Remember how I heard Francesca Battistelli's song while I was typing my last blog entry, and it was perfect? Today the song Yesterday, Today, Forever by Ryan Stevenson came on. The line repeated throughout it is:

"Yesterday, today, forever,

all may change but You will never.

Glory to Your name!"

I thought this was perfect for all the changes going on in our house with two new sisters! Changes for me, sure. For example: My brain is beginning to hurt from an even deeper level of Spanish immersion. I am now positive that I will be returning to the States completely fluent in my Spanish, just because of Roxana and Noemi. Also, I'm loving being able to just hang out and talk with my sisters. (I'm loving being able to say "hanging out with my sisters" almost as much as actually doing it!! ;] )

Thing is, though, the changes for them are a lot more than they are for me. They've never had electricity, never had running water, and tend to live on tortillas, beans, corn, rice, etc. My family, on the other hand, has always had electricity, always had running water, and almost never have meals of just tortillas, beans, corn, and rice. Because of stuff like that, their first day was very interesting.
Last Thursday they came over for the first time, with their mom. We were planning on going out to eat with them for lunch before school. Knowing that they never have choices, and not wanting to overwhelm them with too many choices at once, we decided we could go to Eric's for pizza.
Noemi, Roxana, and their mother had never even heard of pizza.
They seemed to really like it, though. After lunch, the girls went to school. Since they'd been getting over the flu, they went back home that night afterwards. We had the same arrangement Friday, too.

When their mom picked them up that afternoon, though, she was in tears. Her husband, Orlando, is very sick. The situation is pretty grave. We don't fully understand everything that's going on with him; some kind of palsy in his face, maybe? Possible even some problems with his mind? Regardless, we got them transportation to the clinic and hospital. I'd like to ask all of you to please keep him in your prayers. Things aren't any worse, but they aren't really better, either.

The girls' first full day here was Monday. The running water was so intriguing to them both. Roxana asked me how it was able to come out and shut off so quickly. In the kitchen sink, there's hot water, which was even more interesting to them. And the microwave we used for lunch? They'd never heard of such a thing, were completely entranced at first. To start off with something simple, kind of ease into things, we had what we call Rapiditas for lunch. (Mom has a blog about them here.) During this, we talked some with them about other foods. Neither of them had heard of peanut butter, and one had heard of hamburgers, but neither had tried them. So many simple things to us, Noemi and Roxana had no idea about. Since then, we've tried to go slowly on introducing new foods. Chicken sandwiches, soup, stuff like that. I'm kind of excited at the prospect of them showing me how to cook the typical El Salvador foods!

Another new thing for them is a shower like we're used to. Since most people don't have running water, people use bucket baths or sponge baths, etc. A shower like ours was a little interesting for them to grasp, I think. They caught on to all the changes quickly, though. They're both adapting pretty well, actually. School is going well, too. We found out that my friend, Yoselin, is their cousin! Here's a picture of me with the two of them and Yoselin.

Roxana and Noemi and I ended up watching a couple short episodes of the Penguins of Madagascar last night before we went to bed. I think they had a lot of fun with that. I know I did! :)

I'm really enjoying having them here. Yeah, it's different. Yeah, there are so many changes taking place in everything we do. But, the verse that Ryan Stevenson's song is based on, Hebrews 13:8, says

"Jesus Christ is the same

yesterday and today and forever."

Lots of things change. I definitely know this. In less than a year, a whole bunch of new things have taken place. New country, new language, new friends, new sisters... But one person will never change. :)

More to be posted soon. Love,

Erin

^^^ Tell me, how many of you have been in a Bible study with a pet goat? ;)

^^^ This is me with a couple of the Chuntrun kids near the springs.

The Bible study was really good, Jesus did a great job. I'm looking forward to more of this ministry this year. :)

Along with these, we found out today about a super exciting new opportunity we'll be taking part in soon, which I hope to post about tomorrow. Lots of new things this year! So, very late, I'd like to wish all of you a blessed new year.

More to be posted VERY soon, hopefully!

Su amiga,

Erin :)

Really, it's only Saturday? It kinda felt like a couple weeks have gone by in just the past 3 days. Sigh. This has been one very crazy week. Where do I even start?
I guess it's only been quite this level of crazy since Wednesday, so then I guess.
A shipment arrived in San Salvador a couple weeks ago full of stuff for the church, the school, the orphanage, and whatever. Dad and 12 other guys loaded up into a couple big trucks Wednesday morning and headed to the military base in S.S. to put all the crates onto their trucks and bring them back up the mountain to La Palma. Meanwhile, we lose internet in La Palma. A little while after they leave, we get a phone call, and there's been some mix ups and they have to go somewhere else in that area. The internet comes back sometime that afternoon, and then we run out of water. The filters got clogged with dirt within two weeks, and no water had gotten to our tank. Look at the before and after of these:


So, snaps for Teresa who was willing to hop over the bars on the walk way onto the tank and take the lid off so we could run a hose into it! And thankfully, Anda water came back on Friday morning.

We got a couple calls from the guys like the first one, and they didn't end up getting back until 8 that night. By this time, it was too late to follow through with the original plan of unloading and organizing everything that day, so we just took all the crates off the truck and piled them into the compound and church building to unload Thursday.




Once Thursday morning came around, we all gathered in the compound and started working hard. The sun was pretty intense, too. Just look at the pictures.







A lot of the process wasn't just unloading and putting the stuff away, but the disassemblement of the crates. We had to take them apart and get the nails out. Once that was done, half the crates were given to San Ignacio members and the other half to La Palma. The wood is a great resource for them.

Here is one little table of toys. On the other side of the room were bags and bags full to give away to the sponsor kids here.


And here are some pics of the medical supplies. The little pharmacy room was jammed full of walkers, canes, crutches, and, of course, medicine. And the one of the wheelchairs is really only half of all the ones we were given. So. Many. Wheelchairs.



But, that was only part of the reason the week was so long. After all the unloading was done, Teresa, Mom, Dad, Nathan, and I went out to lunch to sit down and cool off. On our way home we stopped by the little ice cream place for a treat. While we were there, Dad's phone rang. He couldn't understand it and gave it to Mom. It was Andrea's grandmother, frantic, telling us that little Andrea passed away that morning.
Andrea was born with heart problems, and doctors said she wasn't a candidate for surgery. They said she wouldn't make it long, but she outlived their expectations. Two years ago, a team took her to the beach near San Sal as a "make a wish" kind of trip. Andrea was 7, and she was going to be graduating pre-k this upcoming Tuesday. She was excited about it, and already had her dress and little shoes and head band picked out.
When we got home, Teresa and Mom and I left to go to the vela with Jose at their house. Culture is so different here... The day before the funeral, they have a vela, where the body is basically displayed in the home with candles and flowers. She was wearing the graduation dress and holding her Barbie doll. People here take pictures of the funerals and the bodies, and people were snapping all sorts of pictures with their cell phones. At one point, they even brought out a hanging lamp to put over her to make the pictures come out better for everyone. Mom's blog has a better description of the whole experience Here.
Yesterday was the funeral. People gather at her house, and the casket is displayed in the back of a pickup and everyone walks behind it following it to the church building. At the church was the actual funeral. They sang all of Andrea's favorite children's Sunday school songs. Her Sunday school teachers talked about her, and even her grandmother talked about her. She said that the Bible tells us to always be thankful, and that even though it's really hard to be thankful in the death of a little girl, they were happy that God had loaned Andrea to them for these 7 years.
After everything at the church was over with, another procession to the cemetary starts. Again, the casket was in the pickup and people walked and followed it all the way there. A few words and songs were said and sung there, too, although we couldn't really see or hear from where we were. Please please keep Andrea's family in your prayers. It's a really tough time for everyone.
More to be posted soon!
Su amiga,
Erin <3

Just look at that face:


Pretty cute, right? Yes, he's a trouble maker. But here's the project he made:

Both of these pictures were taken this morning during the students' presentations of their "maquetas". Maquetas are just big projects that each student do at the end of the yaer. Mom judged the pre-k through 3rd graders, and Marlon judged the 4th through 6th graders. There was one winner from each grade. They got extra points if it was made from recycled material that they didn't have to spend money on. It can basically be over whatever subject they're interested in, or had learned about this year, or whatever. There were all sorts. Selena had one over different foods from animals and vegetables, she was the pre-k winner.


Emmanuel was the first grade winner, his was totally recycled stuff.


Kevin's was a computer model. It was made from old computer parts, obviously. But what you can't really see in this picture is how detailed it really is. It was completely recycled; the screen was a picture of a computer screen cut out from an old computer box. He won for second grade.


Cristina's, also completely recycled, was an abacus. It was made of plastic bottle lids. Pretty neat, right? Third grade winner right there.


All of them did a great job. There were so many others that didn't win that were really good. Adonis had a neat pyramid, Jocelyn had a health project because she wants to be a nurse, and lots like that. It was a neat thing to go to :)





After all the kids had gone home, Teresa and I got the chance to take Jocelyn (Victoria's older sister and Vanessa's aunt, not the younger one.) out for lunch. That was fun, I'm looking forward to more time with the girls here now that school it out for them. Even thought I'm still working hard on school...
We got a basketball goal put up for the school! The backboard isn't put up just yet, but the pole with a net is. We went out this afternoon and shot hoops for quite a while with Teresa, Victor, and Marlon. Nathan played for 3 hours, no joke.
And that's part of the reason we're so exaughsted and are ready to head to bed now, after our always refreshing English song service and a movie.
Thanks for the prayers, keep it up as the shipments from the States are going to be coming here tomorrow! More to be posted soon!
Su amiga,
Erin <3

Happy Halloween! Well, they don't really celebrate Halloween here. But, yes, we did have our own celebration including a couple ballerina princesses(with tutus we made ourselves!), Harry Potter, chili, chocolate, and s'mores made over the propane stove.

In our living room are a bunch of sewing machines used for teaching sewing classes. The sewing machines were mostly donated by people in the States. One of them is an old one that isn't electric. The kind that uses a treadle base. At first, we wondered what we would do with it because we don't have the treadle base or anything. Today, we found out what God had planned long ago. There's a family with four children; Ana is 12, Jonathan is 9, Ezekiel is 7, and Sarai is 3. Ezekiel has leukemia. They live in a house with no electricity, maybe one window, you get the idea. His mother has to take him to San Salvador every other day for treatment. Last year, her house was broken into. She had a treadle base sewing machine. The sewing machine was stolen, but they left the base. Today, she came over, and we were able to provide her with a sewing machine that works with it. She was so excited!


You know, God really knows what He's doing. Why don't we remember that more often?

While Mom and Jose and her were working on it, Nathan and I were going to hang out with her kids. They are soooo sweet.

Jonathan at one point asked me what my name was, in slightly broken English, and he liked showing me what English he knew. So, we got out an English/Spanish matching card game, and he loved it. His favorite new word to learn was "chicken". :) It was a lot of fun.



They were all so sweet, and their mother kept saying how she had been blessed by God. Anyone else think there's a lesson there? This woman, who has no electricity in her home, and whose child has leukemia, lives her life content with what God has blessed her with. It kinda makes me cry. We were blessed by their visit today. Please, please, keep them in your prayers. More to be posted later!
su amiga,
Erin <3

This post is going to be really difficult to write I think. There is no way to put into words the experience we had this morning and get the point across. You would have to be there to even half-way comprehend what it's like. Hopefully with a lot of pictures I can try to explain, though.

Jesus (the preacher from San Ignacio) came this morning and picked us up in his truck along with Josue and Carlitos, also known as Charlie ;). Dad and Nathan and I were in the back with Josue and Carlos. He drove us from La Palma to San Ignacio, and we stopped at a corner there and waited for a sister who was also headed to Chuntrun. Here's the house we stopped in front of while we waited:

Were we were headed did not have running water, did not have electricity, no stores or little tiendas, basically there was the school and then some houses scattered across the mountainside. It was surreal. Once the lady we were waiting for and her son got there, we started down the mountain. Yes, down. It was pretty rough, too. In the picture above, the road is obviously man-paved to an extent. The road down was steep and bumpy, and we had to go extremely slow. The woman's little boy we'd picked up fell asleep sitting on Dad's foot on the way, which was pretty cute, even if his foot was asleep for a while. The view was pretty amazing , though. Actually, that doesn't cover it. If only pictures could really capture it...


It was so awesome. Reality check: These mountains are actually this beautiful, and we're actually HERE? We really do serve an awesome God :) And really. This is just land. If He put so much amazing, gorgeous detail into this, think about what He does with His people!

When we got to a certain spot, the truck couldn't go any further. That's when the real hiking started. At first, it was just really steep downhill but it was smooth-ish. Then we got to the bridge. There was a rope bridge thing we had to cross the river over. Some people in the group were a little scared of bridges. Others, like Josue and me, enjoyed jumping on them and messing with those who were scared! :D
It was fun. After the bridge was some of the toughest hiking. Some of the people who live there walk all the way to and from San Ignacio every Sunday for church, even in the "torrential downpourage". Plus, one of the ladies said she comes every Thursday as well for services because she needs the spiritual food for her soul or something similar. Kinda makes us think about our lame excuses for not going to church sometimes, huh?

Eventually, we reached the school. Josue and Jesus a little before the rest of us... But it was like something from "Little House on the Prarie". A one room school house, with only grades kingergaten through 6th. No one goes higher who lives in this town. The teacher only lives there during the week and lives in Chaletenango or some other city on the weekends. Here's the entire school. The only part not shown in this picture is the little outhouse bathroom.

Crazy, right? But the people are so sweet and happy. They've never known anything else. Jesus did a Bible lesson for the kids and parents on John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. He made a craft to illustrat it. Just a simple piece of paper and a few shapes and some glue, but they were thrilled. Most of these kids have never been exposed to making art projects and using glue! The ones whose mothers were there, wanted to do a lot of it for them, because they had never done it either. We also sang a bunch of songs. The kids were so cute... We gave out bedrolls to some people, and a couple baby carriers to some families with young babies who have to carry them all over those mountains. And at the end, we passed out the goody bags. I think that in the bags were vitamins, parasite treatments, a little individual pack of cookies, a piece of bubble gum, a little plastic toy, a box of juice, and maybe some other stuff that I unfortunately can't remember. They were so excited just with the little stuff. At the end Nathan and I played some soccer with the kids and kicked a ball around.

It has been a wonderful day. This morning was beyond incredible or any other words I could put down here. And tonight was pretty great, too :) Thank you always for the prayers. Continued prayers for Alfredo's family, please! More to be posted soon!
su amiga,
Erin <3