By the grace
of God, our visa requests have been submitted! There were many challenges in
this process that challenged Della and I in keeping optimistic attitudes. We
spent a lot of time driving to and from San Salvador and Santa Ana to gather
all the required paperwork. The most frustrating part of the entire process has
been dealing with the mistakes of the translator. We would not have made it if
it had not been for Samuel Azucena and our teammate Lucky Hernandez. Their
service in this effort was beyond belief. But God has been at work through all
of this! The San Rafael church of Christ in Ahuachapán was the only church able
to legally represent us. The unity of this church has now made a huge step toward
being restored with the rest of the churches of El Salvador because of this. We
are truly in awe that God chose to use this situation to strengthen the unity
of the churches here!
Easter is
celebrated for an entire week in El Salvador. The entire city of Ataco was
locked down Friday for the biggest day of celebration. On that night we had
eight teens stay with us so we could leave early Saturday for San Salvador to
join a large youth rally. We had ten people in a seven passenger van for six
hours! Our teens were fired up about it and sang most of the way back (They
slept on the way because they stayed up all night). We even had team shirts
made for everyone in our group. Holy week was crazy. Sadly, on Sunday the town
was quiet. They celebrate His death more than His resurrection.
Puerto Rico
sent a group of sixteen that came to Ataco for a day to deliver food, haircuts,
and doctor visits. Our team spent a week preparing for them by searching for
the people that needed these services the most. Thirty-five people were seen by
the doctor and forty-eight bags of food were distributed. Some of the contacts
that were made are still visiting us today!
Della and Lucky have started a ladies class to encourage the
sisters who work on Sunday. I have continued teaching the small groups on
Mondays and Thursday sand the teens on Fridays and Sundays. We are also now
serving sweet bread and coffee on the street corner every Saturday.
Della
celebrated her 30th birthday with a wonderful gathering of friends
here. Our baby is doing well. According to the internet she is the size of a
mango! We found a doctor that we are happy with. Our doctor was a great help to
us by signing our health certificates for the visas. We are looking forward to
our next checkup on Monday when the gender will be confirmed. We are all in
good health!
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