains on the way. We're also taking empty bags so we can bring back more stuff--I have a long list of things to get while I'm stateside.

Pickup time in the morning is 7:00 a.m. We're heading to the church to meet up with about 40 Salvadorans who are going along to translate and help with follow-up; we hope to get on the road by 7:30. Stephen and Jeff had very little trouble crossing the border when just the two of them went, but it's not so easy with almost 50 people, their stuff, inflatables, etc. Please pray that everything will be smooth and easy without any unusual delays. We will be meeting the teams from the states at the hotel, including the group from ALBC, our home church.

We have now finished 6 weeks of Spanish classes and with this trip will have a 3-week break. It's great timing as our brains are worn out and it will do us good to be able to review what we've covered before we start up again. I've attached a picture of us with Beatriz from the restaurant where we took her for her birthday. We really miss her, but are slowly getting to know Guillermo.

Well, that's it for now--I just thought of another thing I need to do!

Reflections

Almost everyone we talk to asks "how are you doing?" "was it the right decision?" or "what do you miss?" Now that it's been almost 8 weeks, I thought I would take a stab at answering all three of the questions.

1) We are doing great! We love our little townhouse and our neighborhood is very nice. It is gated, self-contained with 102 townhomes around a central park. The park has a basketball court/soccer court, playground equipment, picnic tables and lovely landscaping and trees. Stephen bought a basketball and occasionally has time to shoot baskets with Douglas or Jacob. We have a living room, dining room, kitchen and half bath on the first floor. A sliding glass door leads out to the patio (backyard) and laundry/storage area. Several rose bushes, hibiscus and my herbs are outside.

We have met several of our neighbors, especially the kids who ride their bikes and play outside. Yesterday Gabby was waiting for us when we came home . . . she had kicked her small soccer ball over the wall between our houses (about 10 foot tall) and had to wait for us to come home so she could get it back.

We're comfortable going to SuperSelectos (grocery store) and Vidri's (hardware store.) The local pharmacy has all of my prescription medicine and it's very reasonably priced. We can also drive to "Wal-mart" by ourselves, but haven't learned the way to "Costco" yet. It will have to wait until we get back from the states in August.

2) It was absolutely the right decision. When God has a job and place for you, that's exactly what you want to do and where you want to be. We've loved the people here since the first time we came (2007) and nothing about that has changed. Everyone is so helpful and patient with us . . . even though our Spanish is terrible or non-existent. We're excited about what God is doing here and anxious to work with the students at New Life Christian School beginning August 24. Stephen loves playing the piano in the band--he has practice on Thursday night (same time/night as at ALBC.) He plays for the Friday night service and for the 3rd service on Sunday morning. Several times we've talked about what we could have been doing in our retirement . . . but this is exactly what we want to be doing and where God wants us to be working.

3) There are some things that we miss and, of course, family and friends are at the top of the list. (Even if we had moved someplace else in the states, we would have missed family and friends.) So the things I miss are: getting the mail (not sure why on this one), going to the library to check out books, being able to meet friends at Custard's Last Stand anytime we want, good pizza from Minskys or Spin (sorry Pizza Hut--it's just not the same), Pastor Phil's sermons (at this point, any sermon in English sounds good to us), Kingdom Seekers class on Sunday morning, a dishwasher (other than me), getting drinking water from the tap and being able to communicate with everyone to name just a few.

Even though no one has asked, I want to mention a few things we love about El Salvador: pupusas (traditional Salvadoran dish) are awesome (Stephen thinks I should learn how to make them so I can share them with family and friends back in the States), working with and being mentored by Jeff and Paula, singing awesome Spanish worship music, getting to know new friends from this country and around the states and, most importantly, being able to serve our Heavenly Father to help bring the gospel to the people of El Salvador and Central America.

What a week!

This week has been filled with so much it's hard to describe. It was so amazing to have Steve & Terisa here with us--we thank God for such awesome friends who know us and are completely comfortable whether we're sitting around watching Spanish TV, eating biscuits and gravy, working at a campaign or playing a game of cards.

They weren't just here to see us, but also to take the first steps toward getting Mario, who is at the Remar orphanage, a birth certificate. This week included meetings with their attorneys, signing a power of attorney and talking with the Christian counselor who works with the orphanage. We also visited Remar on Friday afternoon (some pictures included) and got a chance to see Mario again. The evening campaign on Friday night featured the inflatables and a great drama by the youth of Lourdes. We finished off the evening with pupusas at Pollos Real! Yum.

We took Steve and Terisa to the airport on Saturday afternoon and then joined Jeff, Paula, Emily and the team from Tennessee at a family festival in a Lourdes neighborhood. We had a great afternoon meeting people from the neighborhood, including Jose, Vilma and their son, Ferdinand Jose, and Raphael and his two children, Diego and Paula. The giant slide captured the attention of all the kids and the youth presented two great dramas, followed by a message by Dr. Joe from Tennessee.

Stephen and Jeff are at the early service this morning, but will be here later to pick Paula, Emily and me up for the 11:15 service at the hotel. We're taking Beatriz, our "former" tutor, to lunch today after church.

Tomorrow should prove to be interesting for two reasons. First, we will meet our new Spanish tutor tomorrow morning and second, we should be able to pick up our truck in the afternoon. Please pray that we will "like" both of them.

Happy and sad!

Yea, for planes that bring friends from the states! Steve and Terisa arrived just before noon yesterday. It's definitely an understatement to say we were glad to see them. We surprised them by going with Jeff to pick them up. I've posted a couple of "we're really glad to see you pictures." We relaxed yesterday afternoon and almost got caught up on news from home. We were also able to Skype with Michael, Carmen, Ethan and Chloe. Ethan wasn't very happy that he couldn't "get" to his "papa" through the computer. We enjoyed tacos for dinner last night which were made even better by the Rotel that they brought with them. A special thanks to Paula who brought over her Pace picante sauce because I forgot to buy it at the grocery store!

Steve and Terisa are with Herbert, their attorney, taking care of some of the paperwork necessary to get the adoption process started for Mario.

Stephen and I didn't have Spanish classes yesterday, but when Beatriz came today she told us that Friday is her last day. She has a new full-time job with the Salvadoran government which starts on Monday. We are very happy for her as this will be a steady income and benefits, but we are so sad that she's not going to be able to continue as our tutor. She promised that she will find another tutor that we will like. I was going to surprise her with Snickerdoodle cookies for her birthday next week, but will instead make them for her last day. :-(

Stephen and Jeff are running errands this afternoon, including stopping at the agent's office to pay for insurance on our truck and picking up the copies of our residency documents from the translator.

The rest of the week will be busy . . . there's a team coming in from the states on Thursday that will be working with the church in Lourdes. Friday afternoon we will go to the orphanage with the team. Steve and Terisa are excited about being able to see Mario--March was along time ago. We will take Steve and Terisa to the airport on Saturday (hopefully, in our new truck) and then help with the family festival in a neighborhood in Lourdes.

Please pray for us as we begin working with a new tutor on Monday.

Biscuits, gravy, a rolling pin and a crockpot!

Well, it doesn't take much to make my day, I guess. I started the day making homemade biscuits. Thanks to Jennifer, a great friend from ALBC who sent down McCormick's Sausage Gravy Mix, we felt like we were at Neighbors in Lee's Summit for breakfast.

We were able to get some additional items for our house today including a ceiling fan, some bathroom light fixtures, a mirror for the guest bathroom, pillows for the guest bedroom, etc. I can't wait for Stephen to put up the ceiling fan in the kitchen--it really gets hot in there when I cook.

I found a rolling pin at Vidri (think Ace Hardware) and I can now make various and sundry pies; well, except for two things: (1) I have yet to find a pie plate and (2) I've realized that an oven with only a top heating coil is not great for things that need to be crispy on the bottom (like pizza dough and probably pie crust.) Stay tuned, I'll let you know how my first pie turns out. Vidri's also had a crockpot (hurrah) and it was only $35.00. The only other one I have seen was almost $100.

We will be helping with a campaign next week at VidaNueva Lourdes (Thursday, July 22 to Wednesday, July 28), we leave for Guatemala on Saturday, July 31 and then fly to Kansas City on August 5 for our nephew's wedding on August 7.

Please continue to pray for our ability to grasp and retain the Spanish we're learning!

Random Musings

Our Spanish lessons went a new direction today--we wrote our first paragraph and let me tell you it wasn't very eloquent! Beatriz, our tutor (picture attached) gave us a "happy face" even though it wasn't even close to "perfecto." The good news is that we don't have any homework tonight. We're so thankful Beatriz was assigned to us--she's patient and funny--just the right combination for us! I baked my mom's oatmeal cake last night and we shared it with her. She thinks I have a future as a baker in El Salvador. :-) I was just happy that I could find all of the ingredients here and that it tasted just like home.

Yesterday the wife of VidaNueva's worship pastor came over to work on our backyard. She's great with plants and was able to prune our giant rose bushes and hibiscus to more manageable sizes. She brought over the beginnings of my herb garden (picture attached) and I now have fresh cilantro, basil, rosemary, mint and two other spices that are yet to be determined. She speaks a little English and I speak even less Spanish so I'm not sure what the other two pots contain.

The car alarms have been going crazy the last few nights--who knows why? It's been beautiful during the day (blue skies and around 85-88 degrees) and raining at night. It came a gully washer (bet that doesn't translate into Spanish) last night with both thunder and lightning for about an hour. My cake was in the oven and I was praying that the electricity didn't go off before it finished baking!

We sent our first newsletter to ALBC today and I've posted it on a support page on the blog. Please let me know if you would like to be added to our email list. Stephen is heading to band practice tonight so I will have a quiet evening at home catching up on email, planning the menus for next week and reading.

News flash--just felt my first tremor while I was finishing up this posting! Didn't last very long, but noticed the screen on my laptop shaking. Paula just called to ask me if I felt it. Yes! Welcome to Central America; I can now check that off my list of things to experience.

Juntos Together--What a week!

Juntos|Together, a conference for college students held at VidaNueva Baptist Church wrapped up on Monday. There were 43 students from three churches in the US and almost 100 students from VidaNueva. The week was non-stop as the students combined to teach English to college students in the morning, share the gospel at elementary schools in the afternoons, worship in Spanish/English four evenings and hold evangelistic campaigns on two evenings. In addition, one day was spent with kids from two of the Remar orphanages in San Salvador.

Made to Love was the theme of the conference and Jeff Rhoades challenged the students to love Jesus and love others. The youth band, which included Stephen on the keyboard, led the students in both English and Spanish and did an amazing job. The students' shared testimonies about what God did in their lives during the week. Everyone was sorry to leave and promised to return next summer for Juntos|Together 2011!

Please pray that the students will return to their lives with a new sense of what God has planned for their them.

Juntos Together--briefly

Tonight was the final night of Juntos Together and tomorrow morning three groups of students (one group from Ocala, FL; one from Bakersfield, CA and one from Lee's Summit, MO) head home. The service was great from start to finish: worship music to start, including "Made to Love" the conference theme, unveiling and distribution of the 2010 Juntos Together t-shirt, great sermon from Jeff Rhoades, challenging all of us to love others by forgiving them, and personal testimonies from students who talked about what the week meant to them.

Pictures and more thoughts about the week tomorrow or Tuesday. Thanks, your prayers for an awesome week were answered. Pray that the impact of the week will continue long after the plane trip home tomorrow.