Caleb & Della: 3/16/14: Day 14: Brisa Baptized!

Woke up at 6:00 ate cereal for breakfast and then took a shower. I then worked to ensure that I had the prayer memorized and worked on origami to calm my nerves. We arrived at the church building at 8:00 and greeted everyone and I also got the projectors setup. Just before service began Brisa (Hector’s oldest) came up and told us that she was going to get baptized today! I managed to remember all the words to the prayer but I was not loud enough and I failed to have “in Jesus’ Name” at the end so no one realized the prayer was over when I finished. Then Della and I went to the teen class and Carlos taught about Moses and how he used his staff to perform the signs (Exodus 4) and how we should use our talents and what we are good at. When he finished his lesson we all rushed out just in time to see Brisa coming up out of the water. Brisa was the first one to use the new pool baptistery but hopefully there will be more very soon! Hector’s dad and grandmother were visiting and his house was getting sprayed to combat the insects so we all went out to lunch. We finished lunch at 12:40 and Lucky, Della, and I walked around a bit. We went into an art store that had amazing paintings. The paintings were so vivid and intricate, when I looked in the back I saw the artist working. We talked to him and he said that all his paintings were of real places here in El Salvador. We studied them more and then as we were leaving some ladies asked if they could take my picture. I tried to resist but they insisted and Della and Lucky thought it was hilarious. Then we found a guy selling tables and I bought two and carried them back to the house. We arrived at the house at 1:15 and we visited with Lucky for a bit. At 1:30 I got a call from Hector saying that it was time for another team meeting.

During the meeting we all told what we had accomplished this week and then Hector outlined what we needed to do for this week. This week is going to be super stressful. The car Hector had has broken down and we are all now having to take the slow crowded dangerous busses everywhere. Tomorrow is our rest day so we are going to be on the bus for three hours to somehow get groceries for the week. We will also have small group studies from 5:30 – 7:30 every night this week. I have got to prepare lessons for the teens and Della will have to translate for Friday and Sunday. Tuesday, Hector and I, will be leaving at 4:30 AM to ride the bus for seven hours to get to San Salvador to push our paper work through to the next step. Wednesday and Thursday should hopefully be normal days with evangelism in the morning and small groups in the evening. Friday we are hoping to shadow the teachers in the public school here in Ataco to learn how their ESL classes work. During the meeting Wendy (Paolo’s mom) cut my hair! The meeting ended at 3:58 leaving us with two minutes to run to the church building for evening services.

For the evening service Hector had me repeat the same prayer. I think it went a little better but still forgot to properly end it… I asked Hector for another chance next week, that I would do better. I haven’t had nearly as much time to study Spanish as I would like. I am going to bed early tonight.

The simplified opening prayer:
Oremos
Gracias Dios por este día y esta oportunidad de escuchar tu mensaje. Por favor, ayúdanos de entender tu palabra.