El Salvador Convention

If you are reading this, you should know that you can speak a foreign language . In fact, there is great need in here in Central America for the foreign language that you know. Just to reiterate, one of the most difficult aspects of serving where the need is greater, learning a foreign language, you have already accomplished! Why do I say this? It is because you read, write and speak English fluently, a foreign language here in Central America.

The fact that there is a great need was made clear this weekend at the Regional Convention for the English speaking field for the countries of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The convention took place in San Salvador, El Salvador. It was a 10 hour bus ride for a group of us coming from Nicaragua. Many others had much longer journeys.

Further than it looks. Some came from Bluefields!

This was a unique gathering for so many reasons. Although it was not an international convention, it had that feel. Basically, most of the delegates are "need greaters" that have moved here from all over the world (at least 19 countries were mentioned, probably many more) to help preach in the English field here. Since there is a need for brothers, many of the speakers gave multiple parts. Brothers and Sisters from all different backgrounds and circumstances have come here to serve.

-Married Couples: Many who are retired and of course many who are young
-Entire Families: There are quite a few parents who have completely picked up and moved their children down here.
-Single People: Countless single brothers and sisters.

With Alex Rodriguez and young brother Eisenhower. Yes that Eisenhower.

Every single one of the ones we met this weekend have amazing stories of why they chose to come here and the tremendous experiences they are having.

For example, one sister we met related to us that she was struggling back home in California. She had the circumstances to do more, but not necessarily the desire. She prayed for the desire. At the same time, she also wanted to do some traveling. She eventually was put in contact with a brother who recommended Nicaragua. Interestingly she went to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua, not with the intent of being a "need greater". Yet, she enjoyed being there so much, she just decided to stay and began regular pioneering in the English group there. Now she is learning Spanish as well. Jehovah answered her prayer.

While there is not as much of a need in English where Bree and I are in Chinandega (in fact last year, the English congregation here was dissolved), that is certainly not the case in other parts of the country. As stated above, there is a group in San Juan Del Sur which is a very nice beach resort town (very much unlike Chinandega). On the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua there is also a great need. This is a very different Nicaragua. Mostly English creole is spoken there (basically you get to talk like your Jamaican). A brother who has moved from Mexico to there and is dating a sister from Tennessee told me that everyone in the congregation has about 15 bible studies! Yes, you reading this right now, could conduct 15 bible studies in English while living on the Carribean coast! He almost had me convinced to move there even though we have already settled on learning spanish in Chinandega!

I need two chairs. Last time I was here I broke a chair during the meeting. I was not about to have that happen again.

Of course, since we are in Central America, the brothers here don't have access to all the fancy equipment to run the convention like we do back home. The sound system was sketchy at times (The sound frequently burst loudly or it would just cut out altogether, like during the opening prayer). The video department had to run everything off one laptop. One little mistake on the first day was a bit awkward. The brothers were having some trouble playing one of the videos and they accidentally flashed a picture of the new book which wasn't released until Saturday! It was all good though as most in the audience had already heard the program before (either in Spanish or while visiting home which most need greaters do in the summer).

Convention souvenir

We were warmly welcomed after our long trip to the convention city by our El Salvadorian brothers. They clapped after we got off the bus and arranged rides to our hotels. One brother named Mauricio quickly came up to us. He was so helpful and loving. He is about 40 years old and has learned English. His English accent is so funny though. It is like a hybrid of a spanish and an Italian accent. Each sentence ended with an upswing in inflection. He told us that whatever we needed he would help us since we are in a foreign country. He said, "That is why I'm ah-here! So I can ah-help you! You are my brothers, you know!" On the way to the hotel, Mauricio told us they had been waiting for us for over 6 hours! (We were a bit late)

Sam had not been feeling well since we left for El Salvador. Let's just say his condition worsened once we checked into the hotel. By Saturday morning Sam decided to stay home since he had spent the night in the bathroom. I was getting concerned by then since Sam had been progressively getting worse in the three days prior. I told Mauricio about Sam and he immediately directed us to a brother who was a doctor. Sam actually came to the session during the noon break. Mauricio brought Sam to the doctor who was there doing the medical department. He actually had a makeshift infirmary set up at the convention site! After about ten seconds of questioning, the brother had Sam go behind the curtain (which really didn't hide much) and a sister administered a shot to his rear end. After the session, I told Sam he should at least ask what the shot was. The brother told him it was an antibiotic, amoxicillin. Sam is all better now.

About 900 attended each day.

Each night, big groups went to dinner. San Salvador is quite nice and there are many places to go. Mauricio wanted to go to dinner with us, but it just didn't work out sadly. The day we left, we were telling one of the local brothers how helpful they had all been, including Mauricio, in showing us hospitality. Then he went on to tell us that Mauricio has been partaking at the memorial for the last few years! What a privilege it was to have this perspective brother of Christ take such an interest in us!

Well, the trip is over now and after a long trip back home we are ready to hit the ground running in learning spanish! Stay tuned!

UPDATE: Our bus made it through the boarders of each country pretty easily until the final crossing from Honduras to Nicaragua (of course). It really was not much trouble but just funny. The boarder patrol was bit overwhelmed with the size of our group and evidently decided they didn't feel like processing our health inspection paperwork (some had started to fill out the proper forms, but they stopped us after they saw how many they would have to process). So they just gave us all little scraps of paper which apparently verified we had a clean bill of health. It's good to see that the world is on the same page on how to stop the spread of ebola!

Officially cleared!

Waiting for the OK to cross the boarder.