So long ago and reaping what we sew.

I am sorry that it has been so long since we last posted. I just went on the blog site today to see what picture I had used last and realized that the last time I wrote was January.

It seems like so much has transpired since my last post that I don't even know where to begin!

Rather than going back quite a bit, I will start with where we are now. The groups are all gone, the leaders meeting week was more than successful. We took a nice week off to hang out with Oscar and Jacky in Antigua Guatemala. It was a good time to get out of the heat for a bit and relax, and visit some of the old places that we visited when we were there doing Spanish school for 5 weeks. 

We also got a chance to visit with our friends Gina and Mark Schmidt. http://www.educatebv.com We met them at the beach when we were in Guatemala in 2011 and found out that they were missionaries from the States that were, at the time, building houses near Antigua Guatemala. They had been living there for a year and a half. It was really neat to see a glimpse into our future of where we might be in a year and a half's time. Now they have been there 4 years and have opened a school in the village where they are working. Really cool. God definitely put that family in our lives on purpose. 

When we moved to El Salvador, I pretty much knew that I would not be involved in the house building side of things. Along with Kerrie Lynn, we tried to think of something that could get us really involved in our own ministry. So we came up with a sewing centre for women producing products using recycled materials. Since then God has really blessed us. We now have over 12  people working in the sewing centre doing various jobs from cutting jeans to sewing quilts to fabricating t-shirts to silk screening on the shirts. Check out www.facebook.com/sowersofjireh (you can order online at www.sowersofjireh.com)We are also doing the Purpose Driven life series and a lot of the girls have really opened up and grown from our chats. When the all girls group was here on their mission week, the women from the sewing centre all took the day off to divide and distribute food in the community of Las Brisas. 

The other day I was reading in the Purpose Driven Life, on Day 32, talking about your "SHAPE"
Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality
Experience

"Your SHAPE was sovereignly determine by God for His purpose, so you should resent it or object it..... Part of excepting your SHAPE is recognizing your limitations. Nobody is good at everything, and no one  is called to be everything. We all have defined roles. Paul understood that his calling was not to accomplish everything or please everyone but to focus on the particular ministry God had shaped him for. He said, "our goal is to stay within the boundaries of God's plan for us."

The word boundaries refers to the fact the God assigns each of us a field or sphere of service. Your shape determines your specialty. When we try to overextend our ministry reach beyond what God shaped us for, we experience stress. ... God wants you to enjoy using the shape he has given you. The bible says (in Galatians 5:4) "Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else." Satan will try to steal the joy of service from you in a couple of ways: by tempting you to compare your ministry with others, and by tempting you to conform your ministry to the expectations of others." 

What does this have to do with anything? This really stuck with me. The first year that we were here, I tried to please everyone and everything. Spending lots of time doing things that I didn't enjoy because I had the idea put into my head that we were called here to serve and that meant sacrificing my joy to do what others thought serving meant. Since then, God has been speaking to me in ways like never before and guiding me into the ministry that he had already prepare for me long ago.


A couple of months ago we went to Rio Frio to deliver housewarming gifts to the 52 families that received homes during the summer. While we were there, the pastors asked us if they could show us their new sewing program. What we saw amazed us! There in a hot room were 40 students learning how to sew. They had each done practice samples of how to sew on buttons, zippers, hooks and eyes, ruffles etc. They were also sewing skirts by hand. But not out of fabric, out of Craft paper. They also had 5 treadle machines, but only one worked and they were all only being borrowed. The government is paying a teacher for 6 months to teach these women how to sew. Because of little to no resources, they all need to bring their own materials and if they can’t, they can not attend. The most impressive thing to us was seeing all these women sitting in the classroom, motivated to improve their skills and look for new opportunities in life. We remembered back to when we tried to put together the first baking class, and thought we had twenty people interested, and then no one showed up. We appreciate these moments of light.

This sewing school asked if there is any way that we can help with their program. Hand sewing with paper is fine for practicing, but at some point, if they plan to make a successful business, they are going to need to use fabric and a machine. They were also interested in continuing their lessons after the 6 month period, with the hope of learning to make products that are sellable in their community. I went home thinking about it, and wondering what I could do. Other than the quilts, I don’t really have that many skills, and there are some obstacles to teaching quilting in Rio Frio (a community that is nearly 1 hour away). Then God reminded me that we are not alone here and it takes the whole body to fulfill His vision. I put a little comment on Facebook about potentially doing a sewing mission trip in August, and I received some good response. My proposal was that we need to raise approximately $5000 to buy machines, fabric and all the necessary supplies. We will also need a team of people to come out in August to teach new sewing projects; possibly items that can be made out of scraps of jeans and other materials. This way we can use leftovers from the Sewing Centre in San Vicente.     

The response was amazing and I am so happy to say that right now we have a team of about 8 women coming to El Salvador the third week of August to do a week of workshops with the women, provide lunch and childcare for their children. The dream has gotten even bigger than I imagined. Yesterday Stuart, 5 girls from the sewing centre in San Vicente and I went to pay a surprise visit to the girls in Rio Frio. We brought them 2 brand new industrial machines and some roles of fabric that I was able to purchase inexpensively in San Salvador. It was so fun to see all their faces light up! Now plans are in the works to build a communal sewing centre that is secure and waterproof. Our hope is that the girls will be able to use the machines and when they start making money they will pay a small fee to use the machines and other items in the centre to contribute to the electricity costs and maintenance. 

In order to do this, we need your help!! We have seen how in the past donations to get our programs up and running have hugely benefited to a point where we are now self sufficient and don't need to ask for more, and I am asking the same for this. If it is on your heart to donate toward giving a better life to some women who are already motivated to see this happen. Please contribute. You can donate online by clicking on the link at the top of this page on the righthand side where it says Donate then scroll down to PayPal and then "This button is for El Salvador Projects" You can put in the note that it is for the sewing centre. You have the option to pay by credit card even if you do not have a paypal account. If you wish to donate my other means, please contact me at by clicking here.

Thank you so much in advance for your continue support in everything we are doing here.

In a side note, but equally exciting, we have purchased a piece of land here that we are planning on using for our house and ministry and the Sewing Centre in San Vicente. Please pray for us as we go ahead with the building of it.

Carie

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.

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.