Friday, February 7, 2014

 On Friday morning, we once again ate breakfast in our hotel.  We have gotten to know Javier, who works the front desk and the breakfast buffet and about everything else.  It seems at the places we stayed at, everybody does everything.  They cook, they clean, they garden, they do security.  Here in Hotel Alicante, Javier stays all week and then goes home on the weekend. He spends the night, sleeping at the front desk.

Security guard at hotel

His son wanted his photo taken too!

Lobby outside our room

On Friday morning, Hylmar and Hylmar picked us up about 10:00 a.m. for our trip to the San Salvador volcano.  Omar and Magdalena and Samuel and the Rebecas were traveling in a separate car.  We met at a park where you could walk up to look down into the crater of the volcano.  Omar warned me there were many gradas.  But young Hylmar was my companion and helped me up some of the more uneven parts.  I got my fresh air this week.  I was wondering if I could submit this trip to Anthem as Vitamin D therapy!  I think we were in Parque El Boqueron.

Trail head for hike to top of the San Salvador volcano

One view of the crater

Another view of the crater

After getting a good hike and drinking in the scenery and taking lots and lots of photos, we went to lunch at Las Brumas. http://www.lasbrumas.com/

The restaurant where we ate near the volcano

Our last almuerzo....

On the property of the restaurant

We had excellent steaks. And we enjoyed our fellowship and the view immensely.
We drove down from the volcano and the Hylmars took us to the hotel where we napped and showered and packed and dressed for the big event of the week, the fellowship meeting with believers from Santa Tecla, San Salvador, and San Miguel.

Hylmar picked us up at 6:15 p.m. and we drove to Santa Tecla to the home of the Louly and Jose Antonio and their two sons.  Their home is a little bigger than Omar & Magdalena's so they decided we would meet there.  They took out all the furniture from the living room and put in some chairs.  Marcia, Omar, and I sat up front.  We arrived early enough to greet and talk with a lot of the folks before the fellowship began.  They were all so kind to us.  Many speak English but are as tentative as I can be about speaking Spanish.  We communicated very well.  Hylmar Jr. speaks English very, very well and he was able to help us communicate.  Omar also speaks very good English but he was busy coordinating things.

Then soon, fellowship began with sweet singing, prayers, manifestations.  As part of "announcements," Omar played the video that my Department at work had made for the El Salvador believers and a video that  Melissa had sent of the snow that was happening in Ohio while we were there.  After that, Marcia shared about The Way International and the many departments that contribute to moving God's Word.  She shared in English while Omar simultaneously translated.  After that, I taught in Spanish.  Omar had asked me a few weeks previous, so I had time to prepare it and translate it, and get Margarita to help me with pronunciation and phrasing.  I taught on Trusting in God to Live Prosperously:  The Believers in the Early Church. (Confiar en Dios para vivir con prosperidad: la iglesia del principio).  Everyone seemed to understand!  We closed with a song, To God Be the Glory in Spanish and then they gave a greeting to folks back at Headquarters which Marcia videoed.  The fellowship coordinators each shared on what they  had learned from Marcia's sharing and my teaching.  That was great to get that instant feedback!

We had brought some gifts for them, so we passed them out and then a few of them gave gifts to us.  That was very kind.  We had chicken sandwiches and juice for snacks afterwards (more like a meal!)

And we talked and hugged and took photos and then all too soon, the night was ended.   We hugged Magdalena and Samuel who would not be going to the airport and with us and hugged Rebeca and Rebeca.  Oh my gosh, how can you love people so much that you just met?

Hylmar and Hylmar took us home and Hylmar and Omar would be back in the morning to take us to the airport.