God is a great God. This morning we worshiped with believers in San Salvador. It was much like our worship services. It was a humbling experience when we were introduced to the congregation. Thanks to the many who are praying for us. We have sensed your prays. We may be here doing the work but without all your prayers our work is in vain.
Julia
p.s. Hello to all those a Sir John Moore.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
WOW!!
We have just returned from seeing three of the sites where we will be building! The ride on the back of the truck was very scary to say the least. Because it is raining the ride was even more eventful. Our driver Wilbur is an amazing young fellow. He is the son of the pastor in whose home we are staying. I prayed all the way there that the Lord would spare us and He is true to His promises. He will guard us and send his angels to take charge over us!!!! The "walk" up to the sites was VERY tricky!!
Not only was it steep and rocky, but the rain made it very slippery as well. Oh did I forget to mention that it was dark on the way down?? Plus the fact that I was wearing my flip flops did not help the situation any. We have very able bodied men who helped us every step of the way. Thank you Golan, Matt, Deve and Pim!! We met the families and were so blessed to have had a time of prayer with them. When we see what they were living in and the size of their families, it makes us realize just how blessed we are.
We met Pastor Ricardo last night and he made it so clear to us that teams of people are such a blessing to the people of El Salvador. He told us that we are providing a blessing to the people which then points them in the direction of God. One old gentleman said that after 21 years of hearing about Jesus, today he had actually seen Him!!! We are labouring for the Lord we can't forget that. It is hard to describe we have already all seen today.
The Church service this morning was amazing. We had translators sit behind us who helped us to understand what the Pastor was preaching on. We were also blessed to be able to have communion with fellow believers. Wow, you would not believe the roller coaster ride we have been on today. I am not ashamed to admit that I have been scared beyond belief, and I just have to keep reminding myself to "Do it afraid!!" You'll appreciate that comment Ann B.
Until the next blog.
Coby
We have just returned from seeing three of the sites where we will be building! The ride on the back of the truck was very scary to say the least. Because it is raining the ride was even more eventful. Our driver Wilbur is an amazing young fellow. He is the son of the pastor in whose home we are staying. I prayed all the way there that the Lord would spare us and He is true to His promises. He will guard us and send his angels to take charge over us!!!! The "walk" up to the sites was VERY tricky!!
Not only was it steep and rocky, but the rain made it very slippery as well. Oh did I forget to mention that it was dark on the way down?? Plus the fact that I was wearing my flip flops did not help the situation any. We have very able bodied men who helped us every step of the way. Thank you Golan, Matt, Deve and Pim!! We met the families and were so blessed to have had a time of prayer with them. When we see what they were living in and the size of their families, it makes us realize just how blessed we are.
We met Pastor Ricardo last night and he made it so clear to us that teams of people are such a blessing to the people of El Salvador. He told us that we are providing a blessing to the people which then points them in the direction of God. One old gentleman said that after 21 years of hearing about Jesus, today he had actually seen Him!!! We are labouring for the Lord we can't forget that. It is hard to describe we have already all seen today.
The Church service this morning was amazing. We had translators sit behind us who helped us to understand what the Pastor was preaching on. We were also blessed to be able to have communion with fellow believers. Wow, you would not believe the roller coaster ride we have been on today. I am not ashamed to admit that I have been scared beyond belief, and I just have to keep reminding myself to "Do it afraid!!" You'll appreciate that comment Ann B.
Until the next blog.
Coby
getting settled and ready for a visit
We have arrived safely at our place of abode for the next five nights! The ride was in a nice mini coach -bus with air conditioning and the driver did a great job of avoiding the many potholes and other dangers on the road. The road was surprisingly not busy, actually - not much traffic, for the most part. We had Pizza-Hut Pizza pockets and bottled water and/or coke (and apples and little candies) in our to-go lunches. The Pizza pockets were great!
We set up our room (maybe 30' x 15', or so) with all our stuff. There are bunk beds for all - with mattresses! There are fans going too, to keep it comfortable.
We are now gathered around in the kitchen (an open area in the centre of the home) and our translator, who just arrived, is translating for our hosts who are introducing themselves now. A very sad story about loss of some dear friends has just been related to us, and we are learning a bit about how they became established here, along with 4 churches that they started. They originally did not have a good welcome here because of their faith in Christ. After 3 months of being here, sent by the church, with no friends, in difficult conditions, his wife wanted to return home. They are still here! We are learning a bit about their grown children, and how they assist as well. We are learning about some of their ministries, including guitar classes, crafts, and celebrating birthdays for about 100 children, and a women's group with about 80 to 100 women, and a meeting every Saturday for Men with testimonials, praying, and sharing together and having coffee and a talk for families. Also a program for men and women ages 40-50 or so and they fix lunch for them and have bible classes with them. They have a football/soccer program. They teach about Jesus and about soccer.
With the help from Canada, they have experienced greater openness to the gospel here from the locals. Because of our efforts, people have a different concept of evangelical Christians now. A lady a while ago asked if they are the kind of Christians who like to fight or what are they? We can share our testimonies with people or pray with people if we feel led to do so by the Lord. The reason the Lord has brought us all here is to share the Love of Christ. People see and respond to the love that we bring.
When the farming project was started, they asked for help from men from the Community and some help twice a week in exchange for a good lunch that is prepared for them. Tough men have seen the love of Christ through us. They would like to be like "real evangelicals". We need to resemble Christ to them.
We are about to decide if we are going to go visit a worksite now - and it is lightly raining now, and darkness seems to be falling soon. It is currently 4:30 and dinner will be at 6:00 PM.
Our pickup truck / cattle truck has just arrived to pick us up. We do need to go to the grocery store (a couple blocks from here) but we want to meet families before we show up tomorrow, if possible. The local shops, we have been advised, should not be trusted to sell us clean water (even if bottled), and we need to get some, and maybe some Gatorade.
We will go to the worksite and then the grocery store. We will then go for diner at 7:00pm. We can munch on our snacks in the meantime....and now we are ready to go! :)
Matt
We set up our room (maybe 30' x 15', or so) with all our stuff. There are bunk beds for all - with mattresses! There are fans going too, to keep it comfortable.
We are now gathered around in the kitchen (an open area in the centre of the home) and our translator, who just arrived, is translating for our hosts who are introducing themselves now. A very sad story about loss of some dear friends has just been related to us, and we are learning a bit about how they became established here, along with 4 churches that they started. They originally did not have a good welcome here because of their faith in Christ. After 3 months of being here, sent by the church, with no friends, in difficult conditions, his wife wanted to return home. They are still here! We are learning a bit about their grown children, and how they assist as well. We are learning about some of their ministries, including guitar classes, crafts, and celebrating birthdays for about 100 children, and a women's group with about 80 to 100 women, and a meeting every Saturday for Men with testimonials, praying, and sharing together and having coffee and a talk for families. Also a program for men and women ages 40-50 or so and they fix lunch for them and have bible classes with them. They have a football/soccer program. They teach about Jesus and about soccer.
With the help from Canada, they have experienced greater openness to the gospel here from the locals. Because of our efforts, people have a different concept of evangelical Christians now. A lady a while ago asked if they are the kind of Christians who like to fight or what are they? We can share our testimonies with people or pray with people if we feel led to do so by the Lord. The reason the Lord has brought us all here is to share the Love of Christ. People see and respond to the love that we bring.
When the farming project was started, they asked for help from men from the Community and some help twice a week in exchange for a good lunch that is prepared for them. Tough men have seen the love of Christ through us. They would like to be like "real evangelicals". We need to resemble Christ to them.
We are about to decide if we are going to go visit a worksite now - and it is lightly raining now, and darkness seems to be falling soon. It is currently 4:30 and dinner will be at 6:00 PM.
Our pickup truck / cattle truck has just arrived to pick us up. We do need to go to the grocery store (a couple blocks from here) but we want to meet families before we show up tomorrow, if possible. The local shops, we have been advised, should not be trusted to sell us clean water (even if bottled), and we need to get some, and maybe some Gatorade.
We will go to the worksite and then the grocery store. We will then go for diner at 7:00pm. We can munch on our snacks in the meantime....and now we are ready to go! :)
Matt
Safe arrival in El Salvador.
We have safely arrived in El Salvador. The flight was smooth and we could see clearly from the airplane the lush green patchwork of fields and we even had a view of a beautiful rainbow from the top of the rainbow!!! We went through Customs and Immigration so smoothly although I had been prepared for difficulty. We got all our medical supplies and donations through without a hitch. The first thing I noticed was the heat and not being able to read the signs. Need to learn Spanish!
The first night we stayed in a nice hotel and I felt guilty because we
stayed in a beautiful hotel with a wonderful bed in preparation for our move to the remote hills of El Salvador today. I'm so excited because I just found out that we are going to be able to have a medical clinic in the village where the people are so poor they cannot even afford a Tylenol for pain and they cannot afford to travel to a doctor or a hospital. There was enough support raised to buy 2 medical kits with $2500.00 worth of medical supplies.
Everyone is packing up now to move to the town of Victoria after we attend a church service in San Salvador which is a city like Sarnia or London, and they are waiting on me so I must go.
Joan
The first night we stayed in a nice hotel and I felt guilty because we
stayed in a beautiful hotel with a wonderful bed in preparation for our move to the remote hills of El Salvador today. I'm so excited because I just found out that we are going to be able to have a medical clinic in the village where the people are so poor they cannot even afford a Tylenol for pain and they cannot afford to travel to a doctor or a hospital. There was enough support raised to buy 2 medical kits with $2500.00 worth of medical supplies.
Everyone is packing up now to move to the town of Victoria after we attend a church service in San Salvador which is a city like Sarnia or London, and they are waiting on me so I must go.
Joan
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