Our Patron Saint Celebration

Left:Presidente de la Junta Directiva (Vestry), Victor Ayala, sets off liturgical fireworks during the Dia de San Andres service. As la Reverenda says, "The heck with incense, we've got liturgical explosives!" No one was injured during the service.
Above right: La Reverenda watches the children's games with a few younger congregants.
Bottom right: The procession of the mass with the Bishop, with a little St. Martin's influence at the head of the procession, enters the church.

Thanksgiving in El Salvador

Top: Shannon and Noah offer their made from scratch pies for the meal.
Bottom:Amy, Shannon, Noah, Jose, and Padre John
look forward to dessert.








Thanksgiving was pretty "tranquilo". We had a few friends over and prepared a turkey and could not find any canned cranberries in any of the stores. We had a great time and are thankful for much here especially the diocesan community and hope all our family and friends in the states had a great Thanksgiving.--Vince

Copa del Obispo- Finals

Top to Bottom: 1.The SAA boys and girls teams 2.SAA boys play Santisima Trinidad. 3. San Jose del Congo play the diocesan Milagros. 4.Boys and Girls teams from SAA 5. Coach and Missioner Caen gives a pep talk to his boys. It worked. They won it all. 6. SAA girls take on Santisima Trinidad.

Out in the department of Sonsonate at the Community development project of El Maizal the finals of the Copa del Obispo took place. Competition was fierce (one of our girls received a black eye in a scrape-- a little lesson on Christian love may be in order-- though maybe we have a future priest on our hands, you gotta be tough to be a priest here!). In the heat and dust the teams scrapped hard on the field prepared by Inginiero Cabezas and his crew, which included some ERD volunteers. At the end of the day the trophies were bestowed by the Bishop, 1st place in the boys division to San Pablo Letran who defeated San Andres Apostol in the final match in sudden death. The boys from San Andres Apostol told Amy that they were actually happy for the team from San Pablo Letran since it was their first championship. Their is a kindredness between the two teams since the team from San Pablo Letran is from the mission church that was started by San Andres Apostol. She was very proud of their sportsmanship and grace in defeat. In the girls division the girls team from La Divina Providencia from El Maizal won the championship. We had to leave early to get back for the San Andres Apostol Colegio's graduation and learned the scores when Amy called up our feisty backfielder to find out who won. She failed to mention her black eye in the conversation. -Vince