Like we wrote about in our last blog, our team had traveled down to visit a Children’s Hospital here in San Salvador and evangelize in the streets. Our contact, Oscar, had to really fight for us to get us into the hospital at all, and it was so amazing to see how much he wanted to help us get in to be with the kids.
Giving his wife a break and taking over kitchen duties
While he was doing that, we set up shop in the middle of the very busy street to begin our ministry. We held up signs for Teen Challenge that had contact information and information to help anyone dealing with addiction, we prayer-walked up and down the median for the community and our ministry, and we handed out different tracts and tried to talked with people as much as our words would allow. I am pretty sure that Shaun talked to every single person within a mile radius while we were waiting, and his fearlessness has already been an incredible asset to our team and a great challenge to the rest of us. We have learned several simple phrases that we can repeat to people here, and we have been using them to the fullest. For example, “Cristo Te Ama” (Christ Loves You) and “Dios Te Bendiga” (God Bless You). Oscar was finally able to get six people in our group access to the children’s ward, and so we decided to send all of our girls in with one of our other contacts, Roberto, to play with and pray for the kids. (You can read what happened in that story in our last blog)
Sewing together shirts for Teen Challenge to stamp and sell
Oscar, Shaun, and I then headed down to a huge intersection to evangelize, pray for people, and hand out tracts and information at the stoplights. As we began, Traci was praying for miracles over our team, and again God answered above and beyond her prayers. We split up individually and each took a street heading into the intersection, and spoke with and gave tracts to as many cars as we could during each red light. It has been crazy to see since we have been here how excited the people here are to talk to people from the United States. They were calling us over across several lanes just to hear what we had to say and what we were giving out. It was even more amazing to see how many people were still eager to hear more after they found out that we spreading the Gospel. It was really encouraging because I know that I went into it with a very low expectations about how much of an effect we could have in such a short amount of time, but I felt so blessed to be used by God regardless of my attitude.
Finally, after we had handed out all of our information, we began just interacting with the people on the street. We would talk with them and ask if we could pray over their lives. In the entire morning, not a single person said no. The last group that I spoke with was a mother and her two daughters. I asked them if I could pray over them, and she said that I could only if I would also pray for everyone else in the square after I had finished. I hugged all three of them and prayed to God for His presence in their lives and blessings over each of them. I walked away feeling like something very powerful had happened, and I thought that our encounter was over, but I was wrong.
As soon as I reconnected with Oscar, he felt like we needed to go immediately back and talk to them about whether or not they were saved. The mom had left to continue her work carrying the youngest daughter asleep on her shoulder. The only one left was a beautiful little girl, Valerie, who is just seven years old. All three of us had come up at this point, and I am sure that it would have been very intimidating, but we all got down on her level, and she spoke with us so willingly. Shaun even offered a couple of cashews from his big bag, and she said thank you and took the entire thing. Oscar began to share the Gospel message with her, and she said that her mother was a Christian, but that she was not. She told Oscar that she wanted to accept Jesus as her Savior, and he led her through one of the most powerful prayers that I have ever heard. She prayed with such conviction, and it was so obvious that God was in that place. We left her with some little pieces of scripture to hang over her bed and told her to tell her Mom about her amazing decision. Her face will stay with me for the rest of the trip and probably for the rest of my life.
Beautiful little Valerie
If God is moving like that on our first day, I can not wait to see what he has in store for us in the rest of our year. I beg you for your prayers for Valeria and her family. They get on the bus at 7:00 am every day, ride an hour into the city, work all day washing people’s windshield for tips until 8:00 pm, and then ride the bus an hour home. Please pray for blessings in their life, safety, and that regardless of their circumstances God would continue to move so powerfully in all of their lives and that they would always have His unending joy. We both experienced miracles that day, and we are confident that God is not through doing miracles through our team.
