Pilgrims and strangers

As I'm sure some of you know, getting all the paperwork done for a long stay in a foreign country can sometimes be a long and arduous process--especially if your paperwork isn't exactly right. My paperwork was all in order, praise God, and it still took 5 trips to various locations in El Salvador until I had my NIT and my carné (see below). Plus, before I even got to El Salvador, I needed to acquire a certified copy of my birth certificate with an apostille attached and a criminal record sheet with an apostille attached. All told, I made 2 trips to Harrisburg at home and 5 trips down here in order to get the two plastic cards below. Also, my wallet was about $160 lighter. Yikes!!

My carné, a residency card that serves as identification.

My NIT, an identification number that you need to get your license
 and also for other various reasons.

All this stuff about immigration made me think of what my high school science teacher, Mr. Harrison, used to say when we would talk about citizenship, traveling, passports and such. [This is my best Mr. Harrison voice] "Brother, Mr. Stoltzfus, did you forget that other country you are a citizen of?" :) And he's right. If we are Christians, we are part of the Heavenly Kingdom of God. It's free (money-wise), anyone can be a part of it, and there is no paperwork required! Only heart-work. Praise God for salvation and His blood that he shed on the cross to pay for our "immigration"! I hope this thought blesses you as much as it did me.

In other news since last time...

The week after vacation started off with a bang! On Tuesday night, a group came to visit Melody. They are staying until this coming Thursday morning. They brought along a bunch of things for school and otherwise that us staff had order online and shipped to Melody's house. They also helped to butcher 87 chickens on Thursday. Now we have plenty of meat for a while!

Chickens meeting their doom. Left to right: José, Nata, Mauricio, Manuel,
Matthias, Melody, Rose, Andrea, Kendra, and Elmer.

On Wednesday was Joel's eighth birthday! In the last period of school, we made ice cream and ate it with some cake. I also gave him some Legos for his birthday. He and the rest of the class have had lots of fun playing with them already!

What would I do without Eduardo, Joel, and Jairo! They all
tremendously enjoy playing with the new Legos. Joel appears a bit
frustrated, however, in his search for the Lego piece he desires. 

On the weekend, we had a conferencia at church Saturday evening and all day Sunday. Arturo (Arthur) Nisly talked about some key things that makes us different as Anabaptists. He introduced the acronym BISNES to help us remember the key points.

B = Biblia (Bible -how we interpret the Bible and our emphasis on the New Testament)

I  = Iglesia (Church - how we worship)

S = Salvacion (Salvation - our doctrine of salvation)

N = No-Resistencia (Nonresistance - how we treat our enemies)

E = Evangelismo (Evangelism - how we evangelize others)

S = Separacion (Separation - our doctrine of Noncomformity)

Between the power-point that he used and his clear Spanish, I understood most of what he said, which was a blessing! I really enjoyed the weekend and it was well worth the extra church time.

Another major thing (for me). I got more mail! We hadn't gone to the guest house in San Salvador (where all the mail goes) for a while, so there was a bit of a backlog. I got 4 envelopes, a new record! I about couldn't wait to open them all. :) Thanks so much to all you kind people who took the time to write. It is much appreciated! I also want to thank all of you that are praying and supporting me in other various ways. I can't thank you enough and God bless y'all richly!

I hope y'all enjoyed reading! I'll wrap it up with some prayer requests:

• Thank God that the first third (!) of the year went well and pray that He would continue to bless the work here at CICS
• Pray for all of us here that God would give us patience and wisdom as we work with students. Pray that we could plant the Word of God in their hearts and that it would bear fruit in their lives
• Pray for Carlos. He is a student here and he has asked for prayer several times that he could draw closer in his relationship to God. Pray that God would work mightily in his life.
• Pray for safety for our visitors in their travels
• Pray that I could continue to learn the languages. I'm not nearly there yet! I now need to have story (for devotions for the deaf children) 6 times a month, so that'll be a real challenge. I will also start translating for the deaf at church soon.

God bless y'all once again for your support! If you'd like to contact me, please see my contact information on the top right. Until next time...