La Palma Girl

Recently, Jose Castillo was interviewed about the work here in La Palma. Today that article was in the paper.
Below is the link for the article:
www.diariocolatino.com/es/201110125/nacionales/88786/

To save the non-Spanish readers some time, here is the same article after Google has translated it. I apologize in advance for anything Google translated incorrectly.

Church of Christ helps poor families in Chalatenago

Pedro Valle Contributor
Diario Co Latino Writing

For an initiative of the Church of Christ in the city of Monett, Missouri, United States, low-income families in La Palma and its surroundings in the Department of Chalantenango, receive humanitarian aid that allows them to afford food and educational needs.

When members of this church visited La Palma, they found some important features, including the friendliness of its people, which was then found ways to support the county, both spiritually as well as socially.

According to church growth, were born other projects such as assistence with a monthly payment consisting of food, health, and education expenditures, for it was founded a school where they are given the opportunity to children from low income to form fully.

Another signficant contribution is the medical bridgades are performed each year in coordination with the Municipal Hall in the city or in the districts and villages, with the idea of bringing health services to all people who do not have the resoucres to afford the medical services.

Most beneficiary families are members of the church, though there is openness to other people who can register their children, places of origin of the student population includes La Palma, San Ignacio and some cantons of La Reina, has until now seventh grade level.

The aim of the Church of Christ is to train new generations with a visionary approach, aimed to have the ability to be productive citizens who can function in society and able to bring up their families.

"From kindergarten are taught English and computer skills as part of this projection, so that in the future be able to serve humanity, incorporating a Bible college that trains teachers and preachers," said Jose Castillo, associate and preacher of the Church of Christ.

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.

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

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

On a personal note: