Great Things for the New Year

Hello, Everyone, and blessings from El Salvador. I hope everyone had wonderful holidays with family and friends. The celebrations here were different from those in the States, but still involved lots of visiting and eating.

Since the beginning of the year, we were able to bless the children at an orphanage with new school shoes. Shopping for that many shoes was an experience and one I will never forget. The kids LOVED their new shoes. Thank you to everyone who supports such outreaches such as this one.

I was also able to go out once again and give food to people who are either homeless or very poor. The next few months we are going to coordinate this outreach with some churches in poor communities. They can help us reach the children and elderly better than we are now. I want to do the most good with what we have. Please pray for us to be effective with what we have to give them. The churches will also offer us a covering which is important when going into such areas. Where there is extreme poverty, there is always a little element of danger. So we need to be careful as we go.

We still have a lady and baby at Abigail. The lady is currently looking for a job. She is trained as a teacher and feels she is ready to leave and start on her own, providing she can be employed. We are assisting her in every way we can with contacts. We have a meeting next month with ISDEMU, which is a government organization here in El Sal who are working to help women. We met with them at the end of last year and they are a valuable resource of information for us. At one time, they had a home here for women, but had to close it due to lack of funding and other problems. So the government is asking us to glean from them before we take a full house. ISDEMU has also told us they can assist us with placing the women in training positions for jobs. So we will see where this leads. I feel it can only be good. The more networking we do, the better. We are still working with AGLOW here in El Sal and they are a great resource for meeting the spiritual needs of both the women and men.

I do have a wonderful piece of personal news. Immigration FINALLY accepted my paperwork and gave me a temporary residency for 3 months. After that, they will give me another 3 months. This is all part of the process. They are ultimately going to grant me a 5 year residency, which I am told is unheard of for the first time. Talk about FAVOR!!!!! I do have to fix a couple of my papers that I brought with me from the States (Thank you, Leta) and Immigration here is willing to give me time to take care of those. One I will have to take care of when I come home in the fall. But Thank You, Lord, that I am now here officially and they cannot kick me out!!!!!! The residency is also one that allows me to come and go out of the country without this country's permission. Not everyone gets that. More favor...... So it looks like I am here to stay and I know I have work here to do. It all goes slower than I like or anticipated, but everyday, I am trying to touch someone who needs help, whether in food, clothing, or prayer. I do have several places that have asked me to speak this month and those will be happening the next two weeks.

Thank you as always for everything you are doing back on the home front. Without your prayers and support, I could not be here doing what I know I am called to do. Thank you also to all of you who are praying for my Spanish. It is amazing what I can now comprehend. I seldom need Juanita to tell me what has been said. Now we are working on the speaking. I am writing more emails to Abigail, all in Spanish, and can have a decent conversation in Spanish when I need to. I am by no means there yet, but I can tell I am making progress. Soon.......

I love and miss all of you. I am looking forward to your visits this year. If you can't visit, please keep emailing. I love hearing from you.

Blessings and all my love!!!!!!