EL SALVADOR.
I immediately fell in love with this country while looking at the landscape from the plane. The green. The mountains. The coastline. I was literally jumping in my seat with excitement.
Let me start by saying that the race is never what you would expect it to be. Basically, expectations are just something you can’t have. Our amazing God has far surpassed what we pictured in just one week.
Our host family has been so welcoming and has showed us some awesome things in these little cities here. They cook for us, wash our clothes, and even built a huge covering for us to sleep under in their backyard! We are SPOILED.
Our ministry so far has included working to clear a field with the people of the church we’re working with (our host family’s church) so that another church can be built there, playing with the children of this church, street evangelism, and working with some kindergarteners!
The first day was technically an off day, so we visited a lake called Lago de Coatepeque, which is a volcanic crater lake. We jumped off a board and jet skied! Not too bad for the first day, I’d say!
On Saturday, when we were still in this large tent that fit 5 of us, it started POURING and we had to grab all of our stuff out of the tent as quickly as possible because the tent was leaking. We had to sleep on the floor inside.. you never know what will happen!
Our translator is a neighbor of our host family (the Santos family). His name is Vincent, he’s 17, and he’s awesome.
I’ve been privileged to express myself by taking pictures. There’s too many to post on here, and I haven’t posted them on Facebook yet, but just stay updated with my Facebook to check them out! https://www.facebook.com/lauren.barfield
Something that I really want to share with everyone is how the Holy Spirit has truly been working in me. I have been really unsettled since training camp about how I felt that I hadn’t been hearing from God. I believed that the thoughts that I had been having were from me, and not from God. So on Sunday, on the way to church, I was sitting by myself in the front seat of the 7 person van that we fit 14 people in, and I prayed for the Lord to show me a sign and truly SPEAK to me. I asked Him to give me a verse as conformation. I just sat and listened (while listening to Give Me Faith by Elevation Worship) and the verse Hebrews 3:7 came to my mind. I thought, “no way. I just came up with some random numbers, picked a random book of the Bible and put the two together.” But I still opened my Bible and looked it up.
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts’.” Hebrews 3:7-8
I was absolutely speechless. I finally realized that the Holy Spirit has been working in me and listening to me even when I didn’t believe that it was Him.
Please keep me and my team in your prayers as we continue to adjust to community living, communicating in Spanish, and the rest of the awesome things we’ll be doing here!
If you want to get in contact with me, the best way to reach me is through email! [email protected]
I still need about $1,751 to be fully funded! My deadline is October 31st, but if you’d like to make a donation, I’d highly encourage you do to so as soon as possible! And subscribe to this blog to keep up with my posts! Thanks again to everyone that has already supported me this far in this journey! I feel extremely blessed to be here, to be loved on by my community, and to love on others!
