Swinging in the NEW YEAR!

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what is it to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether we fed or hungry, wether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13)

Wow December went fast! It seems like just yesterday Valerie and Dennis came to stay with us for three weeks. Valerie brought me a book called Calm my Anxious Heart, it is a 12 week bible study that we had planned to do in 3 weeks. Well to give you an idea about what life is like here, we did half a week! Nevertheless I am now just trying to read the book my self and contemplate on what is in it. The first chapter is so chocked full of goodies that I think about it almost everyday. The above verse from Philippians is in it and it tells the story about a woman who has a prescription for contentment. Here it is.

1.Never allow yourself to complain about anything -not even the weather

2.Never picture yourself in any other circumstance or someplace else

3.Never compare your lot with another’s

4.Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.

5.Never dwell on tomorrow - remember that (tomorrow) is God’s not ours

This women possessed a peace separate from her circumstances. Most of us base our contentment on our circumstances, on our feelings or on other people. However, true contentment is separate from our circumstances. Contentment is state of HEART, not a state of affairs.

I think these are my new New Years Resolutions, and I will strive to make the above verse my motto this year. Quite often we wonder why the people here are so content with the little that they have. Maybe they live by this verse too and I for one have something to learn from them.

I was going to divide this by struggles and successes like Stuart does every month, but right now I am feeling like all of our struggles are in some way successes as well.

Stuart and I were able to get away on well needed, little refreshment break thanks to Valerie and Dennis. We went to San Salvador and stayed at a hotel for two nights while the kids were kept very busy the whole time with crafts, games, painting nails, going to parties etc. We are so thankful for the two of them. The kids are off school for summer vacation right now and I would be going bonkers if I didn’t have people like Valerie and Dennis in our lives, not to mention someone we can completely trust with our kids. We were also able to do a medical clinic in Jiboa 2 seeing 300 patients. And a very successful Christmas store in Nueva Jerusalen thanks to them and all the people that brought clothes and shoes with support from their churches, friends and families in Canada.

We celebrated one year of Jacky and Oscar’s Pastorship on Day of the Pastor. We had a surprise party for them in our back yard. Many many people came together to help with the food, decor, transportation guests, etc. It is always really cool to see people collaborating for a common good. They were surprised and there was laughter and tears. All together a good evening.

This year, in conjunction with Primer Templo Christiano, we decided to do a Christmas event on the 23rd for the children in the morning, and everyone in the afternoon. Thanks to support from home, we were able to rent bouncy houses, eat ice cream and buy 200 children a gift. The youth from the church organized the whole thing and dressed u as clowns performing and singing for the kids. Later that day we had a church service and made 225 buns stuffed with chicken, lettuce, tomatoe, radish, beets, avocado, eggs, mayonnaise and a herb that we don’t have in Canada. We ran out of 

food, and the church was packed to the street!

Last month Stuart wrote about the bakery program. We finished the 3 week course. We are not sure what is going to happen next, but we do know that by the end of the course, there were close to 20 people, including some neighbors of Hermana Marina that she invited to join. In the past,her neighbors would choose whether they would return her waves and salutations. They decided to come to the course. In our church we have started home groups on Monday night. Marina was talking with her neighbors and they decided to go to that as well. They accepted Christ. Lots of tears were shed. We are thankful that we had this opportunity to show the love of God through the baking program.

Daniela had her quince años. This is like a mix between a bar mitzvah and a wedding. Part of me doesn’t understand how, when only within this year, Juanita and her family hit bottom and were being throw off their land, were now throwing a party for 300 people. Juanita’s extended family encouraged her to have the party because they were all going to be in town and they were all going to help pay for aspects of the party. Where were they when Juanita needed them most? As the party got closer, there were a lot of tears because the family that said they could help started saying they couldn’t anymore and Juanita got stuck with all the bills. To top it off, more than 100 people didn’t show up and she had food for all of them. Why then did I put this under successes? Because during the time of preparations for this fiesta. Daniela, Diego, Juanita and my kids came together to prepare. Daniela and Diego were able to show their creativity making all the centre pieces to save money. Diego also designed the dress for both Daniela and Winnie, and they all spent countless hours practicing 4 dances with an instructor for the night of the fiesta. People also did come forward in a show of support for Juanita, who remembering what a great husband she had wanted to honor him in this way. Lastly, I truly believe that Daniela has matured through all this and got to have a special time only for her. Something that doesn’t happen too often in a family with 6 kids and 8 grandkids living here in El Salvador.

We have had countless teenagers in our house crying this past month. I am glad that they can feel comfortable in our home, to let out their feelings and share with us, but they all seem to be along the same lines. These are kids that we’re helping to support to go to school and their parents are mad because they want them to work and bring home money or they say that they are not spending enough time in the house. In most cases, they just can’t see past two days into the future unlike there children who see that there can be a future. It is tough to know what to say.

We got the website up and running thanks to both Darron Froese and Amy Lotis. Please check it out at www.sowersofjireh.com It is still a work in progress, but at least we can see it up now. Diego has received a few orders of 10 purses and more

The kids are enjoying their time off of school and have taken up bead making, creating earrings, necklaces rings etc. They are hoping to sell them. I think earring are $1! We are so thankful for Deigo and Daniela this month as well. Our house is pretty much like a summer camp with them as the counsellors coming up with new crafts to do and games to play.

Hopes

A repeat of what Stuart said last month ... As we see success in the sewing centre, t-shirt stamping, bakery, goat farm, etc. we know that God is moving these projects forward, but the goal we hope to achieve is to see all of these as self-sustainable ventures.  We want to hand over more and more of the control to people involved in the each project, and hope that our role becomes more that of a cheerleader and spiritual, mental, emotional supporter.  In saying this we realize that we are not at this point yet, and there are significant cultural hurdles that will need to be crossed.  Our hope is to keep moving forward, but only as quickly as God is leading us. 

We hope to continue on with the bakery project and see where it takes us with the next step, and that we can get something off the ground that is both beneficial to the lives of the participants and is spiritually fulfilling

We hope to see more bulk orders for Diego’s bags, quilts and t-shirt orders.

School begins again on the 14th and Daniela and Diego will be in afternoon classes while Kade, Winnie, Ellis and now Keyri and Violet will be going in the morning. As we change schedules, we hope that the kids adjust well and still get to hang out with Daniela and Deigo

Prayers

1. Less stress, more peace that passes understanding
2. Safety and protection
3. The people that are working with us will stay on a straight path
4. That the Lord will have us see through his eyes they things that he does
5. That we may be His hand and Feet
6. A time set aside to dwell in His presence
7. Patience with the children
8. Health
9. That we may see fruitful evidence of the groups presence here

If you would like to help us with any of the work we are doing here. Please click on the Donate Here button on the side of this page. We would love to partner with you.

Stuart's December Report

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given: and the government shall be on his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

On this second Sunday of Advent we anticipate the birth of our King. We await the God who reaches out to be and live among us. And we remember that we too are to be and live amongst. We anticipate on a daily basis the God that does the impossible to be with us, to love us, to mold us, and perfect us. Come, Lord Jesus, come!

 Here is an update of our lives over the last few weeks. Thank you for following along with us.

Successes

1. 1)  We finally managed to get our baking classes up and going. We had been working with a lady in our church named Marina to get classes going through a hotel here in San Vicente. Carie mentioned last month, that those plans fell flat, sending us, along with Marina, back to the drawing board. She took the initiative upon herself to purchase a small used industrial oven, and decided to offer a course out of the garage of her house. We assisted with some of the start up materials, and now we have had 2 weeks of classes, with an average of 12-15 women and men showing up every afternoon. Carie thought she would go observe for the first class, but being the keen student that she is, she has attended nearly every one. In fact tomorrow she is going to teach a class on making banana bread and brownies. We are excited for where God will take this program, and view great potential to create some employment and hope here. Marina is a strong leader, and will be able to offer not only physical leadership but spiritual leadership as well. We feel blessed to have met her.
   
2. 
   
   2)  As we enter December, we find ourselves with a bit of a break from teams. In fact we will not see another group until the 5th of January. We are looking forward to the this month, as we will have the ability to focus on a few things that were put on hold over the last couple of months. But in saying this, we have had a great time with the groups that have been down over this past month. We had a group from St. Catharines earlier in the month, under the leadership of Dennis and Valerie Nikkel. We also had men from our home church in Calgary, come for a week, under Jake Fluker’s guidance. Jake stayed on with us for a week after his team left, and we were able to experience a few new things in El Salvador, that the structure and business of a team week does not allow. I am thankful for all the good friends that we have been given. I am thankful for all the people that have moved 24 families into safe and healthy homes. I am especially thankful for Jake and depth of the connection that God has allowed us. Good friends are ‘importantisimo’.
   
3. 
   
   
   
   
   3)  We celebrated the end of the school year this month, as well as Ellis’ graduation from kindergarten (this is a much bigger deal here than in Canada). The kids have enjoyed working with the teams or just inventing games to play with Diego andDaniela in the backyard. One day last week that decided that it would be a good idea to have a water fight with a couple of the hoses for the entire day (as Carie and I were out of the house). Water only flows into our house 2 days of the week, so when they drained our 100 gallon cistern in its entirety, we were left without water for a couple of days. Jake and I were pretty excited to come home after mixing concrete all afternoon at a house in San Antonio, to find that all we had to clean ourselves with were the couple of mouthfuls of water left in my water bottle. I love my children.

4) Finally we continue to see positive development in the lives of many of our friends here. Carlos has nearly 3 months without drinking. God has touched his heart. Hector is becoming more confident, and is beginning to see that he has value as a son of God. I am proud to work alongside of him while he is translating for the teams. Esmeralda’s husband  Miguel has been excepted into the police academy (he just needs to pass some medical tests). Carolina (a single mother from Las Brisas) has built her own tortilla stand, and is earning a bit of money each day. Previously, we tried to help her in a number of different ways, always to see these things fail. Wilfredo, a young guy that we took to rehab a couple of months ago, only to see him leave the following day, has been clean for 3 months. God is working and moving and changing hearts. Sometimes he calls us to be a part of the plan, sometimes we don’t know that we are part of the plan, and sometimes we get to simply witness his power and glory.

Struggles

1. 
   The level of poverty and hurt in this country never seems to end. As we make small steps in some communities, we quickly realize that there are thousands of other communities in the same or worse situation. I feel that there are two dangers for us in this situation. The first is that we become too overwhelmed with the level of need, and resign to the fact that nothing can ever be changed. The second is just as dangerous in that we become to numb to the needs here, and cease to moved to action. We pray for wisdom. We pray that God changes our hearts of stone for hearts of flesh, and that we are allowed to see this world through his eyes.

Hopes
1) As we see success in the sewing centre, t-shirt stamping, bakery, goat farm, etc. we know that God is moving these projects forward, but the goal we hope to achieve is to see all of these as self-sustainable ventures. We want to hand over more and more of the control to people involved in the each project, and hope that our role becomes more that of a cheerleader and spiritual, mental, emotional supporter. In saying this we realize that we are not at this point yet, and there are significant cultural hurdles that will need to be crossed. Our hope is to keep moving forward, but only as quickly as God is leading us.

2) Dennis and Valerie arrived yesterday to spend 3 weeks with us. They offered Carie and I the chance to go away for a couple of nights, and refresh as a couple. We know the importance that this plays in our lives and our marriage. We were truly thankful for this opportunity. We are happy to report that the kids didn’t drive them insane.

Prayers
1) Wisdom and discernment
2) A greater definition of our direction and focus
3) Peace and patience and joy in our family
4) Continued protection and safety for our friends and family
5) A movement towards peace in El Salvador
6) That our lights shine in this community
7) God’s continued presence in the lives of the many people we come in contact with 8) Healing for Maria Elena (a lady we met a couple of weeks ago with kidney failure) 9) That we can celebrate the birth of our savior in a meaningful way

Stuart McAllister
(on behalf of the McAllister family) 

Ps. Our website for the Sewing Centre will be up and running any day now. Please keep checking www.sowersofjireh.com to see what's new, what's for sale and information on how to order a quilt, purse, custom t-shirt etc.

The Plans I have for you..

Since we are find ourselves pressed for time these days, but still would like to keep everyone updated, we have decided to put our monthly updates onto the blog and just add pictures. If time permits I will update the blog more often,

“11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord - Jeremiah 29:11-14a

For the last two weeks of this month, we have had Laura (and Jim Noble) here with our family. Laura shared her story with me and the ladies in the sewing centre. She shared that the verse above has helped her in her life to remember the Lords plan for her life. I too have been given peace by these verses. And a reminder to Seek First the Lord in times of struggle.

We have started our season of teams and we are into our third week right now. It is actually the fourth team down here, but we only saw the first team at the beach, so I don’t really count that.





Successes

1) My successes may be a little different than Stuarts. We made it through the school year here! The kids are graduated and they will have a month and a half off of school. (This may also go under struggles!!) We will let you know in the next update. Ellis is graduating from Kindergarten and had to buy a suit. We will go to see the special service on the 16th.

2. 2)  The girls in the sewing centre. We are working on The Purpose Driven Life book and the girls are finding it life changing. I have seen much growth in them in the last few months and they have been able to share things that they were never able to in the past. They are also doing amazing work at quilt making and the quality of their work is second to none. Also Laura was able to spend some time in there and help get everything organized making it easier to see what we have and what needs to be done.
   
   
3. 3)  I am pleased to announce that even though in the last e-mail Stuart listed this as a struggle, it has now become a success. Carlos has been clean and sober for over a month. Stuart has made a promise to him to visit at least once a week to spend time in the Word just with him, and he has been doing well. It feels like God was saying to Stuart that he put one of his sons in his path for him to love and care for as though it was his own and Stuart is listening and the results have been obvious.
   
4. 4)  I asked the kids what they thought that God showed us this month that was positive. Kade replied that we found new communities that were really poor and he showed them to us so that we could give them food this month.
   

Stuggles

1) We got really gung-ho about putting on a bread course to create jobs and new skills for women. We discovered that if we could get a list of 20 people, then the OEF Hotel, along with a government career training program would put on the course for free, so we found 20 people. We set a day and asked them to come to the hotel to register with their identification. Well, no one showed up! Back to square one. This was really frustrating for me, but I know, that I can’t hold their hands and force them to do anything. I was really feeling like God was telling me that we were going to do something with a bakery. We are going to look at this again, but might approach this from a new angle. Stay tuned.

2) We have been having some issues with Daniella and Diego, and school. For those of you that don’t know, Daniella and Diego are Juanita’s youngest two children. Diego is now 18 and Daniella almost 15. Last year the Berstads and our family decided that we would sponsor them to go to the same school as our kids. They were doing really well there until recently. There was a facebook site put on the web, making fun of some of the teachers. A lot of the students were saying it was Diego, and the teacher told Diego that she went to the Police and the Police also knew it was Diego. Of course that last part was not true and I knew it because... Diego leaves his computer at my house. Also when he is at my house, he is either working on homework or making purses. And he is at my house almost every moment he is not in school. I think that the big problem is that the kids and teachers in their school are jealous that they are being sponsored by us. So they become an easy scapegoat. Not saying that they are perfect, they are still teenagers. Stuart has sat down with the teachers and told them that we don’t want any special treatment for either our kids or Daniella and Diego. But Daniella and Diego are really down about it. They were finally at a place where they thought they were making friends.

We would really just love for this family to have some peace.

Hopes
1)To spend more time in the Word for ourselves and with our children and making that more of a priority

2)To get the silk screening up and running including finding work here in El Salvador and contracts at home in Canada, as well as, find a person who is able to teach how to make a good quality t-shirts with the machines we have, employing a minimum of three more people.

3)To continue to find work for the sewing centre, whether that means individual orders, contracts for companies or on-line sales. We hope to get the website up and running so we market better. Check out our facebook page under http://www.facebook.com/sowersofjireh and soon our website www.sowersofjireh.com

4)To find a new place to have the Bakery program. Maybe in the community of Rio Frio.

Prayers
1)Protection for the teams and our family as we travel and work in this county
2)Peace for Juanita’s Family
3)God to continue to be part of and guide what happens in the sewing centre
4)A feeling of not being so overwhelmed by my children and life here.
5)Wisdom and Discernment

6)A new place to that the Lord will choose for the bread program
7)Boundaries
8)That we would always remember to put God first no matter what we are doing.
9)Health and opportunities to rest.
10)God continues to work in Carlos’ life that he stay sober.
Thanks Carie 

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