April Report

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 30^th 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!

We are excited that we can focus more on other things for this next month; now that the request for residency has been submitted. Hector and his family are returning to the states next week so I will be preaching with the help of an interpreter until they return. Next week we plan for me to start Spanish classes and Della to start teaching English at the school. 

In Christ,
Caleb & Della

4/30/14: Day 59: Accepted!

Both Della and I couldn’t really sleep last night because of our frustration and despair. I got out of bed at 4:00 and retyped the two documents from the translator. I also noticed that the translator had written Della’s name as Mae Dobbins. We left at 7:00 to get Samuel. We had to take the scenic route to avoid traffic but we arrived at the mall at 10:15. Della stayed at the mall and Samuel and I walked across the street to the lawyer for the translator. The lawyer was not in today but his secretary was in. She said that they are always having to fix this translator’s errors. Thankfully I had emailed myself the papers because the secretary needed to print it on the pre-signed paper. The secretary said she needed to witness Della signing hers so we walked back to the mall to get Della. One of us has to stay at the mall because we parked our van there. Della and Samuel came back shortly with all papers completed. We ate brunch at Taco Bell and Samuel said it was his first time ever. It tasted like we were back in the states. We then left for Santa Ana at 11:20. We met Daniel (Samuel’s brother) and followed him to the immigration office. The officer reviewed the corrections and said they were good! They skimmed through all the other papers and said they would accept them!!! We paid the cashier and then they tried to take my fingerprints and picture. They tried three times to enter my info and each time they hit the save button the computer would pop up a dialog that said something about a MySQL syntax error. By this point it was 1:30 so he told us to go eat lunch and come back in 30 minutes for the tech guy to have time to look at it. We came back at 2:30 and thankfully they had it all fixed. They completed taking my and Della’s info and said our cards would be ready for us to get in 5 days!

Now that the papers are accepted, we have been assured that the expiration date is no longer an issue. If a problem is found with the papers we will be given a new deadline to fix the problem or start over again. The immigration officer told us to expect them to be rejected due to the translator not translating the seals. But there is a chance that they will pass the review. Either way, Glory to God, we will not have to come back to the states to redo our papers anytime soon. Also, we expect that will now have a chance to recover from this process before having to travel to San Salvador again. 

Some cool graffiti on the way to San Salvador 

Some more cool graffiti on the way to San Salvador 

Walmart in San Salvador!

100 year old piles of rocks from cold lava

Our baby is the size of a mango now!

Side view of our baby!

4/29/14: Day 58: More Frustration

We woke up at 5:50 to eat breakfast and do our homework for the team meeting. We arrived at Hector’s house at 7:30 for the meeting. He didn’t ask for any of the home work. We mostly just discussed all the coming teams, when Hector and his family are going to be gone, and how we are going to deal with it. We finished at 8:30 and we all drove back to Ataco. Hector’s family followed us in their van to Ataco to do some quick errands. When they finished they picked Della and I up to go to Santa Ana for the immigration office. We arrived at the office at 10:30 and no one was in line ahead of us. Hector decided to go first so Della and I got our turn at 1:00 ish. The officer argued with us on several papers and finally told us that we needed to not submit our marriage certificate but the translation header stated that it was included in the package. So the officer told us we will have to go back to San Salvador tomorrow and get them to reprint the header page with one line omitted. So to remove one line on a piece of paper we will have to spend another seven hours on the road and who knows how many hours waiting in lines again. In addition to this the officer told us that our translator did a very poor job because she failed to translate the seals. She said that the papers will most likely be rejected at the reviewer’s office but she would allow us to submit them all so that the expiration will not be a problem.   We got home at 4:00 and I am very frustrated. Tomorrow I will have to go to San Salvador for the 5^th time in 10 days. 

Della cooked biscuits with bacon and gravy

4/28/14: Day 57: We Have ALL Papers

Good day! I worked on my lesson of Ruth in the morning. At 8:30 Lucky called Bryan and he said his leg was better and he didn’t need to go to the doctor! God answered that prayer! Della and I left for Sonsonate at 9:30 to get our health certificates. The certificates were there on the desk when we got there and she didn’t charge us anything for them! (We had gotten our certificates long ago but immigration told us they were not good enough because they did not specifically say that we don’t have any infectious diseases.) Then we stopped and got the oil changed for the van. We got home at 11:45 and ate lunch. Hector called and said that he had our passports and police records in hand! God answered that prayer! At 1:30 we left for Ahuachapán to meet the church representative for San Rafael. Everything went well! God answered that prayer! We were so happy we went to the bakery to celebrate with cheese cake. We got back home at 4:00. At 5:00 we left for Shucutitan and I gave the lesson on Ruth with Lucky translating. We finished at 6:50 and then went home. Bryan arrived at 7:30 and Lucky and I studied with him until 9:00. Keep praying for his understandings and that he will desire to read the scriptures we are studying.

Today has gone as well as possible! Glory to God! Please pray that tomorrow goes well when we go to Santa Ana to immigration to submit all our papers!

We have to have these papers accepted before Friday or we will have to go back to the U.S. and start this entire process over again. But none of that matters because I have full confidence in God!

4/27/14: Day 56: Gladis Baptized

Carlos asked if I would lead the Lord’s Supper when I arrived at the church building. Hector said I should do it in Spanish but I told him I needed a translator. After the break we took the teens back to the house and I gave a lesson on Samson. Today we had a visitor in the teen class so they had to show off and didn’t pay much attention. When we got back to the church building a lady named Gladis was about to be baptized! After celebrating, Della and I spent the afternoon resting from all the trips to San Salvador last week. Edgardo came over about 3:00 to pray with us. We had second service at 4:00 and I led the Lord’s Supper again.

Tomorrow, by the grace of God, we hope to have the last of the papers that we need in hand. It will be a busy day with a bit of travel. If we get everything we will turn it all in on Tuesday!

Pray for my friend Bryan who has hurt his leg. He is may be going to the doctor tomorrow.

Gladis (Left) was just baptized!

4/26/14: Day 55: Glory to God

Della, Lucky, and I went to meet the legal representative for the church in Ahuachapán at 9:00. There was some confusion on exactly where to meet but we found each other. We told him all the documents that we needed and he made some copies. He said that he wanted to help us but he needed to meet our team and discuss this with the rest of the church first. Then we went to Claro and managed to give them copies of our electric bills and discuss how inconsistent our internet connection has been. We got back to the house at 11:20. Della and I rested form all our trips to San Salvador this week. Then I worked on the lesson for the teens tomorrow morning. At 4:30 we went to meet Hector at the bus stop and went with him to Ahuachapán. It was exciting to see many familiar faces! We greeted many people. The church of Ahuachapán was in the middle of a campaign. When the campaign session ended we met with six leaders of the church. Hector presented our case and after an hour and a few questions they agreed to sign all our papers!

On the way home Hector said I needed to treat him to some street food for dinner because he was Starvin Marvin!

Today has been a good day! We need to get two more papers on Monday and hopefully we can turn everything in on Tuesday! Pray that this process will be behind us soon and we can focus on more important things!

4/25/14: Day 54: San Salvador Again!

I took a bunch of pictures of all of our documents. We are still missing two pages of translations. After breakfast, Samuel and I walked to the market to get some copies made. Then Della joined us and we left for Santa Ana to find the immigration office. We searched and searched and had to ask three people for help. We finally found it at 11:00. The immigration officer told us that we were missing the Apostil on every document that had to come from the El Salvadorian representative in the U.S. consulate. He also told us that there were other problems with almost every form that we tried to submit. After talking to him for about an hour he made a phone call and decided we didn’t have to have the Apostil. It is crazy how many levels of authentication that are needed. Each of our documents are notarized, certified, and Apostil by the state. He also said that we had to get the missing translations. We decided that we needed to go to San Salvador again today to get them because we are so out of time. We grabbed some lunch and then drove to San Salvador. We got to the translator’s office at 2:00 and waited until 3:30 for the student to arrive.  He wasn’t so nervous this time. We got our last two translations without any more trouble.

At this point, now that I had binders to organize them with Della’s help, I believe that we have all the translations. It has taken more than six return visits to get what they should have given us in the first place! I know that it is my fault for not properly checking that they were all there when I received them… But… It took more than an hour to organize the 100+ lose pages and I did not have any help at all when I received them. It would have been one thing if I could read Spanish, but I couldn’t…

Samuel managed to arrange for us to meet with the church representative in Ahuachapán at 9:00 tomorrow. Samuel decided to stay in San Salvador so Della and I managed to navigate home on our own. We got home at 6:30, exhausted. Going to San Salvador takes about 2.5 hours to get there and another 2.5 hours to get back. Together, Della and I have made three trips this week and I made a trip last Saturday for the teens. It has truly been an exhausting week.

Bryan came over at 7:00 to tell us that he had hurt his leg pretty bad playing soccer. He was limping a lot. I told him that I was too tired to hang out and he said that was O.K. because he was in too much pain. Please pray for his recovery.

Cool Insect

4/24/14: Day 53: Some progress…

Della and I woke up at 2:00 AM and rushed to get ready. We picked up Rachel at 3:00 AM and then headed down to Ahuachapán to get Samuel. On our way to San Salvador we stopped at a gas station and I found my first root beer in El Salvador. Getting to the police station was really confusing. We arrived at 5:15 and there were already two people in line. We parked across the street and Samuel told us to stay in the van until day light for safety. I got out and joined him at 5:45 and there were about 30 people in line. Della and Rachel waited in the van until 7:15. The police station opened at 7:30 with about 90 people waiting in line. Once they opened the doors they squeezed us all in a tight line to pay. Then we went over to a desk where they helped us fill out some forms. Then sat down and played musical chairs until we got to the end of the row. Della went in first to get her picture and finger prints taken. After she finished she stayed in to interpret for me. The officer asked if Della and I were brother and sister… We got through everything smoothly and they told us we would indeed need to come back in five days to pick up our records. We went to Mister Donut for breakfast. Then we walked next door to a book store. I decided it would be good to organize our papers. We knew we were missing at least one from the translator. We bought some binders but they didn’t have the pockets in the front so I decided to return them. Then we walked to another store and Della bought some oil pens for a mother’s day project for the teens. Then we drove to Office Depot to get the binders and page protectors. After that Samuel navigated us to a different translator. The new translator said that all our documents were very poorly translated and she would be surprised if they get accepted. She said that due to the state of our documents she couldn’t do anything and we had to go back to our original translator. Frustrated at the news we went to the old translator to see if she was in her office. Parking was a challenge; I had to have someone guide me and it took 10 minutes. There was no one there when we got to the office. We asked the secretary and he said that the translator had gone to the U.S. He said that there is a student that might be able to help us but he only works from 3:00 until 5:00.  So Samuel called the lawyer and she said she wouldn't be done with our documents until 4:00. So at this point we had four hours to kill. We drove across the street to the mall and checked the theater.  I wanted to watch Captain America but they only had it dubbed. So we ate lunch and walked around the mall for four hours. At 3:00 we arrived at the translator’s office. The student said he spoke English well so I did my best to explain our problem. I apparently spoke too fast and used too many words. Bless his heart. He got nervous and tried to send his boss an urgent email about it. He tried to scan Della’s copy of the document I was missing but he was so nervous that he scanned it upside down. Samuel told him to check the computer for it. He searched and searched and finally I told him what to type and where and it was found right off. We were all happy! He printed it and ran to the lawyer to get it notarized.  We arrived at our lawyer at 4:30. She showed us all the papers she wrote for us and then we got back the translations we left with her. Della and I organized all our translations and found that we were still missing two! At this point it was too late in the day to go back to the translator. We headed home feeling that we had accomplished a lot today but still had a long long road ahead of us. We dropped Rachel off in Apaneca at 8:00 PM. As I got out of the van my cell fell out of my lap and into a puddle. The puddle had some nasty water in it but luckily my phone still worked. I got the address of the immigration department from Hector and then we went home. We got home at 8:30 and Lucky had dinner waiting on us. Samuel is spending the night with us so he can be with us to help us at immigration tomorrow. At this point I believe we would have given up if it had not been for Samuel.

We are completely at the mercy of God.

Waiting at the police station at 5:15 AM

4/23/14: Day 52: Calm Before Storm

Mostly recovered from the stress of yesterday. I spent the morning with Samuel talking and hanging out. Della and I took him back to Osvaldo’s house and then went to the grocery store at 10:40. We came back up to the house and took it easy for the rest afternoon. I studied some Spanish and started on the lesson for the teens for Friday. Then we went to the market and paid the electricity bill. Della and Lucky attended the ladies’ class at 4:00. I joined them at the church building for the Wednesday night service at 5:30. After the service was over I went to the market again to get ice for the trip to San Salvador tomorrow.

We are driving to Apaneca tomorrow to pick Rachael up at 3:00 AM, Then at 3:30 we are going to Osvaldo’s to get Samuel. We plan to be in San Salvador by 5:30 AM. Please keep our safety and success in your prayers! 

4/22/14: Day 51: Worse than expected

Got a call from Hector last night saying that all the paperwork for the representative for the churches of Christ in El Salvador had expired. And there is no telling how long it will be until it is renewed. Hector suggested that we go on and try to turn everything that we have. So we left on time to go to San Salvador and we picked up Samuel on the way. Our first stop was a lawyer who was a sister in the church. Samuel and I had to make several trips across the street to make copies of various papers. As we were going through our papers we realized that my police record translation was absent. We have had a lot of trouble with the translator. Lucky tried to call the translator but no answer… So we left all of our papers with the lawyer and went to the office of the translator. She was of course not there and they said she was not going to be there today. I guess she is taking and extended extended government holiday. We then ate lunch at the mall and killed an hour because Samuel said everyone was on lunch break. Hector called and told us to meet him at the police station to get the records for here. On our way over he called again telling us more bad news. He said that the police station had already closed because there more than 800 people in line. He said we needed to be there at 5:00 AM to get a good spot in line and then after you get through all of that you have to come back again in 5 business days to wait through the line a second time to pick it up. Disheartened, we turned around and went to the mall where we believed the visa extension office was for Lucky. This mall had a complicated parking garage and we went the wrong way a few times. When we got to the information desk the officer told us it was at a different mall. When we got to the third mall we found the passport office and 300 or so people in line. We asked if this was the right place and they told us no, the extension office was in a different mall. We decided to go back home because it was getting late in the day and we were apparently going to have to make more trips to San Salvador soon. When we got home we checked all the expirations for our papers and decided that the chances of completing our application before the deadline are about zero. We called Hector and he said that we need to go back to San Salvador leaving the house at 3:00 AM on Thursday to make the request for our El Salvador police records, then we need to get the papers back from the lawyer and just submit to the immigration office what we have. The entire process of getting the visas has been super frustrating. At this point we are considering all our options.

Samuel spent the night with us. Bryan came over too so the three of us played Power Grid. Samuel and Bryan said they loved it.

Samuel is a true servant, he said that it was no problem for him to go with us at 3:00 AM on Thursday to help us try to get all this done.

Please keep this in your prayers.

4/21/14: Day 50: Government Holiday

Woke up at 5:30 and studied the maps to get to the mall in San Salvador. Hector called at 6:15 and said I had to have the letter written for the visa request ready now. I wrote it up in English and Della and Lucky translated it. Every time I printed, Della or Lucky found something to correct and I had to reprint four times.  We left a bit late and Lucky asked if she could ride with Tomás. We were almost to Sonsonate when Hector called again and said that everything that we needed was still closed for Easter. All the retail stores are open but the Government always gets an extra holiday. I immediately tried to call Samuel but I couldn’t reach him. I called Osvaldo and he said Samuel had already gotten on the bus. Then Della managed to get Tomás to pull over. We said our good byes to Tomás and parted ways. We decided to go to Ahuachapán to get groceries and flea medication.  We got back home at 10:30 and I worked on a lesson on Deborah and rested a bit.  I managed to get in touch with Samuel and I told him I was sorry for standing him up and he kept saying it is O.K., that he really wants to help us. We are now planning to go to San Salvador tomorrow to make these connections and get our paper work completed. It feels like we have a lot left to do and there is a real danger that we may not be able to get it all done.

Please pray that God will work wonders for getting the paperwork completed tomorrow.

We had more people than ever at the small group tonight, more than twenty adults. The lesson went well and seemed well received. Some of the people who came were not Christians, people that we have been working with. We are excited and encouraged about this!

4/20/14: Day 49: Tomás

I woke up at 5:30 AM to have access to the internet, it pretty much only works from 5:30 to 6:30 every day.  After I finished with the internet I read some of the book of Judges. Lucky cooked breakfast at 8:00 and we left for the church building at 8:30. Paolo led the singing and several others prayed. Some of the contacts we made Friday were with us this morning! At the break Della and I went back to the house to teach the teens on the book of Joshua and Tomás stayed and preached. The lesson for the teens went well; a couple of the girls took notes. Della explained that it was important to clean up after yourself and not spit seeds in the floor like they did Friday night. When service ended we had to go out to eat again because we were still out of food. We tried a new restaurant but when we say the prices on the menu we decided to try another. We found the best for the price yet. It had a beautiful garden that we ate in and Della and I ate fresh Lasagna. Hector arrived shortly after we got back to the house. He talked to Tomás for hours while I finished reading the book of Judges. After they finished talking I managed to get a little more information about the visas. He said he would have Rachel check the requirements when he got home since we didn’t have internet. Hector preached the second service and then he wanted to take Tomás out for dinner so we tagged along. When we got home Tomás and his kids watched the Lego movie. Bryan came over and we worked on folding an origami flying Hercules beetle. We worked on it until 9:00 and then he had to go home. Rachel called and said that after reading the requirements for the visa we now have to find the registered person of the churches of Christ for El Salvador and get several things from him in addition to other stuff. I am beginning to wonder if we are going to make it on the visa. We have to have everything submitted by the end of next week or we will have to come back to the states. Please pray about this!

Tomorrow Della, Lucky, and I are traveling to San Salvador to work on the Visa.

Tuesday night Lucky and I are going to study with him about the Holy Spirit.  

4/19/14: Day 48: 600+ Youth Rally

Sleep did not happen. The girls were giggling all night long. We out of bed at 4:50 AM and worked on getting ready to go. I packed two coolers full of ice and water bottles and Lucky cooked breakfast. The girls started on their showers at 3:00 AM! Paolo slept well through the night and took his time getting ready because he said Osvaldo would be late to meet us in Ahuachapán. I started loading the van to encourage Paolo to hurry up. While I was loading another teen (Fernando) came running up to join us! All ten of loaded into the van but Lucky made us get out for a group picture. We arrived at Ahuachapán at 6:15 and Osvaldo got there about 6:45. He showed us how to get to the youth rally so we decided to forge the path on our own. Paolo navigated like a pro. We made great time and then Paolo said to slow down a bit for Alex. I looked back and Alex looked like he was seconds away from hurling. I slowed way down and somehow Alex held it in. Most of the teens slept the entire way. We got to the rally at 8:00 and had plenty of time to talk and meet new people and eat. It started at 9:00 and Osvaldo’s crew rolled in at 9:10. Osvaldo’s brother Daniel passionately led the rally. Daniel preached three 45 minute lessons!  Samuel (Osvaldo’s other brother) led some songs and asked me to give the closing prayer with him translating. After the prayer many people came up and tried to practice their English with me. There were a few games too; Carry the egg with the spoon in your mouth, hold the match and answer questions until it burns. Javier decided he wanted to play the match game and got a pretty good burn out of it. There were about 600+ teens there from all over El Salvador. Every one of the 300ish girls that were there had on skirts/dresses. It took some encouragement for our teens but I am glad they all listened. The teens slept half the way back and then sang for the other half. They had such a good time singing that they asked if I could take Fernando home first to Apaneca so they could all be together longer. I got home, exhausted, at 6:30. Tomás and his two sons are spending the night. Tomás is preaching here in Ataco tomorrow because Hector is still out with the Puerto Rico group. We had no food left in the house after feeding all the teens so we had to walk to a nearby restaurant.  

Today went really well. I was dreading the drive to San Salvador with 10 people in a van that only holds 7.

Della said that the Pan y Café went really well this morning. They even got to serve the police officers.

Also, our dog now has fleas.

Ataco teens with the team shirts!

4/18/14: Day 47: Puerto Rico

Our hot water for the shower stopped working yesterday so I took it apart today to see if it could be fixed. I found the problem and it could not be fixed so at 10:15 I went to the store to get a new one. It was hard to get to the store because of a massive catholic procession that was going on right in front. There were at least 500 people watching. They had different religious figures on platforms that they kept carrying back and forth bowing them to each other (failed to have my camera with me). I decided that I didn’t have all day so I darted right through the procession. I was able to install the new one without any problem. I got half way through my first shower in three days when the fuse blew because Lucky was taking one at the same time. We ate lunch while Della finished making a poster to advertise free haircuts.  I left to open the church building at 12:05 for the group from Puerto Rico. They arrived at 12:15 and I helped unload the food bags and other supplies that they had brought. They got all setup a bit early so Della decided that she wanted to get the back of her hair cut (the power was out last time). She had three people working on her at one point. I told Lucky that Della should just run away and she said I shouldn’t make fun of her when she is upset about her hair. When they finished she had hair all over her face so she went home to wash off. When she came back, to my surprise, she said she was happy with it! People were served by 26 bags of food (family sized), 30+ haircuts and 36 were seen by the doctor with medicine prescribed. The entrance to the town was closed for a massive procession. I left at 4:00 out the back way to go to Shucutitan to get the teens. The road was so steep that cars were bottomed out and squealing their tires to get out. The van hit pretty hard but I made it with a running start. Edgardo helped me gather 7 teens. One we hoped would come couldn’t. I was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to get back in Ataco but we managed by 6:00. Paolo was waiting at the house when we got back. The teens watched Frozen while Paolo and I worked on an origami scorpion. We ate spaghetti for dinner and ice cream for dessert. We told everyone it was time for bed at 9:30. Paolo was afraid of our dog… afraid of a little puppy. We managed to complete 24 of 99 steps for the scorpions so will have to finish another day.

There are eleven people total spending the night in our house tonight!

Della's free haircut sign

People on left are waiting to see the doctor
People on the right are waiting to get their haircut

Mini Carlos getting his haircut

All of Ataco was this crowded or more!
They are preparing for the procession

4/17/14: Day 46: Dinner Music

Lucky cooked breakfast and then we went out to deliver the rest of the vouchers at 9:30. Lucky lost hers so I had to go home and print new ones. We handed out several for food and doctor consultations but only a few wanted haircuts. We decided to make a sign “Free Hair Cuts”. I will be surprised if we get overwhelmed by people wanting their free haircut. Bryan walked with us the entire morning except for when he stepped in a big pile of dog poo and had to go home and wash it off. We delivered vouchers until 12:00 then we went back to the house for lunch. After lunch, Lucky, Della, and I took the dog for a walk and had ice cream. At 2:30 we went to the church building to help organize for tomorrow. At 3:30 we went to the market to get fruit for snacks tomorrow. Then Linda, and Ava came back home with us. Carlos arrived shortly after with a carton of ice cream for us to store until tomorrow. They all left at 5:00. At 5:30 Della, Lucky, and I went to the small group study for Ataco. I taught a lesson on the defeat at Ai and Lucky translated. We finished at 6:15 and went back to the house. The park square is roped off to allow only foot traffic and there is a lot more people here than usual. Across the street from the house a ]guy set up his music and played until 9:45. Bryan’s mom (Dina) and his brother (Ronald) joined us dinner. We had a wonderful time and I got to learn a little more Spanish. We all enjoyed the music. They left at 9:00.

Tomorrow the clinic/food distribution/haircuts will begin at 2:00 and last until 7:00 and we have more work to do to get ready for it.

Pray that people are reached and that needs are met!

The poor old man is often sitting on the street near our house

Nice family pic

Della eating ice cream

Winnie-the-pooh in El Salvador!!

A random side street packed with busses for the Holy week

The music performer and his devoted fan

4/16/14: Day 45: They love to Stain!

Studied Spanish until 10:00. Then Lucky called for the baby bed delivery and they said they were in the middle of staining it and asked if they could deliver at 3:00. Lucky told them to STOP staining it (We specifically told them NOT to stain it yesterday… ugh). Then Della, Lucky, and I left to deliver some vouchers for Friday. We found four people who needed vouchers for seeing the doctor and five families that needed vouchers. We have twenty vouchers for haircuts, seems like it may be difficult to distribute those. At 11:30 we left for Ahuachapán to find the shirt store. We managed to find it without too much trouble but they gave us the wrong sizes. They are all very small so there is no way Della, Lucky, or I can wear them. We then went to a mattress store and bought toppers for the bunk beds and Lucky’s bed. I was trying to help load when a drunken guy started persistently bothering us. The stupid van back door refuses to work so we had to push all three of the mattresses through the side door over the back seats. It seems there are more drunk people out than usual for Holy week. We went to Ban Ban for lunch. Then after that we dropped Della at the grocery store while Lucky and I went to visit a sister from the church that had fallen and hurt her leg. At hospital, they would only allow one person in at a time so I waited outside with Marixa (Edgardo’s wife) while Lucky went in.  Lucky said that Maria (the lady with the hurt leg) was in a lot of pain but doing O.K. overall. We gave Marixa and her daughter a ride and went back to get Della. It was a challenge to fit the all the groceries in with five passengers and three mattresses. By this time we were running late. We rushed back to the house to unload everything then I rushed to Shucutitan. When I arrived (15 minutes late) all the teens were there waiting. So the van held 10 people on the way back. (I still do not know how it is going to work to have 11 people in the van all the way to San Salvador Saturday). Bryan was waiting at the house to join us. We tried to play Bohnanza but it was difficult with the language barrier. Then we made origami shirts and bunnies. It was exhausting having 10 teens in the house; drinks were being spilled everywhere and I couldn’t figure out who to listen to. Lucky left at 4:00 for the ladies’ class but I told Della that she couldn’t go, that I wouldn’t make it without her. The baby bed was delivered at 4:30 and it didn’t look too bad. They wanted extra for delivery so we had to argue with them with all the teens there. We had pizza delivered from down the street and all the teens loved it. At 5:15 Della escorted the teens to the church while I took Catherine (a teen) and her brother back to their home in Shucutitan. I got gas on the way back and then went to the church building. Service went well; this was the first time Hector was not running it. Hector was out with the Puerto Rico group but arrived late. After service a custom built stove was delivered for the church kitchen. Then Bryan came over again after service. After Lucky finished eating dinner she, Bryan, and I studied the bible until 10:30. The study seemed to go well.

Please keep everything here in your prayers!  

Alex with the new teen shirts

4/15/14: Day 44: First Procession

I finished the public/private key file encryption application I was writing. Then we ate lunch and left for the furniture crafters. Lucky, Della, and I visited several shops to compare prices. We went today because, among other things, we needed more beds for the teens for Friday night. We ended up buying a baby bed, bunk bed, and a table that seats eight. They asked us if we wanted them to stained the table and we told them no and thought they were joking. We then went back to Rachael’s house to get vouchers for the haircuts, medical help, and food that will be distributed by the Puerto Rican group on Friday in Ataco. I left at 2:30 and took the bus back to the house to meet the furniture delivery people. Della and Lucky took the van to have a bible study with the ladies that work during church time. I waited from 3:00 until 5:00 for the delivery. Della and Lucky arrived at the same time as the furniture. Turns out they ignored us and stained the table despite us telling them not too, but Della said she could live with it. The baby bed will not be delivered until tomorrow morning. Outside, they are setting up for holy week processions which close the streets. Thankfully there is a back way to get to the house. Tonight we decided to stop going to the Tuesday night small group studies. This way we can have one night off a week to entertain people for dinner. After dinner Della, Lucky and I watched Frozen. About half way through the parade went by our door so we all stood and watched and took pictures while in our pajamas.

Our table before it was stained

Our table after it was stained

Preparation for the procession

The first Holy week procession in Ataco

4/14/14: Day 43: Della Moods

Used to be, when I worked a traditional job that Mondays were back to the grind day. Now I look forward to being able to be at home at rest on Mondays.

Della woke up in a mood… She decided that she and Lucky were not going to cook anymore for me until I learned to cook…Thoughts on a maid… Hector told us when we arrived that there was a family interested in working for us in this capacity that needed the help. I told him that we were not for it or against it because we hadn’t considered it. I said that we needed to be here for at least two months for us to understand what our budget can support. Now that Lucky is living with us she offered to pay half. Della and Lucky made the point that Della would be more able to make it home and not have to eat out if she knew that food was waiting on her. It has only been 1.5 months. Guess I will be eating peanut butter and honey sandwiches for the next two weeks.

 I worked on lessons from the book Joshua until 11:00. Then Della, Lucky, and I walked to the market and got some blankets and sheets for the spare bed because we were expecting guests tonight. When we got back we got a call saying that our guests couldn’t make it and would wait for a better day.

The other night, Bryan had some questions about baptism. So I worked the rest of the afternoon until 5:00 on reviewing baptism in the bible. At 5:10 we left for Shucutitan and on our way we met Manuel. We crammed his bike into the back of the van and gave him a ride. Lucky translated for me as I taught the lesson. She did well and people had plenty of comments. There were about twenty people that attended the small group study tonight. After the study we visited all the parents of teens that we had time for to ask if they would give permission for their teens to spend the night at our house Friday so we wouldn’t have to get them on Saturday as we are leaving at 6:00 AM for San Salvador.

Bryan was waiting with his brother when we got back to the house. Bryan, Ronald (Bryan’s brother) and I played Carcassonne while Lucky cooked quesadillas for everyone. While we were eating Della found a worm in the avocado! Yummy! Then Lucky and I studied until 9:30 and we had to call it a night. I am hopeful and looking forward to future studies. 

4/13/14: Day 42: Shirt Drama

Last Friday I had the idea that we could have shirts designed for our teen group. Lucky asked about it at teen time and yesterday two of the girls went to Apenaca and Ahuachapán to find the best price.

Today we arrived at the church building at 8:30 and setup the projectors while Hector practiced singing. Teen Fernando was there. He explained that he had overslept last week and I told him I was glad to see him. We had 8 teens for the class and there was a little drama going on about the shirts but we got it cleared up. Class went well, they were all respectful. When we got back to church we saw the end of the graduation ceremony for a family that Carlos had been studying with.

Wendy came over for lunch and to cut Della’s hair after church. I read the book of Joshua and then Lucky and I went to pay the water bill and get more credit my phone. We failed to pay bill because all of Ataco was out of power. The power stayed out for about 2.5 hours. Then Lucky got a chocolate banana and I got chocolate watermelon. I decided the banana was better. Then Della and I went to church for the second service. We got back home at 5:30. Tonight we planned to visit Bryan’s mom so Bryan arrived at 6:00. His mom was sweet and they live in a very humble house probably within 100 feet from our house. They had two kittens and Della played with them. Then Bryan came back over and we played Tetris and then made an easier origami Pegasus. We finished around 9:00 and I went to bed by 9:30.

As of now we have 9 teens that are signed up to go to San Salvador for the rally this Saturday. Our van has no air-conditioning and with adults we will be squeezing 11 people in a 7 passenger! Woot! 

Della getting hair cut by Wendy

Me and Bryan with the new completed Pegasus

4/12/14: Day 41: Café y Pan

We served Café y Pan (bread) at 6:30 AM to people setting up shop and passing by to 100 people. People were reluctant at first to take it but before long we had a crowd. Hector sat in the van with a microphone and speakers on top preaching to everyone. We also handed out flyers that had information about our services. Hopefully there will be a good response tomorrow. When we finished Lucky, Della, and I went to breakfast. They attempted to have an English menu but the translations were funny. The best was “beans fried or unemployed”. We spent too long at breakfast and ended up running a little late for our team meeting. In the meeting we discussed our resources and our overarching goal for the team. We finished at 11:45 and took a quick tour of Hector’s new house in Apenaca. We went home and ate lunch and then Della and I took Lobito for a walk. We found a few new stores that were interesting and met Manuel. After the walk I went to the church building to clean the baptistery (kiddie pool) for 1.5 hours. I left it filling up while Lucky taught the teacher’s class and went back home. At 5:00 I went back to the church because Hector was having trouble contacting Rachael. She was there and everyone was mopping up because the baptistery had overflowed. Then Della, Lucky, and I went for a walk and I got my first frozen chocolate banana. 

Serving Cafe y Pan

Cafe makes people happy

Sweet lady drinking cafe

The baby bump!!!

Della's new poncho

4/11/14: Day 40: Sugar high

Our plans completely changed today. We were planning to go with Rachel to the doctor for Della and then on to San Salvador to try for the police records again. I got a text from Rachel at 6:30 saying that she couldn't make it. Lucky had to be at the church building for the people working on the roof while Hector and Carlos went to the Preacher’s meeting. So Della and I counted up the days until our papers expire (May 5^th). So that will give us two weeks after holy week to get our paperwork submitted. We decided to push our trip to San Salvador off to another day. Della and I left (without a native speaker) for Sonsonate for her tests. We managed to find the office and then went to the Coffee Cup for breakfast. Della was starving because she had to fast for the blood work. They only served sweet pastries for breakfast so we got a good sugar high. We came home and ate lunch. Lucky was finished at the building so Della, Lucky, and I went get groceries in Ahuachapán. While we were there Della got hungry so we had to stop to her a hamburger on the way home. Della decided she needed to stay home and rest so Lucky and I went to Teen Time without her. Teen Time went really well! We had a great turn out (8 teens) and found that potentially 7 of them are planning to go to San Salvador for the youth rally! We had them organize 50 cards that had events on them from Genesis through Numbers. Then we played games until time to go. When we got home Della had finished cooking the chili, it was delicious. I am glad we managed to acquire the only crockpot in El Salvador!

Old Train at Sonsonate

Teens organizing the events

Lucky hugging Yaritza

4/10/14: Day 39: Food Delivery

Woke up at 5:30 AM to finish the lesson for tonight on Deuteronomy. I met Carlos at the church building at 8:30 and we loaded all but one of the bags of food into the van. I then went back to the house to get Della and we went to Shucutitan and some nearby areas to deliver the food (See pics). The bags were rather heavy and in one place there was a big scary dog. We finished delivering the food at 11:30 and Della and I went home to eat. I finished the lesson while Della and Lucky went out for lunch. Carlos arrived at 2:00 and we went to the outskirts of Ataco to meet some new contacts for when the Puerto Rico mission group will be working in Ataco on the 18^th. Carlos and I worked one side of the street while Della and Lucky worked the other.  We finished about 3:30 with several new contacts and a few bible studies lined up for the future. Then Della and I went home while Carlos and Lucky went to another bible study. At 5:00 I went to the church building and got the last bag of food and took it to the small group study for Carlos and Lucky to deliver nearby. The small group study lasted until 6:45 and then we all talked until 7:00. We all ate chicken cooked in the crockpot for dinner and then Bryan came over and we set up a time to meet the rest of his family and finished the origami Pegasus.

Things to pray about / concerns:

• Tomorrow: Della has baby tests in Sonsonate
• Only one teen so far has committed to the youth rally in San Salvador for the 19^th

Fernando delivering food

Carlos and Fernando delivering food

Della holding a baby!

Cool looking cow

Me and Bryan with our completed Origami Pegasus

Pan shot on the path to deliver some food

4/9/14: Day 38: Biggest tree I've seen!

The wind was crazy last night! It blew over some trees near Hector and blew away the church sign.

Della, Lucky, and I left for Sonsonate at 8:30 AM to meet the OBGYN’s mom (Maria). She was in the office waiting on us when we arrived. Maria led us through town to the market to get fish for Della. Maria’s sister worked in the market so we waited with her while Maria and Lucky went to buy the fish for a better price. The market was pretty amazing and so was the smell. There was crawling crabs, meat hanging everywhere, and dogs running this way and that. They bought six fish. On the way back to the office, we offered Maria a ride back to her house and she accepted. When we arrived she invited us in to visit for a bit. She had a beautiful house. She had two cats and they tried to get at the fish while we talked. Her husband managed to give Della and Lucky directions for navigating to insurance company. I was hopeful that my life insurance policy was ready but it turned out to only be that the car insurance was. They said it would be another week or so until the results from the doctors were in for the life insurance. We then drove back up the mountain along the route de las flores (Route of flowers) and we stopped at an artisan furniture shop. We checked prices on baby beds and tables. We continued on our way and stopped at a huge tree for photos. The tree is the biggest tree I have ever seen in person! We then drove Apenca central and then went home. For lunch Lucky cooked fried hotdogs for me and fish for her and Della. She said it was her first time to ever cook fish, they looked amazing and I don’t even like fish. Hector arrived at the house to get the last of his furniture so we now have our complete garage back! We plan to start keeping the dog there when we are gone. We were all tired because the wind kept us up last night so we took a quick nap. Della and Lucky went to the ladies’ class at 4:00 and I left for Wednesday night service at 5:15. At service Manuel sold us a new bottle of honey.

Tonight I am working on the lesson for tomorrow night because Carlos and I are going to deliver the food we got yesterday tomorrow morning.

Fish at the market in Sonsonate

Artisan baby bed that we like

I look like an ant! Crazy big tree! 

Lucky sitting in the tree

Fried hot dogs! Look at all that mayonnaise & ketchup! 

Fish for Della!

4/8/14: Day 37: Fail to get Police Records

Carlos met us at the bus stop at 7:10 and we arrived at Hector’s house for the team meeting at 7:30. The meeting was about the schedule for the week and a little bit of next week.

Meeting highlights / upcoming events to pray about
· April 19^th - Youth in Action rally in San Salvador (7 hours of driving)
· April 14^th – April 22^nd A mission group from Puerto Rico will be working in El Salvador with us
· April 18^th – The Puerto Rico mission group will be working in Ataco!
· April 14^th – April 20^nd Holy week! Basically Easter is celebrated all week long.

Holy week is a really big deal here. Hector said that April 18^th -20^th Ataco is basically locked down. He said it took him two hours last year to drive from Ataco to Ahuachapán which is normally a 30 minute drive. The youth rally is probably going to be a nightmare of traffic in a suffocating hot van. Hector challenged each of us to make ten new contacts by next Tuesday for the Puerto Rico mission group to work with. This will be a major challenge for me… with the language barrier and all.

After the meeting, Carlos, Lucky, Della, and I followed Hector and his family to Santa Ana. Our first stop was the police station to get our records for the visa. When we got there they told us “Nice try but you will have to go to San Salvador” (My paraphrase of what they said in Spanish). So we went on to Vidrí to pick up the sofa we bought almost two weeks ago. At Vidrí we also bought a computer chair. I just told Della that I hate this char… Hate that I didn’t have it sooner ;p. We then went to the mall for Lucky to go to the bank. While she was in the bank, Della and I went to Siman and found the only crockpot in El Salvador. It was expensive so I didn’t really want to buy it but when Lucky met us she said she would pay some. We bought the crockpot and then went to the food court for lunch. After lunch we drove back to Ahuachapán to get food bags to help some families in need. While Carlos and I were getting the food, Della and Lucky went to Ban Ban for a snack. We then went to the church building to unload the food. We got back to the house at 2:30 and Della and Lucky left to teach a ladies’ class. I waited for Hector to come get his furniture. I finally called at 3:40 to ask if he was going to make it and he said not today. I was a bit dehydrated so I laid down for a few minutes then left for the small group study at 5:00. I met Della there and she said that her lesson went really well and several of the women from the study came to the small group tonight! After the study Della, Lucky, and I went to the Pupusaria for dinner.

This week and next should be exciting!