September Report

Charlotte was born September 12^th with no complications! A day that Della and I will celebrate from now on. We have now been here for seven months and I feel that both Della and I have completely changed. Not just because we are now parents but also in many other ways.  We worked hard to prepare before we moved here, but in many ways we both feel like fish out of water. One of my personal desires was to somehow be in a situation where I completely depend on God. With the birth of Charlotte we have to depend on God, now more than ever.  

The birth of Charlotte was beyond my imagination. We have a wonderful doctor and she took good care us. We arrived at the hospital at 3:00 and basically just waited for two hours. At 5:00 sharp Della was taken into surgery and I was allowed to watch every second of the operation. Our doctor figured I would pass out but I didn’t even blink. The operation only took twenty minutes and Charlotte was born at 5:50. We were all taken care of by the hospital staff and our family in Ataco. We left for home at 5:00 Saturday, barely even 24 hours after birth. Della had a painful recovery for the first week, but she feels much better now. We are still adjusting to Charlotte’s sleep schedule. Your prayers and concerns are felt and we are thankful that our family has grown.

The church of Ataco has continued to grow this month. There have been at least four more baptisms and one that I had the privilege to play a special part in! Lucky, our teammate, has been working with the ladies of the youth group and studying the bible with them. Last Friday, Carla decided to unite to Christ through baptism and I was given the opportunity to do the dunking and even ask her confession in Spanish. As a church, we have now completed reading over the entire Old Testament. I have managed to continue attending some of the Youth Rallies and helping with the bread and coffee outreach. Also, Samuel Azucena has now committed to working with the new Christians from now until he starts college in January.   

In my spare time I have continued my effort to study Spanish. I read the book of Mark, out loud, in Spanish, to Lucky and she made sure that I pronounced every word correctly. I have handwritten all 501 and most of the conjugations of the 501 Spanish Verbs book. I also entered all of those verbs in to a Java program that I made that applies spelling rules to conjugate the verbs from the infinitive form. Speaking a new language has been one of the most difficult things I have ever tried learned. “The more I know, the more I know I don't know.”

Many wonderful things have happened this month, but we can’t help but look forward to the coming months. During the month of October we will be visited by our moms, my sisters, and brother-in-law. We are also going to start the process for Charlotte’s official birth certificate and passport. Charlotte has made us miss everyone more than ever. We have been gone for such a long time that we plan to come back to the states in early December and stay through January. This also corresponds with the time that my parents are planning their move. So we will be coming back to El Salvador with them; hopefully recharged and ready to serve even better than before.

In Christ,
Caleb, Della & Charlotte