July Report

We had the wonderful opportunity to spend time with some of our Central family this month. Including my mom! I am truly thankful that Phil Lowery, the Seals, and my family were able to stay in my house during their visit. We are greatly blessed by the baby shower that we received. It made us feel loved and not forgotten.

The first five days of this month were spent with Signal Mountain church of Christ. Della and I worked closely with Austin to visit neighboring schools to promote an ESL / tutoring program. Together we presented the program to four schools and over 600 people. Also a strong curriculum and materials were donated to help teach the program.

Our Central family arrived on the 9^th and worked here for 9 short days. This years’ experience was much different from past years. This was my first time to work with central from this side of the mission field. We spent some time in meetings discussing how to best proceed with the work here. The result of those meetings has brought some big changes this month. We had been struggling to keep up with the work that is available to do here at the expense of important Spanish studies. Della and I both have also had our ups and downs in adjusting to the culture / change in life style. It was decided that it would be best to postpone the ESL / tutoring program.  This was necessary because baby Charlotte will soon be born and I need to have my schedule cleared to study Spanish. I have also postponed teaching all four of the bible classes I had every week.

Since Central left things have not been the same. This is the first time we have lived in the house alone since December. We are eagerly looking forward to the return of our team-mate Lucky (pronounced loo-key) next week. Now that I have the time, I have spent 6+ hours a day studying Spanish and when Lucky gets here she has promised to help me learn even faster. I still attend every bible study that I was teaching and I recognize more Spanish words each time.   

Della and I both received our one year residency and El Salvadorian driver’s licenses. It was a relief to know that we did not have to have any documents retranslated. To get these required another three trips to Santa Ana this month. We even had to go to the doctor and give blood because it is required to have our blood type on the license. 

The church in Ataco is continuing to grow with another baptism last week. While Central was here the church in Ataco suffered a great loss. Maria passed away in a terrible truck accident; she was a mother to many in our congregation and a grandmother to many more. She is truly missed and left a great void.

Our baby’s birth feels more and more imminent by the minute. In our last doctor’s visit she told us that she could see hair on little Charlotte’s head in the ultrasound. Little Charlotte is still in the wrong position (head up) and her time to turn is running out.

Please continue to pray for the church in Ataco, our little Charlotte and Della.

In Christ,
Caleb & Della

7/31/14: Day 151: Della is better!

I Skyped with mom until 8:30 and then studied till 11:00. Della is feeling 10 times better today! At 11:00 I went down to Ahuachapán to pay the internet bill and get some more medicine for Della. I got home at noon and studied again from 2:00 till 4:30. I administered Della’s second injection today and she said it didn’t hurt nearly as bad. Then I went to the bible study in Ataco from 5:30 till 7:00. At the study I recognized several words that I had studied even today that I had not known before. I am super thankful that I have this chance to focus on Spanish. Nothing too special happening today but I need several more days like today if I am gonna get anywhere with Spanish.  

Flower in my backyard

7/30/14: Day 150: Injection

Della broke out with a low grade fever last night so she called the doctor and we are going in at 3:00. Her doctor is normally off today but she is coming in just to meet Della. I studied from Spanish 7 – 11 and then a little more in the afternoon. I am now about 1/3 of the way through chapter 5 of the Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Vocabulary book. We were worried that Della might have something really serious but the doctor quickly diagnosed it as an infection. The doctor said Della will have to have an injection every day in the hip for the next 5 days! She demonstrated for me on a roll of paper towels to teach me the procedure. We hoped that the laboratory in Ataco would be open but when we got there they were already closed. So I administered the injection. This was the first time I had ever given a shot in my life. I am confident that Della will be better soon but she is having a tough time with it for now. I went to get dinner for Della and then I went to the Wednesday night service.  On the way home, I found the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen!

In the face

Biggest I have ever seen!

7/29/14: Day 149: Study Day

Della is to the point where she can’t reach her feet so last night I painted her toenails for her. I decided I needed to structure the time I am spending studying Spanish. The plan is to study straight from 7:00 to 11:00 and then take a break for lunch and such and then resume studying from 1:00 to 4:00. So that should be 7 hours of Spanish a day, which is what I managed today. I learned bunches today. Tomorrow I hope to do the same. After studying all day Della and I watched a movie called Divergent. I thought it was a good movie. There were no surprises but it was clean and packed with lots of action. 

Art

7/28/14: Day 148: We Be Legal

Today was a success! We left the house at 6:40 to go to Santa Ana. On our way we stopped in Ahuachapán to meet my Spanish teacher and get our blood type from the clinic. My teacher wasn’t there so we went on to the immigration office. They were open today and I was able to get my residency! There was one little glitch where they had put an ‘S’ on the end of my passport number. The immigration officer said it must be a mistake and thankfully he said not to worry about it. ‘S’ is not even a number… The officer at the immigration has been the same every time and he is very friendly / helpful. I hope he is still there when mom and dad get here. We then went to the DMV to get our drivers licenses. We had to go through 5 stages to complete the task. The first stage was to hand in the papers which she required us to go make more copies; luckily there was a copier in the building. The second stage was to pay for it. The third stage required a visual test! It felt more like a Spanish test but thankfully I know the alphabet and colors! The second part of the third stage was getting our pictures taken. The fourth stage was the hardest! It was an interview where we had to tell our lives story and list our relatives. The fifth stage was just to wait for card and sign that we have received it. We were done with all of this by 10:00 AM! We were both hungry so we went to the food court in the mall. Della was craving a big mac and they had a special where if you order the big mac combo you can get an extra mac for only 99 cents more. Ordering was a total disaster. They charged us for two meals and an extra mac on one of them. The manager had to come and fix everything and I still didn’t get it with only mayonnaise and ketchup. After lunch we went to the grocery store and then back to home. At 5:00 I went to the small group bible study in Shucutitan. Carlos taught over the first few chapters in Jeremiah. I felt like I understood most of it. It is nice to have this opportunity to focus on listening to learn Spanish better instead of teaching.

Tomorrow I will be studying Spanish all day! 

7/27/14: Day 147: Baptism

The power went out last night and it kept me from sleeping well. We spent the morning cleaning the house. Then we had church at 9:00 and at 10:00 all the teens came back to the house for Carlos to teach. There was a new guy that was friends with one of the teens that was interested in getting some help on C++. I told him that I could help him any day except for tomorrow. Tomorrow we are going to go to get our blood type and turn it into the DMV so we can get our license. When we finished teen class we went back to the church building and witnessed a baptism. I studied Spanish off and on throughout the afternoon and then had second service from 4:00 till 6:00. Osvaldo was there but he sounded like he had a sinus problem. We are planning to leave early tomorrow so we will hopefully be going to bed early too. 

Our new brother in Christ

7/26/14: Day 146: Practice Makes Perfect

It was a quiet day. I got through another chapter of the Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Vocabulary book. I have gotten through a chapter a day for the past three days… I have got to keep it up. At lunch we went out to pay the utility bill but they were on their two hour lunch break. At 4:00 Della taught the ladies class in Spanish at Rachel’s house. When she came home I cooked spaghetti and we watched the animated movie Atlantis in Spanish.  

7/25/14: Day 145: Never in 1 trip

Della and I couldn’t sleep so we out of bed at 5:00. We left the house at 7:30 to go to Santa Ana (1.2 hour drive). Our mission for the day was ambitious; we hoped to get my residency and our El Salvadorian driver’s licenses. Our first stop was the immigration office where we encountered a guard that told us that it was closed for the day. So we went on to the DMV and they told us we had to have a notarized copy of our U.S. license (which we knew we needed) and a note from the doctor with association stamp stating our blood type (which we didn’t know we needed). So on the way home we stopped in Ahuachapán for the same lawyer that did our residency papers. He made the copies and notarized them. Then he told us that there was a clinic nearby. We drove around in circles for 15 minutes and finally found a clinic that looked like it would work but I am sure it is not the one the lawyer had tried to direct us to. They took our blood and said we could come back Monday to get the results. Today was 2 for 1 day at the pizza place so we grabbed lunch and then went back home. I spent the rest of the day intermittently studying Spanish.

7/24/14: Day 144: She’s Got Hair

I spent the morning studying Spanish. We had grilled cheeses for lunch. Linda arrived at 1:00 and we all went to see the baby doctor. We secured our place in line and then a brother from the church came to meet us. He showed us how to get to the hospital where our baby will be born! We went in and they gave us a tour; it looks like a nice place. Then we went back and waited in for our turn until 4:00. The doctor said that our baby needed to turn to get into position in the next four weeks or it will be a breech. If she does not get into position Della will have to have a C-Section… Please pray for baby Charlotte to stand on her head soon! Everything else was good news. The doctor even said she saw hair on the baby’s head on the ultrasound. We are super excited because our baby is going to join us on the outside in about two months! 

The hospital where we will meet Charlotte!

Check out her Nariz!

7/23/14: Day 143: Bird Bomb

We waited and waited but no one knocked on our door to tell us they were going to breakfast. At 8:10 we decided to go knock on their doors and see what was going on. No one answered so we went on. When we got there everyone else was already almost done so we ate alone. They said they didn’t want to bother us because we had the “Do Not Disturb” hanger on the door. We had forgotten to take it down from not wanting the room service bothering us yesterday. Then we walked out to the pool and one of the workers approached Hector with some sells pitch. He and Rachel left to hear the pitch. At 11:50 Della and I were hungry so we went to knock on their doors. Rachel was back but she said Hector was still there listening. We all walked together and waited for the restaurant to open. Check Out was at 1:00 so we all ate as fast as we could. Hector showed up just as we were finishing and we all checked out just in the nick of time. When they cut our armbands off it felt as if we were being released from boot camp. The birds had totally bombed my car over the past four days. On the way home we drove through Sonsonate for our first trip to the grocery store in three weeks.  We got home at 3:00 and then went to Wednesday night church from 5:30 to 7:00. 

Crabs the kids caught

Birds

7/22/14: Day 142: Prenatal Massage

Carlos knocked on my door at 7:00 and said it was time to make reservations. The two of us went to the desk and had no problems getting the restaurant we wanted. The Cortez family wanted the Steak House but Carlos’ family wanted the Fusion Mediterranean. I knew Della was a seafood fan so I decided to go with Carlos family. Then we went back to the rooms to get everyone for breakfast. At 12:00 Della was hungry so we went to lunch. Della scheduled a prenatal message for 2:00 and I called to see what everyone was up to. At 2:40 I got a knock on the door saying they were going down to the pool to watch the kids play. Della joined us at 3:00 and we got bored and went back to the hotel room. At 6:15 we met Carlos and Linda for a wonderful dinner at the Fusion Mediterranean restaurant. Della even dressed up for the occasion. We finished eating at 8:00 and walked to a dance show that was near our building. The show was risqué so we left. There was a wind storm and it blew over several of the wood umbrellas. 

I took this picture!

Side of the hotel

Salt pool

7/21/14: Day 141: All Inclusive

We woke up at 5:30 but had to wait till 8:00 for breakfast. This was our first time to be around a TV since we left the States so we watched a bit. There was a channel that played CSI and the like in English all day. I felt a good bit better and managed to eat a few pancakes at breakfast. After breakfast we walked over to the beach. I dug a big hole in the sand and got in it. Carlos decided to take advantage of the situation and turn me into a mermaid. I protested that I should be a merman but I didn’t have much choice in the matter.

This was my first time to be at an All Inclusive Resort. The cost to get in included food / drinks anytime you want, nightly entertainment, and access to pools. It is kind of like a cruise, it even has excursions you can pay extra for. Breakfast and lunch are buffets and dinner is a nice meal with a waiter if you make it to reserve your spot in time. If you don’t make reservations for dinner it is a buffet just like breakfast and lunch.

So after playing in the sand a bit we went over to make our reservations. It was about 10:30 AM and they told us they were already full, that we had no choice but to eat at the buffet. They told us “better luck tomorrow and be there to make reservations at 7:00 AM. Carlos, Hector, and I talked for a bit and then met up with everyone else to have lunch. After eating, everyone went their separate ways to take an afternoon nap. When I nap I sleep for 30 minutes, tops, and then I can’t go back to sleep. So I woke up and walked around exploring the resort. I caught some good pictures of an iguana and I saw that the tide was out so I walked around on the rocks. Della called wondering where I was just as I was walking back to the room. I was hungry from the walking so Della went with me to get a burger. After I ate Della and I went over and sat in lounge chairs. We had only been sitting for a moment when two girls came up to us and struck up a conversation. They both spoke English and we talked for over an hour. One of the girls was strikingly like our teammate Lucky. She was Guatemalan like Lucky, had food habits like Lucky, acted like Lucky, bilingual like Lucky, and lived in California like Lucky. They told some amazing stories and said they were here for a big religious convention. We parted ways when it came time for dinner and we never saw them again.

Della and I met back up with everyone for dinner. It already feels like all we do here is eat. We all walked to the buffet restaurant together but there was some construction blocking the walkway. So the entire group went one way and Hector and one of his kids went the other. Rachel found a table for us and we look all over but couldn’t find Hector anywhere. Rachel asked me to call him but he didn’t answer. After about 15 minutes he called me back and said he was on the second floor and almost done eating. We walked back to our rooms. There was a beautiful lightning storm and Della and I watched from our balcony for a while. 

Mermaid Caleb

View out the balcony

Della on the beech!

7/20/14: Day 140: No Seafood

Hector called Della and me up front during service to explain to the congregation that I was not going to be leading the teens and small group studies for the next several months to focus on Spanish. The church commended us for “making it” over the past five months and said that they all understood. Then Hector interpreted for me to say a few words. When church let out we went out for lunch, the last meal that we should have to eat out for a while. Della got soup at the Coffee House and then I walked down to the town center to get some street food. I ordered camarón (shrimp) but I wanted chicharrón (pork). The words sounded similar so I mixed them up. When I got my food I realized my mistake but I made the bad decision to eat it anyway. At 3:00 we went to a remembrance gathering for Maria and I felt rather queasy. By the time it was over I was nauseous. We went to the gas station and I spent some time in the grass out back. Della drove to the resort while I tried to hold it all in. When we got there I tried to sit with Della while she ate but I had to go back to the hotel room and I did not come out again for the rest of the night. 

7/19/14: Day 139: Postponed ESL

We enjoyed a relaxing morning and I caught up on most of my TO DO list. At 11:15 I went to Apaneca to get Samuel. We met Della at a nearby restaurant and placed our orders. We are out of food at the house and tomorrow we are leaving for our team building vacation that will last till Wednesday. Then Samuel and I went on to the church building to turn ESL students away; explaining that the classes are postponed. Della brought the lunch and we all ate together at the church building. We sat there for two hours and had 11 people come by to sign up. I don’t know if an announcement was made at the schools or not; we told the teachers last Thursday.  At 2:00 we decided to leave a sign on the door in case anyone else came and then I took Samuel to a sister’s house that Osvaldo’s family was visiting. I got home at 2:30 and Della took the car to go to the ladies bible study. She came back 10 minutes later saying that she had looked at the clock wrong because it started at 4:00 not 3:00. At 3:45 she left again and she said Linda (Carlos’ wife) led the study and Della was signed up to teach next week. 

Normal cars with lots of stickers = Super HP

7/18/14: Day 138: Goodbye

Hector arrived right on time to get Brad, Jen and Phil and their luggage. I took Della, mom, and Clifton and their luggage down to the hotel. From there we followed the bus all the way to the airport. The bus got stopped by the police but they only kept them for a moment. I enjoyed my last chance to visit with Clifton and mom. At the airport we all said our goodbyes and it took a lot less time than I hoped. Samuel had ridden the bus with everyone else but he rode with us back. We went to Taco Bell and got lunch and then got a mattress for the baby in the mall. Then we took Della to Walmart and Samuel and I went took the car to change the oil and fix the air conditioner. The mechanic drove us back to Walmart and we hung out there while we waited. They had started working on the car at 12:30 so we took a taxi back to the car at 2:00. They had finished the repairs and offered a free car wash. So we stood there and waited till 3:00 while they gave it a thorough washing inside and out. We had hoped to get some paper work done in Santa Ana with the residency and driver’s license but those offices closed at 4:00. So we grabbed some lunch and then went to the mall in Santa Ana to get a bouncy chair for baby Charlotte. We got home at 5:30 and went to bed. I woke up after a couple of hours and at 10:30 I called to find that Central had arrived home safely. 

Auburn shirts for Rodney

We will miss you Brad and Jenifer!

7/17/14: Day 137: Last Work Day

Bradly has been out for four days so he said he had to be there for the last day regardless of how he felt. Della decided it was best for her to stay home again. I went to move the car out of the garage and discovered that I had a flat tire! Bradley called the bus to ask them to wait and I put on the spare tire. When we got to the bus I traded out all my passengers for Fernando and Enrique so they could help me get the tire patched. Fernando guided us to a place that cost $2.00 and only took 5 minutes. We ended up beating the bus to the church in Turin. We had sandwiches for breakfast and Phil led the morning devotional. Wendy set up shop and cut my hair along with several other peoples. I was so sleepy that I dozed off while getting my hair cut. The hair cut made us start a bit later than the others so we went to the one study we had pre-arranged Wednesday but they wouldn’t answer the door. So we walked on to the park and I spent a bit of time talking to mom about the papers needed for residency. At lunch we ran out of water so we were all buying cokes from the store across the street.  During the afternoon I went with several others and ate ice cream and visited. It was super-hot in the ice cream shop and they guys were talking about unconditional love and I said my love was air-conditional! Jajaja! I met Herson at the park when I got back and introduced him to several of my friends. Jim taught the lesson and someone I didn’t know interpreted. We got back to the hotel around 7:00 and had our last group devotional. I said a few words to the group and Jennifer tried to make me cry by shedding a few tears herself. The Youth in Action group gave a presentation to show all the activities they had accomplished with the funds they received last year. They apparently caught a picture of me a sleeping at one of the rallies; it was a good laugh. We ended around 8:30 but it felt like it was 2:00 in morning.  When we got home everyone packed. 

Fixen my flat

Wendy giving James a haircut

David's son Joseph

Final stage of construction

Out for ice cream

Group Picture!

7/16/14: Day 136: Ataco Wednesday

Brad was still out but he is on the mend. We all drove straight to the church and had pancakes for breakfast. Then mom and I rode on the back of Noé’s truck to go to a bible study. We studied with a lady that we met on Monday. The study lasted for an hour with her and Mom remembered her from two years ago. She claimed to believe but didn’t want to go to the church. Mom kept pointing out scriptures and pleading with her until she finally relented. We were very happy and all hugged. Then we walked around the corner and had another one hour study with the lady we studied with yesterday. Mom managed to get through both of these without the need for an interpreter. Then we went back to the church and ate lunch. Then I took Matt and David to the hotel and on our way a giant lizard ran out in the road! I had no time to avoid it. David tried to console me but I was inconsolable.  At the hotel we checked on Nathan and then went on to Ataco to my house. We checked on Bradley and gave him medicine. Then we went to each of the three schools to meet with the directors and tell them our plans for the ESL program being postponed. We also stopped by Pedro’s house (one built by the Signal Mountain group last week) and prayed with him. Then we went back to Ataco and had a skype meeting with Rodney. We ate dinner across the street at the pupusaria and then went to church in Ataco. Hector brought Jeremy, Phil, Clifton, and mom so I was very happy that they all got to see our friends here. Afterwards Hector told Carlos, Linda (Carlos’ wife), and I about an opportunity to have a team building vacation. It is nice to be home by 7:15. 

Construction Progress

Matt got coconut bag

Dinner in Ataco with David, Matt, Brad,  me, and Della

Clifton saying goodbye to Ataco

7/15/14: Day 135: Anniversary & Birthday

Brad was still out but Phil was good. Della, Clifton, mom, Jennifer, Phil and I went to the hotel and then on to Turin. Today we celebrated the anniversary and birthday of the Enrique Pirir and Celia belted out a happy anniversary song. After breakfast, Mom and I rode with Noé to drop off the ESL group and then we studied with a lady that had been a member but was not currently attending. Mom managed to lead just fine without an interpreter; her Spanish is really coming along. Jennifer needed something at the house so she and Della went back to get it and take Brad some cough drops and other meds. Mom and I walked around and knocked on a few more doors but didn’t get to have another study. Then we ate lunch and had a meeting which ended at 3:00. At 4:00 I left to get the ESL group from the school but Noé was already there. We had pupusas for dinner and then I took mom and Della back to Ahuachapán for the leadership meeting. Della and I ran some errands and then came back for the second half of the meeting. We got home at 9:00.

Many prayers went up for the challenges we faced today. The challenges are beyond the scope of this blog. To sum it all up, I am hopeful and relieved. Thank you to all who have kept us in your prayers!

Pirir Family and Hector

James with a bag on his head

VBS games

Jumping Rope

Clifton found a friend!

Mom's Ladies Class

7/14/14: Day 134: Start Turin

Bradley and Phil are not feeling well and Della’s feet are still swollen so they all stayed home. I drove mom, Clifton, and Jennifer straight to the Turin church. We got there at 7:20 and there was no one else there. I was worried that I had gone to the wrong place and I would have to go back to Ahuachapán for breakfast. Thankfully Noé arrived and said this was the right place. We ate pupusas and then we went to the park to split into groups for evangelism. I teamed up with mom and Cilia. We knocked on many doors; we had one bible study and three people said they would attend the gospel meeting. We got back to the park at 11:00 and I joined David for another study that he was in the middle of. We went back to the church and ate rice and chicken for lunch. Then I rode with the ESL group to learn where the school was. Then I joined David, Matt, and Jim for another bible study that lasted nearly two hours. When the study ended it was time to go back and get the ESL. Clifton had found some cool colony of caterpillars so we drove up to take pictures of it. Then we were served eggs, beans, and sausage for dinner. The sausage tasted wonderful and four of the teens said they didn’t want theirs so I had 5 total! Then I took the Leadership group back to Ahuachapán for their classes. Jim talked about elders, David talked about bible study methods, and mom talked about women’s roles in the church. Mom was the only teacher to receive applause from the entire audience.  The leadership classes ended at 8:30. We went by the hotel and picked up Jennifer and Clifton and then went to the grocery store. Della had oatmeal cookies waiting on us when we got home. Bradley and Phil are feeling better. 

Mom and Eva

Matt Loves Coffee!

Nathan teaching ESL

More ESL

Clifton and a ton of caterpillars 

Close up of caterpillars

Jim teaching about elder 

Mom teaching about Women Leadership

7/13/14: Day 133: United Church

Mom lost her glasses so we rode by the store on the way to breakfast but it was closed. I dropped off Bradley, Jen, and Phil at the hotel to walk with the group and drove Della and mom to Pollo Campero. Breakfast was good and filling. At least three people in the group are now having some stomach problems. After breakfast Della, mom, and I went to the dollar general and bought some cheap reading glasses. Then we met at a basketball court for service. There were over 400 people there from five congregations! The congregations that attended were; Ataco, Ahuachapán, Turin, Huntsville and San Rafael which made up nearly half! Mom got to see Caesar for the first time on this mission. Jim taught the sermon with Hector interpreting. After the service the VBS team gave a presentation to all the children. I particularly enjoyed the David and Goliath skit. Then mom and the rest of the leadership team drove our old van for the afternoon. I took Della and Jennifer up the mountain because Della still had swollen feet so she needed to rest. Noé saw us on the way and honked his horn frantically at us, I thought to myself “what’s his problem”, then another random guy on the street made an odd motion and I finally realized I was going the wrong way down a one way street. I got my board games from the house and came back down the mountain to meet with Clifton. We met in the market and walked around for a bit but most things were closed. I figured it was because of the soccer game. It was 2:00 and we hadn’t had lunch so we went to Pollo Campero to eat and watch the game. Germany finally scored 112 minutes in to the game and won 1 to 0.  Clifton and I went back to the hotel and played Tikal with Phil. Clifton managed to win by a decent bit. Everyone was full from the late lunch so they decided to push dinner back. I got a call from mom saying that the leadership group wanted to stop by our house in Ataco to see it so I decided to take Phil and go home to meet them. Della and Jenifer made sushi for their dinner and I decided to skip because I ate too much at lunch. The leadership team arrived at 8:00 and reported that the place they went today was super-hot. Mom said that her shoes were literally melting to the floor and David said that it was over 100 degrees there for sure! Hector said he would bring Clifton and Bradley home because he was on his way to drop off the team so I pulled the car in the garage for the night. We ended up getting a little worried about Clifton and Bradley because it was 10:40 before they got home. Thankfully all was o.k. Clifton and I watched our last One Piece episode together and then we all went to bed.

Five congregations all together

7/12/14: Day 132: Sad Day

Maria passed as a result of the accident last night. 22 people were on the back of the pickup truck when the brakes went out. One child is still in critical condition, Maria passed, and all others have various non-life threating injuries. They were on their way to the funeral for Maria’s mother. It is hard to imagine; Edgardo, Manel, Soila, plus more I don’t know, lost their mom on the way to their grandmother’s funeral. Della and Jennifer decided to stay at the house for the morning. Mom stayed up till 2:00 organizing the leadership class and then at 4:30 she came in and woke up Clifton saying “it is 5:30, time to get up”. She had failed to adjust her alarm so she had only 2 hours of sleep last night. Phil, Clifton, Bradley, and I arrived at the hotel at 7:00. Mom and the others working with the leadership left for Ciudad Real to do the first 4 hour presentation for the day. The rest of us went to eat pancakes for breakfast at the church building. Brandon led the morning devotional thoughts and then I took the construction crew to Turin. Then I came back to the park where the evangelism team was working out from and called Lucky to tell her what had happened with the accident. I joined up with Phil and Osvaldo. We had two good bible studies and managed to schedule another for 2:00. Our team kept busy right up to time for lunch. After spaghetti for lunch we had a bit of time so about 20 from the group walked for 15 minutes to the wonderful ice cream store. Then I took Houston, Clifton, and James up to the house to get Jennifer. They had a big screen set up in the park for the world cup which could be seen from my house. Della decided to stay home and continue resting so we all left to meet up with the VBS group. I retrieved the construction group at 3:30. We had tacos for dinner and then Jeremy led the gospel meeting. Afterwards we loaded all the chairs and took down the canopies. Then Phil and I went back to the church building in Ahuachapán to unload the canopies and chairs. Mom was there at the hotel, still awake after giving two four presentations on two hours of sleep. Her presentations were completely in Spanish because they were short on interpreters. We organized a group of us to go to Shucutitan and show our support for the family by attending the wake for Maria. There was a multitude of people. Some words were said by the sons and we sang for a while. She will be missed because her family made up nearly half the church.

We got home and went to bed by 11:00.

Being Teens

Construction Progress

7/11/14: Day 131: Baptismal Pila

We woke up bright and early again but this time we all had a lot more sleep. We left the house at 6:30 for the hotel to round everyone up. Then we went to the church building and had a hearty breakfast. David gave a brief devotional and then we all went to our jobs. I took the construction crew to Turin and found that there was a group there from Arizona doing VBS / medical mission there. Then I went back to Ahuachapán to find the evangelism group. I didn’t know where they were so I drove around for a bit and just happened to meet Hector driving down the road. He rolled down his window and pointed me in the right direction. When I got there we went from house to house until 10:00. This work was intended to last until 11:45 but we had so many groups that the area was canvased more quickly than expected. We were all still tired so we welcomed the opportunity to rest and we fellowshipped until time for lunch. Della spent this morning working with the ESL group in a school near the Ahuachapán church. After lunch we had a meeting to discuss how to best proceed with our future work here in El Salvador. The summary of the meeting is that Della and I will be scaling back a bit on our responsibilities to focus on the language 100%. Then I dropped mom off at the VBS and did a little last minute invitation passing for the campaign tonight. At 3:30 I left to get the construction crew and met some of the members of the Arizona group. Their leader said that he had been organizing this effort for the past 12 years!  We exchanged cards and then we went back for dinner. We had a visitor that rode back with us that was on her way to Ataco. Jim did the campaign and two people were baptized! Jim had spent some time yesterday and today studying with one of them two and I do not have any information on the other. We put up the chairs and took down the canopies and went back to the church. We all watched the baptisms in the “baptismal pila”. A pila is a sink thing that is commonly used here for washing clothes and dishes. Then we went back to the hotel and spent some time visiting with the central group. Clifton ventured out with the car with a couple of others for a grocery run. At 10:30 we received a call that Maria Olla, the lady that was planning to go to the states, Edgardo’s mom, and several others had been in a serious truck accident. We all earnestly beseeched God regarding this. We got home and finally to bed at just past midnight.   

VBS Day 2

Phil acting as Jesus

Two new brothers in Christ

7/10/14: Day 130: Baby Shower

We woke up at 5:00 am so we had only 3 hours of sleep. I didn’t make it to swap the truck out last night and it turned out that we needed it this morning. We met Hector at the church building in Ataco at 6:30 to load all the chairs and water. Then we all went down the mountain to the hotel and told them to walk to the Ahuachapán church building, 3 blocks away. After breakfast I went to get gas, swap the truck, and take the construction crew to the site in Turin. Then I met up with the evangelism group and passed out invitations for VBS and campaign. I spent most of my time talking with Phil learning of his mission in Russia. We ran out of invitations so I took Della back to the church building. Mom was there working on organizing the VBS materials. Mom and I talked a bit while we waited for lunch. I took Della back home to rest for the rest of the day after lunch.  I snuck in a 20 minute nap and then met everyone at the park. I left at 3:40, in the middle of the VBS, to get the construction crew. Stephany (Kyle Moore’s girlfriend) was there with her dad and they followed us back. We all ate dinner together at the park and then Jim gave the message. He was apparently told that he was not going to be doing any preaching but we were planning to have him on the preaching since the beginning. Fernando was there, this was the first time we have seen him since he had some pretty serious medical troubles. Thankfully he is recovering well. Mom rode with me back to the hotel and Brad gave a 5 minute devotional. We got home about 8:15 and everyone got a chance to unpack their bags. We were blessed with a huge baby shower and we skyped Jordan in. We have received so much more than I even thought possible. We both truly feel loved and remembered!

Mom!!!!!

Start of Construction

Della out with the evangelism group

Resting

VBS

End of Day 1 Construction

Nighttime VBS 

Jim and Hector preaching

Devo at the Hotel

Baby Cards!

Skype Shower!

I Heart Daddy!!!