House #9

It is with great pleasure I introduce you to the family whom we built House #11 for. This family holds a special place in my heart as we built this home in memory of my father, Louis Albert Merrick Sr, who passed away last April shortly after we returned from our 2nd trip to El Salvador.

Julio (42 yrs) and Adela (35 yrs) are the parents of 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls. Jose (17 yrs), Erica (16 yrs), Julio Jr. (13 yrs), Enrique (12 yrs), Raquel (7 yrs) and Dayona (4 yrs).

Julio and Adela met nearly 20 yrs ago when he was passing through San Felipe from San Pedro, shortly afterwards they became a couple and started a family together. Julio comes from a family of 5 brothers and 3 sisters. Adela comes from a family of 4 sisters and 3 brothers. Julio’s father has passed away and his mother now lives next door. Adela’s parents have both passed away.

To support his family Julio and his son Julio Jr. work as farmers on a parcel of land that they share with another family. There is about 2 acres of land that they use to grow corn, beans and squash depending on the time of year. The average work day starts with an hour walk to the farm and then they work the land from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. six days a week (Monday to Saturday). When they harvest their crops they save some for food and sell some for money.

Adela is a stay at home mom who takes care of her husband and 6 children. A typical day starts with Adela walking about ten minutes to gather water to start her daily chores of cooking for her family in the morning, and then spending the afternoon washing her family’s clothes.

Enrique and Raquel are the only 2 children that currently attend school. Jose stopped attending school in 7th grade and currently is not working. Erica stopped attending school in grade 6 but she has a job babysitting for a local pastor who has 2 children. Erica earns about $60 a month babysitting. All of the money she earns goes towards supporting her family. Julio Jr. does not attend school as he helps his father on the farm, and Dayona is only 4 years old and is too young to attend school yet.

Julio and Adela have raised their children in the Catholic faith attending church when they can. They have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and have shared their faith with their children. Julio explained that he accepted Christ about 4 years ago when his son Enrique was very sick and almost died. Julio promised God he would follow him forever if God would save his son. God answered Julio’s prayer and Julio has kept his promise to God.

God was present in the building of this home for this family long before I met them. I had prayed that God would bless us with a large family (hopefully 6 children) as I am from a family of 6 siblings and my father had built our family home. What a great way to honour my father’s memory then to build a home for another large family. We met Julio and Adela and started our interview believing there were only 5 children (large family though so I was happy). As we started to ask about each of the children we discovered one of the children’s names were missing from our list. There were actually 6 children in this family. I was so amazed how faithful God is even to the smallest of details.

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

By Jean and Ron Roessner