I´m exhausted, but I´m going to muster up all the energy I have to give you a quick update.
It has been so HOT the past couple of days. Even the Salvadorans think it has been hot, so it´s not just me complaining. I would really enjoy some weather where the temperature is somewhere in between freezing cold and boiling hot.
Wednesday afternoon and evening and today, Julie and I were with Pastors Matias and Martina. As always, it was wonderful spending time with them.
Today was a very long, but wonderful day. It took forever for everyone to get ready and get in the truck, but we were on our way by 11. We made a few stops along the way, but we finally made it to the little community of San Jose Buena Vista. When I was in El Salvador last summer, they were working on building a church there. I got to see the progress throughout the time I was here and I even got to help with the construction a little. Well, the church is now complete! The church was dedicated in January and I saw pictures from this celebration, but the pictures just didn´t do justice to how beautiful the church is. They have a large sanctuary, two other rooms for meetings or Sunday school, and they even have bathrooms in the church. It looks so nice and new and I know that it has already gotten some good use. The people in Buena Vista are so blessed to have such a wonderful place in which to worship and meet.
We brought a piñata for the kids at the church and they had a great time with that (even the process of getting it hung up was pretty entertaining).
We then left to go to the community of Colon. The church in Colon is a sister church with Julie´s church in Schaumburg. Thanks to donations from people at Julie´s church, my church, and our family and friends, the people of Colon will very soon have a piece of land where they can build a church. For more than 10 years, the congregation in Colon has been looking forward to the day when they will have their own church in which to worship. Buying the land is a big step toward this. We went to Colon to celebrate with the Pastors and with the congregation of Colon.
The kids (little ones and teens) prepared some super cute and funny dances. We had two piñatas, one for the boys and one for the girls. Salvadorans really know how to do piñatas. Everyone got so excited and the kids were pretty much experts in hitting the piñta and making sure to get every last piece of candy out of the poor mutilated piñatas.
We did all this at the place where the church meets now, in the yard of one of the church members. After this, we went down the street a little bit to the piece of land where the church will be. Right now the land is empty, but it was easy to imagine a church there, a church a little like the one that we had just visited in Buena Vista. We met the nice old man who was selling the land and the kids ran all around the land. After some time we gathered in a circle and prayed. We thanked God for the blessings of the church community in Colon, for the land, for the churches and the people who helped raise money for the land. And we asked that God would grant that one day there will be a church constructed on the land. What a beautiful and blessed time. Truly God is good!
And then some cows came down the road and they came through the gate and onto the land. Apparently the cows like to come and eat and hang out on the land. Someone will have to tell the cows that if they want to come on the land and eat that they will first have to go to church.
Tomorrow (Friday) is our last day in El Salvador. We are going out to the eastern part of El Salvador, the department of La Union, to meet with a pastor there. I´m excited to go, but it will be a long trip in the car, about 4 hours each way. It should be a good last day though.
