'Twas the Night Before

Posted by Teresa Barten , , Friday, December 24, 2010 8:09 PM

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse... except for the sound of me gently typing away on my laptop. I would like to send a thousand apologies for not updating the blog more often. Its one of my New Years Resolutions. Blog more. The last month or so has been crazy and wonderful all at the same time. For now, I'll just focus on the present instead of back-tracking.


As most of you already know, I'm in the States for the Holiday season. I fly back to El Salvador on January 13th. It has been such a blessing to be here with family and friends, but I also miss being with my family in El Salvador.
My family all got together for our Christmas celebration last weekend, so this weekend is going to be fairly low key. Tonight, Im staying at my brothers house. Everyone, except me, is already asleep and I can see the beautiful glow of the Christmas tree from the pull out sofa. With Tim not being home last Christmas and with me being out of the country for half the year, it has been such a blessing to have both of us home. Tomorrow, Tim and I will be getting up at 5:00 am (quite a feat for us, we are not morning people) to go Christmas caroling with family and friends. This has been my favorite Christmas tradition. Its the only thing we still do at Christmas that I remember doing with my Dad when he was alive.

I want to thank all of you for your love and support this year. I wish you and your families a wonderful Christmas and a very blessed New Year!

Also, we are in the process of getting together a Let's Start Talking team for next year. If you are interested or know anyone who is, let me know. If you would like to help with one of our quarterly mission teams, we'd love to have you. We especially need doctors for our medical mission in March. If you want to just come visit and see the great things happening in La Palma first hand, come on down! And after you've opened all your presents and gifts, try to think of some of the other items in your house that would make a great donation to either a local charity or to a family in La Palma. Sorry for the long La Palma sales pitch, but while you are approaching the new year, I hope you take a minute to consider all the different ways you can make a difference. :)

Love to you all and Merry Christmas,
Teresa

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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up. ~Pablo Picasso

Posted by Teresa Barten , , Monday, November 15, 2010 2:29 PM

I have so much blogging to catch up on, but instead of trying to relay the last few weeks, let me just tell you about today.

Today is Monte's birthday and Reina wanted to throw him a surprise party. We had homemade tamales, compliments of Reina, and chocolate y strawberry cake. Delicious. And great company too.


After lunch, I was off to visit Liseth, Edith, and Flor, three of the girls from church. I went to their house and hung out with them and their little brother Edgar and their mom Anna. We had a good time and it was an excellent opportunity for me to practice my spanish. I was there for maybe 20 minutes before we decided to go visit Anna's sister, Morena. Morena is the woman whose husband died last month. I had been wanting to go see her also. I love going to Morena's house. She has a very beautiful garden and lives on the side of the mountains. Its so beautiful there and much quieter than it is in town.
This is one view of her beautiful garden.

They had been working crafts in the artesian style that is famous to La Palma. I mentioned that I wanted to learn to paint and draw like they do because I think their work is beautiful. Here is a picture of Anna and Morena helping me get started!

Seriously. Up in the mountains, in a beautiful garden, on a beautiful afternoon, learning to paint (color-she doesnt trust me with real paints yet, thats our next lesson!) La Palma style. Amazing day.





While we were working, they served us some very delicious coffee grown and produced in La Palma. (Don Jose cafe) and some sweet bread that was made the same way the artesians made it. She said you cant buy this type of bread at a bakery. It was made with black corn. All of it was very delicious and I felt so blessed to be there. While we were sitting there, Morena shared some stories and pictures about her late husband and his work. She said he used to study with Fernando Llort (famous artist) and that Alfredo, her husband, had started a business selling the local artesian style of art. She is continuing with the art in memory of her husband.
These are the finished pieces that I painted! Loved every minute of it!











This is something else her family makes and sells for about $10 or $12. She gave this to me as a gift. So sweet, but a fairly expensive gift to give. I tried to politely decline, but she was having none of that. So i thanked her for the gift and welcomed into my apartment my first Christmas decoration of the season.


More to blog soon!

Teresa

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Words or Deeds?

Posted by Teresa Barten , , Wednesday, November 3, 2010 4:38 PM

Is Missions About Words or Deeds?
I found the above article to be very interesting. It talked about that famous quote "Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words." I think what this quote was trying to say is that our lives should be a constant testimony to the amazing God we serve. Its easy to consider myself a missionary here in El Salvador, but I should still consider myself a missionary when I move home. Sharing the Gospel in the States shouldn't be less important that sharing it in some far off country. I pray that when I move home, I can take the lessons I've learned here and continue to work for the kingdom in my everyday life.

Something else the article said that I found interesting:
"But man, if I hear another well-fed, TOMS-wearing evangelical kid quote St. Fracis ('preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words') one more time as a justification for their unwillingness to utter a word to anyone about Christ as the one true hope, I don't know what I'll do."

Wow. I think in missions its easy to get side tracked and focus soley on the actions of the trip. Building houses, medical clincis, schools, orphanages, food drives, clothing drives. These things are all great, don't get me wrong. I just pray that we never hide behind those things and forget to mention the real reason why we are here. Its because we serve an awesome God and we want to share that joy with others.

Please continue to pray for the work here in LaPalma that we may fearlessly speak the Word of God. Ephesians 6:19

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Uncle Park

Posted by Teresa Barten , , Monday, November 1, 2010 8:45 PM

On a personal note:

Tonight, my great uncle Park passed away. The last of my Grandpa's (Jess Willis) siblings. We are indeed quickly losing an amazing generation of Godly examples and church leaders. Please dont take advantage of this generation. We need to appreciate them and learn as much as we can from them while we still have them.

Uncle Park. I did not know him as well as I would have liked to have known him. But this is what I can tell you. He had an irresitiable smile and unwavering faith in God. Despite his own failing health, he traveled to Missouri to be with my family when my grandpa passed away. I remember him sitting on the front row next to my grandma as they tried to comfort each other during that difficult time. I also know that as soon as he heard that I was coming to work in El Salvador, he called me to say how proud he was and how he wanted to help in any way he could. He told me that with his social security check, his monthly income was around $700, but that he knew that he could help finanically support me. I told him that his love and prayers were all the support I needed, but he wanted to help. He decided he would start out sending $10 a month and if he could, he would increase it to $20 a month. I greatly appreciate everyone who has contributed to make this work possible. But this gift in particular really got to me.
Luke 12:43-44 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, "I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything-all she had to live on."

This week marks the one year anniversary since my grandma passed away. She has been on my mind a lot lately. I take comfort in this following verse. It was one of her favorites.
John 14:1-2
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."
I can almost picture her quoting this verse with a smile on her face and that soft warm gentle voice saying, "Dont cry over this, dont you know that our Father in heaven is looking out for us? And one day soon we will all be together in heaven. no sense in you crying right now. I'm just waiting for you to get here."


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November

Posted by Teresa Barten , , 8:22 PM

November is here. This month is going to be quite different from my other time here. Its going to be a lot more flexible and a lot less planned out.


Yesterday, I went to Honduras for an area wide church service. It was an excellent time to see our brothers and sisters from Ocotepeque (I JUST learned how to spell that, finally!) and to meet some new brothers and sisters from other parts of Honduras.

Today and tomorrow are holidays here in Central America. And yes, they like their holidays. It seems like theres always a holiday or some special event going on. For example, Monday is the holiday, but school is canceled for Tuesday as well, as a Dia de Descansar. Yeah, thats day of rest. We are taking a day of rest from having a vacation day. Then the school year ends next week. This week the school kids have their English final. After that, I will have a lot of test grading and getting their final grades in order.

Ive been thinking for the last few weeks of what I would do during my last month here before going to visit the States. I was worried I wouldnt have anything to do. But I know God has several adventures planned for me. This week, I'm hoping to visit Casa de Mi Padre. Its an orphanage in San Salvador that is doing some really great things. My plan is to meet with them and see the good work that they are doing. Hopefully I can learn from some of the things they are accomplishing and take that back to the work in LaPalma.

Im also hoping to work in Ocotepeque for a week this month. The goal is to teach a week long English seminar with English lessons and English Bible lessons. Please pray that this is successful. After that, I'm considering meeting up with another mission group to help build houses for a week further into Honduras. As of right now, I'm not sure the exact details and if this will come to be, but I know God has a plan and I'm just trying to be flexible.

We are also recieving a large shipment from the States. I will be working with the Lalli's to take care of unloading the shipment and organizing it.
Also, we have a group from the States coming the first week of December. We are planning a VBS for that week and I need to get working on those bilingual lesson plans for the kids.

A very busy month and I'm so blessed to be apart of all of it. The great thing about living here is you wake up not knowing what you will be able to do that day, and then God surprises you with something amazing. Some unexpected way you can bless someone and in return, you walk away just as blessed.


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Update

Posted by Teresa Barten , , Friday, October 22, 2010 4:29 PM


The man that I asked for prayer requests for in the last post died a little before noon today.

We hadn't been notified untill his niece, Edith, showed up for school at 1:20. For those of you that have been to La Palma before, the man that died is the uncle of Liseth, Edith, and Flor and he is the mayor's brother. Please continue to pray for the family over the next coming days. Death is always hard to comprehend but when the person is older and in a lot of pain, we can comfort ourselves by saying that they've had a good life and won't be in pain anymore. This man was in his mid 40s and for whatever reason, he chose to leave this life. I can't even begin to comprehend what the family is going through. Please pray that God grant them peace and comfort and that they can lean on each other and on God for support.


http://www.save.org/ For suicide prevention information.

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Home Visits

Posted by Teresa Barten , , 9:37 AM


This week, I went on a few home visits. I really enjoy going on home visits and getting to sit and talk with people in their homes. It helps me to get to know them better. For example, Thursday night at church, I looked around and realized I've been to a majority of the members houses that were present that night. It was very humbling to realize that these people walk miles in the dark up very steep hills after church and yet they don't use that as an excuse to not go. In the States, I've been guilty of finding excuses for not making it to weekly services. And we only meet three times a week. In La Palma, we meet seven times if you include all of the Bible classes that are offered on a weekly basis.
That being said, the picture above is from one of the home visits. This little boy is two months old and looked so peaceful sleeping in that hammock. I think they have the right idea here! All babies should have their own hammock! :)
That home visit was fairly emotional. The man of the house had unsuccessfully tried to kill himself the night before. He's still in the hospital and I'm not sure if his condition is stable or not. The family was obviously very shaken. Theres not really much you can say in that situation that is going to ease the hurt and fear that comes with knowing your husband wanted to take his own life. Sometimes, all you can do is just be there, show that you care for them, and pray with them.
Please pray for this family in the coming weeks. The husband has a long road to physical recovery and the emotional recovery for him and his family will be an even harder one.
Thank you for reading my blog! And thank you for your prayers. I ask that you pray for the work here in La Palma. Pray that we can hear what God's plan is and follow it.

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