El Salvador 2012

El Salvador Day 1, July 16, 2012 Monday

This is the first time I have been the one to leave Della since the dating days. I erased everything from the camera memory card and Della took the card and put it into the laptop so I had a camera with no card! The Burns family came to our house and Della drove us to the church building at 8:15 AM. We left the building headed for Atlanta around 9:20 AM.

Group picture at Central

We ate lunch at Burger King in Rome, Ga. I had the Bacon Sunday for desert! I ate with Daniel Rigney,Mom and Dad and surprisingly I was the only one who decided to enjoy the Bacon Sunday. 

Me about to enjoy bacon!

After lunch I walked to Radio Shack and bought a new 4 GB memory card for only $14. Turns out I made too big a deal about it with Della. I tried to make an origami unicorn but it turned into something obscene, we all had a good laugh about it and Mary Beth called it a pornihorn. At dinner, after giving thanks for our meal, a guy named Mo came over and introduced himself as a brother in Christ. Mo said he had just finished his mission trip with five others. He said an amazing prayer for us and for the success of our efforts and then he left. Then I played No Thanks with Joel, Bradley, Daniel, and Christopher and Christopher won. Then I played Carcassonne with Bradley and I won. Our flight left Atlanta at 9:00 PM which was 2 hours late. We were only in Fort Lauderdale for 10 minutes as we all ran to the next airplane to make it to El Salvador. I sat in the window seat next to Mom and Dad. Mom said she saw Santa Clause at the Atlanta airport. I really wish Della had been able to make it to go on this trip, I miss her already.

El Salvador Day 2, July 17, 2012 Tuesday

We arrived in San Salvador at 2:00 AM. Warner and Alejandro were there to meet us. We had a big yellow school bus pick us up. We arrived at the hotel at 4:30 AM and I slept pretty well till 9:00 AM.

How David Nance's daughter arrived

Christopher is my roommate. After breakfast we helped with getting VBS stuff ready then we got in the bus to go to the school where the VBS was to be held. Alejandro was there and I was able to give him the Origami book Fantasy Creatures. He was grateful and his mom said he still had the origami we had made together last year. I met Samuel there, who is Osvaldo’s brother. Samuel spoke English well and said he would be with us all week! Then we went to Turin about 1:40 PM. There I met Osvaldo and we divided into teams for door knocking. Jamie and Christopher got Samuel, Stewart and David got Osvaldo and I got Noé who has been the preacher for Turin for the past 18years. Noé and I went to have a study with Elsa at her house. There I attempted to go over the study of Romans reading the Spanish parts. Then I even tried to pray in Spanish. Noé seemed to politely indicate that I did a terrible job with my Spanish. When we got back in Noé’s truck he turned on the radio and turned on his audio English lessons he had been listening to. It was amazing to realize how sincerely they have been working to prepare for us.  We then went and had two more bible studies before heading back to the church building. Fernando was there! I rode with Fernando to get dinner and a lady who had helped prepare our dinner gave me a plastic bag of coconut juice.

Bag of cocounut juice

It tasted great. I ate pupusas for dinner with Jeremy, Jim, Matt Bender, and Lisa Burgess. I helped with the night time VBS which Mom was in charge of. I could tell that she was super tired from traveling. VBS went well, we played “match the picture” and “lead the blind”. 

I had to wear a costume which was a sack with the 7^th day of creation painted on it and I got really hot. Mom did a subtractive picture of removing the black from the color. As we worked with the children they taught us the colors in Spanish. A sick boy showed up with his mom who asked for some help for her to get medicine. We got back to the hotel around 8:30 PM. It was raining and every time it thundered a car alarm went off.  

El Salvador Day 3, July 18, 2012 Wednesday

We ate breakfast at 7:00 AM. Just before breakfast I was informed that Jim Norville had a kidney stone and had to return to the North America. Jamie said “1 down and 40 more to go” and as he was speaking his chair slowly broke under him. It was very funny. We left for Turin about 8:00 AM. We dropped off the construction people and then continued to the VBS location. Rachael Cortez was out for the day so VBS had to have extras from construction. We got to Turin about 10:00 AM. Herson was there waiting for us! And his family! I teamed up with Herson and Mom and Dad teamed up with Herson’s Dad. Herson and I studied with lady named Marisa. After that we studied with a man named Roberto. He talked about how he could not read and his struggles. Then we went back and waited for lunch. Lunch was chicken and rice.

Lunch

After lunch a lady came to the church and Noé said she would was on the verge of deciding to be baptized, and that he had been studying with her for a while. David and Matt Bender studied with her and she was baptized. At the same time Stewart,  Osvaldo and I went out and studied with a man named George. While we were studying my chair broke. I bought a purse and a hammock he had made. The study was good and after the study I tried to write down his name a Horhey and Osvaldo said I should have known how to spell it since it was a North American name. I thought “I never met anyone named Horhey”, later I found out that we pronounce that name “George”… I am so bad at Spanish. Then we went to a house where a young couple lived, the guy loved soccer. They shared that they had not been to church for the past 6 years. We studied with them and told them how they were missed. Then we went and bought some cookies to take to the VBS group. When we got to the school where VBS was we met Osvaldo’s wife Lucy and two kids David and Edwardo.

Osvaldo, his wife Lucy and two sons

Then we left for Turin again to have the night time worship. Matt Bender led it and we had two visitors as a result of the door knocking. Then we had breakfast food for dinner! We got back to the hotel around 8:00 PM. Nathan fell out of the chair Jamie broke earlier. Then I played Carcassonne with Bradley, Tim Moore, Joseph and Michael Nance. Bradley won that game.  Time for bed!

Finished game of Carcassonne

El Salvador Day 4, July 19, 2012 Thursday

Today Stewart and I teamed up with Osvaldo at El Refugio. We studied with a young man named Xavier who worked at a bicycle shop. Xavier said he went to the church of Joshua and then he placed his hand over his heat and said that he was the only one in his family that believed, and that he was all alone. We studied and prayed and he asked us if we could come back again later. We continued down the street and met a woman named Silvia. She said her husband left her 3 years ago. We told her about how we the church are the bride of Christ and how he would not leave her. She was taking care of two young children and her mom. She cried as she talked and when we took her name and address we discovered that she was Xavier’s mother! After studying with Silvia we went back to the church building to get a ride to lunch.

Stewart playing with a bird

Dad was at the church and he was encouraged by how the studies he had been a part of had gone. Lunch was at a house of one of the members of the church. While we were waiting I visited with Joyce (Tim Moore’s mom) a good bit. She told me a story about how when Tim was young he had a dog that he didn’t take very good care of so she gave it away and she let Tim think for many years that he had killed it by starvation . After lunch Stewart,  Osvaldo, and I went out again and we prayed with a woman who was 76 years old. As we prayed she broke down in tears with the passion of her prayers. Then we studied with a man named Nelson and his mom. We studied with them about how there was one baptism Ephesians 4:4 and that they needed to watch out for false teachers Romans 16:17 and that we needed to be in the word daily. Then it was time for evening church which was held in the central park of El Refugio. Laura Cooper and Jenna Burgess got on stage with Stewart to help lead the singing.

Service at El Refugio

After the service we met a North American who had retired and moved here. He said he had been here since 2000 and that he was the only North American in this area he knew of. His name was Roger Brown.  He rode everywhere on his bike and called himself Roger the Dodger. Then we went back to the church building and a man told the mission committee members that were there about his vision for a new church. He had an amazing detailed model of the new building he was proposing. The model was made completely out of Styrofoam. After that we went back to the hotel and got some sleep.

Styrofoam model of church

El Salvador Day 5, July 20, 2012 Friday

Today is the last day in El Refugio. Herson, Daniel and I went out door knocking. We had one long study with three ladies. They had lots of questions about infant baptism. Then we handed out some invitations and headed back to the church building. There I gave Herson an origami bug and taught him how to play Carcassonne. Then we went to the city park and handed our more invitations. After lunch Keegan, David, Osvaldo and I went out door knocking. We studied with an older lady who could not see to read but was a believer so we read to her for a while and offered her encouragement. Then we went on to another lady named Catalina and discussed infant baptism with her. Then we went out to purchase some water and I started to feel sick so I skipped dinner. Dad reported that he and Mom had had a great day but that they had to hear a pig get killed while they were visiting at one house.

Slaughtered pig

Dad, Cesar, and Mom

El Salvador Day 6, July 21, 2012 Saturday

Today I didn’t feel well so I stayed at the hotel until 11:00. I then went to lunch but didn’t feel up to eating much. After that Hector took us on a tour of Sana Ana! We got to tour the university and see the computer lab, see the town square and go to the grocery store.

Matt Ashburn

Computer lab at University in Santa Ana

El Salvador Day 7, July 22, 2012 Sunday

It is the last full day here. I felt a lot better today. After Sunday service Hector requested that dad, mom and I go to the store to get stuff for VBS. After getting the supplies we went out door knocking with a lady from the church, mom, dad, Matt Bender and I in Ciudad Real. We had two studies. Then we went to a study with Warner and they studied a lot about baptism. Then Warner went back to the church and we went on to another long study that dad led and Matt translated. Then we went back to the church building and all the people of El Salvador in the church gave a heart felt good bye for us and they had made us all cloth embroiders. It poured rain the entire time which made it difficult to hear. Then we went back to the hotel and many people from our group emotionally shared their experiences and how they had grown during the trip. 

Construction of church building at Ciudad Real

El Salvador Day 8, July 23, 2012 Tuesday

Woke up a little early to pack and sort my stuff. Breakfast was about the same as usual. We then went to drop off the VBS at a big school near Turin. I carried a big bag of dirt and got my shirt dirty which was the shirt I was going to wear on the flight home. We got to Turin around 9:15 AM and Stewart, Osvaldo and I set off to study with George. This was the first return study I had had and the difference was amazing. We studied and he shared that he was in a custody battle for his daughter and he knew that it would be good for him to rejoin the church. We talked a lot and prayed. It was then time for lunch so we headed back to the church building. We got back and Mom and Dad were studying with the people next door to the church so Stewart , Osvaldo  I joined in on it. They had a lot of questions about the Sabbath, anniversaries and birthdays.  While we were studying a huge 3 ft long lizard came running right through the center of the group and into the stone bathroom.

Cool lizard!

Noé and Me

We were out of time so we grabbed lunch to go and headed back to the hotel. At the hotel I had already finished packing so I taught Samuel how to play Carcassonne with Michael and Joseph. We didn’t have time for a complete game. I bought a coffee mug at the hotel that had a bug at the bottom.

Then we drove to the mall and spent 4 hours there.  The mall was pretty uneventful, I got to eat the sausage that I had had last year and had some ice cream and Cinnabon. 

There are tarantulas here!

Dad, Mom, Cesar, Eliza

Samuel, Samuel's Mom and Dad, Eliza, Cesar 

I met Cesar (Mom and dad’s translator) and his wife to be (Samuel’s sister) and Samuel’s parents.  Irene stayed with me mom and dad while we shopped and we went through the furniture stores and dad looked at the prices. Rodney, David, and a few others went the church for the people who had built the Styrofoam model. We got to the airport and sat and talked and stuff. The airplane was delayed till 2:00 AM. We finally got to Florida around 5:00 AM and had to run like crazy to get through immigration but they held the airplane for us. Luckily it was the same plane we arrived in. The row we (me, mom, and dad) were supposed to sit in on the way back was broken so we had to find other seats. We got to Atlanta and Della was there!!!!! Wonderful! On the way home we ate at Arby’s and John drove like a maniac, he blamed the GPS. I got home around 3:00 PM and then went to celebrate Christina’s birthday. I finally got to sleep at 9:00 PM. What a long day!

How David Nance's daughter left