Los Fotos

We hit water in Campanero Numero Dos (sorry guys, these are in no particular order)

Tortillas the community women made us for lunch

Barb, Hannah, and I at the second village (whose name I don't know), working the trench. Mud drilling is totally different than the air hammer.

The whole team at the well (pozo) dedication at Campanero Dos

Carlos, our awesome in-country leader, translator, genius holding the plaque for the completed well

A man fishing for tilapia in the second village (where we didn't complete the well). You can see how polluted the water is that the eat the fish from, but not only that, this is their drinking water as well.

Mud drilling at the second village. Three other teams had drilled on this well. We left it unfinished as well, but the next week they were planning on attempting again with a different rig.

Me visiting with mis amigas at a village school. The rural areas typically have school through 6th grade (although this one went to 9th). Lack of education is the biggest problem in El Salvador.

Another delicious lunch in the community.

Maria, our lovely hostess, in Campanero Dos, showing us the water from their hand dug wells. These wells are typically 20-50 feet, and polluted from sea water, surface water etc. The well we completed was about 100 ft deep, and filtered through hard volcanic rock to purify it.

One of my best memories. During hygiene training, we had the kids draw maps of their community. Everyone loved it! The adults got down on the floor and everyone had a great time! And their maps ranged from highly accurate, to pictorial in nature.

Lowering pipe down into the casing. It's incredibly hard to lower pipe from over your head, into the whole, without "dropping" it.

Aqua Viva truck.

Family in the second village. They were generous enough to let us use their electricity to cut slots into PVC for the casing.

Jorge, the primero (mayor-ish) in Campanero Dos introducing us to the community. We spent a morning walking around the village (about 50 families) doing this. It was so great to meet them and see their hospitality.

Typical home in both communities. They have no garbage service, so it just accumulates everywhere.

Our friend, John Nadolski, was a great addition to the team. He's from Douglas, and works full-time for Living Water. His passion for people was clearly evident in all that he did.

Getting ready to drive to Denver the morning we left. This is actually in front of Dave and my house.

Although they lived in extreme poverty, this woman had a beautiful garden. She had plants in all kinds of containers. It was a joy to visit her. She said we're always welcome in her home.

After the dedication ceremony, we went over the local carpenter's house. His family showered us with gifts, mangos, souvenirs, cocos, flores. Their generosity was amazing!

The villagers, C #2, as the dedication ceremony.

Dave, getting refreshed, at the freshly set pump.

Dave's birthday papa! We had ice cream later. Don't ask him if I remembered his birthday. It was mid-morning before it dawned on me! :)

Hannah and Dani! She did so awesome playing with the kids! And he was such a great kid! So happy!

Completed well with plaque.

Hannah and my first interaction with cafe (coffee) trees! Love them! Love the berries! Ate too many!

Dave and I share a coco (coconut)! So good!

Freshly picked pepper, from a bush next to this homes entry. I think it was called Goat's Head.

Puposas! The national food of El Salvador! Delicious!

Our boots at the entry way of the guest house.

The playa (beach) with a beautiful statue of Jesus. I enjoyed watching this be illuminated every morning!

How Dave and I rode around. How I came to seriously consider going with dreds.

The air hammer drill. Sooo dusty!

Typical house in rural El Salvador.

Photo credits: Hannah Wiest, Barb Martin, and us! :)

bullseye

Today's "Our Daily Bread" scripture fit perfectly in with what I've been think on this week...

Romans 12:4-13 (New International Version)

⁴Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, ⁵so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. ⁶We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his^a]">[a]faith. ⁷If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; ⁸if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Love

⁹Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. ¹⁰Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. ¹²Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. ¹³Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Settling

We're settling back in to out lives. It's amazing how quickly I am sucked back into the day to day busy-ness of life. Yet, every time I take a drink of water, or grab a cuppa java I am reminded of El Salvador. Join Dave and I in praying for these amazing people, and for Living Water International. They make such a big impact, in such a great way. Check out www.water.cc if you haven't yet! They tell their story much better than I can! :)

The strangest part of returning from El Salvador for me has been plugging back into my life. I'm constantly connected to those around, cell phone, internet etc. Which is great, but I miss the peacefulness and purpose filled week. I'm in the midst of learning to be still, and know that He is God.

First photos of ElSalvador

Some photos of the trip, more to come later.

He probado y visto que el Señor es bueno!

I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good!

We're back! God's blessings flowed over and around us so abundantly on this trip! We worked with a wonderful group of people, whose friendship and just who there are has already been a blessing in our lives! We drilled a well for the village of Campenaro Numero Dos, and successfully set-up a well for these beautiful people! We drilled on another well, which three other teams had worked to complete and we saw patience and endurance in the people of that village. Our interaction with the local people in the breath-taking country of El Salvador will stay with me always! We saw poverty and substanance living, but saw the joy in the peoples faces and experienced first hand their generosity!

One of my most intense experiences was watching Nelson, the native assistant driller, put his hand over the spout of the well, to charge it. The suction filled the pipes completely with water and it splashed out over his boots and onto the people around him. God has done this for me. He placed His hand over my life and I am re-charged and over-flowing!

There are so many memories and stories that Dave and I would like to share and will share as this week continues and we are able to process our experience. However, I am left with this, I am soooo very blessed! We were blessed by our friends and family before we left, we were blessed by our team-mates and the in-country team of natives while we were there, we were blessed by the people of the communities we were in who gave so joyfully and waited so paitently on God, and we return blessed! I have never felt so completely covered by prayers, as we did on this trip! Thank you to everyone who stopped by and prayed with us, who thought of us as we travelled this week, our church who prayed with us, those who prayed for the well and the people of El Salvador, muchas gracias! We felt them, and God was able to use us!

I would like to invite you all to First Baptist next Sunday! Our team, Hannah, Barb, Dave and I will presenting a report on our trip! Please come!

God first opened my eyes to the below scripture while I was working at Bear Trap Ranch. It was written in a notebook in the horse barn, where I was a wrangler. I have meditated on it for 7 years, through a hard Wyoming drougth, and a personal drougth. Our team leader, Brandon, used it one morining in El Salvador during devotions. What a blessing to see this promise fullfilled in some many ways.

"The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst. But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Isreal, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water,and the parched ground into springs....So that the people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this...."

Isaiah 41:17-18, 20a

Schedule

We just received this schedule from John and Marcia Nadolski! It will outline what we should be doing on each day.

	Dates/Activity	1st Person	2nd Person	3rd Person
Saturday June 13th	Team from Douglas drives to Denver and flies to Houston. Marcia and John host them for the night.
Sunday June 14th	Team flies to San Salvador, El Salvador. We drive to Sonsonate after we arrive.
Monday June 15th	Set up to drill. It is hard, volcanic rock and the normal depth to water varies between 40 meters and 70 meters.
Tuesday June 16th	Continue drilling. We also teach health and hygiene to the local community
Wednesday June 17th	Continue drilling and hygiene training. If all goes well, we should be setting the casing and developing the well.
Thursday June 18th	We should be setting the pump if all is going well. Otherwise, we are still drilling.
Friday June 19th	Ideally, this is a day to rest, relax and/or play – if the drilling went well. Otherwise, we are doing what we need to finish the project. We finish the day by driving to San Salvador.
Saturday June 20th	The team takes early morning flight from San Salvador to Houston.

The Water of Life

It's hard, at this moment, to imagine where we will be in two days, or even how it will be to return home on June 20. Our hope is to be successful in producing a flowing water well, but more than that, to be successful in presenting the hope that is in Christ, and His living water, from which we are eternally sated.

We extremely excited to go see a new part of God's world, meet new people, and mostly to leave something tangible behind, a water well. We don't know the details, or the mechanics of what we will be doing. Living Water typically sends out teams of 10, with about 3 staff traveling along with them. We will be switching back and forth between the drilling team, and a hygiene team which travels into the city and teaches people about clean water and well maintenance. We are excited to be going with our good friends Hannah Wiest and Barb Martin from our home chuch, First Baptist in Douglas, and also to meet up with an old friend, John Nadolski. John is on staff with Living Water, and although he usually travels with teams to Africa, he will be travelling with us to El Salvador as it has been his hope for some time to see a team go from his sending church, also FBC. And yes, many of you from FBC and Douglas do know John! He and his family attended FBC and lived in Douglas for many years before devoting theirs lives to full time missions.

On a more personal level, for Dave and I the seeds for ministry were planted many years ago. We met while involved in mission type work at Intervarsity Christian Fellowship's Bear Trap Ranch in 2001. Dave worked there for several years as well as serving on staff with IV at CSU. We both have a huge heart for missions, and this feels like the right first step to begin heading our lives in that direction.

In preparing for this trip, we've been going through our concordenanace looking up verses about water! I was shocked to see how many there were, from Genisis to Revalations! I've been reminded of how much water is used by God to both bless and discipline His people. It is so fitting to see the use of water both literally and as a metaphor in His word. Below are some verses that we found paticularly fitting and will be holding onto as we travel to El Salvador.

Matthew 10:40-42 (New King James Version)

⁴⁰ “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me. ⁴¹ He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward. And he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴² And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

John 4:7-14 (New King James Version)

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Revelation 21:6
And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.

Revelation 22:17
And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

We will post pictures and thoughts here upon our return! Thank you so much for your support, whether financially or prayful or both! It has been an incredible blessing for us, and we were incredibly touched by the notes and money that we received from friends and famly. Our prayer is this, that we not love the people of El Salvador because they are like Jesus, but because they are Jesus.

To El Salvador

We lavishly slept in this (Friday) morning and ate french toast made with beer bread. Today we pack and get ready to go to El Salvador to help Living Waters drill a fresh water well in a village. So we are (Sarah is) mowing the lawn which has been getting rain all week, planning on what to take for 85 degree weather and rain.
Tomorrow morning we will be off to Houston, via DIA, to stay with our hosts and then Fly to San Salvador on Sunday. We will be staying in a family's home drilling in a town called Acajulta. It is a port town on the western coast in the state of Sonsonate.
There are many missionaries around the world who are serving in more dangerous places, we don't feel we will be in any danger here but do keep us in your prayers for safety. We wish to give ourselves humbly and engage the culture with sincerity, offering cool water to someone in the name of Jesus.

Who We Are

Hi! We're Sarah and Dave, aka Sar and DaveR! After getting married in January 2009, we moved into a little house, in a small town and have been busy living every moment of our lives!