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techie4christ
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Name: Jon
Country: United States
State: Illinois
Metro: Plainfield
Gender: Male
Interests: Making / designing things, Surfing the net, Watching Movies, Watching TV, well... not "TV" per-say, just Lost, Going bowling, Learning Spanish / languages, Blading, Playing videogames (well that was an interest until I realized how much time I wasted).
Occupation: Artist
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/4/2005
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| What's nextYeah, so I've been really busy these past few weeks (pulling a few all nighers in the past few weeks)... But a couple days ago I was able to post up a new blog entry on my website (I am now just using my own site to host my blog and have been updating it pretty frequently) about when I'm coming back to the US... Check it out. | | |
| *** Update on Urgent Prayer Request ***I just wanted to update you all on what is happening here. The violence at the Hotel Radisson has stopped for now and the bus full of children made it back safely to the King's Castle office. Although according to the news the protesters are going to return. So praise God that He stopped the violence and made a way for the kids to get out safely. Thanks for all of you who did get the email and were praying for us here. God bless! | | |
| *** Urgent Prayer Request *** Violence in El SalvadorI just wanted you all to know of a situation that is happening right now in San Salvador. El Salvador just had it's elections this week and today they were counting the votes. During that the a mob of people from the FMLN party (the minority Communist party) began to demonstrate at the Hotel Radisson (where the votes were being counted) by throwing rocks at the police and security there because they thought that the elections were being rigged. The police then started firing tear gas into the area to disperse the mob. Ten minutes after the protest started there was a shot fired and a person was wounded, there are also reports of members of the mob carrying firearms in that area. From my last reading (as of approximately 9:15PM) there were 20 people who have been injured in this protest. To make matters worse the Hotel is only 5 blocks away from where Don and Terri live (where there are many other homes of families) - as well as where the King's Castle International Office (and several US Missionary Associates live). On top of all of this there is a Castle bus that was bringing children back from a program that got stuck in that area (I'm not sure as to where it is but they are essentially unable to move due to the violence). Please pray for these children who are trapped in that area and that the protesters would end their violence and that no one else would get hurt, and that Don and Terri Triplett and the Missionary Associates, as well as the other innocent families living in that area would be protected.
Here are some quick links from the News sites here in El Salvador:
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.laprensagrafica.com%2Flodeldia%2F231.asp&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools | | |
| The day I used my hoodie in El Salvador...Before I get started with this blog entry I wanted to apologize for not sending out updates in the past few months, things here have been very busy and I haven't had much time to write them, but I wanted to let you all know that I'm in the process of writing a pretty big update that will cover everything that's been going on (and as usual I will post it on here as well - again, if you want to get it just email me and say you do - it's that easy...). I will be sending it out soon.
Anyway, on with the story:
For those of you who are in a cold climate right now, I suggest that you don't read this blog post, you may become offended...
So tonight for the first time this year, and only the second time ever in my time here in El Salvador, I had to use my hoodie. Basically me, Tim (my roommate) and David (for those of you who have been on an Missions Trip here, he was a translator for teams) went to Pupuseria Paty at Los Planes de Roderos, before we left David said that we should bring a coat because it's gonna be cold. I was like, well I guess... So I bring my NXT hoodie from Breakaway 2005 (gotta represent) and put it on as we walked out the door.
Halfway there, I decided just to take it off, because it was warm out and kinda pointless to wear it (it's been hovering around mid to upper 80s here). But as we get to the place it starts to get cold. Walking in, we ordered our pupusas and began to look for a place to sit down...
Pupuseria Paty is a restaurant that specializes in... Pupusas (go figure).
Basically they are tortillas stuffed with cheese or cheese and frioles, or meat with a tomato sauce topping or salsa (see photo below - salsa is the big jar, tomato sauce is on the top right).
Don't let this photo frighten or disturb you into thinking that this is some kind of food you would find at the table of the young prince from Indiana Jones. This stuff actually tastes pretty good with Pupusas and tomato sauce.... Inside the pupuseria is basically a large open air restaurant and when we started looking for tables, we walked downstairs to the place that was probably going to be the warmest, but the lower floor was pretty packed. Although there was a Mariachi band there (the traditional music style), which was kinda cool to see - but seeing as there was no space we decided to head back upstairs to find a table. After finding one and sitting there for about 5 minutes, it became brutally apparent that my hoodie wasn't enough as the wind whipped through the restaurant. After waiting around for what seemed like an eternity (about 20 minutes) we finally got our pupusas which were only warm for a few minutes which was kind of annoying at the end. It was at that time that we realized that we were complaining about the cold - which was only like in the lower 60's... It was at that moment of realizing that I was such a punk for saying that, I had the brilliant idea to get some hot chocolate... For those of you who have never tasted Latin American hot chocolate - it is the real stuff, they use real chocolate and it rocks. Needless to say, I was feeling rather stupid freezing and drinking hot chocolate in El Salvador.
(from left to right: Me, David, Tim)
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| Trip to Nicaragua - Pt. 1Well, I just got back from a ten day trip in Nicaragua, and all I have to say is that it was completely amazing. I'm gonna break the story of it up into several blog posts (mostly because I'm tired and I'm gonna on a retreat tomorrow...). Well anyway, this trip was for Loren and Mildred Triplett to experience all of the churches that they helped start in Nicaragua (they were missionaries there for over 50 years, bringing the gospel to many cities that had never had a church there - all while riding a mule for miles between places - They also endured persecution in cities that rejected them, being stoned once - now that's hard core!).
On Friday when we left I have to say the experience at the border of El Salvador and Honduras was interesting. I guess that last time when Don and Terri and a team went to Nicaragua, there was a scam going on, where you were supposed to receive a stamp (signifying that you left from the country) in your passport, but that time they said they didn't need it, then when they came back to re-enter the boarder, they said that they needed the stamps and that they would have to pay $200... Thankfully this time around we were all able to get it stamped before we left (although for one of the families that was coming with, they had to fight for it because the government official wouldn't stamp it.) I find it interesting to see the corruption of government that out in the open. In the United States you can only find that kind of corruption usually in a inner city place, but here it is in several countries.
The hotel that we stayed at was very nice, almost similar to what you would experience at the States. It was funny though, because when we had dinner there, it took a really long time for them to cook the meals, but they had a pool table there (which was really cool, because I've only played pool once in El Salvador, so it was fun to be able to play again)...
The landscape in Honduras was very beautiful, there were many many mountains that were covered in grass or trees, making the time of driving a very cool one. The trees that covered the hills and mountains looked almost as if they were the same ones that are in Africa.
So for our first visit of the trip on Saturday the 12th, we went to a cemetary and saw the graves of former missionaries to Mexico. Afterwards we went off to the former Assemblies of God Superintendent's wife to say hello and talk with her for a while. It was cool to see some of the "heroes of the faith" in Nicaragua.
More coming soon... - We Win! | | |
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