Here we find ourselves once again.

Hi All, It has been a long while since we last met. After spending 3 1/2 months back in Canada having a rest and visiting with friends and family, we returned to El Salvador on August 1st. 15 hours of fairly drama free traveling, we arrived at the airport in San Salvador to an entire bus full of friends from the village of San Antonio. It always amazes me, what care and love the people of San Antonio have for us. They spend what little money they have to rent a bus to come to the airport, all for the sake of being the first faces we see when we arrive. It really touches my heart. We also arrived to Pastor Oscar and Jacky in our freshly cleaned, freshly smelling pick up! We spent the night at the OEF hotel where they had put 6 beds in one room especially for us!


The next day we began a search for our house-to-be. We went to one place to get the owner to let us in and upon seeing us, they decided that the place wasn't for rent anymore! We proceeded to another place where we waited for the owner to come and meet us. This house we knew was for sale and the owner wasn't sure that he wanted to rent it. After seeing this place, we knew that it was the one we wanted. First we were led into the yard, I repeat - yard-, where we feasted our eyes on numerous fruit trees. There was a mango tree, mandarin tree, lemon tree, banana tree and avocado trees. There is a nice kitchen with an oven. At least two of the rooms have air conditioning. There is a BBQ pit in the back yard and a 2 bedroom guesthouse! We talked it over with the owner and explained to him exactly what we are doing here, and he decided to think about it. We decided to leave it at that.


Our friends in San Antonio invited us for lunch and spent an amazing couple of hours visiting, helping to make lunch and feasting on carne asada, rice, salsa and tortillas. Then Stuart visited the goat farm. Man, is it hot here. We needed to return to our hotel room for some reprieve from the heat!! After we cooled down, we went to visit with our friend Dr. Carlos. He showed us another house that he knew was for rent. It was nice, but nowhere as nice as the first one we looked at. We went for Pupusas for supper.


The next morning Oscar called the owner and he decided that he would rent to us for 10 mos. PTL!! He named a price that was about double what we were willing to pay :( We thought for sure it was done.  Then when we said there is no way we could pay that and were about to leave, he said "Wait, how much can you pay?" We gave him our top limit and he said ok!! We move in tomorrow. Pictures to follow.


Today we visited with our friends Pimpa, Esmeralda and Wendy in Las Brisas. They are all doing pretty well and Pimpa made us rice pupusas and they were amazing!! We came home and got cleaned up and headed to church where we were greeted enthusiastically by the church members. And for supper??? Pupusas! Are we sick of them yet? Not on your life. We are happy to be here and are excitedly awaiting the next chapter of our lives in El Salvador.





Please note that the Sewing Centre is still up and running. We are looking for stores to market our quilts in and more orders. Please check out our facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sowers-of-Jireh-Sewing-Quilting-Centre-El-Salvador/313629872010400 to find out more details. 

Final Stretch Thoughts.

Well, we are now in our final stretch here in El Salvador. We have about 2 weeks left before heading home. Thought I should update the blog since we haven't done it in a while. It seems like, just like it did in Canada, life got going on a roller coaster speed. Since October, we have received 18+ teams, started a complete goat farm project, started a sewing centre, taken many early morning trips to the hospital in San Salvador with babies and in one year, we built over 160 houses. All be the glory to God. Without Him, none of this would have been accomplished. He blessed us over and over again, opened doors and showed us the way. 

In the sewing centre, we do devotionals every Monday morning. A couple Monday's ago, Oscar handed out little inspirational cards to everyone. Mine said Salmos 37:24 Podrá tropezar pero no caerá, porque el SENOR lo sostiene de la mano. After I figured out that it said .. Psalms 37:24 ²⁴ Though they stumble, they will never fall, 

      for the LORD holds them by the hand. I realized that this is basically my personal message for this year.

About a month ago, I was carrying some things out of a store to put together our baskets for the families that we build for and I tripped and hurt my ankle very badly. After having all my friends here tell me the El Salvadorian way of curing it, I tried a sovador, suelda con suelda and unguento leon! Then finally a couple weeks ago I saw the doctor and he told me that I need 3 weeks rest from walking and driving!! I think maybe this is God’s way of telling me that I need to slow down. That God will take care of me and, hold me by the hand and worry about the things that I am worried about so I can rest in Him. What a profound thought!! Too bad that it took a physical trip and fall to knock me in the head and say "HELLO... Are you listening??" but such is my life.

I just spent a little time reading over some of our blog posts from the beginning of the year. I can honestly say that not a lot has changed. (except maybe Trent and Ben's hair!) We continued to pursue relationship building over just handing out "stuff" and doing. And out of that relationship, we have seen opportunities arise. One of the closest to my heart is the Sewing Centre - The Sowers of Jireh. I feel as though we have all been blessed by the Centre. We are currently employing 9 women and 1 man, but it didn't come with out worry.

 Several times I had worries about tomorrow. First I worried that there wouldn't be a place for them to work, I worried that we wouldn't have enough money to buy the equipment and machines.  I worried that there wouldn't be enough work for the ladies, and that we couldn't keep paying them, I worried that they weren't getting along. I worried that no one would like the quilts we were making. I worried that we wouldn't have a way to ship them. What did all that worry lead me to? A whole lot of headache and nothing else.  I tried to be reminded of the verse in the bible in 

Matthew 6:33-34 .. ³³ Seek the Kingdom of God^[a] above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

 ³⁴ “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today

In spite of my worry the Lord loves what we are doing here, 


the sewing centre project has been blessed by him and 


continues to open doors in His own timing.

HE provided the place, the electrician, the machines at an 

affordable cost. Numerous, numerous, numerous people to 

donate materials, supplies, machines, and jeans. HE helped us to make a beautiful product that people are interested in, and we now have a contract for 100 quilts, but most of all he provided HOPE for those that may not in other ways have any. And now, God will provide for the shipping aspect too. I remembered to listen this time and he whispered to me ....”Be still my child, do not worry I will take care of your burden for you.” 

Now we have purchased the machines and supplies to start sewing and silk screening t-shirts to sell and that is a whole other worry!! :) 

It is going to be really hard to say goodbye to many people here. Oscar and Jacky who have been our good friends and Uncle and Aunt to our children. Tomasita, who as been by our side as we have worked in San Antonio, working even harder to make our jobs easier. Basilio, Noe, Roberto, Fredi and Miguel who have been our constant, reliable work crew on all 160 houses. Pastor Jorge and Maritza, who have been like parents to us, while ours can not be here. Pimpa and the ladies in the sewing centre, who patiently walked along side us as we had trials and errors. Juanita, Daniela, Diego, Vanesa, & Doris who we now consider our family. They are with us every day and we love them. And many many others... Patricia, Jacky Martinez, Carlos, all people that have left an impact on our lives in this short year. But we know that this is not the end. The world is small now, especially with Skype and facebook and we will keep in touch and hope that they will continue to flourish as we have seen them do this year. And who knows, may God will bring us back here again? Either way, again I have been reminded about Esther in the bible and Mordechai reminding her that .. Who knows? Maybe you were made queen for just such a time as this." We really were meant to be here for such a time as this.

And thank you all, without out the support from back home in Canada, we could not have done it here. You are our rock, and we are looking forward to being home and sharing all that we have learned this year in person. See you soon.
Carie


ps. we are still trying to collect funds for the new part of the sewing centre. If you would like to contribute, please click on the Donate button on the side of this page.
Check out our official Sowers of Jireh Website - http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sowers-of-Jireh-Sewing-Quilting-Centre-El-Salvador/313629872010400

We will be selling our beautiful products from Canada, so let us know by clicking on this link... at The McAllisters e-mail if you would like to make a purchase.

Got Goat? AKA ¿Tienes Cabra?

after purchasing the hay, we made them into sheaves for drying

Once upon a time there were lots of kids being born in the villages of el salvador. this was not a new occurrence as we all know - these things can happen. in fact, kerrie-lynn & i found out benjamin was already 5 months along in the womb - and annah was only 10 months old! anyway, the big difference in the villages of el salvador is that so many of these kids had no dad's or even if they did, they didn't have quite enough to eat day to day. so much so that many had anemia and other health problems... back home in the land of plenty, we would have formula and milk and all sorts of things to prevent such problems, but here they have corn and beans and that's about all. so... we thought about buying some powdered milk for these kids in need, but that would cost an arm and a leg. so we thought, "hey, what if we buy a goat for that family and then they could have milk everyday for a lot less cash out of pocket and it would keep producing for a long time!" we bought 9 goats for 9 families, but too often the lack of training was not getting the potential out of these animals. we needed education, not just handouts! this brought us to our friend from san salvador, pastor ricardo. he has a friend, armando, in his church who has done tons of training with goat operations and he had a vision to help the poor of el salvador... we sat down one afternoon for a few hours and he explained...

the apriso (barn) under construction

no nail pouch required when you have a mouth ;-)

expert welder at work

armando told us about the lack of quality goats in el salvador and that a well run operation could be a wonderful business opportunity. he shared with us the many times world vision and other organizations had worked with him to provide goats to families. without exception, these goats were handed out to families with very little training - then they would hope for the best... he told us most of those goats produced milk at first, but without training, they stopped producing and were eaten for the christmas dinner. a great meal, but an unrealized potential. he shared his vision of a co-operative made up of 6 - 12 families who run a small barn with 25 milk goats. the members of the co-op would be trained in handling, caring for, milking, feed, etc... he also shared his dream of these families learning incredibly valuable skills in running a small business. you see, in the land of el salvador there just aren't jobs falling off the trees for people to pick up and support their families with. more often then not they need to create a job. thus, training in small business is essential. in a world where the poor have been told what to do for so long and never taught how or why or to think ahead, these skills are like gold! armando showed us pictures of the barn idea. he gave us a budget to do one barn. he shared a dream of four of these barns going up in 4 villages and all 4 providing the female offspring to a central "planta" or large barn where they would work genetics magic to improve the milk output as well as the meat quality. he opened our eyes to the potential for these co-op families - selling milk in their village, drinking it themselves, gifting milk to newborn babies, making cheese, raising and eating/selling the male offspring, receiving better quality animals from the planta down the road a couple years, running a thriving business, and on and on... after the meeting we just knew a partnership with armando and pastor ricardo was the way to go. we didn't come here to give a hand out, but a hand UP. to give families opportunity for a brighter tomorrow. to bring the things of heaven to earth in this corner of the land. we knew if this was blessed by the Lord, it could reproduce itself in and even fund other co-op's to get off the ground. folks from the village, helping folks in another village, or even down the road!

armando thought best to do a trial with some baby goats we borrowed from a nearby farm...

we started with a need, attempted to help with $75 goats, moved up to $150 goats, and now have felt led to this co-op where the barn, equipment and startup costs works out to about $180 per goat. a small price to pay extra for a real chance to change lives long term. this is likely where some of the confusion has come on costs, and after the first one is completed, we will likely adjust again... and just maybe one day we will be supplying future projects and farms with the best goats in the country!

armando (got goat expert)

co-op meeting with armando in san antonio

today, we have one barn built, minus a couple small details like the water system to complete. last week the co-operative bought and cut hay for feed and hauled it back to the barn. we hope to have everything set in place to receive the goats in the next week. so all that is left is finding and securing the purchase of the goats - best case 2 weeks out! we will have lots of pictures and updates then for sure. we have plans to start the next barns soon depending on funds, etc. we are excited about the potential here, and feel like once this one takes off - we will have a list of others wanting to create more and more co-operatives of the same style...

but... we know we need a gift from God for unity, ability to work together, honesty, integrity, co-operation, and a rich blessing of harvest from these animals and this project. we will be giving back to God the first and best of this project and are thankful to all those who have raised the cash to make this come to reality! school kids giving presentations in their classrooms, others giving out of their piggy banks (maybe i should say 'goatybanks'), others have collected bottles and bought goats with the proceeds recycle money, and a mountain of got goat? shirts sold so far. i think the simple/tangible way to help the obvious need of young children needing proper nutrition has hit a chord with so many. back home we just go to the grocery store and by milk. for millions here in el salvador this just isn't an option as a litre of milk costs half a days wages or more for these families! imagine how much milk you'd buy in canada if it cost $100 per litre. so we say thank you, thank you, thank you and hope you will share in the joy of these families as this first barn gets up and running.

aprisco with the sheaves leaning up around the corals - photo from today

...the End.


trent

Turning a picture on a table into a reality

A late Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah to all our friends and family! Our internet went out for a week, and I was intending to post this on Christmas, but such is life. We hope that this New Years' Eve finds you cozy and spending time with those nearest and dearest to you. I thought I would write an uplifting story that will hopefully give you the warm fuzzies!!


Almost 4 years ago, a friend of mine, who volunteers as a Compassion advocate, asked me if I would like to sponsor a Compassion child. Not knowing very much about the program, I asked her to explain more to me. She explained that it was much like the other sponsorship programs out there, but the children get close to every penny you put in to it and there is a real relationship between the child and the sponsor. I told her that we would give it a go, that we would like a boy in El Salvador around Kade's age. A couple days later, she brought me 3 pictures to choose from. We chose David Adonay Lopez Cuellar, he lives in Guazapa, El Salvador and his birthday is in March of 2001, making him about 2 years older than Kade.


The next week, we started writing him letters and sending stickers and photos of our family. To my amazement, we got a letter back from him almost every month. He often asked how our family was doing and asked us to pray for his family. He let us know how he was doing in school. We got a letter in the mail from Compassion asking if we would like to give extra money for Christmas and Birthday Presents. We decided that we would like to do that. We agreed to give $40 for his birthday. Adonai's first letter after his birthday mentioned a big thank you, and with the $39.91, he went with a compassion site worker and bought "rice, paper, corn, shampoo, a doll for my sister, oil, a skipping rope, " etc. Which showed to me that the money I was sending every month was actually going to where the organization said it was going. 

Fast forward to January 2011.... We knew we were moving to El Salvador and thought it might be a nice idea to meet Adonai in person and make what we read on paper a face to face relationship. We contacted Compassion at home to set up the experience. Together we decided on June 15 that we would meet an interpreter from Compassion, Ruth Cruz and head down to Guazapa to meet Adonai. 

Upon arriving there, we were met by a mountain of clapping and waving children, we were adorned with welcome sashes and treated in the highest regard. Here we were to visit our child and yet, to the compassion centre, we were representatives of every sponsor around the world. They were all so happy to have us here. The whole centre put on a show for us and welcomed us whole heartedly. We felt blessed to be the ones representing the rest of the countries that sponsor children.

After all the presentations and meeting Adonai we were showed around the centre. We were explained that the centre was not the school that the kids attended, but a place they went to after school to learn about health, computers, baking, raising chickens and getting tutoring to ensure that they stay and do well in school.

The second time we were there they happened to be doing medical checkups!

We were so impressed with all the centre does including routine medical and dental check ups. 


After we were served the best pupusas in all of El Salvador, we were taken to see Adonay`s house. We were welcomed with warm, open arms by Adonay`s mom Jessica and his little sister, Jasmine. We were shocked to find out that Adonai`s family lived in a tiny house made out of plastic sheeting and bamboo. The space inside the house was only big enough to fit one bed and a dresser and nothing else. The small space outside held a 2 burner stove. We were told the story about how when Hurricane Ida hit in 2009 Jessica`s house was destroyed. With reserve funds, Compassion was able to buy them this bed, dresser and a small stove.  Looking back, I remembered that on every single letter Adonay sent us, he always drew a picture of a house on the back.

This is what his house actually looked like....

My heart sank! Here we were building houses all year in San Antonio and San Felipe and yet my Compassion Child who we have been supporting and writing to every month is living in a house that is not even as good as the houses that we tear down to rebuild here.

The kids all got along so amazingly well and it was hard for us to leave that day. Even on the ride home, I was wondering when we would see them again. Then I got an idea. What ws the possibility that we could build a house for Adonay and his family? I asked Ruth and she thought it was a great idea, but because compassion had never had a request like this before, they weren't sure how to handle it.

The next day I put the request into both the Canadian and El Salvadorian compassion offices. It took almost 6 months before the request was finalized, as we kept misunderstanding each other because they thought I wanted them to pay for the house. They couldn't understand that we wanted to buy the materials and build the house as well. In October we went to deliver the news and measure the house. 

They were so over come by joy and couldn't wait to start building, but more importantly to be able to spend the day together again.

December 6, we pull up with 2 trucks loaded with house building materials, our two families and Chris and Krista Barkey (friends of the Berstad's and now our friends too!) and their children's Pastor Janice.

We worked our butts off and finished the house in only the morning.

Adonay, Jessica and Jasmine never stopped smiling! We then joined them for lunch that the Compassion centre in Guazapa cooked for us. It was delicious! Only we found out after that the chicken was from their chicken raising program!! :) 

Upon our return, we did a key ceremony like we do with all the houses we build. While we were getting ready to do the ceremony. I felt like God was telling me, that the building process needed to be in His timing. Just before we started, Ruth, the Translator, told us that the government had just given Jessica this land and the title a week before we built! If we had built it earlier, there would have still been a chance for the government to take it away. So this really was perfect timing. and once again a reminder that I can not control everything!!

Anyway, as we did the ceremony and gave the keys, I spoke a little about our feeling for the family and what it meant to me to be building this house with my bare hands. I read the verse in the bible Psalm 127:1

 ¹ Unless the LORD builds the house, 

   the builders labor in vain. 

Unless the LORD watches over the city, 

   the guards stand watch in vain. 

Which became quite obvious looking back from the pictures drawn on the back of the letters to the timing of the house building. 

I know one thing for certain. Adonay's house sure looks a lot more like the picture he draws now! And we have certainly been blessed to be able to have this kind of relationship with him. It make writing all those letters come to life.