Surgery and In-n-Out

Surgery was a success; Dr. Lee said it went as expected.  He had to fast since dinner last night so we stopped at In-n-Out on the way home.  He's now napping off the anesthesia.

He has a post-op appointment tomorrow morning, but afterwards he'll be free to resume his regular activities, minus swimming and weightlifting.  Our plans for an afternoon of playing with the grandkids.

Thanks for praying for him; please continue to pray for his recovery and the surgery on his right eye which will be next Tuesday, March 7.

Today is the day

Trusting God for a procedure without complications, a great outcome and a speedy recovery.  I'll update later this afternoon or tomorrow after his post-op appointment.  Thanks for praying for Stephen.

Time in California

Over the past several months, Stephen has been progressively having more difficulty with his vision, including double vision, blurriness and seeing halos around lights, especially at night.  He would ask me, "how many tail lights does that car have?"  My answer would be two or four, depending and he would then tell me he saw 12 to 16.  So, we decided to take advantage of the time between Judgment House and our March campaign to come to California to get his eyes examined.

The results of the exam with the opthamologist and the retinologist are that he has cataracts and they need to be removed.  He will be having surgery on his left eye next Tuesday, February 28; the date for surgery on the right eye has not been confirmed, but will probably be Tuesday, March 7.  

This will be his very first surgery (except for oral surgery for wisdom teeth removal) so, as you can imagine, he's a bit nervous about it all.  Please pray for a good result and a quick recovery.  We are scheduled to fly back to El Salvador on March 15.

Judgment House Wrap-up

Judgment House is over for 2017.  The final weekend was held at our Lourdes campus which meant that everything at our main church was taken down, loaded up and then set up at our church there.  Of course, the layout and configuration of the rooms is completely different so the set up isn't easy.  

Once again Pastors Steve and Julio were thrilled with the attendance and number of decisions across the seven days of performances (5 at the Miralvalle Campus and 2 at the Lourdes Campus.  Praise the Lord for the final results:

Attendance:  3,624

Professions of Faith:  387

Rededications:  283

Please continue to pray for the campus pastors as they start the follow-up process.  The first step is to invite those who made decisions to a breakfast or a dinner at the campus where they would be attending.  Here is a picture of the group that came for the first dinner at our Lourdes Campus.  

Judgment House, 2017

The last minute prep finished up on Wednesday afternoon and the work of "presenting" Judgment House began about 6:30 p.m.  Stephen's is playing the piano in the sanctuary where the groups await their turn to enter the presentation--he's at the very beginning.  I'm working at the very end--in counseling.  We see only those people who are ready to make a decision for Christ as a result of the presentation.  I'm on the computer, keeping track of all the names and compiling the results for Pastor Julio and Pastor Steve.

God has provided miraculous results over the past three nights (Wednesday through Friday.)  Here are some of the stats so far:

ATTENDANCE:  1,369

PROFESSIONS OF FAITH:  155

REDEDICATIONS:  124

 Praise the Lord for the lives that are being changed!

Judgment House Prep--2017

Stephen and I spent all day Monday and Tuesday at the church helping with construction and setup for Judgment House.  As last year, we spent most of our time turning the big room on the third floor into Heaven.  Here are some pictures of the process.

Getting started by blocking off the light from the windows

Covering the blue walls so everything will look white

Adding the celestial window and curtains to the room

Looking back at the entrance (in the middle of the two sets of gold curtains

Finished view looking into the room (Jesus in the back)

Another view of the back of the room (white floors and hanging branches with flowers and candles

Jesus with one one of the young girls in heaven

February isn't just for Valentines

Valentine's Day is celebrated here in El Salvador, but it's known here as the "Day of Love and Friendship."  As a result, the celebrations don't just focus on husband/wife or boyfriend/girlfriend relationships, but on all types of friendship.  To that end, the celebration is too big to fit on one single day; instead, friendship is celebrated throughout the month of February.

Our traditional to have a women's ministry "friendship breakfast" was held yesterday and more than 120 women attended.  Dr. Marta Colato shared the awesome friendship story between Jesus and Lazarus.  

Continuing computer issues

We are in the states and have the new hard drive for our laptop; however, we don't have anyone to repair it here.  So until we get back to El Salvador at the end of the year, I'm borrowing a laptop to do essential tasks and using my phone for everything else.

I sent out a simple email update in lieu of our regular newsletter.  If you didn't see it, you can find it on the blog homepage.

We finished two weeks in Kansas City and then flew to California on December 2.  We've enjoyed a piano recital, Christmas caroling, Sunday church and several other outings with Daniel and his family.  There's still plenty to look forward to as we prepare to celebrate our Lord's birth.  

I promise to catch up (or maybe just start over) in January when my laptop is up and running.

Laptop Problems

As you may have noticed, nearly the entire month of November has passed without a blog update.  This is what happens when you have a nearly dead and then completely dead laptop.  The laptop started acting crazy when I was in Texas at the beginning of October.  I limped along by running and repairing bad sectors on the hard drive.  When I had to do it a second time, I knew that it needed some "real" help.  I backed up as much as I could, including uploading our pictures to Google photos--the only glitch is that it takes forever to upload files when the computer is struggling to run.  

I took it to our residency missionary/tech, Ryan Blackstock, and he looked it over for me.  He kept it while we were gone to Guatemala (hence, no blogs about VBS) and we picked it up the day before we left for the states.  Unfortunately, he had to restore it to it's original settings (Windows 8) to get it to boot up; he also mentioned that the hard drive is failing so it's just a matter of time before it's completely useless.

We have ordered a new hard drive, but now that we're in the states, we haven't found anyone to install it.  So, I'm borrowing a computer for now and hoping that I can get mine up and running enough to do our December newsletter.  If not, I'll just send out an email update and worry about the laptop repair when I get back to El Salvador at the end of the year.

We seem to have the worst luck with laptops--there are three dead ones at our apartment and so the latest makes four.  Not sure if it's the hot weather, all the travel, the level of dust in the air or all of the above.  

Final El Salvador Campaign, 2016, Part 2

Here in El Salvador the school year wraps up at the end of October/beginning of November, so Guillermo was concerned that he wouldn't be able to go to schools during the campaign.  God had other plans and he was able to find schools for four of the five days during the week.  The team shared the lesson on respect--something that the kids here need to learn.  Here are some pictures of our week:

Final El Salvador Campaign of 2016

The final campaign of the year in El Salvador started on Saturday, October 8, with a trip to Los Planes for pupusas.  There were many new people on the trip so they were excited to experience this food of which they had heard so much; and, of course, it didn't disappoint.

We had orientation after church on Sunday morning and then went to Lourdes for the first campaign in the evening.

Women's Ministry Trip, Part 5 (life-changing)

Although our morning session wasn't scheduled until 8:00 a.m. I was up early (before my roommates) and stepped out the door of the room before 7:00 a.m.  Here was my reward from a faithful God:

Wow! To think I would have missed it if I'd slept in just another fifteen minutes.  

I joined the group for the morning session and we started with three songs of praise, "Sovereign, Bless the Lord (10,000 Reasons) and Great is Thy Faithfulness.  Wendy Lyons gave a short testimony and then we were released to three hours of individual prayer.  After the previous night I wasn't worried about the time, but rather anxious to talk and listen to what more God had to say to me.  I decided to spend time exploring the camp; my first stop was at the zipline structure, where I was able to sit quietly.  I opened my Bible to Isaiah 61:1 and began to read the chapter.  Among the verses God spoke to me these words:  

• Fear--I can release my fears because "the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings"
• Trust--I can rest in my creator and Father because I "am the clay and he is the potter."
• Guide--I don't have to find my own way because "the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light"
• Future--I don't have to worry about what will come because "men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him."
• Redeemed--I can believe his promises because I shall be called "thy holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.

Later I found the waterfall prayer garden that was on the map and although there were others praying at that spot, I was able to sit, reflect and listen.

I finished my time thanking God for the opportunity to be in the beautiful place, for reminding me who I was and, more importantly, who I needed to be, for convicting me and calling me into a deeper relationship.  

The retreat ended with a fifteen-minute group testimony time--women simply speaking out a words of praise and thanks to our great God.  I can truly say that the retreat was life-changing for me!  It lived up to it's purpose--a place to experience God.