I’m so sorry that it has taken so long for me to write another blog! I’ve been sick twice since the last time I posted one and things have been pretty busy otherwise. So, in order to cover as much ground as possible, I’ve decided to write about all the things that make up my life here in El Salvador.
We now have another all-girl team staying with us at the church: Team Meek. They’re from our squad, which is what we call our larger group (there are 40 of us total in different parts of El Salvador). We were a little nervous about how it was going to work out at first because their team dynamic is so different from ours, but our teams have complemented each other really well. I love having them with us and I see God’s heart in them daily.
My team has planned out all of the English lessons and games for the summer program, La Casita, that launches on Monday. All of us will have the opportunity to teach English to the children or at least be in the classroom. Here’s how it’s going to work: In addition to English lessons, the kids will have an art class, a reading class, a computer class, and a game hour once a week. La Casita will be 8-1pm Monday-Thursday at La Red with two different groups of kids. All of us will take turns with helping the cook make lunch every day. I don’t know how to cook anything besides eggs, bacon, and pre-mixed pancakes, so it should be an adventure! Anyways, the goal of this program is to get the kids to dream big for their futures and build their confidence, so I’m excited to see how it impacts them. We will only be here for two-and-a-half weeks out of the six, so I’m a little disappointed that we won’t get to be here for the whole time.
We have discipleship for the teenage girls at the orphanage every Friday. They are sweet and many of them have a deep faith in God. Even though we hardly know any Spanish and they only know a few words in English, it’s easy to tell that we’re always excited to see each other. They make sure to hug us when we arrive and when we leave. Last week after the lesson (Andrea translates for us), we helped them tear apart the foam that they use to stuff the pillows that they sell. Whitney had the song Oceans on her phone in Spanish, so she played it and we all sang along, each in her own language. Even though our lives are so different, we still worship the same God, still sing the same melodies to Him. I had thought about the fact that there were believers all around the world before, but it is something completely different to see them here in the flesh, love shining out of eyes as dark as ink, all the while knowing that our lives stem from the same source.
Other than visiting the orphanage, our weekly lives include doing miscellaneous things around the church, like cleaning, organizing clothes to give away, pulling weeds, and whatever is necessary in order to prepare for La Casita. We watch children for an hour or two during a women’s Bible study on Tuesdays. We set up and take down chairs for church on Saturday mornings and help in the classrooms.
It may seem that pulling weeds, visiting an orphanage, and babysitting kids once a week aren’t anything out of the ordinary, and perhaps you would be right in thinking that. Maybe it seems as if, for these past two months, we’ve only been preparing for our “real” ministry, La Casita. I certainly expected to be more busy, to be serving 24/7, to be doing the crazy things that supposedly come along with being a missionary, but things have been surprisingly laid back. And yet…this is exactly what I needed: to realize that ministry is as simple as giving a kid a high five and a fist bump, or asking a teammate what they’re dealing with from home, or doing the little things that no one thinks to do. My ministry is my life, whether that’s in America or in a country oceans away. It took coming here for me to realize that. And, even though it may appear that we haven’t done much yet, this trip has already been life-changing. It has taken the things that I knew in my head, tested them, and transferred them to my heart. It has shown me that I knew the things that God says about me but didn’t actually believe them. Even if, by some horrible twist of fate, I learn nothing for the rest of the Race, I am convinced that the things I’ve learned here will impact me for the rest of my life.
P.S. I tried to cover every aspect of our lives here, but there is so much more that I can’t fit into a single blog entry. I have some more blog ideas in mind, so I will probably be focusing more on specific instances in future posts.
P.P.S. Although pictures refuse to upload to my blog, I’ve discovered that they will upload to Instagram. So, if you would like to better visualize what my life looks like here, my username is @theklaviergirl and I will hopefully be posting more pictures every weekend when I get WiFi!
Love you guys,
Jordan.
