Two of my favorite things

Two of my favorite things...one's a new passion, the other is old.

The old one of course is my love of photography. After seeing my first family visitation day here, I knew I wanted to give these kids and their parents photos. They've been so appreciative. The middle picture is of a house mom with her 4-7 year old girls. She was so pleased that some of her girls had photos, that she asked me to take this picture. You may or may not be able to see that the tallest girl in the picture is holding an identical picture to the girl in pink sitting on the floor. These 2 sisters have 2 other siblings here too. The girl standing on the far right and the girl standing on the far left are also sisters. A high percentage of kids here also have siblings here.

My new passion is reading to kids in Spanish, and they seem to eat it up. The idea is a new for me, and it seems to benefit them and me. First I read the simple (very very simple) Bible story to them. And then they each take a turn at reading a page. We all get to enjoy it and if we're not careful, we may even learn something.

These are the same kids as above. Shhhh....don't tell anyone...but they are my favorites. They live in Griffin House and are the boys from age 4-7. Their house mom, Lilly, is outstanding. They're all (except the one boy who's hiding) waving hello to you. They are really enjoying their room which was renovated this summer by a team from the USA in a Noah's Ark theme.

New kids on the block 8-2007

Here's the newest kids at the Home. Pablo was abandoned and bought here by the government when he was 1.5 months old. He's the one enjoying the milk and rocking chair.

Not too much longer we finally obtained legal custody for Michael. I don't know if he has improved significantly in the past few months or if things were made out to be worse than they really were. He's deaf in one ear and nearly deaf in the other. He has BPD (bronchial pulmonary dysplasia) which is common in premature kids. He's currently 3 and the doctors say he's not expected to make it past the age of 7. Based on what I'm seeing, he very well may out live me. He now seldom to never needs oxygen. Prince George Volunteer Rescue Squad (my hometown) donated a portable pulse oximeter that helps us to easily monitor his oxygen status. Thanks PGEC! Michael is in blue and riding piggy back on Violetta.

I'm in the middle picture with most of our "babies" (birth thru 3 years old). Michael's in the very center, sitting on my lap.

On the same day that Michael arrived, the government also called and asked us to take in 4 others. We said no, our hands are full right now. They bought the kids by "just for us see" and of course we kept them. These kids are in the picture on the right. They were found in a shack with the door locked. The neighbors said the mother left days ago and never came back. Nobody knows if she was injured or worse or if she abandoned her 4 kids. The 10 year old girl was raising her 8 yr old brother, 3 year old sister, and 2 yr old baby brother. Wow! I've been really impressed with the character of the 2 oldest kids. The picture above was taken during a church service where we dedicated all the new kids.

We're now at an all time high of 81 kids, and all hands are on deck.

The 2007 Quinceanera

A Quinceanera is a milestone for every young girl. It's a time she invisions and dreams about for years. This ceremony publically marks their transition into womanhood.

Every year here at home, a Quinceanera ceremony is held for any girl that turned 15 (quince) years old during the year. This time honored tradition is celebrated differently all over the Spanish speaking world depedning on your religious beliefs and economic standing. I've seen some ceremonies/parties to include renting out hotel banquet rooms, a DJ, and a sit down meal. I've also heard of a ceremony that simply included a special family meal and well wishes for the girl's future. Here at the Home, the girls don't have a prom. And in some ways, this celebration kind of resembles a mix between a prom and a wedding. All of their family is invited (if there is any). The church is decorated with streamers and paper flowers. The girls wear a fancy formal dress, and are escorted in on the arm of their brother, or significant male staff member into the church while everyone stands in their honor and special music is played. The girls are seated like royalty on the stage of the church. The pastor personalizes a special message. The next set of younger girls stand as a group and read special wishes to the girls and formally present hand made cards to each of them. Then each of the honored 15 year old young ladies have their turn at the microphone to say whatever is on their heart. At the end, their escort gracefully helps them off the stage and out of the church. Then everyone gathers in the cafeteria which has been brightly decorated with streamers, balloons, and a special 3-tier cake. (The cake this year was donated as a gift from the house mothers to the girls.) All enjoyed a nice fried chicken dinner and a time for hugs, well wishes and photos.

Veronica, in the picture above has been special in my heart from the moment I met her. She has such a tender heart. She and her 4 younger siblings arrived here about 4 years ago. Before coming here she hadn't gone to school, so she's now in the 4th grade. In the back of the picture you may be able to see a blond lady...that's Britney. And the guy in the blue shirt is Bobby, her husband. This missionary couple arrived here in Jan.

The other picture includes Don and Roseann Benner with the girls. It really was a nice ceremony and I was so happy that I had the opportuntiy to be a part of it.

My Special Wall

This Special Wall is in my bedroom. I go to this wall when I need to laugh, get encouragement, love, or a long distance hug. This picture was taken on 9-6-07, so it doesn't have some of the more recent cards that have arrived. Of course, you won't be surprised to find the hand drawn picture by "my princess" Haley in the center of this display.

I also have a special basket. In my basket are the precious letters that I've received. They don't display on a wall very well, but I'm quite aware that each letter represents someone equally specail in my life...someone that took a good bit of time and effort to hand write a letter to me.

Thanks so much to each of you who have contributed to my special wall and special basket. I have and will continue to add to the collection as time goes by, and I'll post a photo update sometime in the future. You can find my current address at the top right of my blog page.

Mold....phew wee, stinky!

Remember my Look, Behold, I've got Mold blog entry about a month ago? Well, here 's the evidence...mold on the back of my night stand beside my bed, on the back of a door, on the back of an armoire, and on the inside and outside of my shoe.

Keep in mind that I run my ceiling fans 24/7, as advised, to help with ventilation and prevent mold. And all the growth you see here is only 2 weeks old. I had cleaned these surfaces 2 weeks prior to these pictures, and this is how fast it has grown back. Fortunately, the rains should subside in October and I'm hoping things will improve significantly...although I'm somewhat doubtful due to the tropical heat and humidity that is present year round.

House Photos 9-30-07

This is my front door and living room. Notice that I have a hot water heater...yeah! And also notice that on the far right in my living room I have an armoire (since there are no closets or storage spaces of any kind and there's not enough space for the armoire in my bedroom).

I've got a bunch more pictures on my email update #12 as a Word attachment.

My first book

Wouldn't my folks be proud? I just finished reading my first book....in Spanish that is.

Since I often help in the book warehouse at the book ministry, I see 100s and 100s of books go by. It seems weird to see popular titles go by with familar faces but the title in Spanish. About a week ago I decided that I really wanted to read to the kids, even though it would have to be a really really simple book. They LOVE to be read to, even many of the older kids. So, last Sunday afternoon, I summoned my courage and went to the middle school aged house (the little ones, my first choice, were napping) and asked who wanted to hear a story. I was swamped. I had kids sitting all on top of and around me. The house mom was too afraid to hold my camera, much less take a picture as I had desired. Oh well. Anyhow, I read the book with much animation to about 15 boys and they seemed to really like it. They even asked me to read it again. (I hope that was because they liked it, and not because they couldn't understand me!) Afterwards, I got to go to Griffin house....my absolute favorite place, and read separately to the boys and girls aged 4-7. I don't know who enjoyed it more, me or the others. After I read it through, I had them each take turns and read one page each. Most could read, some better than others of course. Just so you know, my first book was about an elephant that was afraid of the rain. And Noah came by, asking for the elephants help (with the lumbar) to build an arc because a LOT of rain was on the way. Well, you know the story and can figure out the rest. The kids liked seeing the familiar pictures off all the animals going into the arc.

I've also bought a 2nd book, a bit more challenging (with more than 10 thick card board pages), about a fish who's afraid of the dark. The animation is really colorful and cute. I think I'll read it to the kids this weekend. Better start practicing and figure out what it is I'm reading.

The grades of the kids, even our "good" kids have been plummeting badly over the past months. I've not heard anyone offer a reason, except that the school year will be over the first wk of Nov...but this plummet has been going on for awhile. According to some (including the students) it just seems that there's a really bad case of apathy here, particularly with the teenagers. They could basically care less about anything and don't see any relevance to education or really anything else. In general, this culture doesn't value education, and few go beyond primary school. Most do manual labor or work in the markets. Someone sparked an idea in my head though. And I'm wondering if putting good, sound, yet interesting books, in the kids hands will help them reach for more. For example, YWAM has an excellent well written book series on famous leaders (worth following). Maybe reading about people like Nate Saint and Corrie Ten Boom will help them to realize that they need to be prepared to do something with their lives. I know only a few will want to read the books, but based on the "starfish principle" I think I'll try it anyhow. Any other ideas on how to motivate this generation? I know this is prevalent everywhere, but it seems like it may even be worse outside of the USA. All opinions welcome.

Happy Indepence Day- Sept 15

Last Sat was Independence Day here. Most people here work 6 days a week, and therefore many of them got the day off. There were lots of parades which mostly consisted of various schools marching in a parade. Very very few bands but a decent number of drums. (Our school here doesn't have a band either.) I witnesses our students at marching practice very early nearly every morning. And it appeared that the schools had special bulletin boards and did other things to emphasize the importance of the holiday. There were no fireworks that I'm aware of.

Teri, as a way of saying thank you to all the staff and volunteers that helped with the Expo, offered to take everyone to the beach (about 1- 1.5 hr away). Even though they could've chosen any day off to do this, they chose to take this treat on Independence Day so that our Bookstore employees could also attend. I think that says a lot about the employees and the culture Teri has nurtured. So, we all piled into vans and one rented school bus and went to the beach. It was fabulous. The Benner's have a friend who is a doctor and friend of the ministry. He allowed us to use his beach place. It included a large concrete roofed area with picnic tables, hammocks, and sturdy wooden furniture. This was situated right beside a nice in-ground pool and bathhouse. And attached to the eating area, was an enclosed kitchen-like room with 2 refrigerators. We were only a few steps from the beach itself. The water temp was like a bath water. The temp at the beach is always significantly warmer than anywhere else in the country, but that day it wasn't too bad. They played music, ate, swam, and played soccer on the beach, of course. With much labor, 2 guys were able to get the fireplace-like grill ready for me to make burnt offerings. By the way, you can get charcoal here, but there is no lighter fluid that we're aware of. I saw the guys using a bottle that said, "100% alcohol" on it. I guess that helped. We ate hot dogs (with ketchup, mustard, mayo, and cabbage all together on the dog), watermelon, chips, and cookies until we could eat no more. It was a nice day for all areas of that part of the ministry to come together, with their families, and enjoy the day. I know I did.

El Salvador Resident, Debra Skalsky

The process of obtaining an El Salvadoran Residency card has made me about nuts. I started this process by gathering and notarizing a lot of required documents before I even left home. Then 2 days after I arrived, we started the official process here on April 26th. When I got my temporary card, I was told the permanent card would arrive before the temporary one expired in 60 days. Yeah, right. As you may remember, I jumped through major hoops and lost much study time as I had to find a way to get a 90 day extension onto my Visa (since my residency card was about to expire) while I was in Guatemala. And on the very day my temporary residency card expired, the needed Visa extension was done. That was sometime in mid to late July if my memory serves me well. The secretary here kept calling immigration weekly, and was always told that our (including Bobby and Brittney...missionaries in the same boat) cards weren't ready. However, on Tues Oct 11th, we were told our cards were finally ready. We were met by 2 surprises as we entered the immigration dept. Even though we each paid $54 for the temporary card, and I paid $60 for an extension, the permanent card would cost $84 more. Luckily, one of the missionaries had just cashed a check and we borrowed money from her. Only cash was accepted. All in all, the card cost me about $300. Surprise #2, after paying and obtaining a receipt, we were given an appt card to return in one week at 11:30am to obtain our card. Yep...that day was only the day where we paid for the card. I've already warned you to not try to make any logical sense here...it'll only cause you to go bald.

So, yesterday, Wed Sept 19th, we were bounced from one line to the next for about 1.5 hr, but we left with our precious cards in hand. THANK YOU JESUS! We're all officially residents (NOT citizens) of El Salvador now and this will keep us from needing further costly extensions on our visa and will keep us from having to fly out of the country every 90 days. Unfortunately, the card expires in 1 yr, even though I was told it was good for 2 years. And, annoyingly, the card will expire in 1 yr from the date of when some high up person approved our card, which was in mid AUGUST. Therefore our card expires in 11 months. GRRRR! Teri tells me, however, the renewal process isn't bad. We'll see. But in the meanwhile, it's good to have this finally done. I know bunches of you prayed for this at various stages of the game. Thanks so much!

Oh Happy Day!

Do ya know the song, "Oh Happy Day....Oh Happy Day.....When Jesus Washed...My Sins Away"? I particularly like the African Children's Choir version of this song, and the one sung by Whoopi Goldberg (or whomever)in the old movie "Sister Act". Have I lost you? Well, the song plays a part in the day described below.

Last Wed the book ministry rec'd a request from World Vision (the Latin America branch) for 4000 books for Christmas to give out to kids. No prob. The next day, we rec'd another call from the same person at World Vision (WV) saying that they had a grant for $$$ that they'd like to use for order additional books. However, there was a catch. Isn't there always a catch? The money needed to be spend my noon on Saturday (and this was Thursday), and it needed to involve at least 3 publishers (so all the money wasn't spent in one place). They would need the books in hand by Nov 10th so they could use them for Christmas. If they didn't use the grant this year, then they'd never get it again. Therefore they wanted us to call them in 2 hours (1pm) to guarantee that we could (or could not) come through so that they could get another book distribution center to do the work if we couldn't. Now, exactly how much gets done anywhere in the world between 11pm and 1pm....and that's if you can get someone to answer a phone?! Anyhow...are you ready for this? They wanted to order 92,000 books! No joke! They were completely crazy over one of our Christmas books from Zondervan, and wanted 40,000 copies of it. Then they order 2 other books from 2 other publishers to total 92,000 books. Teri about dropped the phone. She called her Zondervan contact, Peter,(luckily, a very good and long time friend), and found him and the #2 guy in meetings in the Dominican Republic for the week. Just so happens, Peter told her, that this book is actually printed in China and the normal turn around time for books from China was 3 months. It's safe to say that essentially nobody ever runs an extra printing of a book, just for one client, but he would call the main Zondervan office and see if there was anything that could be done. However, it was currently the middle of the night in China, and there's no way we'd know anything in 2 hrs. We called WV, and they were determined that no other book would due. They agreed to wait one day, until Friday noon. Calls were made to the other 2 publishers for the other 2 books. All said they'd get back with us tomorrow. We'd really like to put Christian books in the hands of kids via WV, and the $$ would be nice too, particularly after the cost of the Expo. Teri was making all sorts of calls. I told her all I could do was pray. And pray I did.

The next morning....Friday...Teri picked me up and broke the news, with a huge grin on her face. China was indeed going to do a separate printing of the 40,000 books and have it shipped directly here before Nov 10th, guaranteed. This, in and of itself, would more than cover the debt which we incurred with the Expo! I could hardly believe it! We were thrilled! It's so cool to see God do God stuff.

Teri is really into music, and her tastes are extremely varied. Her MP3 player is usually close at hand. On this particular morning, she had the song already picked out and ready to play. You guess it..."Oh Happy Day", done by 3 different artists. We Oh Happy Dayed it all the way to work, and were were humming it even when we left the car.

After lunch, Teri got a call from her primary sales rep at the office. Both other publishers had come through and guaranteed that they could provide the books needed. Plus, one of them was throwing in 20,000 kids Bibles and bunch of other books for free. Yep, we got the music turned back up and we did the Oh Happy Day song for the rest of the day, (even though we didn't leave the office until after 10:30pm.) Teri had a lot to prepare before she would leave on Monday to fly to Columbia for a week of meetings. We were still singing Oh Happy Day all the way home that night, and to be honest, it's still running in my head. I've become rather fond of the song.

God Sightings in September

I enjoy the time that Teri and I have in the car each morning as we go to work. Sometimes she asks me to drive so I can get some experience. The time in the car allows us to get to know each other better. We particularly enjoy sharing our God Sightings….meaning that we tell each other the cool ways we’re seeing God work. Last week we seemed to have at least one God sighting to report each day, and I really want to share them with you too, especially since I know so many of you are praying on my behalf.

One morning Teri was telling me that the school principal had called her the previous day and said she’d really like to get the school painted. It was really beginning to look shabby. Paint just doesn’t last long here. I don’t know if it’s related to the quality of the paint, or the ever present kids (350 in the school). Anyhow, Teri looked over the budget and was sorry to tell her there just wasn’t enough money right now. The next day, Teri ran into one of the pastors of a large church in the city. He said his men’s group wanted to do a service project and was wondering if there was any painting on anything that needed to be done. The painting started on the school last Saturday. Pretty cool, huh?

Another morning Teri was telling me that she was beginning to wonder if she should go to the conference in South Korea. The more I’m with Teri, the more I’m amazed at how many impressive organizations she’s networked with. She’s apparently very well known, even beyond these borders, and well thought of too, but you’ll never here her say that. She’s not at all prideful. I don’t really know (actually don’t remember) what the purpose is of the S. Korea conference, I just know it’s quite large and is drawing ministries from around the world. She’s been asked to organize and coordinate all the registrations for the attendees from Latin America. She has to pay for her airfare, but all other expenses are covered by the S. Korea team. When she travels, her husband Osvaldo almost always goes with her. After looking at the budget, her own and the ministries, she just couldn’t see how there would be enough for her airfare. She said she and Osvaldo had been praying about it, but just wasn’t sensing God’s answer. She said she told the Lord that she felt like there was only money for ½ of the airfare, and she’d need Him to provide the other half. A day or so later, she got a call from one of the conference leader in S. Korea. He wanted to confirm that she would be one of the session speakers. She told the caller about her financial concerns. Not much later he called her back and said that since she had several conference responsibilities, then ½ of her airfare would be covered. Ding! You are the grand prize winner of another God Provision! By the way Teri and Osvaldo leave this Monday Sept 17th for a one week ministry conference in Columbia, and will return in one week on Monday Sept 24th. They’ll have a side trip to the capitol where she and a couple others have been asked to have breakfast with the President of Columbia. How cool! If you think of it, please pray for her during her travel and time away and that all would go well her too.

Another morning Teri was being rather open and transparent with me and telling me of some of her fears. She said that at times she became nearly paralyzed with fear, and it became particularly bad when she herself (not her parents) took control of the book ministry (7 bookstores around the country and a book distribution center) some years ago. She said she had called member of the Board of Directors (and of course her parents) many times to ask for prayer for her fear. And she said that just recently she really been praying a lot about overcoming fear. She and I both know the Bible is loaded with verses that say we shouldn’t fear and that God is on our side and that God does not give fear but instead he gives “the spirit of power, love, and self discipline.” But she says it’s a near constant battle, sometimes worse sometimes not too bad. Anyhow, just after she finished telling me all of the above, I remembered that when I got in the car that morning, I threw in a package that been had delivered by our mail courier service to the Home. She said to open it…a big, white, over-sized envelope from JMM (Joyce Meyer Ministries). Teri and I both enjoy the teachings of Joyce. Are you ready for this? I pulled out a series of teaching CDs from JMM titled, “How to Overcome Fear.” We cracked up! I’m so glad I wasn’t driving! The timing couldn’t have been better if we’d planned it. I reached in to pull out the next thing….two books from JMM re: fear (one a daily devotional). Now we were in hysterics and equally amazed. She said she’d forgotten that she’d order these things a while back. Then I pulled out the last item- a 2008 desk calendar with a daily verse or reminder on how to defeat fear. She guessed the JMM just threw the calendar in for good measure because she didn’t remember ordering it, but was sure glad to have it. It’ll be awhile before I forget that morning’s drive to work, and it’s amazing how much good laughter can do!

Yes, there’s more (and I promise you that all of these are true and happened mostly last week- and some this week).
The low attendance to the Expo certainly caused a sizable financial blow to the part of the ministry that oversees the book stuff. To make matters worse, one organization here about a month before the Expo ordered 1500 bibles from us, and then later cancelled the order. Unfortunately, we’d already ordered and received the books from the publisher. Some publishers accept returns, but the shipping costs, taxes, and other fees to send the books back equal about the same cost of the books. Now, 30 days later, the out bill to the publisher was due and we were stuck with 1500 Bibles. Teri called the publisher and got an extension on our bill. Then she got a phone call from World Vision. They said the needed 1500 Bibles quickly- could we help? They said they’d contacted another distributor, but they didn’t have them in stock. Cha-ching! We’ve got 1500 brand new Bibles ready to go! However…before you start counting the dollar bills…realize that we’ve been doing business with World Vision for a long time and we always give them 45 days to pay their bills…which would not arrive in time to cover our original cost to the publisher. Teri said each week she knows which big bills are due that week…and each week she wonders how God is going to provide. And this bill was no exception. Except…low and behold, within one week’s time World Vision paid the full bill for the 1500 Bibles…just in time for us to pay the publisher. Aint God great!

Got time for one more? Sorry this is going on so long, but I sure am having a blast telling you about these God Sightings.
At the end of every month my church (West End Assembly of God in Richmond, Virginia) sends a check to my ministry bank account for any donation that has come in for me that month. They also email me a list of names and amounts. In August a couple of people who normally give me a monthly gift did not do so. (They were probably on vacation or something came up or whatever. I understand that life happens.) However, here’s my God Sighting of His provision once again. This same financial report also showed that 2 other people (one person I haven’t even heard of before) gave a one-time gift in August that ”happened” to equal exactly the same amount as the other 2 folks who were unable to give their gift in August. Is that way cool or what?

Well thanks for listening to me go on and on about God. There’s actually more I could tell you…but I should save more for some other rainy day.

Strange things in Sept

Just a few "lighter side" things that made me scratch my head and say "hmmmmm".

I turned on the TV in my apartment to find news (albeit in Spanish) on the days leading up to and right after hurricane Felix. I stumbled across Sesame Street...you know, the show for kids with Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Cookie Monster, etc. I was surprised to find that the show was VERY different in Latin America. For example, Big Bird, starting with mid neck and going downwards, was all green feathered (instead of bright yellow)! Green! A day later, I found a morning talk show called Hello El Salvador which I figured was kind of like the MS/NBC Today Show. They were doing a spoof on Fred Flinstone and his gang. Each show person was dressed according to their assigned character. There was Wilma, Bam-Bam, Pebbles, Barney, and Pedro. Yes, Pedro...not Fred. And He's not Fred Frinstone, he's Pedro something another in Spanish which in English means rock picker (i.e. with a pic ax). A green Big Bird and Pedro the Rock Picker! Teri tells me that this wasn't really Big Bid, but his Latino cousin (or something like that)...Whew! And she has no idea of why Fred is not Frederico, but she says it always has been Pedro instead.

Something else strange here are their "Circles of Death"...or at least that's what I call them, and they cause my heart to beat fast and my palms to sweat. They use traffic circles here all over the place. I don't know about you, but my stomping ground in Richmond Virgina does not have traffic circles. And the circles that I did encounter in other areas, were quite simple and essentially was just a circle put at the intersection of 4 roads. Oh no...everything is a bit more complicated here. The circles here have an inner lane and an outer lane, but it's common for 3 and sometimes 4 lanes to form regardless of the lanes marked in the circle. And this traffic circle is not just where 2 roads meet...but who knows how many roads. There are numerous places where people are getting in and out of the circles like spokes on a wheel. I have caused Teri to suck in a lot of air and hold on tight as I have maneuvered (that's just a nice way to say I almost killed us) in traffic circles. I'm not joking. Car horns were honking and brakes were squealing. My problem is that I keep trying to think logically here...and not only does it not work, but it can kill you. You see, it seems to me that if you're in the traffic circle and you plan on getting off on one of the spokes of the wheel, then you'll be in the outer circle. But this would be logical. Instead, people (including Teri who is actually a good driver) frequently exit the circle from the inner lane of the circle....kind of like how people make right hand turns from the left land here too. So when I'm trying to get into the circle and I see a break in action in the outer circle, I try to get into the outer lane. Unfortunately, I can't mind read in English or Spanish and am not aware the car in the inner lane is merging out of the circle at the sample point where I'm getting into the circle. This causes a bit of a problem. One intersection that I saw last week was a "normal" intersection of several roads and had a traffic circle around it. In other words, just consider an Astrix mark with a circle around it. Like I said, I refer to them as the Circles of Death. Saying a pray before I drive...like a prayer said before a meal...is done routinely and sincerely here by us missionaries.

WOW- Re: Hurricane Felix

I only just realized that this is my only blog entry re: Hurricane Felix. But I guess that's because I sent out email updates instead, requesting prayer and then afterwards an update. It was the first time I was in another country with a major storm of any type...much less a category 5 hurricane...coming my way. I was a bit shook as I heard the President of this county announce that he was issuing a State of Emergency. Yikes. What do I do? Here, unlike in the US, there was no repeated announcements of, "prepare for the storm by doing...." So, I made sure I had candles and matches and extra bottled water and some none perishable food. Thankfully, the storm did not come our way, and the residual rains did not cause any mudslides in this area. You may be interested in knowing though that apparently this storm did set a record. It developed from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane in only 51 days...which is quicker than any other storm. And you may remember in my request for prayer, that I mentioned a particular Christian ministry called Cornerstone that I'm particularly fond of on the northern shore of Honduras. It now includes a fully operational Hospital called Loma de Luz and it was the bulls eye target for this storm. Below is an email reply from Sally, a friend at that hospital. Please sit, read, enjoy, and praise God:

"Thanks for asking, Deb. All is well. On Monday, things looked very bleak. Felix was predicted to basically be smashing the hospital area on Tuesday, with significant loss of life and devastation. Prayer alerts were sent out, people prayed, and by Tuesday, Felix was headed on a very different path, a path which according to the weather folks it wasn't supposed to take, a path which directed it south and into and along the interior mountain ranges of Nicaragua and Honduras. This quickly weakened the storm, and the damage and loss of life was far less than expected, and it didn't harm the Loma de Luz area AT ALL. Wow. --Sally
p.s. If you'd like me to add you to our Cornerstone prayer alert email list, let me know (and tell me what email address you'd like me to use)."

Isn't that great! I absolutely believe this was a God Thing.

By the way, with all the follow-up rain that we had from the storm. I couldn't help but wonder why there was no water on campus the next day when I went to take a shower? We have our own wells and the electricity was working. I asked Teri as we drove into work. She said she can't explain it...but frequently during rainy season, particularly after a storm, the water won't work. And contrastingly, the water almost always works in dry season. Go figure! By the way, the water came on later in the morning, but the water was off almost the entire next day...but this time was due to 2 teenage boys messing with things that they shouldn't be messing with. Remember the extra bottled water I prepared and put in the frig for Felix? It came in useful afterall. A little warming in a pot on the stove... and my short hair was shampooed and rinsed in no time at all!

Chicken foot soup

Yep, tonight we had chicken foot soup, called Menudos de Pollo (which basically means chicken parts soup). It's served over rice along with chunks of carrots and potatoes. Actually it was far from just the chicken's foot...it was everything else associated with a chicken too...but I'll just let your imagination run with that one. I sat across from a kid who had a foot and some other parts in her bowl (I was a wimp and asked for only the veggies in my soup). The foot looked kind of a like a hand...and after awhile I thought that maybe I could bring myself to try this at some point, until....I got a chance to see the pads on the bottom of the foot. As I watched her suck on the toes, pads and all, I realized that it may be quite awhile until I get the courage to join her.

One day recently we had leaf soup. It's basically rice soup with really small dark green leaves in it that were picked off some tree here on campus. Believe it or not, the soup was quite tasty, like a good rice soup, and the leaves just added a nice dark green color.

As you may well know, I'm basically incompetent in a kitchen. So it was a plus that my meals are included as part of my monthly fees here...even if the food is interesting much of the time. However as fate would have it, due to me working in the city at the book ministry causes me to get home much too late for dinner. (My monthly fees will be reduced.) So I pack my lunch most days (yeah for peanut butter and jelly!) and have had to reintroduce myself to the concept of using a stove and oven for my evening meal. Kim, my roommate back in Richmond, likes to cook so she pretty much did all the cooking and I became quite spoiled. My cooking specialties included cereal, grilled cheese sandwiches, and popcorn in the microwave. So it seems like God has a sense of humor as he sees me standing in my kitchen here, scratching my head, and wondering what in world I'm supposed to do.

By the way, if you come visit, I promise we can avoid all the extra special meals here. I now have access to the menus :)

9/11 in El Salvador

I'm guessing that at least some of you won't "get" what I'm talking about in this posting...just because I'm kind of weird I guess. Anyhow, last night as I lay in my bed I realized that tomorrow is "9/11"...not just any day. And for some reason it felt important to me to be able to somehow connect with my country on this day. Maybe it's because I and those my age have not had any other hugely relevanat national crisis in our lives...or at least not after the point when our minds were old enough to kick in. When I woke up this AM, "9/11" was immediately on my mind and heart. Today wasn't a bad day, but I was rather melancholic. I remember that on the 1 yr anniversary of 9/11 I was with a medical team in Guatemala, and it seemed rather strange to not be home, grieving and healing with the rest of our country. Thankfully, we found a TV in the kitchen/dining room of where we were staying and we respectfully watched as bells rang and names were called out on that first yr anniversary. Somehow that media connection made a big difference to us. Although, thank you Lord, that I didn't have anyone I knew to perish in 9/11, I think a small piece of all of us perished that day. So today I asked some of the older kids at the Home if they knew about 9/11. They said yes, they remember it, but it's really not significant to them, and afterall it was 6 years ago. But then again, how many Americans even know about Hurricane Stan in Oct 2005 that killed more than 2000 people in this part of Latin America? So, I guess it's all relative, yet I still longed for a connection. Then, late this afternoon I rec'd an email that encouraged folks to go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KonFRhqbj2I as a way or remembering 9/11. Strangely enough, it really made a difference for me today. And for as much damage as the media does, today I'm reminded that it can also be used for good.

The Expo- a success?

It's hard to judge if the Expo was "successful". We didn't have nearly the attendance that we hoped and planned for. After Day #1, much of our team was downcast after working so hard, and yet not seeing a reward (of a good turnout). Over and over I've been told that it's our job as Christians to do the natural, and let God do the supernatural. Well, we did all we could. We planned for every detail. We had umpteen meetings and gazillions of emails. This thing was advertised like crazy. Teri was interview on several radio and TV shows. Ads and fliers were in the newspapers. We had commercials on TV and radio. We had posters and fliers literally all over the country (which at one point is only 4hr from one side to the other.) We had billboards and banners in key spots along the roadways. You name it, and we did it. Yet, the people did not come. I asked God to not let it rain water during the Expo, but to instead rain people. He indeed help off the rain until late at night during the last event (which was indoors)of the Expo. Why didn't God send folks? I can't tell you. Teri felt like this Expo was something she was supposed to do. She never wavered and never lost her peace about it. So maybe God just wanted to see if she and the ministry would be obedient. Or maybe God knew that if we got the 4000-6000 people that we dreamed of, then we would be in over our heads. Or maybe God measures success differently then we people do, and He brought to the Expo exactly those that he wanted there. I don't know. Maybe I'll ask Him one day.

But there were some very interesting results/comments. We had 100 booths in our exhibit hall. We sold all 100 booths to 58 vendors (some vendors rented 2 or 3 booths). The vendors were Christian publishers, Christian radio & TV stations, or Christian businesses (selling their wares and/or food), etc. Much to our surprise, those very vendors, that are well aware that they did not sell much, were extraordinarily positive about the experience. They wrote or verbally responded in the following ways: Lots of people have wanted to see this type of event here in El Salvador, but nobody has ever had the courage to do it. These sort of things are always small in the beginning, don't worry, you did a good job and it'll be great next year. This needs to be much longer than 2 days. Well done, seldom have I seen things this organized and prepared. Even the smallest of details were covered.

Big financial supporters, publishers like Tyndale and Zondervan, and the Baptist Publishing House were very positive and supportive. These publishers were the ones who paid to bring in workshop and main speakers. One said they'd bring in author Randy Alcorn to be a speaker next year, another said they'd bring in Gary Smally in 2009 and Josh McDowell in 2010! Wow! Those are HUGE names in the Christian book world! Good grief! We haven't caught our breath from this one, and the vendors are wanting dates for the next 3 years! So, help me...was this a successful Expo?

This past week we've spent organizing, getting stuff put away, getting the office back to normal, and evaluating things. As far as I know, Teri hasn't yet pulled together all the financial numbers to see just how bad things look. She did hold a formal debriefing meeting on Wed to evaluate in writing what went right, what went wrong, where we missed opportunities, how could we do things better, and what does the team thing about doing this again? It was a very productive mtg. The group decided they would like twice as much time, 8 months, to prepare for the next Expo. They also found out that August was not the best month for this event and chose June, even though this means they will have to start working on the Expo in just one month from now, Oct. Surprisingly, the team is quite excited. They feel like they learned a lot and look forward to having the time to do it better. To be honest, I don't know how they pulled if off with only 4 months of prep work.

Latin Americans generally work a 44hr/week work week. It's normal to work every Saturday from 8a-noon. Due to all their hard work and many extra hours of work, Teri gave everyone Friday and Saturday off, and will take them to the beach in 2 weeks (which is Independence Day here- Sept. 15th.). I did errands yesterday with Teri, but I had today off. Plus Teri knows a physician who has offered to let us use his very nice beach house with a pool for this gathering.

As soon as I can catch up on a few things, I'll try to add some photos on the blog of the concert. Taking pictures was a blast, and quite an opportunity. I'd love to do more of that sort of thing, but I need to learn a lot more to be any good at it.

Look! Behold! I've got Mold!

Man oh man do I have mold in my apartment! Starting on my first night in my apartment, I noticed that my sheets felt damp when I got into bed. I figured it was mostly my imagination and ignored it, even though every night if felt the same. A few days later, I went to pick up a pill that I'd cut in half a day earlier, and it crumbled between my fingers. (This has now happened several times.) Things like napkins always seem like they're slightly damp. A couple of days ago, I went to put on a pair of basic, flat, all leather sandals that I'd just worn the week before. But now they were covered in mold, inside and out. That was my true wake up call....I obviously had a mold problem that was on the move. I pulled my desk away from the wall, and sure enough, the back side of my desk was covered in fuzzy green, white, gray, and black mold. The inside of an empty drawer had mold growing on it. My address book was covered. The back of any type of furniture (bed headboard, dresser, etc) was covered.

We're in rainy season here...as a matter of fact the rain is smacking the tin roof right now. Rainy season started about mid-late May this year (a little later than usual), and normally lasts thru Oct. Some people say September is the worst for the rain...we'll see. The heat is the worst in late May and June they say...I'm so glad I was in school and not here! We can pretty much count on rain in the late afternoon and/or evening....and almost assuredly during the night. It often rains quite hard, and starts pouring without warning. I've only experienced one set of days where it rained essentially all day and night. So, it's really no surprise that it's also mold season. I've heard other missionaries talk about this prevalent problem. It seems that some places on the HIS campus are worse than others....I seem to have hit a gold mine....or is that a mold mine? Anyhow, I've contacted my long time missionary friends in Ecuador to get their secrets for beating mold and I spent a large chunk of today trying various methods of de-molding my apartment. We'll see which, if any, methods are better. I recently found that I could buy a dehumidifier for about $200, but I don't know how much area it would cover- my whole apartment? And besides, rainy season will be over soon. I hear it's not as bad in "dry" season (which is the other 6 months of the year). We'll see. My Ecuador friends tells me that the mold never gets but so much better in her neck of the woods. In the meanwhile, if any of you have some tried and true methods for beating mold, let me know. I've been told to use bleach...the problem is that I can't use it on the back of furniture (i.e. the fake wood-cardboard backing on my desk).

Oh, one last thing. This blew my mind. My Ecuador friend, told me to try to keep everything off the floor. One night, I threw a pair of white ankle socks toward a chair in the corner of my bedroom. They landed on the floor. I'd only worn them for about an hour, and figured I'd wear them the next day. The next day I went to put them on...and they were literally damp. Wow! Guess she was right....leave nothing on the floor!

OK, I'm going to go now. I dare not sit still too long for fear of growing mold myself.