Craig & Corina Saword
It was a real encouragement to see the twentieth assembly established this year in the town of El Carmen. The work started with brother Victor, forty-five years ago, reading a tract on a bus. He took it home and read it again, until he understood its message and trusted in the Saviour. He then bought a Bible and began reading, to learn more about his Saviour, grow spiritually, and share the gospel with his large family. Sixteen years later he finally was linked up with the assembly in Amatal, where he was baptized and later received into assembly fellowship. His desire was that there should be a work in El Carmen, so he offered his home for preaching the gospel. After twenty-nine years in assembly fellowship, and continuing weekly with the outreach in El Carmen, there is now a small assembly for the honor and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Eight of his nine children are saved, for which he gives the Lord the glory!
Five believers were baptized in El Rosario. One of them has been coming to the meetings for about four years. He is being raised by his Pentecostal grandma and starts selling newspapers at 5:30 a.m., at a bus stop, to try and pay his way through school. When he started coming to the assembly, he saw a huge difference in the order of the meetings. After a gospel meeting in 2011, reading Romans 5:8, he said, "If He died for sinners, then He died for me!" We pray that he will bring joy to his Saviour and walk in obedience with Him.
Tom Letourneau and Glen Johnson came down to help finish some of the projects that had not been completed. In Rosario we were able to finish the four Sunday school rooms, installing the louvered windows, while Tom did all the painting. With brother Mario, we finished hanging all the chain link fencing and building and installing two large galvanized pipe gates to close off the property. Brother Julio helped with hooking two garden hoses together, to get some water to mix cement, to secure the hinges of the new gate to the cement columns. All of a sudden he saw a black animal inside the hose. He tapped it on the sidewalk and out came a three inch scorpion! Good thing he checked first, as its sting can last for days.
We have a bathroom downstairs at the hall in Rosario and were having problems with a toilet. Brother Glen and I found out that the sewage pump had locked up, so a new one was installed. We did not have proper attire, or long rubber gloves, so by the time we got the job done we reeked like the sewage pit. We took double showers at home, to which no one seemed to complain! We spent a couple of days in Guatajiagua, putting in new fans, lights, and electrical wiring in new classroom. We helped to put bars on the windows and built a steel door at the entrance, to have a certain amount of protection, as no-one stays there at night.
It has been hard to adjust to our three boys being gone, as the house feels empty, but we pray that they will continue to live for Him. Steven said, "I have so many friends on face book from school days, many who are unsaved." "I could use this means of communication to get the message of the gospel into their homes." It might be the only way they hear the clear plan of salvation! He has written one of them already, who he thought was saved, and found he has nothing for eternity. Oh that we would take each opportunity, whatever the means, so that others may come to Christ.
We had some meetings with Tom Baker up in Plyitas. The last twenty minutes of the three-hour drive was on a very narrow dirt road. Down the road came a big city bus! We moved to the side of the road, as tight as we could, not noticing that there was a sharp rock protruding at the edge of the road, which sliced the rubber sidewall and blew the tire. Tom and I, in our meeting clothes, got down in four inches of dust and dirt and changed the tire. Once we finished, covered in sweat and dirt, we had to go back and re-shower, find some clean clothes, and head back again to meeting.
Summer 2013
Written by Craig & Corina Saword - El Salvador
csaword@telesal.net