Red-eye

They're not named "red-eye's" for nothing--my goodness! Definitely not my favorite way to travel. If I could sleep well on a plane, then they might be okay. We arrived at SFO about 10:30 p.m. last night. Got checked in fairly easily, but security took forever. For some reason, my carry-on was selected to get a second look. She cleaned the entire thing out and ran everything back through security in separate bins. Evidently, the TSA scanner had never seen a portable luggage scales and, of course, the 15 giant plastic quilting rulers (24" x6") in the bottom of the duffle also confused her. Finally made it to the gate at 11:30 p.m. A little over 2 hours later, we were in the air and doing our best to get some sleep. Even with an empty seat between us, it was just impossible to get comfortable. Somewhere around 3:30 a.m. there was about 30 minutes of turbulence; then, promptly at 5:00 a.m. the lights in the cabin came on and they started breakfast service. Definition of a "short night."

Immigration was painless--first time for us to use our residency card! Anytime all of your luggage makes it in one piece, it's a success. We sailed right through customs and were out on the street hugging Gilma and William in less than 45 minutes.

After a short nap, we unpacked a bit and now we need to make a grocery store run as there's not a thing to eat here. It's good to be home, but we already miss having Maleia and Josiah close at hand. We are, however, grateful for the technology which allows us to keep in touch--can't imagine not having access to email, Skype and Facebook.

The school year at New Life Christian School has already been underway for 3 weeks, so please pray for us as we begin teaching on Monday. Our first campaign of the fall starts on September 10 and quilting/Bible study classes begin the following week.

Thanks to all of you at home who support our ministry. We covet your prayers for the ministry.

Making Pillows

We shopped for fabric to match Maleia's quilt over the weekend. Today I was able to finish making pillows for her bed. She says she likes the little one with the pink flowers best. She also said she doesn't like the big red one and big yellow one "as much." Gotta love the honesty of kids!

Running out of days

All of a sudden, time is getting short. We've had such a great time with our kids and grandkids, it's going to be difficult to say goodbye.

While Shannon, Maleia and Josiah were napping, I made a creamy peach pie and a strawberry pie. It was easy because Daniel cut up all of the fruit! After naps, we went swimming and had a picnic of sorts. Ruth, one of Shannon's friends from church, and her two children joined us. Her husband, a geologist, is in Alaska on business for two weeks. Shannon's brother, Brian, was also there. Josiah was a good baby and just dozed off while I was holding him.

Jon called from Sweden today; he made it to school and is getting settled in. He said that there is already a cold wind blowing! New students are arriving--everyone should be there by Monday and then classes start on Tuesday. Sounds like all of the students speak English so he's thinking he might not have to concentrate on learning Swedish. Evidently, the Internet service on the island is pretty sketchy so Jon thinks that Skype is out of the question and that sending pictures is going to be difficult, as well. Guess we're going to have to settle for an occasional email!

Love these 4 pictures: Big sister/little brother; Josiah up close; Maleia waiting in her car seat and Josiah playing on his new quilt!

Time Flies

Wow--it's been almost 10 days since I blogged! We flew to Kansas City on August 17. The best thing about being there was spending time with family and friends. Of course, we also ate at many, if not all, of our favorite restaurants. It's a good thing I'm not counting calories!

Besides eating and visiting, we also had various appointments--annual physicals, teeth cleaning, eye exam, hair cut, etc. Stephen was able to play golf with his three brothers--a mini family reunion on the course.

We were able to share our ministry with Jim and Jan Perry at breakfast on Saturday morning. Jim is the chairman of the Mission's Team at Abundant Life. We also shared in the Kingdom Seeker's class on Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon Stephen drove to Marshall to attend the evening service at First Baptist Church, Marshall, where his brother, Michael, is the pastor. Stephen sang two songs, shared our slide presentation, talked about our ministry and then answered questions from the congregation. I'm so proud of him because the talking part is definitely a stretch for him.

On Wednesday we flew back to California in time to have a quick dinner with Daniel, Shannon, Maleia and Josiah. I was able to read two bedtime stories to Maleia so it was a great night.

Happy Hollow Park & Zoo

Today we made our way to Happy Hollow Park & Zoo in San Jose, California. It's a small zoo/children's amusement park which is perfect for a 2-year old. Daniel and Shannon have season passes so Maleia knows her way around. Her first request was to ride the merry-go-round, but since the line was long we visited the animals first.

Josiah was perfectly happy riding in the Baby Bjorn with Shannon. Maleia rode on the ladybugs, in the cars and on the merry-go-round two times! We ate our "picnic" lunch after the puppet show.

It's such a blessing to be together!

Meeting Josiah

We arrived in California last night . . . . the trip was smooth, the plane landed early, customs was a snap and our baggage came out first! Daniel picked us up and 45 minutes later we were meeting Josiah and hugging Maleia.

Josiah is a whopping 12 pounds--did I say he weighed 7.5 pounds when he was born only 5 weeks ago? Daniel and Shannon's nickname for him is "Josiah the Hut."

Jon joined us last night about 11:00 p.m. so the whole family is together! What a great blessing.

Maleia is as beautiful as ever! She's been reciting nursery rhymes for us, including Jack and Jill, Yankee Doodle, Little Miss Muffet--it's a scream! She and Grandpa made an early morning trip to Starbucks. She loved her Strawberry Frappucino.

Posting a few pictures and then off to Costco to stock up on groceries for the next 8 days!

Off to see the grandkids!

The final mission trip of the summer finished on Friday and tomorrow we're off to see the grandkids.

We're so excited that we get to spend two weeks in California and one week in Lee's Summit. Here's our Top 10 List:

1) Hold Josiah, our new grandson, and hug Maleia.

2) See Daniel and Shannon's new home

3) See Jon off to Sweden (the exchange program is for the fall semester)

4) See (and usually eat with) family and friends

5) Share a ministry update at Abundant Life

6) Go to the dentist (Stephen is having 2 crowns repaired)

7) Have our annual medical checkups

8) Eat at all of our favorite places

9) Play golf (just Stephen)

10) Relax, rest, refresh and then be ready to hit the ground running when we return to El Salvador on September 1

A Great Week in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Nicaragua

We wrapped up a great week in Guatemala on Thursday night. The team from Lee's Summit left for the airport at 4:30 a.m. Friday morning. We didn't start our drive home until 9:30. We didn't have any problems at the borders so we made it home around 2:30.

There were 10 people from ALBC and 14 of us from El Salvador. With a small team you really have time to get to share with everyone. They were so faithful to share the gospel in the evening campaigns! I believe there were 170 professions of faith throughout the week. Three mornings we were in schools sharing the sexual purity lesson along with the gospel, with more than 450 students indicating that they made a profession of faith.

Followup has already started. Nelson and Rosemary are excited about adding new families to the church. They were meeting with one couple on Friday morning to begin discipleship.

While we were in Guatemala, two other teams from Vida Nueva were also involved. A group from the states joined a Vida Nueva San Salvador team in Nicaragua while another group from the states joined another Vida Nueva San Salvador team in Costa Rica. This was the first time that our church has held simultaneous campaigns in all of our Central American churches. We don't have the "official" results from the other two teams, but we know that God also blessed their efforts.

This was the last of 5 mission trips this summer and we're ready for a vacation. We haven't been in the states since Christmas! However, on Tuesday we fly to California to see Jon, Daniel, Shannon, Maleia and meet Josiah, our new grandson!

Guatemala City

Having a great time in Guatemala even though the rain has been a challenge. The evening campaign was rained out on Saturday and Sunday night. Last night, however, we were able to find time between the rain to go door-to-door, put up the inflatable, show the movie, do the drama and present the gospel. I believe there were 40+ professions of faith, with several people requesting to begin discipleship this week.

This morning the team from ALBC divided into 5 groups to present the sexual purity lesson, followed by the gospel, in 13 classrooms at the English Academy at Campos Alto. The 9th, 10th and 11th graders were very attentive! Besides the hands raised after the gospel presentation, one of the students came up to Paula and said, "I want to be involved in what you're doing."

Tonight we're back in a neighborhood and praying that the rain holds off until we finish! More updates later in the week.

Happy Dance!

Jeff and Stephen went to the immigration office this afternoon and Stephen came home with our residency cards. Praise the Lord--His timing is perfect! We leave for Guatemala in the morning and it is great to have the cards "in hand." What's even better is that the cards don't expire until June 30! Normally, they expire 9 months after the temporary cards expire, which for us would have been March 30. Hurrah for 3 extra months!

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us through this year+ process! Just 4 more year one-year renewals and we can get a two-year card!

A day of worship

Worshiped in four different services yesterday . . . two in San Salvador, one in Coyolito and one in Nueva Concepcion. Thankful that although the styles of music were different and the messages were varied, each was directed to the one true God!

Wrap up and coming event

It's been almost a week since Juntos/Together ended. The final service was last Sunday night. It was so amazing to hear the testimonies of God's work during the week. The theme was "Radical Generation" and each day and each evening we were challenged to go beyond the norm and become a "radical generation" who carries Christ to the world. It's also exciting to read the Facebook comments and see the pictures posted by students who were here--the world gets a little smaller each time we make friends with our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Last week I also wrapped up this session of Hilo, Aguja y Biblia. The class will not meet in August because we will be in the states. Our last project of the session was a quilted picture frame. At least one of the ladies has already completed three frames and posted the pictures on Facebook! Our next session starts in September and I will be teaching the ladies how to make a t-shirt quilt.

This week we've had a chance to catch up on things, including laundry and cleaning. I've also been making a couple of new white, satin gowns for whoever plays the role of Jesus in the evening dramas. The old one was totally worn out! However, once deconstructed, it made a great pattern!

That's it for now . . . . more to come as we head to Guatemala on Friday to meet a team from Abundant Life in Lee's Summit.

Residency update

Our provisional card expired on June 30, but July 18 finds us still waiting for our permanent (1-year) residency card. Shortly before June 30, we were told that our permanent card would be ready in 1-2 weeks. Two weeks ago, William called and they told him that our paperwork was awaiting a final signature. Last week we stopped by the office and they said that our paperwork was approved and signed, but our cards were not printed . . . . so check back on Monday.

We decided to call again before making another trip--today when we called the immigration officer told us that they were having problems with their computer system . . . check back tomorrow. We will be leaving for Guatemala on July 29 and need to have our residency card in hand by that time. Looks like we will be calling on a daily basis and, when we hear the news that they are ready, we will be dropping everything to go pick them up!

Thanks for continuing to pray for us--we are confident that God will provide them at just the perfect moment.

Wow--it's been too long

I just realized that it's been a whole week since I took the time to post. Juntos/Together, our student conference, started on Monday, so we've been on the go the whole week. There are 52 college students from 4 different churches: Abundant Life Baptist, Lee's Summit, MO; Valley Baptist Church, Bakersfield, CA; Journey Church, Fresno, CA and Belmar Baptist Church, Denver, CO. In addition to the students from the states, there are more than 100 students from our churches in San Salvador, Lourdes, Managua and Guatemala City. The week is a combination student conference/mission trip. The groups have taught English at a university, taught an anti-violence lesson at public schools, cleaned up a park, conducted a neighborhood kids club, shared door-to-door, worshiped together and listened to awesome preaching.

It's so exciting to see these students learning to be part of a "Radical Generation" for Jesus. Tomorrow is the last day . . . the closing service is tomorrow night. Can't wait to hear more stories about how lives were changed this week.

Wood from Nahuizalco

On Thursday, Jon's last day here in El Salvador, we made our way to Nahuizalco. This small town is known for it's artisans--especially woodworkers. From our experience driving to Suchitoto on Tuesday, instead of making the trip by ourselves, we decided to take a translator. We were happy that Jona and Diego could go along.

We found the square in Nahuizalco without any problems . . . . there were vendors everywhere, selling everything imaginable. We visited CEDart--a school that teaches various types of creative and artistic courses, including woodworking. Unfortunately, there were no courses in session while we were there.

Next stop was a furniture workshop . . . . we randomly stopped at Muebles Hernandez (Hernandez Furniture.) One of the reasons we wanted a translator with us was because we wanted to be able to explain to the artisans that we weren't interested in buying furniture, but rather were hoping to see their workshop and ask questions about the furniture building process. We couldn't have found a more willing guide in Melvin Hernandez. He cheerfully showed us around the whole shop explaining their work processes. He answered all of the questions Jon asked, including many questions about the variety of native woods that are available to them. Jon wanted to buy a "chunk" of wood to take back with him, but Melvin wouldn't let him pay for it. As you can see from the picture, it was a sizeable piece. Once again, I am amazed by the generosity of the Salvadoran people. Jon will add this piece of "cortez blanco" to his collection of wood from Central America. One of these days he says he will decide what he's going to build using the two woods from Costa Rica and this new piece from El Salvador.

After an early dinner at Pollo Campero in Sonsonate, we made it back to San Salvador about 7:00 p.m. It was a great last day!