I am so sorry I have not posted since Thailand! Life has been happening so fast, but I want to give you all a glimpse of what we’ve been doing for the last three months in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Overall, Central America has left me captivated and I feel so thankful for all of the ways in which the Lord has let me experience His goodness in these countries.
El Salvador – I was on the Magnificent Seven (the man team) for El Salvador and we had such a great time. For ministry, we partnered with Sus Hijos and primarily visited prisons and teen centers. Prison ministry was an unforeseeable gift in how joyous it became. We visited one men’s prison and two adolescent jails, one for boys and one for girls. The inmates we met with were all sentenced for various gang-related activity and I was pumped for the chance to visit with them, but also very hesitant. I couldn’t imagine they would be very interested in a bunch of foreign peers coming to talk with them for an hour every week. Thankfully, my expectations were proven wrong. I was taken aback by how receptive everyone in the prisons were to my team and our hosts. We were always welcomed with hugs and I was shown grace as I struggled through conversation in my broken Spanish. All of them have visible tattoos, which are almost exclusively used to indicate gang membership. One boy had his entire face and neck covered in small, intricate designs with gang identifiers throughout. Our host has been slowly building trust within his classes for almost a year. It was a beautiful experience to sit in on these young men and watch as they asked questions about Jesus’ love and hope. Some were dispassionate, but I would say this was a vast minority. The continued relationship between Sus Hijos and these kids has changed lives. Across all of El Salvador, gangs actually allow their members to leave if they convert to Christianity, but the gangs watch the former members, and if they are caught in any behavior that does not line up with the Bible, they are killed. This means that any kids looking for a way out of the gang are going to very seriously question and tackle scripture in order to see if it preaches a faith system and lifestyle to which they can confidently subscribe. Many of them love to read the Bible and talk about their hope in Jesus, but they will not identify as Christian because the weight of that decision is both spiritual and physical. Jesus’ teachings on his truth being life or death is taken quite literally here and it helps put in perspective the weight of our actions and what it means to have our lifestyle reflect consistency with the Bible.
I spoke with one of our hosts, Jorge, and he gave me his theory on why there is such a prevalent gang atmosphere. Jorge said that so many children miss out on nourishment and emotional investment from parental figures so that they feel very lonely. As they grow into adolescence, many find the idea of tribal membership very appealing. He explained that in his experience, there is generally a desperate desire for a sense of belonging. This is preyed upon in recruiting members for the gangs so that boys and girls as young as twelve are in prison for crimes like extortion. After going through his own battles in his youth, Jorge now at only the age of 30, runs a boys’ transition house through Sus Hijos. He lives in the house with eight boys who have been accepted into Sus Hijos’ program that helps empower young adults into independence. All of these boys were in a state-run orphan/foster system and were connected with Sus Hijos after being referred by a judge. This program focuses on helping adolescent men and women learn how to live responsibly by finishing school, finding employment, and budgeting. This is no small task and keeps Jorge very busy as he essentially plays dad to eight very different young men. When the boys come to the program, they have potential and dreams, but lack the structure in their lives to make their dreams a reality. Within the foster system, there is almost no individual encouragement and school is not required. When many of these young men and women leave this system, they are often incapable of handling the responsibilities thrown at them and crave a collective membership, thus re-introducing the appeal of gangs.
Honduras – We began this month with a team change. I am now on Team Rocket Power (they’re great). We lived and worked at Heart of Christ in La Ermita, Honduras. It’s an incredible justice ministry that partners with the police and focuses specifically on women and children that have suffered from violence. Gracie and Lee are the couple that run the organization and they have powerful testimonies. We were helping a construction team to build a home at the back of the property for the children. Presently all of the kids are living in one room, but once the house is finished, there will be over ten bedrooms with a living room and attached bathrooms. We carried dirt, cement and tiles with the three men on the construction team: Juan, Darwin and Edwin. A couple from the US came for one week while we were there to help with the tiling and they felt like mom and dad, or maybe a really cool aunt and uncle. We made a great team and had lots of embarrassing moments as the Honduran workers had to work overtime to fix our mistakes.
We worked on the house each day from 6:00AM – 2:00PM and then had time to spend with the kids in the afternoon. We had a coffee and snack break at 3 and sat among chaos as children laughed, fought, screamed and cried all around us. Many of the children are working through serious abandonment issues. The ministry focuses solely on helping women and children that have been abused, so they often have women who are pregnant as a result of rape. These women in many cases panic and run away, leaving their children at the home. The children become wards of the organization and are raised under many watchful and protective caretakers, but there is no doubt several of the children have long journeys of healing ahead of them.
Heart of Christ has a fascinating backstory with the police. Momma Gracie headed a special crimes unit for close to five years for the police department in her province, handling nearly every case of sexual violence. After being tangled in a scandal that revealed high levels of corruption and having several assassination attempts on her life, she was asked to close her office with the police. However, she still very much so partners with the police by temporarily hiding people threatened by gangs, housing abused children and helping many seek asylum in the US. She has people coming to her door throughout the week desperate for help. While I was staying there, a ten-year old girl was hidden with us for a week after her father allegedly raped her. Our host took her to the hospital to get tested and we were all relieved when we heard she had not contracted any STIs. Once all the materials for the case were gathered, they had to take her into the city so they could register her as a ward of the state, and then hopefully our host would be able to take her back to raise her at Heart of Christ. I saw restoration this month like never before as children who were born from and into violence knew nothing but love.
Guatemala – This month we are amongst the clouds at 8,000 feet elevation living with the most beautiful Guatemalan family. Our house is on the edge of a peak that overlooks a valley and several active volcanoes. Perfectly manicured crops stretch out as far as you can see, which generally isn’t too far because the clouds are so thick, but when its clear after a rain, the view is stunning. Every day we walk up and down verticals that would put inclined treadmills to shame. Whether its going to school, or visiting families with the pastor, we’re almost always panting.
Monday through Friday we teach crash courses in english at an elementary school, and then three days a week we help teach classes at a high school. The walk to and from school is so steep that my knees hurt every day now. I can’t tell if turning 24 just means my body started to give up on me or if these hills are actually ruining me. The teaching is great though, so the walks are worth it. Cat and I partnered up for teaching the elementary school and Tyler and I are paired for teaching music at the high school (I mostly write out the lyrics on the board). I have been having a really good time teaching, but Cat and I gave our students a quiz near the end of the month on what we’d been covering and every student failed except for one. I’m trying not to take it personally, but I assumed that after singing, dancing, acting and miming my way through those lessons, I would have taught them more than just “hello.” This is a wound that time will just have to heal.
We also visited the homes of congregation members with the pastor and we were able to connect with people in an incredibly unique way. I haven’t experienced much of this over the race, but I love it. We talk with them and ask how we can pray for them, to which they usually respond with struggles in their lives. We sit together in vulnerability and intimacy, exchanging words in my team’s broken Spanish. The invitation to pray for them is an honor as their walks with the Lord have been marked by more hardships and maturity than I’ve had time to experience. Even still, there is a bond that happens as we join in each other’s trials. With huge language, age and cultural barriers in the way, it would be easy to write off these relationship, but we are tied together by our hope. Many of the families send their kids to the Vacation Bible School we host on Fridays and we’ve been able to keep in touch with them. I think the kids learned more from the singing, dancing and acting in VBS than they did in English class, so that is a plus!
Funny Story: In El Salvador, I had great relationships with the Sus Hijos translators and employees and one of my friends, Saul, nicknamed me after my eating habits and obsession with pupusas. He called me “Pancita,” which translates to belly. As our familiarity grew, he also added “gordito” to our banter. “Gordito” just means little fatty. I’m not going to say he was wrong, but I will say it hurt a little; not enough to change how much I ate, but still. Also, our apartment in El Salvador was great, but the drain in our shower released the most foul, putrid, palpable sewage stench I’ve ever encountered. The smell was even more potent than when our toilet in Thailand was backed up with surprises from the community septic tank. Every time we showered after ministry, the odor climbed its way up into our living space, nearly gassing out my men. It didn’t matter how much bleach we poured or aerosol we sprayed, we were flatulently oppressed.
Highlight: In Honduras, our ministry cares for two girls with cerebral palsy. The pair was the highlight of my month. We rotated which teammate spent the day with them and I got hyped for my days because they loved watching disney movies and actually enjoyed me singing the Aladdin soundtrack. One day we were out of clean water for bathing and the girls were in desperate need of a good rinse as they were covered in formula after my messy attempt at feeding. Well, conveniently, the courtyard of the complex had a blow-up pool for the kids that had been gathering clean rainwater, so we improvised our showers. The nurse and myself each took one of the girls and danced and splashed in the pool. With eyes closed and smiles wide, they radiated joy. They are unable to speak, but their laughter is pure and it was the most ebullient noise to touch those mountains in years, I guarantee.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my experiences. In three hours we are leaving for our last month in Belize and I hope I will be posting again soon about our ministry there and a devotional I gave to the squad that brings together a lot of the lessons God has been teaching me.
Much love and many blessings!
