Answers to prayers...

Good News...
This month of October has been filled with lots of rain, sleepless nights, and just waiting.  Finally, last Thursday Camilo received a call from the U.S. Embassy saying that they approved the visa!  It should be in the mail now.  We are so thankful for this answer to prayer and thank you to everyone for your support during this process!

Our travel plans are to leave El Salvador by the end of November.  We'll keep you all posted.  Please pray for this last month here, and our transition time.

Another answer to prayer...
Thanks to those who were praying for Yeni, one of our youth who had an accident at school and broke her mandible in 3 places. She made it through her operation, and is still recovering, but last week had a breakthrough and began talking again! (now we can't get her to stop!) A blessing for her family is that her mother who left her and her sister when they were young to go to the US returned for this emergency and his here for good.  Her father returned about a year ago, and we are praying for restoration and healing of relationships in this family.  

Blessings from Iglesia de Dios in Reseda, CA...
We have been enjoying visits from Ojos de Agua natives that have come from Reseda, CA for a visit.  They spread the news to their church that we were in need for more chairs and members from their congregation sent a generous donation to buy more! Praise the Lord.  We look forward to filling all the seats in hopes to buy more! :)

José Melgar from Reseda with Pastors Camilo and Heber, and church member Gilberto and son Benjamin

Lots of Rain...
Hurricane Jova hit us hard this month.  It didn't stop raining for more than 10 days.  El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua were mentioned in International news because of this emergency. The main problems we had had in our area were landslides that made it a bit difficult to travel. And on the other side of the mountain, there was a huge landslide that is still blocking the road and people had to leave their homes.  The entire country has been in a state of emergency and thousands are still in temporary shelters in schools and churches. We are thankful that we weren't affected drastically. But people in the communities lost many days of work in the fields and couldn't leave their homes to buy provisions. Despite these obstacles members from our church made a generous donation of food staples to a MCA church in Coyolito that was serving as a temporary shelter. We are thankful to the Lord that we were able to contribute somewhat to the efforts. 

Please pray...

• For our transition out of Ojos de Agua and saying goodbye to this wonderful community
• The church is in need for a larger vehicle to transport people from the surrounding communities to church services. We are praying for provision for a bus ($10,000 - $20,000). We are thankful that so many people are wanting to come to services, but we need a way to bring them.   
• Construction needs: doors and windows  

September 2011

Ministry


Nahomi being baptized

Baptisms and Fellowship

On August 28 was a special day of fellowship. At 9:00 AM the church gathered at the local creek to baptize seven new believers: Efrain and Maria Luisa Rivera, Dolores Lopez de Melgar, Nahomi Villegas, Andrea Alas, Cristian Martinez and Lidia Calderón. This makes a total of 28 baptized so far this year, Praise the Lord!

After the baptisms, families from Ojos de Agua invited church members from El Tablón to their homes to share lunch and time to get to know one another. Later we met at 2:00 PM at the church building to share a special time of showing photos and videos of all the baptisms and special events that we’ve held since the church plant began. Service began at 4:00 PM with a special focus on fellowship.

Missions Week

When the Ojos de Agua church plant began we made sure to teach church members from the beginning that the vision of the church is missionary, to reach out to our community and around the world. Once a week during our Wednesday night prayer service we share a special missionary report and pray for missionaries. The offering collected every Wednesday goes towards missionaries in Oaxaca, Mexico and in Central Asia.


Pastor Nehemias Arcia, DEMCA shares
 during Missions Week



Though we feel the church understands its role in missions we wanted to have a special week focused on different topics, countries and people groups. The last week of August we “traveled” each evening to different parts of the world and prayed for different ethnic groups and missionaries serving in the different parts of the world. Each night included special conference topics. Cindy started off the week speaking about God’s heart for the nations throughout the entire Bible (“the golden thread”), and Camilo finished off the week speaking on how missions needs to be the heart of the church. Mid-week we had a special guest, Nehemias Arcia, from the Missions Department from the Central American Mission who taught the congregation about the “10/40 Window” and statistics on the different needs for worldwide evangelism. During the week we collected a special offering for Salvadorian missionary Salvador Perez serving youth in Spain. The last evening we showed two movies. The first video was a special testimony by Steve Saint, son of missionary pilot Nate Saint who was killed in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador in the ‘50s. It was a special week and many were challenged to participate in missions locally and around the world.

Phillip Project Expands

A few changes have been made since the Blanco family has moved to Cantón El Tablón. We were meeting in one house every Tuesday night and in a different home on Sunday nights. The first change made is the brothers and sisters from El Tablón travel every Sunday to our 4:00PM church service in Ojos de Agua. This has brought more unity to the church body. As a result we began rotating between three homes to have services on Tuesdays (including ours). We saw the need to keep the service in one place so we chose our home. We have been evaluating our work in El Tablón and these past years there has not been much growth. So we decided to approach friends that don’t attend any church to see if they’d like to receive Bible studies in their homes. We have approximately 10 homes that have opened their doors to study the Word! Every other Tuesday members from Ojos de Agua and El Tablón unite and are visiting the homes in groups tp study the Gospel of John using the Phillip Project. On alternating Tuesdays we still have church service in our home.

Be very careful, then, how you live-- not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Ephesians 5:15-17

We know that this is a ‘kairos’ (opportune time) of God to share his word. Please pray that we remain faithful to his command and that people will have receptive hearts to His powerful Word.

Youth Ministry


Osman Flores, youth leader from Maranata
shares with the young people

The first week of August Ojos de Agua youth group participated in a Youth Camp hosted by Maranata Church, MCA Soyapango. Around 40 youth traveled to Ojos de Agua to enjoy three days of camp. Activities included: devotionals and conferences, hiking up the mountain, praise and worship night, competitions in groups, games on the soccer field and more. The theme of the week was: “Don’t turn out your light.” Camilo and Cindy participated giving talks on the importance of putting our faith in action. It was an eventful three days and our youth were very encouraged and motivated by the time they spent with their new friends.



Having fun on the soccer field
with "the clock" game

Our youth leadership team which meets almost every Monday evening has been trying to plan our youth meetings with more variety. In August we had lessons out on the soccer field after Cindy attempted to teach the group how to play Ultimate Frisbee! In September we had a special day at the local creek with a reflection in God’s word, sharing lunch and of course swimming! In the month of October we plan on showing the movie, “Soul Surfer.”



Thank you for your prayers for Yeni



 Earlier this month one of our youth leaders, Yeni Guardado, suffered an accident while at school. A classmate ran into her and Yeni broke her jaw bone in three places. It has been a difficult go for her and we ask you to help us pray for complete healing. Today (Sept. 26) she is going to be operated on. Before heading to the creek, our youth stopped by her home to sing and pray with her. It was a beautiful act of solidarity by our young people.

On a personal note…

Appointment at the U.S. Embassy

On October 3rd Camilo will have his first interview at the U.S. Embassy. If all goes well he will be granted U.S. Residency. We ask you to say a special prayer for this interview. There may be a second interview on October 17th if the consul thinks it’s necessary.

Where will we serve?

This is the question we are asking and seeking the Lord’s will. If Camilo is granted U.S. Residency and depending on when he receives the travel documents, we plan on moving to the U.S. by the end of November. We ask you to pray with us as we seek His will on where we will minister upon moving. Some doors have been shut, but we have faith that He will open one for us. We just want to serve Him the most effective way that He sees fit!

A brother or sister (??) for Lucas

We found out at the beginning of September that Cindy is expecting Baby Blanco #2! She is due at the end of April. Lucas is especially excited and gives his brother or sister kisses on mom’s tummy and sings to him/her frequently. But he thinks there are two of them!

Please keep her and baby’s health in your prayers. We are so grateful to the Lord for this special gift.

Please Pray …

…for Camilo’s appointment at the U.S. Embassy on October 3rd.

…That the Lord would show us where He wants us to serve.

…for Cindy’s health and for the health of Baby #2 on the way.

…for Yeni’s recovery from her operation.

…for construction on church building: we still need more windows and doors.

 
Some highlights...

We had the priviledge of having the Carballo Family, missionaries in Oaxaca, Mexico in our home

Carballo Family sharing at a special church service

Cindy and Camilo were given the opportunity to share God's word at Brisas del Eden Church in Ayutuxtepeque

We had a chance to visit Camilo's home church in Puerto de La Libertad, here's Lucas looking down at the church and at the ocean

Camilo sharing at his home church

Our praise team singing during our missions week services.







July 2011

Church Inauguration
There's a lot to share and I'd like to start with the Inauguration of our church that happened on July 17. What a special time this was! We calculated about 800 people showed up many arrived by the bus loads from churches in San Salvador, and from our circuit of churches all around Chalatenango. We are humbled that so many people supported the event which was not only the inauguration of the building, but also the installation of the permanent pastor, Heber Elías and the official naming of the church. My mom came for the event along with Pastor Daniel Elías, both representing Tulare First Baptist Church. We are thankful to them for their partnership with us since the beginning. We gratefully received a special gift of a new glass pulpit from TFBC. Enjoy some of the highlights from the event:

Other happenings...
Translation work
In June Cindy had the opportunity to be translator for a mission team that came down from Kentucky and Ohio to Ezel Church in Ciudad Delgado.  God was faithful in protecting the team and blessed them with a week full of construction work and VBS with the children from the community.

What a great team!

Translating for Pastor Arelzo

Moving on...

In June we moved from our rented home in Ojos de Agua to our own home in El Tablón.  Camilo has worked really hard fixing up our small two room adobe house.  It's nice to actually have counters and a kitchen sink, and a sink in the bathroom! Simple pleasures.  The climate is a bit cooler and the church members and their families have warmly welcomed us to their community.  It is a wonderful place for Lucas to explore and the soccer field is only a short hike away! And, of course, the views of the mountains are breath-taking. We are thankful for this opportunity to live up here before we immigrate to the U.S.

On a personal note... On July 22, Camilo and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary!  We are thankful daily to the Lord that He has brought our lives together to serve Him!

Sunday School continues on our front porch!

Our car got stuck in the mud many times the first few weeks, but handy Camilo fixed the problem!

planting seeds with Lucas, yes that's me with a machete, my favorite gardening tool!

Construction Update
There is still work to be done on our church building.  Most of the guard rails on the windows are complete.  We still need more windows and doors.  We are trusting as always in the Lord's timing and provision. This week the showers were installed in the bathrooms. So if you happen to be in the area and need a place to camp out, we have showers! :)
The next larger phase will be to build Sunday School classrooms, a kitchen and a storeroom. Church members continue coming once a week to do volunteer work on the property.

Youth Ministry
Our youth ministry is growing, praise the Lord! I am meeting with a small team of leaders once a week for training and recently Ronal and Mari Molina joined the team. I am excited that this young couple will continue serving as mentors for the youth when we are gone.  Please keep them in your prayers along with our other leaders: Cesia, Yeni, and Beatriz. Our youth group has began to form service and visitation teams.  A few weeks ago they organized a work day to help out a friend of Ronal's who needed help building on his home (see photo below).  Last week we organized visits to some of the elderly church members, as a chance for them to get to know one another and encourage them. Blessings all around! This week we await Maranata Church from Soyapango to come up and hold their youth camp in Ojos de Agua, our youth group has been invited, and we pray that it will be a great time of getting to know one another, encouragement and praising God!

Mission Field: El Zapotal
Our church plant will not stop once we leave. The plant is complete in Ojos de Agua, but in January a group of youth from our church began working with children from a neighboring village, El Zapotal.  Every Sunday they travel to the community and give Sunday School lessons.  We are praying that God will open doors to visit parents and others that may be interested in receiving evangelistic Bible Studies in their homes.  Keep this project in your prayers, we want to go where He leads!

Compassion International (Click here to learn more)
Many of you are probably familiar with this Christian non-profit organization.  We have made contacts with them and they are interested in working with us in Ojos de Agua.  There are a few obstacles to begin a partnership.  We are seeking the Lord's will of course. Join us in praying for this opportunity.

Visit to Ezel Church, Ciudad Delgado
Yesterday, July 31, Camilo was given the opportunity share his testimony with the congregation at Ezel Church in Ciudad Delgado.  It was a special Sunday afternoon dedicated to missions where the promoter for missions on a national level arrived to share about the Salvadorian missionaries we have around the world.

Prayer Requests
Please join us in prayer for the following:

• Our health. Since the inauguration and a few vacation days, we have been under the weather with colds and digestive issues, please pray for complete healing and energy!
• Immigration.  We are in phase two of the immigration process.  We are waiting to hear back from the Embassy about a medical exam and then an appointment for an interview. Please pray for God's timing in this process.
• Mission Field: El Zapotal (read info. above)
• Possible partnership with Compassion International.
• For our ministries in the church: Deacons, Worship Team, Youth Group, Sunday School Program,and Phillip Project evangelistic home Bible studies.
• For God's provision in our construction project.

June 2011

Translations....

For the past few weeks Cindy has been working on setting up a website for the Hope and Life Association, a Christian Non-Profit that helps children with HIV/AIDS.  Check out the website so far: http://esperanzayvida-douglas.blogspot.com/

This week June 11 - 20, Cindy will be translating for a mission team coming into San Salvador to Ezel Church in Ciudad Delgado. Please keep this trip in your prayers, you can follow what the team is doing at this site: missionelsalvador.com


Immigration Update

We received the first packet of information in the mail to continue the Immigration process for Camilo. Please keep this in your prayers.

We've moved!

On Wednesday, June 8, we moved from the house we had been renting for three years to our own home in El Tablón. Little by little Camilo has been fixing up the house and we are excited to spend our last months (??) in the country here.  It's a small adobe home with an artisan touch. :) (photos soon)

Guatemala!

Camilo, Lucas and I had our first cross-cultural experience as a family at the end of May. We helped Missionary Doctor Mirna Gutierrez and her newly adopted four-month old girl move to San Juan Cotzal, Quiche, Guatemala. We had quite an adventure along the way as God faithfully protected our journey. Enjoy the photos that follow:

Baptisms May 8, 2011

Sunday, May 8, 2011, about 50 people from the congregation headed down to the local creek for baptisms. Please keep the following new members in your prayers (in order from left to right in the photo):  Dolores ("Lolo"), Gonzalo, Leonardo ("Nato"), Omar, Marilu, Elsa, Daniel, Aracely and Marleni (Lolo's daughter). Each one has their story...

Lolo used to make fun of Evangelicals and now that he's a believer is himself now criticized; Gonzalo is a recovering alcoholic, has lost his family, land, everything due to his alcohol problem;  Nato is a friend of Camilos from El Tablón, he is the first Christian in his family; Omar and Marilu, a young couple are called, "come pollos" ("chicken eaters") because some people think all we do is give away food so people will convert; Elsa has a young boy possibly autistic with perhaps another mental disability and has an abusive husband who struggles with alcohol; Daniel lives with his two older brothers and sister both his parents left them to immigrate to the U.S, he's entering adolescence; Aracely is the daughter of Peter, the local hardware store owner, and is the first believer in her family.

God is working in each of their lives as He is in all of ours daily.  It is exciting to see spiritual growth, but temptations are great and I ask that you would help us in praying that those stronger in the faith would serve those that are just beginning their faith journey so they can resist temptations, and be completely restored.

January to April 2011

You're Invited...

What’s been happening since January:

Baptisms

In February, 12 new believers were baptized in the Sunpul River. The following publically testified their faith in obedience to Jesus’command: Husband and Wife: Alfredo and Albertina; her brother Will, and nieces and nephews: Nora, Mariela, and Carlos; Mother and two daughters: Leonor, Glenda, and Veronica; brother and sister:  Alejandro and Sandra; and Diego. A couple unique moments that happened in these baptisms: - Pastor Heber’s daughter, Cesia participated with her father in baptizing Veronica, her disciple.  - three more new converts spontaneously joined the group in the water to be baptized, Sandra, Leonor, and Glenda; just as the Ethiopian eunuch said to Phillip, “Look, here is water. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” (Acts 8:37)

More baptisms are scheduled for May 8^th. 

Conversions

We have been blessed to be a part of the Lord’s harvest here in Ojos de Agua.  God is touching the lives of entire families.  A few weeks ago, in Camilo’s evangelistic/ discipleship Bible study to Leonor’s family, her husband Antonio, brother, Mauricio, and son-in-law, Omar accepted Christ together! God is changing lives all around us and wants to use us in the process. We need to “make the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” as Paul writes to the Ephesians (5:15-16). When God opens those doors, we need to go through without fear, because there may not be another moment for that person to hear or see the gospel in our lives.

Evangelism/Discipleship

The Phillip Project continues in various homes. Please pray that the Lord continues to use His church body in spreading the Good News with these Bible studies with friends and neighbors.

In January, a group of youth decided that they wanted to put their faith in action this year by sharing God's word to children in the neighboring community of Zapotal. Currently they are working with 12 children and using the Phillip Project's children's lessons.  Please pray for this missionary effort.

On April 15^th we celebrated Lucas’ third birthday with a special lunch, brownies and ice cream with our neighbors, who are like close family to us.  That night our church held an all-night church service for the community.  We were happy to see new faces come and hear the gospel message and participate in our fellowship time. 

Weddings

Camilo has declared this year the “Year of Weddings.” In January we held a civil / religious ceremony for two couples: Ronal and Maria Molina and Remberto and Reina Molina that had been together for years but had never officially been married.  The local mayor, Raul Chinchilla, came to conduct the legal part of the ceremony.  It was his first time at our church, and was impressed by the construction.  In March we celebrated two more weddings. One of our church members, Leydi Marquez married Efrain Navidad from El Regadillo, La Libertad.  This was our first formal marriage that started with a formal engagement. The third wedding was the wedding of Genaro and Lola Melgar. This couple has been together for many years and their whole family has become Christian. 

These weddings have served as a positive testimony for the younger generation of believers as they witness the importance of the marriage commitment and to the community as many friends arrived to witness the events.

Construction Update

Bathrooms

Praise the Lord the septic tank is finished and toilets are in use. The sinks and shower- heads are purchased but waiting to be installed.

Windows

In the month March we raised enough funds for six windows for the back wall.  Four windows were donated by Lidia Mejia visiting Ojos de Agua from Los Angeles and two windows were donated by various members from the congregation. Donations keep coming; currently we have enough to purchase 11 more windows.  With donations expecting to arrive for windows in the next two months, Lord permitting, we will have all the windows! 

What’s next…

The next step will be to raise funds for the window’s guard rails and for doors.  Thank you to all that have been praying and donating to our construction efforts!

Youth events

To celebrate Valentine's day, the Youth Group hosted a special dinner for friends and projected the movie, To Save a Live.  In March, 30 youth traveled to Nueva Jerusalen Church in Coyolito for a joint youth service and dinner.  It was a special time to meet new friends, learn from God's word and share dinner together. On April 23rd, it was our turn to host youth from Coyolito. We had a fun morning at the soccer field with team building games, lessons on unity from the Bible,  soccer and softball games.  We had a hamburger feed at the church building and then everyone headed to the creek to cool off.

Visit from NC friends

At the end of March we were blessed by a visit from long time friends of Heber and Mercedes, Stan, Bill and Bob from Cary, NC.  They helped us by building a storage room and a sidewalk around the church building. (See our last blog post for more details from their trip). 

Immigration

On April 11^th we took a trip to the US Embassy and successfully turned in Camilo’s US residency application.  We have been told to wait about a month to receive a response. Please keep the immigration process in your prayers!

Please Pray...

•  for the formation of church leaders
•  that the Inauguration of the church building would be a true act of worship to God and that many from the Ojos de Agua community would attend.
•  for our children's outreach in neighboring community Zapotal.  
•  for Camilo's U.S. residency process.

A Special Visit from "tres amigos" of North Carolina

It’s 8:00 PM and we’re sitting on the porch reflecting back on the past week since our three friends from North Carolina arrived in Ojos de Agua. It’s been a special time of laughing, sharing, and working side-by-side with these long-time friends of Pastor Heber and Mercedes. 

We just returned from a nice home visit with a new Christian family. After some time in the Word, and fellowship they shared delicious pupusas with us for dinner. Efrain and Maria Luisa have seven children. They share their home with two of their grown children and their families. Keep them in your prayers as they grow in their walk with Christ. Pastor Heber meets with this family on Thursday for Bible study using the  Phillip Project.

Monday night at Antonio and Leonor's home

On Monday night we went to Antonio and Leonor’s home.  They have three daughters and one son-in-law. They are a new Christian family with three of them accepting Christ a week ago. Camilo meets with this family on Mondays for the Phillip Project Bible Study. Please keep this family in your prayers as they have been criticized for converting and have had fewer clients come buy at their little store they have in their house.

Stan Simpson, Bill Grimme and Bob Thimsen didn’t know what they were getting themselves into on Sunday afternoon as we left the town of Chalatenango and started to head up the mountain. “Who stole the road?” Stan asked as we bounced up and down in the car 20 km for about 45 minutes. The church service began a little after 5:00PM and instead of bringing the light to Ojos de Agua, our friends brought the darkness as the lights went out after the first 10 minutes of the service! But this was only a “temporary setback” (as my father would say),  Camilo took out the acoustic guitar and accompanied Stan as he sang, “The Power of Your Love,” as the sun set behind the mountain. Stan and Cindy communicated God’s word with the light of flashlights and some members in the congregation used their cell phone lights to read their Bibles. Most of the community was in the dark, but as we arrived home after church they came back on. Let’s just say it was an interesting way to start off the week for the missionaries who have been to El Salvador many times since 1999. In all their trips to Ezel Church in Ciudad Delgado, this had never happened before.

Church service in El Tablón on Tuesday night

On Tuesday afternoon we took our friends to the community of El Tablón on a hike to see petro glyphs that the ancient Pipil civilization had left behind.  In the evening they participated in a church service that we hold on Tuesdays in the home of Martin and Francisca. This was a very encouraging time of fellowship and praise.

 On Wednesday our friends were able to witness a wedding of a couple from our church.  Genaro and Lola had been together for years but had never legally been married.  In a beautiful ceremony including their four children, the couple exchanged vows before God, the congregation and many visiting friends from the community.  Stan also participated in singing, “Shout to the Lord,” during the service.

We are grateful to our friends for helping us in the area of construction as well.  In just a few days they built a much needed storage room, where construction tools, instruments and sound equipment will be stored. Along

Making concrete for the sidewalk on Thursday morning.

with our church members they are also installing a sidewalk that is being laid around the outside of the building.

Tomorrow, we head to Nueva Concepción to our monthly Pastors and Leaders and  Pastor’s wives’ meeting.  We are planning on introducing our new friends with the Pastors that we work with in Chalatenango, take them to the river and in the afternoon to a town called La Palma.

On Saturday, construction work will continue and in the evening we have our youth group meeting and then plan on projecting a movie called, Saving God.  Today we put up signs around the community advertising the event.  Please pray that God touches lives through this activity!

On Sunday our friends are planning on helping us with Sunday School lessons in two different locations, and Bob is planning on preaching in the afternoon service.

We are so grateful for their visit, they have been very encouraging to not only the Pastoral team, but to the congregation as a whole.