I should have known when our four hour drive to El Salvador took 12 that it was going to be an interesting month.
We have been in El Salvador for a week and a half now and the name of the game here is definitely flexibility.
Flexibility is….
1. Arriving in El Salvador, having your bags thrown off the bus in the middle of the Burger King parking lot, and not knowing when your contact is going to show up to get your team.
2. Sharing a testimony with a few minutes’ notice, preparing to share a testimony and not sharing it, or planning on two people sharing testimonies and finding out you need three.
3. Being pulled out in the middle of church to work in the nursery with the babies or with the kids.
4. Having ministry cancelled and relaxing by the pool instead (it’s a rough life).
5. Losing our ministry contact (who is in the van that used to be in front of our truck) on the way to San Salvador and laughing as my squad leader and team leader attempt to call said ministry contact to find out where to go, only to have him say something rapidly in Spanish and hang up on them 25 times. Continue to look around for a Puma gas station, find the Puma gas station, and realize it is obviously not the same one the ministry contact is waiting for us.
6. Learning to type quickly on my ipod because my computer has decided it doesn’t want to work.
7. Stopping to get supper at 8:30p.m. and being told we have two hours to do whatever we want there. We look around and see Starbucks, McDonalds, Crepe Lovers, Go Green, a pizza place, a sub place, and a sushi place (Again, life is rough).
8. Going to minister at the prison and finding out that only 3 out of 21 of us are allowed inside, so sitting outside the prison instead.
9. Being ready to go to the schools to sing, share testimonies, and do dramas at 9:00, only to find out we are actually leaving at 9:30 to paint instead. Then, finding out at 10:45 that we have nothing until after lunch at 12:30.
Answers to the questions I know you’re all dying to ask:
1. Where are you? My team, along with two other teams (21 people total), are serving in Santa Ana, El Salvador
2. What are you doing? We are serving alongside Tabernaculo Biblico Bautista, a church in Santa Ana, helping with their ministries and encouraging in whatever way we can. We attend and help lead worship at the nightly church services, help in the nursery, hand out tracts in the neighborhood, share testimonies, pray for people in the hospitals, hand out bread and chocolate on the streets, and visit prisons. We may also be doing ministries in schools and who knows what else God will bring our way?! Every day is a surprise!
3. What are the living arrangements? We have been so blessed this month. The 17 girls are staying in a house that I believe is being rented for us. It was completely empty, so we have 3 bedrooms, 3 and a half bathrooms, and a huge downstairs so we can spread out. The guys are staying with our ministry contact and his family right down the street from us.
4. Tell us about El Salvador. El Salvador is BEAUTIFUL! I am continually amazed at God’s creation as I look around this country. The grass and plants are so green, the sky so blue, the water so clear! El Salvador (at least Santa Ana and San Salvador) are pretty modern and we have a mall, Burger King, McDonald’s, and Pizza Hut within 10 minutes of us. Our ministry contacts have internet, a swimming pool, and a flat screen tv, which they have graciously allowed us to use while we are here. Spanish is the main language and I am becoming more and more fluent at it (in my dreams!) and they use U.S. dollars! While I haven’t seen the poverty that I saw in Guatemala, there are so many people who are lost and need Christ. You can see the hopelessness and despair in their eyes.
Prayer Requests:
1. We are INCREDIBLY blessed this month with everything that we have. Please pray that we use what we have been given wisely and don’t allow it to be a distraction from ministry.
2. Please pray for Henry, a little boy who I met last week when we handed out tracts on the streets. Henry is adorable, four years old, and unable to walk or talk. I don’t know anything more about him or his disability, but I do know the God is the Great Physician.
