This is Major Tom to Ground Control

We're stepping through the door,

And we're floating in a most peculiar way,

And the stars look very different today.

  Sorry for the lack of communication over the last couple of weeks.  Our Internet capabilities have been sketchy at best.  In fact as I write this I still don’t have a way to put this on the Web, only hopes that someday I can share these words with you.

                Well we made it!  Thanks be to God.  We arrived in San Vicente, El Salvador on the evening of February 26^th, after a fairly uneventful bus ride from Antigua.  Apart from the driver not having an excellent sense of which route to take we arrived around 6 p.m., 5 hours later than we assumed,  at the same hotel that the short-term teams has been using for the past few years.  It is comfortable, secure, and easy but can become expensive quickly, so our first priority was to find suitable housing for the twelve of us.  Shortly upon arrival, we were greeted by Pastor Jorge, his wife Maritza, son Jorgito, daughter Jackie and her husband Oscar, our new family (don’t worry old family I’ll think about you from time to time).

    Sunday was a day to go exploring for our new home.  Oscar returned bright and early to go for a run with Trent and I.  He had mentioned something about this the night before, but I really didn’t believe he was serious (with the heat here you drip sweat when sitting, let alone dodging traffic through the streets of the San Vicente).  Anyway, it was a good chance to catch up with Oscar and get the legs moving after being cramped up in a bus the day before.  Later we all walked to Central Park and climbed the clock tower.  You get quite a view from the top of the surrounding area.  There was a mix of emotions from the kids; some didn’t want to open their eyes because of the height, others were ready to climb over the railing for a better look (I love seeing this world through my kids eyes as well).  We ended the day in a service at Pastor Jorge’s church (El Primer Templo Christiano), where we were welcomed as the church’s new missionaries.

                Monday morning we hit the ground running (actually walking and driving because we had learned our lesson the day before).  We gave ourselves a list of three things to try to accomplish for the week: 1) Find a house or houses that would work for the two families, 2) Find a vehicle (walking works well within the city but the majority of our building work will be in small towns outside the city, so a vehicle becomes essential), 3) Find a school for the kids.  We figured that if we could get at least one or two of these items knocked off the list by the end of the week we would be in good shape.  Well by Tuesday we had rented a house, put a deposit on a truck, and had the kids registered in school, to begin the following week.  The Lord has provided!

                We live somewhere in San Vicente?!  I know our house number is 28-A but I am a bit unsure of the actual street address because street signs are few and far between here.  I do know that we get garbage pickup everyday because our house is on a corner  (garbage gets collected in one direction Mon-Wed-Fri and the perpendicular direction on Tues-Thurs-Sat.  This alone is worth its weight in gold).  When people ask where we live, I usually just tell them that we live across the street from the offices of FMLN, the communist party in El Salvador.  I guess depending on who is in power; this could be a good or bad thing, but so far they have been nothing but friendly to us. 

Our house is really more like two houses in one, with each level having its own kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms.  It is clean, spacious, and functional, and I bet that if we drew a point on a map minimizing proximity to things like the church, the grocery store, the market, etc., we probably would have put a star on this house.  It is ideal in so many ways, but probably mostly in the fact that we live together but can have defined family space.

 The following weekend, a team of group leaders arrived from across Canada in order to build a couple of houses in a new area of El Salvador, to build relationships and communication, and to define some vision and goals for the World Partners organization going forward.  It was great to see some familiar faces from home, and to put faces to many of the names that we have heard over the years.  We spent 3 days in Victoria, Las Cabanas building and providing a free medical clinic to people from this village (supposedly one of the poorest in El Salvador).  We are exploring new opportunities for teams that will be coming down in the fall.

                But it was a busy week at home as well, as we rented an unfurnished house, we continued to set up our house with furniture and appliances, and Carie and Kerrie learned how to wash clothes all by hand, and then we decided it would be better to give someone else a job by paying them to do it!! Then all the kids (with the exception of our youngest Violet) began school.  They are attending La Escuela Adventista, a small private school not far from our house.  Uniforms are required so we bought material and had a local seamstress whip them up for us.  They look pretty cute in their sky blue pants and skirts and white shirts.  I’m just not sure how long those shirts will remain white, but they sure looked good on the first day.   School starts at 7 a.m. for the older kids and goes until noon.  Winnie, Elias, and Ellis are all together in Kindergarten, and they attend from 8 a.m. to 11:30.  There is no English in the school, except for an hour on Friday mornings (and I heard that Annah and Isaiah were teaching their classmates last week) so I know that our kids should be fluent by the end of the year.  Everybody has been excited making new friends and getting back into some form of a routine.  We are extremely thankful for a good school, with excellent teachers.

                And know our so called ‘work’ or ‘projects’ begin, but even as I write these words I realize that these things have begun long ago, and more often than not the important things we do are simply the small things.  Maybe my work (our work) is to say “Buenos Dias” to the neighbour 6 or 7 times day as I go in and out of our house for various things.  Maybe it’s to hand a juice box to the little girl that has been peeking in our door all morning.  Or maybe it’s to help another neighbour clean what’s left of his house off of the street at 11:30 p.m. because it blew over in a freak wind storm this afternoon.

                I leave you with some words I love from Henri Nouwen, speaking about his thoughts on our mission in this world:

                More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them.  It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence.  Still, it is not as simple as it seems.  My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets.  It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress.  But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.

Stuart

Scrabble Anyone???

A week left until we head to El Salvador. Then it seems as if we will have to start all over again. We still don’t have a place to move into, so we will likely be staying in the hotel there for a couple of days or maybe a week. I can’t help but wonder how the kids will readjust because it seems like they are just starting to “normal out” here.

I keep praying though. I pray that I will hear God’s voice and not just my own (or my children’s). I know he tells us not to worry about tomorrow, but the mother in me has a hard time with that. The kids have done really well with school and it would be nice to get them into school in El Salvador ASAP to get them right into the swing of things language wise. I am really enjoying my lessons. Yesterday we spent our whole lesson playing Spanish Scrabble. My teacher had never played before and I had borrowed it from Ana Louisa who lives at the house we are staying at. First we played in teams against Kade and his teacher, Soledad and Winnie’s teacher Jessica. I came in last. Then I said to my teacher that after the break we should do some work. We did one exercise on Preterite and Imperfect past tense verbs and then she asked me if I wanted to play again! I think she liked it!! We are going to go today(Saturday) and check out if I can find Scrabble to give her as a gift at the end of next week. (Update.. it seems as though there are none in Antigua)

On Sunday we went to the hill of the cross and climbed up it. It was magnificent and an awe inspiring view of Antigua.

Stuart has been having conversations with his teacher about Christianity and using the bible to explain why we are here. His teacher Yoli has been asking some hard questions that would be hard to answer even in English! He has also been having conversations with another teacher at the school whose daughter is a single mom of 3 children and has no place to live. They have been praying for years for a home for her. Finally a piece of land has become available to purchase at a decent price, but if they buy the land they can’t afford to put a house on it. We kept talking about trying to give something meaningful as a parting gift, and this seems like an answer, but we have no idea how the logistics would work.

Today my friend Emily is here from Calgary with her two kids and husband who has meetings with coffee farmers all week for his roasterie, phil&Sebastian www. philsebastian.com , so tomorrow and I am going to meet with her and show her all the hot spots around town. Ha, after a month I guess I no longer qualify as a tourist.

I am excited for this new chapter and to see Pastor Jorge and his wife Maritza and their daughter Jackie and her husband Oscar. I am very excited to get connected with the community of people that we will be working with to build houses for and start building relationships.

I am excited to learn how to cook Central American style and give it a go. I might need some prayer on this as well!!

I am excited to have teams and visitors come down to see exactly why we are going to El Salvador. Soon we will send out some information about what you need to know to come down and we will start a calendar with dates of upcoming visits.

Carie

pop bottle luging

Guatemalan Stickup

so a couple weeks back we went to the beach and met a family from the U.S. - Mark & Gina. carie asked what they were doing down here with a family of 5. turns out they had been involved in ministry back in the States, a few years back started to rethink the purposes of the church, realized it needed to move outside the walls of the church building with its comfy chairs and move into the neighborhoods of the poor. so a year and a half ago they sold everything and moved to the village of Magdelena to serve the poor. they came with little ideas of how to do that, but simply knew that’s where they needed to be...

so this weekend we went out for a visit so see what they were up to. we had a great afternoon chatting, questioning and seeing what they were doing and being in that community. first off, you could see the love they had for the folks in the village and even more evident was the love that the locals had for them. their faces lit up when they saw them as we walked past their homes. it was obvious they spent a lot of time in the village. it seems most NGO’s are based out of the large cities, living in gated communities, coming out to the village a couple times a week to check in on their projects. the difference we saw here was a family who had moved right into the neighborhood. living, playing, working, eating and sleeping right there. cool.

quickly the similarities between their work and our vision became spookily (not sure if that’s a real word) apparent...

they started a home building project, with homes the same size and layout and cost as ours in el salvador

the situation of the folks receiving the homes were in the same state as those in el salvador

they didn’t know spanish, but learned on the fly once here

2 of their kids were isaac & eli

they employ a group of locals to build the homes (one of our main plans)

kids went right into spanish school

host many teams from the states

started their own ministry

rejected the ‘american dream’ to serve the poor

learned what was needed before they started anything

made friends first, created projects second

deepstream is the name of their ministry

12 kids among three families (i messed that up earlier for you keeners)

as we walked and talked thru the village the similarities were laughable. for us it was like a snapshot of us in a year. a huge blessing for us all, even more so for carie and kerrie-lynn i think. they got to see a family living in central america in a home similar to those in san vicente doing the same things and in all likelihood experiencing the same frustrations and difficulties as we will along the way. the kids hit it off splendidly. playing soccer in the street and riding empty 2 liter pop bottles down the street! who knew you could have that much fun on a very steep concrete road and a bottle out of the ditch. it was good to see the kids having so much fun without it being a wii game or some other electronic device. the other couple working with them is building a sports facility and starting a mentoring project for young boys - using sports as an in to teach about life and faith and health and responsibility. it brought to mind a few names of friends back home who need to move down too ;-) all in all, we are so thankful for this family, encouraged by what they are doing and filled anew with hope for life in el salvador.

Mark & Gina’s ministry website is http://www.deepstreamguatemala.com/ if you care to check it out!

trent & kerrie

The tip of the iceberg

Well 2 down and 50 (give or take) to go. No, I’m not talking about the demise of our children (although some moments feel a little bit like we’re running an elementary school), I’m referring to weeks, to time (don’t worry, no children were hurt in the writing of this message . . . yet). And time is a different thing in Antigua, Guatemala; it feels a bit different then time back home. It’s hard to describe but the moments feel a bit thicker here, a little more robust. Sometimes it feels like time is being stretched, and then compressed, and then stretched again, as if we are in the bellows of an accordion. These two weeks have been filled with an eternity of moments passed by in a blink. Maybe we’re just allowed the opportunity to be a bit more present in the time, in this place.
And what a place this is. I’m enchanted by many things here; the culture, the people, the history, the geography, the climate (sorry about the foot of snow and minus 30 temperatures in Calgary this week), the food, the sights, the sounds, even the smells (well most of them anyway). They all weave together to create a tapestry for the senses. I know that there is a newness to this all, and some of this will likely wear off after this honeymoon stage, but I already feel my heart planting and rooting itself in this place.
As most of you are aware we are in Antigua to take Spanish lessons for a month. Our minds are being poured into, as we attempt to let ourselves be moulded around a new language. And we feel that this shaping is imperative, for as Kerrie-Lynn has said, she hopes to be able to understand the hurting and be able to offer encouragement and hope. I echo this sentiment. Often we are very tired at the end of the day, with feelings of having been challenged. But everybody is making progress, and most of the kids do not even realize the amount of information that they have sponged up. This year is going to be good in many ways and for many reasons.
On the subject of learning, I feel that I am being taught, and not just in my classroom. For those of you unfamiliar with Antigua, it is quite a beautiful city, actually a bit of an anomaly in Central America.  


Road Map of Antigua Showing our house to the school


The bulk of the city fits within a 10 x 10 city block square of cobble stone streets and old colonial buildings and churches. Due to an earthquake in the late 18th century, many of the massive cathedrals were destroyed, but left as ruins; icons of a long-past era. A moment in time preserved in broken stone and concrete.
 For those of you unfamiliar with trying to get eight children to school on time in the morning, it can be a bit of circus act. Most mornings we get everyone off with bellies filled and snacks, books, and clothing attached. But it can be a whirlwind process. Walking to school also takes to the days I spent in arcades playing ‘Frogger’. I am grateful everyday that we don’t become the target of a bus, taxi, or motorcycle as we cross the streets on the way to school.
Between these two things, the beauty of the city and the busyness of our lives and tasks, it becomes very easy to miss the world around me. And I think that this has been my first true lesson over the last couple of weeks. A couple of days ago as we were shuffling ourselves toward school in the morning, we passed a little boy. He was 9 or 10 by my best estimation and was carrying a small black box. This box held his equipment needed to shine shoes in the city’s central park. His clothing and skin were stained from the shoe polish, and as I looked at him and said, “Buenos dias” to him the only reply I got was a blank stare. As we passed the boy, he reached down and picked up a long, thin scrap of plastic out of the gutter next to the sidewalk. He turned it over in his hands, scrutinizing it. The interesting was that this piece of plastic, probably from the top of a chip or cookie bag, oddly resembled a folded Quetzal (the currency in Guatemala). That was the extent of our interaction as we passed the boy, and continued on our way.

This was a seemingly unimportant moment in my day, but I have been pondering that moment for some time since. Questions have been ruminating in my head. Why was this boy not in school? What kind of family situation does he have that he needs to shine shoes to live? Does he have a family at all? Who will shine this boy’s shoes... or heart? Why didn’t I? The first lesson that I am being taught is to look for the story beneath the surface. I can easily become preoccupied with things that prevent me from becoming enamoured and involved in the stories happening around me. (But don’t worry; I will still be watching the traffic as we walk our kids to school). 

This Saturday was spent as are most of my Saturdays in Canada (I hope you can sense the sarcasm in my writing). We left in a van at about 8 am and travelled to the small town of San Francisco de Pacaya. From here met our guide and proceeded to hike about 3km up through a forest to the Pacaya Volcano. There are 35 volcanoes in Guatemala, with 3 that are quite active. Two of these are within a couple of hours from Antigua, and Pacaya is one of them. In fact there was a major eruption here last May. Once we made it above the tree line (I was extremely impressed with the ability of our kids to make it up the steep trails) we entered an area below the crater devoid of life. There was an eerie beauty to the petrified lava flows and sulphur stained rocks. The crater loomed above us with gases and smoke spewing out in bursts. Apparently in the past, people could walk beside rivers of lava flowing down the mountain but this changed with the eruption in May.


The heat is still sneaking out of a few caves in the hardened lava on the side of the mountain, and we were able to roast marshmallows and cheese by holding them over an opening in the rock. The bottom of the hole was indiscernible, but we were told that at night the red glow of lava can be seen through the opening. We trekked across the recently formed peaks and valleys and then hiked back to the bottom. We arrived back at our house by supper time tired, hungry, sore, and covered in dirt, but what a phenomenal experience and view.


But this leads me to my second lesson. And in many ways it has connections to the first. On our descent from the volcano we passed a small cross embedded in the lava in the distance. Last May as activity increased around the Pacaya Volcano authorities evacuated about 1650 families from nearby towns. Yet one fatality was reported. Anibal Archila was a television reporter for a Guatemalan news agency called Noti 7. On May 27th, 2010 Anibal was trying to get footage of the exploding Pacaya Volcano, when he was crushed by falling boulders and lava. This was all the information that I could find about this 32 year old man, and I feel sorry for that. All that I have to remember him by is a small cross in the rocks. Lesson two is that I need to truly know the people around me so that I can tell their stories. And these stories must be told.
Stuart

doors

there's a lot of beautiful doors in Antigua. some are steal, some are tin, but most are wood. rich mahogany I would guess - stained beautifully. most often the door is actually two doors in one. a large one for cars and a smaller one built into it for people. they are beautiful.

more than a few people have mentioned that they see us down here as a hallway or a doorway between two rooms. a corridor between canada and el salvador. a connecting point from calgary with all our monetary wealth to the folks of San Vicente who often go with so little. from back home with so much loneliness and lack of fulfillment to down here where faith and hope and joy shines through the faces of those without much 'stuff'.

we need each other.

we feel honored to be the doorway; the hallway between these worlds. I had the idea of taking pictures of various hallways and including one each time we posted on this blog. in hindsight, i should've asked Maria before I snuck into her house for a photo. anyway, we decided to stick to photos of doors for now.

so even when we're up in the night cuz a kids got the runs, or an upset stomach. even when we feel like Spanish is not as easy to speak as English. even when our kids are homesick. and even when us adults miss our friends and family back home. we walk by another door - and remember why we are here.

they will remind us, if no one else, of one of our main focuses here, to be the doorway between two worlds. two worlds that I believe need each other...

trent

Location:Guatemala

5 chicles for a quetzal!

We made it! Mostly uneventfully to boot!! Other than finding out that an extra bag cost us $225, we had no other complaints. The kids rose to the occasion and behaved themselves quite well. We had a Burger King supper at midnight in the LA airport, which the kids held their eyes open with toothpicks to get themselves through. We got into Guatemala at 7:15 am and were met with an orange sign by Julio and Fernando. We loaded our 24 bags into two vans and drove off to our place in Antigua . When we opened the door, we were met with a sight for sore eyes. Behind a cement wall we found a beautifully lush garden, with a playground for the kids and 2 little jr suites and 2 bedrooms with double beds. We ended up having Stu and I in one suite with Violet, Kerrie and Trent downstairs in the other suite with Ben and Kade on top, and Annah and Winnie sharing a room. Eli and Ellis sharing a single bed with Isaiah in the bed next to them. So far we have put them to bed 2 nights and it has worked out great. Annah even remarked " it's like college, we get our own little room!"

Paradise I call it!!

The lovely woman who owns the place is named Lorena, she lives here with her 90 year old mother and her daughter Anna Louisa and her 2 year old grandson Nicolas, whom Kerrie has learned quite a bit of Spanish from over the last couple of days. Anna is going to be Violet's baby sitter while we at school. Lorena cooks us three meals a day, I repeat 3 meals a day!! Except on the weekends. That means I don't have to cook at all for a month! They also have woman here that cleans our place every day. Paradise!

Today was our "Family Fun Day" as Trent labelled it. We intended on taking the kids swimming, but then found out that it would cost us $75 USD a week to use the swimming pool so we decided not to. Instead we took the kids to the nicest McDonald's in the world. Where there is an outdoor garden and on clear days you get the best view of the volcano in town. Everyone had a little 'helado' (ice cream) and I had a mocha frappachino to satisfy my coffee addiction.

Along with this Ben decided that he would like to raise some money for El Salvador. We had gone to the grocery store the day before and let all the kids get a treat. Ben picked out these candy coated peanut things that turned out to be disgusting, and Winnie and Annah picked out gold gum coins that came in 100 per package. He came up with the plan that he and the other kids would sell them to people walking by at 5 gums for a quetzal. 1 quetzal is equal to about 13 cents. No one wanted to buy the peanuts, but they did make 15 quetzal in 'chicle' sales!!

Tomorrow we start school. Eli and Ellis are going to school at a Spanish Kindergarten down the street from our school. They need to bring a snack, drink, notebook and a pack of crayons, so cute!! We will spend from 8-12 at our school each with a private tutor. Well it took me 2 hours to figure out how to get all the pictures on this blog post, so please enjoy it for at least a few minutes!!

Carie

Packing, Packing and more Packing

I thought I would give a blog entry a try. I won't be as well spoken as Stuart, but we all know how I like to get my thoughts out there, so here goes.



I am Carie; Stuart's wife and mother to Kade, Winnie, Ellis and Violet. If you told me a year ago that I would be uprooting my whole family and moving to El Salvador for a year, I would have told you that you were crazy. Amazing how hearts change in a year! So many people have been asking me how I feel about the upcoming move. Excited! Excited that we are heading out on an advanture and will be able to help the Salvadorians who already have have a special place in the hearts of Stuart and I. Now we will get to share that love with our children as well.

They are also excited to go. Ellis keeps telling me that he is going to eat a whole banana tree when he is there! Kade is practicing his Spanish non-stop and Winnie keeps looking at pictures of kids, that Stuart took while he was there last month, wondering which ones she will become great friends with. I don't think we could have picked a better time to go for them. They are up for whatever we through our way it seems. They will miss their friends but they also know that they will see them again. Their schools have also been so supportive. They are giving us as much stuff as they can to keep our kids learning in line with their grades and also encouraging us as a family. Kade and Winnie’s classes are collecting bottles and juice boxes to by screws to build houses and they have asked Stuart to come in and do a presentation for at least 6 classes on exactly what we are doing out there. They also are encouraging Kade to Skype, or video conference, with his class once every two weeks and for him to write letters to them in both English and Spanish.

We have had so much positive response from friends and family. One friend of mine is even doing a project with her Sunday school class, where she is showing them a slide show of some of the kids and families that we will be working with in El Salvador, and then the kids are going to make Christmas cards to send to them. These are exactly the kinds of things that we hope our trip out to El Salvador will accomplish. We want you in Canada to feel a connection with the people we are working with, and keep you updated with pictures and stories.


I am also feeling a little anxious. Anything unknown to me makes me anxious. I am a control freak and this is really God’s way of saying “you need to leave it in my hands and trust in me.” Right now, we don’t know where we are going to be living, or what the kids are going to do for school, etc. But I know that this will all get figured out in time.
And I’m a little sad. I’m sad that I will be leaving my cat Boris for a year, (and I guess friends and family), and my weekly quilting group. But I know some of you will come and visit us (and maybe my in-laws that are living in our house while we are gone can Skype a call between Boris and me!)


And I’m a little overwhelmed. I’m overwhelmed by the language barrier and the skills that I feel like I lack. But I also have an overwhelming sense of joy. I know that this is what we are supposed to be doing right now, and I have made the decision to jump in with both feet. And I do know that God will take care of us, and he is using us for His purposes.
We do however still need more support. The more resources we have from here, the more we can do for the people of El Salvador. Please consider making us, and this mission a regular prayer item. And if you would like to contribute financially, click on www.sunwestchurch.com/paypal and click the donate button under “ This button is to support the McAllister / Berstad El Salvador mission trip.” Thank you so much!!

Just an update on where we are at right now with life.

We have sold all the ewes and ram on our farm. We still have lamb for sale and decided that any profits made will go towards our projects fund for El Salvador. Maybe we will even have the opportunity to buy goats with the money, for families there. If you would like to buy some, please check out our website at www.lambchops.ca to find out pricing, etc.


Stuart just got back from his 3rd week in El Salvador, over the last 5 weeks. Although we missed him, it was good for him to be able to do some groundwork with Trent, for our move there. Now he is back in town, and we were off to Myrtle Beach over Christmas. We decided since we don’t need presents it might be nice to get away. It ended up being a bit crazy with delayed and cancelled flights, but none the less we lived! Ellis has his last day of preschool before Christmas, and I have decided that the other kids will go back for a couple of weeks after the winter break so they don’t drive me crazy!!


Our official departure date is January 23, when we will fly overnight to Antigua, Guatemala and spend a month there learning Spanish at a language school. Hopefully they will be very patient with me! At the end of February we will go by bus to San Vicente, El Salvador. Please keep us in your thoughts, prayers and keep in touch. Email us, call us, Skype us or facebook us. We would love to hear from you.

Now to the packing, there is so much to do!!