Our Journal: Pupusas, Pupusas, Pupusas!! We made it to San Salvador, El Salvador!!

back to Our Walk of Faith

Saturday, August 4th
We are walking again today!! We were about 1 mile from the border when a guy in a tourism truck stopped and offered us a ride to the border. His name was

Luis, and he had cold bottled water to share with us! He dropped us out and we headed for the border. (Did we mention how sad we were to leave Guatemala?!!! One of the signs wishes us a

happy trip from Guatemala...the other welcomes us to

El Salvador.) We weren't sure what to expect especially since the border of Guatemala was so sketchy.

Much to our surprise,

Alex and Julissa, the customs agents, were REALLY nice. We talked with them for 10-15 minutes. They even wanted pictures of us! Hopefully they are indicative of how our time in El Salvador will be. We were a little sad though because we didn't get a new stamp in our passport...the one we have from Guatemala is good until we get to Costa Rica if our time doesn't run out. It's a small country...we may not even be here a month. We'll see what happens! Like Guatemala, they experienced a civil war that ended about 15 years ago. They use the dollar here, so no money converting in our heads for a little while. Also simillar to Guatemala, they don't use daylight savings time here either because it makes little to no difference in energy saving. The sun comes up around 6 am and goes down around 6 pm almost year round.

We walked on...not sure where we were going to stay...the closest town on our map was 16 miles away, and it was already 4:30. We knew that God had a plan though...we just had no idea what.

After we'd walked about 3 miles, a man called out to us in English to ask what we were doing. When we told him, he invited us to join his family for supper.

As it turns out, Duglas just arrived today from Canada. His sister just recently arrived from California, and the

family was celebrating...the siblings hadn't seen each other in 18 years! We had another kind of tamal which was delicious by the way! And we chatted with the family. About 30 minutes later, Duglas's uncle, Angel, his wife, Angela, and their daughter, Karla, arrived. Chris and I started talking to them and felt an instant connection! It was pretty amazing. I learned that they lost their son, Wilson in a car accident a little over a year ago. He was in school in Dallas, TX at the time. It's been very hard for the family to deal with. Please pray for their healing!!

When they were getting ready to go, they invited us to ride with them to their house and spend the night with them in San Salvador...before we realized it we were headed that way. They took us for supper at a

Pupuseria...El Salvador is famous for their Pupusas...corn tortillas filled with cheese, beans, cheese and beans, veggies, or pork skins topped with a tomato sauce. Chris's favorite is cheese, and mine is beans and cheese. From there we went back to their house. They invited us to ride a little further with them the next day, but we told them that we'd pray about it.

Sunday, August 5th
We decided to stay in San Salvador...if we rode with them it would mean that we would pass 2/3 of El Salvador in a car. We decided to find a church instead. Karla helped us decide on a baptist church called El Cordero de Dios (Lamb of God). We got there early, but Freddy, the guy who guards the church, was there. We talked to him and another lady named Sonya who came early. Freddy took us for breakfast...pupusas again! Then we came back to church.

It was a very interesting service...not like any other baptist church that we've ever been in...it was really formal in the order of service. It really reminded me more of a Lutheran church. The guest speaker that day reminded us that we were to be light in this world because Jesus lives in us!

After the service we talked to

David and Mari for a bit...they ended up inviting us to their house for lunch. There was supposed to be a workday at the church in the afternoon, so we were going to go back. On the walk to their house, we got to chat with Diego and Tayra, David and Mari's children. As we talked to this family, we were intrigued by them. Both David and Mari are thinkers. They really challenged us with some of the questions that they asked us about our journey, and their kids are super nice! It turned out that because of the rain, the workday was cancelled. So they invited us to stay the night with them. We continued talking and sharing...they explained a lot to us about the civil war and sadly enough, most of the evangelical churches didn't want to take a stand during all of this turmoil. It's been since the war that the evangelical churches have begun to realize that they are supposed to serve others, give to the poor, and take care of widows and orphans. Our conversations with them were really mentally stimulating!!

Monday, August 6th
David and Mari had a planning meeting at the church, so Chris and I stayed to hang out with the kids and wash some clothes. We played with them some and made some phone calls.

Diego fixed lunch for us and Tayra made the lemonade! When David and Mari came home, they invited us to go with them to visit Mari's grandmother and family. We agreed...and also invited them to

ice cream along the way. We had a good time fellowshipping with them. When we got home, we taught the family how to

play spoons...always fun!!

Tuesday, August 7th

Time to start walking again...Diego guided us out of the city. I couldn't figure out why, but I was exhausted. We walked about 7 miles, and I couldn't go anymore. Thankfully we were near a town, so we got something to eat and rested a bit. I still didn't feel up to walking anymore, so we went to the internet to work on e-mail. When we left there, it was dark. We weren't sure where to go so we kept asking people about a hotel. They all pointed us in the same direction, so we kept walking. Finally a really sweet lady,

Ana, told us that she would take us to a safe place. Well, we were safe, but that place was sketchy! It only cost $6 for a room...yikes...you can imagine what it was like. Oh well, I was exhuasted.

Wednesday, August 8th
I felt like a new person this morning...ready to walk whatever distance!! So off we went again. (5 of the last 7 days we've walked...that may be a record) It was close to lunch time when we were coming into Soyapango, so we stopped into a gas station to use the bathroom and make decisions about lunch. Well, wouldn't you know it?! While I was in the bathroom,

Ricardo, the owner came out and started talking to Chris in English. He was really nice and advised us about where to stop and where to avoid. Then he brought a bottle of water for each of us. As we were deciding what to do, Ricardo (right) came back out again. I asked him if there was a bank nearby (we still had quite a few quetzales from Guatemala, and we needed to exchange them for dollars) and a place to eat. He told us where the banks and restuarants were and told us that we could leave our packs at his brother's business instead of having to haul them around! Praise God! As we were getting ready to go, he came back. One of his friends, Roberto (left), had just pulled up. He's from Guatemala, so he offered to change the money for us...at a better rate than the banks will give!! Praise God!! What an amazing God we serve!!

After we finished lunch and picked up our packs, we walked some more. It was about 4:30...we took a water break and prayed for God to open a door for us. We no more than finished praying, than a group a ladies and children came walking around the curve. They were all coming back from work. They bag up the rice after it's been dried out in the sun. For every 100 POUND sack they fill they are paid 15 CENTS!! Those who are really fast can earn $7 or $8 PER DAY. That's a good paying job...maybe the illegal immigration looks a little different from their eyes...their stomachs. (The ladies taught us a little about rice too. I'm going to reveal our ignorance again. We thought that rice grew in the same form in which we consume it. NOPE! It has an outer shell on it that has to be taken off. Then the rice is fried, and then it's bagged up to sell in the form we know it in.) I asked the ladies how far it was to the next town. They told us that it wasn't very far, but that it was getting late. They asked some questions and then continued on their way. The group had walked about 100 yards when they all stopped. Concha came back to invite us to go with them. She thought one of the churches would let us stay with them. So we

followed them up into their neighborhood...probably 1 mile from the main road and away from all the noise and traffic. While we were walking, I got to know Daisy who is 14. She went to school that morning and then went to work that afternoon. The scenery was beautiful. It was a neighborhood like no other that we've stayed in. Please pray for this neighborhood "Las Delicias." They sometimes have to go with out water for 1 or 2 weeks at a time. When this happens, they have to use rain water that they catch to bathe, wash clothes, and flush the toilet (if they have that kind of plumbing). The water that they use for cooking they have to walk a mile or so to get it and bring it back to their houses...and it's not purified water even then, ,but it's more safe than rain water to drink!

It turned out that the pastor wasn't at the church, but Concha offered to let us stay in her uncle's rental house. The tenants left just 2 weeks ago. Daisy (pink top with black flowers) invited us to her church, so off we went. We chatted with

Daisy's family--Tere (her mom), Blanca (her sister), Mariana (her grandma) and Daniel, Brian, Jaime, and Tatiana (her cousins) while we were waiting for church time. They also introduced us to some Salvadorean sweet bread while we waited.

Daisy took us to church Iglesia de de Dios de Profecia "Roca de los Siglos" (Chruch of God of Prophecy "Rock of Ages")

Pastor Modesto (tuquoise shirt) was fired up!! It was a good service. He talked about the only way to be fruitful as a Christian is to stay close to the Vine!!

After church, we met Pastor Modesto, and he invited us to visit with him on Thursday morning. Then Daisy' family fed us supper. Then we went back to Concha's house. We met her husband,

Dimas, and their kids, David and Wendy. Then we called it a night. (Oh yeah...one more thing to show God's hand...the ladies hadn't been called to work in the rice for almost a year...it was their first day back...and they didn't get called to work any of the other days we were there...wahoo! God's timing is incredible)

Thursday, August 9th
What a great day!

Concha normally makes 160 pupusas daily and sells them in a neighborhood that's about 30 minutes away on foot, but today she slept in. She made pupusas for us instead They were made out of flour from rice instead of flour from corn. They were soooo good!! Maybe our favorite ones yet!! We spent some time sharing with their family, and then we went to meet with Pastor Modesto.

Pastor Modesto is in love with the Lord...it's obvious. He has some material that he wanted to share with us about being in the ministry, so we took it with us to read and take notes on. He also talked with us about God's Word. We didn't have a huge opportunity to share with him, but it was good to listen.

Then we hung out with

Daisy and her family for a bit. She took us to see the school band...we could hear them all over the community. After that, we had lunch with Dimas and Concha. Then I spent the afternoon reading the material on being in God's ministry. It was pretty good. Time passed really quickly though!

From there we went to visit with Concha (on the left) again. While we were there,

Jenny (one of Concha's neighbors), came up and said that she had something for us. We had never seen her or talked to her, but she gave us an envelop. She told us that it was a love offering from her. We thanked her and almost as soon as we took the picture, she left. We were shocked when we opened it that evening...it was the largest amount of money that we've received from one person since we left the US. How's that for a lesson...God will provide for your needs in the ways you least expect it without your help! We will just keep being obedient!

It was time to head to church again...we went by Daisy's house to see if she was going to come and then we headed out. The pastor spoke about the characteristics of the Holy Spirit. At the end of the service, he invited us to bring greetings to the congregation. Then we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of the youth after the service!!

What a sweet group of people!

We had supper with Dimas and Concha and family again and much to our surprise, the water came on for the first time in 15 days! We quickly moved to start filling every available container. Praise God!

Well, it looks like it's time to walk again tomorrow! It will be interesting to see were we end up! God bless you and keep you! We love you! Keep walking in faith for Jesus!!!

Angel and Karla are really talented musically! Here's a picture of them playing the Marumba together...