There are parties, dances, and celebrations all over our little town as many people here celebrate the patron saint of San Julian. We aren’t too sure about what it all means, but it seems like for the most part, it might be just another excuse to drink and party. Alcohol is consumed in large quantities here, and there are always drunk men passed out on the sidewalk here and there. In the midst of all the festivities,just yesterday, a young man from San Julian, well-known about town, was shot and killed, along with two other men. The three men were working on a bus that runs from San Julian to San Salvador. One, a driver, the other two were his helpers. At a stop on the highway, three armed gang members got on the bus, and robbed everyone, then killed the three men. We happened to drive by the site of this tragedy not long after it happened on our way into San Salvador yesterday. There were news media, police, and many people milling around the area, and at the time, we didn’t know what had happened. Not until we arrived home later in the evening, and Janeth and Hiram told us. In fact, the young man, Carlos Bondilla, was a friend of theirs, as well as a friend of Jaime’s. Apparently, this young man had walked away from the Lord and many people had tried to encourage him to come back to Jesus. Jaime tells me that he would see him in the streets, and he would plead with him to come to Jesus. Carlos would always say, “maybe tomorrow.” Janeth said that just Wednesday, one day before he was killed, she was talking to him and asking him to give his life to Jesus. But, he said, “not today.” What a tragedy! And San Julian goes on partying….how it must grieve the heart of God. El Salvador, El Salvador, how I longed to gather you under my wings, like a mother hen gathers her chicks, but you would not come…



Please pray for El Salvador, for San Julian…for the lives of these men who are consumed by alcohol…the people who are so far from the Lord in their hearts, who turn their backs on their creator…and in one moment, after the flash of a gun, they stand before Him. Pray God gives us wisdom, love and courage to reach out to these lost souls.

Give Thanks to the Lord, for He is GOOD!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! I hope that your day is being spent with a heart full of gratitude to our Lord for the abundance of blessings that He has poured out on us. As I set here today, (as always, in front of a fan!) I am thinking back over the past 10 months, since we moved to El Salvador, and I am giving thanks to God for His goodness, faithfulness and His constant love and presence. We have seen His hand in our lives, over and over, placing just the right people in our path at just the right time. He has ministered to our hearts in times of need, with His perfect timing. This has been a very challenging year. But, as He promised, He has never left us, or forsaken us.

Since the last post, in September, there is so much to tell. So, I will do it in short blurbs...and with pictures.

In September, I was able to take an excursion to Guatemala to visit my dear friend, Susy Ayala, who is living in Antigua, Guatemala, doing translation work for the YWAM base there. It was great to be able to see her at work, and visit the beautiful, ancient city of Antigua, which is almost 500 years old! It was actually cold there. I slept under blankets and a comforter! I haven't done that since we moved here...only a sheet! It was nice and cozy! My favorite part was visiting a coffee plantation and seeing how they operate. I had a REALLY good cup of coffee!!!


(My friend Susy translating at the YWAM base.)


(Yes, those are coffee beans!!!)






In October, a group of pastors from San Julian, their wives and families, were invited to spend the day at the beach, by a sweet pastor from Acajutla.

He has connections through his church to a lovely home on the beach. Upon our arrival we had a special service together. Then the rest of the day was spent fellowshipping, swimming, and eating lunch together. It was a wondelful and restful time together with the pastors.



I have to admit that my favorite part of the day was getting to hold and play with a precious, fat, adorable baby girl, who is the grand-daughter of our dear friend, Pastor Eduardo. She is about 8 months old, and reminded me so much of my grand-daugher, Brooklyn. We played in the pool with her, and had a jolly time! Jonah and Maddie enjoyed playing with some sweet children that day.

Fall 2010 Pastors Conference

In September, we had another Pastors Conference here in San Julian. The theme of this conference was, “Ministry of Reconciliation”. Our speakers for the conference were Pastor Daniel Gettemy and Jeff Pursley from Vancouver, Washington, and Pastor Terry Gray from El Paso, Texas. Kathy and our friend, Jorge, led worship for the event. Our friend Jorge Compos, who has translated for us for the past few conferences, translated for us again. Jaime, who has been a great help to us since we began here, and Elmer, our Spanish tutor, also helped us with translating. We invited pastors and leaders of San Julian and the surrounding villages to come to the three day event. 2 Corinthians 5:18 says “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” The conference focused on what that means as pastors and leaders and how we can apply it in the areas of our relationship to God, our family and our church.
The response from the conference was great. In the following city wide pastors meeting, several pastors said that the conference was great and that they have been using the teaching they received in their churches. One pastor said that he used the teaching to work with three people in his church that needed reconciliation. Another has been sharing the teaching at his church and said that two people in his church have been reconciled in relationship as a result. One pastor shared that in the three years that he has been a pastor, he had never seen God speak that way and the message has been a real encouragement to his church. Another said that it was a blessing to his church to see him put into practice the things he was taught. I was very touched by the response and pray that we can continue to be a blessing to the churches here. We had a lunch for the pastors at the end of the last day. A friend of ours, Josue Cisco, who is a chef, cooked up a delicious meal, and Daniel, Jeff, Terry, Jaime, Kathy, Jorge, Jonah, Maddie , Lindsay (Terry’s daughter), and myself served the pastors their meal. The pastors were very blessed. One pastor commented later that he was moved by our serving. It made him realize that as a pastor he not only needs to preach, but to serve the people God has given him to pastor as well.
In addition, Pastors Daniel, Terry and Jeff had the opportunity to teach the word of God in various churches in the area. Pastor Terry’s daughter, Lindsay, was a very special surprise guest for Maddie. She and Maddie have been friends since we lived in Juarez, Mexico. Our family often had the opportunity to fellowship at their church in El Paso, Texas. Lindsay, Maddie and Jonah all thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent together. We put together a little slide show. We apologize for the low quality of the video. We are praying that God will provide us with a better video recorder….hope you enjoy it!

The town of San Julian

We are planning to change the picture in our title banner soon. But before we do, I just want to let you know, if you haven't figured it out already, that this picture is of the town of San Julian. It was taken by us from the mountains just to the west of the town. If you look at the little white spot just below the "e" in "borders", that is our home.

It's Raining Crabs?

Moving to a tropical country, it was not surprising to us that we would see a lot of rain. We have had some amazing rain showers since the rainy season began in May. Of course, we got off to a great start when tropical storm Agatha blew through. We live on the slope of a hill and our street becomes a river (a very brown river) when it rains hard. During Agatha, it rained so hard and fast that the water was pushing boulders up to a foot in diameter down our street.

What we did not expect was to have a certain crustacean find its way into our house. And, not just once, but twice. The first time, Jonah and Maddie discovered our cat Daisy playing with something on the floor of our living room. At first, they thought it was a bat and were screaming to get it away from the cat. The thing managed to get away from Daisy and it scrambled into the garage to hide. At first, we couldn’t find it. But, because of Jonah’s persistent searching, we discovered, hiding under a shelf behind some boxes, a crab. It was about 5 inches in diameter, and ready for a fight! We all screeched and laughed with surprise! It was the last thing we thought we would find scurrying around our house!
I tried to capture the crab, but it kept moving around under the van so I couldn’t get to it. Finally, I had to give up and hope it found it’s way out of the garage. Kathy was a little nervous to get up at night to use the restroom! (There is no door to close between the house and garage, it’s just open.) Well, by morning it was gone.
Now, if that was not strange enough, a couple of weeks later, while Kathy was doing some school work with Jonah and Maddie on the couch, Jonah looked up towards the sliding glass door and said “Oh Wow, what is that?” At first, we all thought he saw something scary, like a huge spider. He pointed to the top of the sliding door, and upon closer inspection, we realized that sitting on the ledge was a crab.



As you look at the picture, I know the first question that came to your mind was “How in the world did that crab get up there?” Ours too! The last we knew, crabs can’t walk up walls or glass. So, the only thing that we could figure is that we left the door open because it was very humid after the heavy rain we had the night before. Possibly, the crab wandered into the house, tried to get out through the back door, climbed up the screen to the ledge above and got stuck there.


When it finally stop raining I got a broom handle and tried to knock him into a bucket. He instead grabbed the handle and hung on for dear life. Once I got him into the bucket, Jonah, Maddie and I went down to the river to let him go. We just never know what to expect here in San Julian.

For the past couple of months, Jonah and Maddie have been involved with a small group of young people from our little fellowship here in San Julian, (Josue’ Iglesia Cristiana), going out to the community in San Julian, and around about in other small pueblos doing evangelistic outreaches with skits, dramas, preaching, clown ministry, and the like. It has been a great opportunity for Jonah and Maddie to get involved with the community here in San Julian, to use the Spanish they have been learning, to make friends, and to really stretch them personally. They have gone out on the streets, they have gone to a little church up in a small village in the mountain area, they have gone to a forest clearing next to a river, where there is a sweet couple reaching out to a very poor community of children. Here, they took their skits, clowns, and the Word of God to share with the children for a little fiesta this couple was putting on for the children. David and I have been blessed to tag along and watch our little team work together. We are kind of like the team mom and dad! What a diversity of young people in our group. From young men, like Miguelito and Nahun, in their late teens, who are on fire for the Lord, to little guys like Fernando, Yeni, Jonah and Maddie, who are spreading their wings and testing their faith on the streets. Pastor Oscar and his wife Monica, lead our troupe, and do a great job inspiring the kids! Oscar and Monica met while they were serving at Youth with a Mission in San Salvador some years ago. Both of them learned clowning and drama outreach there, and really have a great passion to reach children. Monica is now expecting her first child, coming up in September…so her clown outfit won’t fit her for much longer!! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy…please pray for our outreach team. Especially pray that Jonah and Maddie will grow and thrive in their personal walk with the Lord. Keep praying for Spanish acquisition as well. They are doing very well, really understanding a lot…a few times, they have had to interpret something for ME when I didn’t understand! Ha!!

Jonah, Pastor Oscar and Javier performing a skit




It's getting ready to rain on us...notice the big, dark, looming cloud





That's Jonah as the grim reaper...waiting for his opportunity to reap this man's soul to hell, but, he ends up getting saved and thrwarting Satan's plans.


from left: Nahum, Miguelito, Jonah, Pastor Oscar, Monica, Maddie and Javier

The other day, David had the opportunity to teach in one of the churches here in San Julian. If you remember our friend, Jaime…it is the church he attends. Jaime was going to translate for David. Well, David studied hard all week, and the Sunday came for him to preach…we walked down the street to the church and were warmly greeted by Pastor Jorge Rivera. (Hiram’s dad) We were there a few minutes early, and started looking for Jaime…but he was no where to be found. Church started, and David was getting a little anxious, “Where is Jaime?” David decided to try and call him. No answer. The church service began, with a time of worship. At this point, David decided to run down to Jaime's house…literally, run…but no Jaime. What he did discover though, from some friends who live with him, was that Jaime was at the beach. “Oh, great!” As David was running back to the church, he thought, “Now, what am I going to do? Who can I think of that lives in town, and would be able to translate for me right NOW?” The only person he could think of, was our Spanish teacher, Elmer. Now, I don’t know if I have introduced you to Elmer or not. Elmer is a handsome young man, of 20 years. He lives in San Julian, but attends the university in San Salvador, studying languages, with a view to teach. He is sweet, cheerful and intelligent. Elmer is a cousin of Jaime’s. When we were looking for a language teacher, Jaime told us about Elmer, and brought him over to meet us. We decided right then and there to hire him, and on his way out the door, after Elmer had already gone, Jaime said, “You know, Elmer doesn’t know the Lord. So, I’m counting on you guys to share Jesus with him.” (Jaime had done this too, but, wanted reinforcements!) Now, we had been meeting with Elmer for just 3-4 weeks, but we knew that Elmer was raised in a Catholic family. Generally, persons here in San Julian, who are raised Catholic, are taught that it would be a very bad thing to even step foot into a Protestant church. But, David knew no one else he could call on at that moment. So, he thought, “I’m just going to ask.” He called Elmer as he was booking back to the church. He told Elmer the situation, and he said, “Okay, I can do that.” So, David waited outside the church for Elmer and in they walked to the front of the church to sit next to me, as the people were worshipping the Lord. I was more than mildly surprised to see Elmer…and when I put two and two together, I realized that Elmer was going to translate for David. I literally laughed out loud! (Not that anyone could here me…Latin Americans like their sound systems cranked to capacity!) Here was this unsaved young man, getting ready to preach the gospel! I could tell he was very nervous…and so I picked up my Bible, (Spanish/English) and turned to James 1, the passage David was preaching from, and handed it to him, pointing to the passage. I whispered to him, “I’ll be praying for you!” And he smiled and nodded nervously. Also, keep in mind that everyone in San Julian knows everyone else. So, I am sure that the people in the congregation were all questions when they saw Elmer go up to the pulpit with David. Jaime had previously informed us that Elmer had quite the reputation with the girls. So, I looked around behind us, to see the reaction of the people in the service. Question marks on every face…yet, also tenderness and compassion. Elmer had already lost the place in the Bible I had marked for him, in James. So, after David had introduced himself and Elmer, and explained why Jaime wasn’t translating….he said, “Please turn to the book of James with me.” Elmer looked at David, and said, “James?” David looked at Elmer…”yes, James.” Silence….David starts to think….”he doesn’t know books of the Bible…oh, boy…” David says, “Santiago…” And helps him locate it. This was the beginning of a very interesting service. I have to say that I was delighted. I sat there thinking, “Wow, Lord, you have a great sense of humor! Here is Elmer...a young man whom you love. You brought him here and he is not only hearing the Word of Life, he is speaking it out..." Elmer struggled with Christian concepts, like what it means to be ‘godly’. How does one translate concepts he has never heard, nor understood? I knew that some of the translation was a bit off, but not enough to hinder the teaching. I saw people in the crowd literally leaning forward in their seats, as if in encouragement to Elmer when he struggled with a concept, or to find a book of the Bible. A few times, people in the congregation actually helped him with words when he was at a loss…and they were smiling at him. Elmer seemed to loosen up, and actually began to laugh at himself a bit. When all was said and done, the Word was preached and one young man, living for himself, separate from the God who loves him, heard the Word of God preached from his own mouth. THAT, my friends, is a God thing…
“So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it will accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:11