Two nights ago we drove an hour up to a little hillside community. As soon as we got there- before we got chased by cows and attacked by chickens- my home sickness instantly disappeared. It’s incredible how at home and natural I feel when I get into the poorest of poor areas- with dirt roads, animals running around, everyone is dirty and smelly and their houses are made of tin and wire and dirt and don’t have doors. The same thing happened today when we got to a similar town two hours away from the city…. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
This morning we went over the schedule and it seemed like it was going to be a typical day- leave at 9 (that really means 10) and drive for an hour (that really means two) to get to a random community and do some unknown mixture of ministry, testimonies, skits and singing songs (by singing we of course mean performing… why they keep asking us to do this after hearing our voices, we have no idea). So we piled in the back of a truck and drove about 20 minutes and parked somewhere. So we are thinking, cool, that was a short drive. Then we walk into a building and our translator says, so this is 106.9, THE Christian radio station of San Salvador, and you’re going to be live on the air in about 5 minutes…. Awesome!
After the interview the “Friends of Israel� (the 10,000 member church in the area, who apparently support Israel?) called and asked us to come hang out with them and give a talk at the end of the month. I freaked out when I heard because I’ve seen signs for them all over the country and have been praying God would let us interact with them somehow…. So I called dibs and I’m going to share my testimony when we go J
About two hours later we got to the remote farming community hidden in the mountains. My teammate Julie voiced the same thoughts I started this blog with- that it’s amazing how at home she felt in this incredibly different and remote little village. As a treat our driver took us on an “8 minute walk� to the lake for a picnic, translation, 45 minute hike through the jungle. Afterwards Dustin gave an incredible sermon about forgiveness at the church and we got to pray over the community and specifically the children. As another “treat� our family we’re staying with made us a special drink to accompany our dinner…. We tried to convince ourselves it was hot strawberry-Nesquick… but it was hot Pepto-Bismol., deeeelicious.
The lake we hiked to, picture taken from the back of the truck
