We crossed the Guatemalan/El Salvadorian border on February 12, 2012. As soon as we drove inward into El Salvador, I felt my spirit lighter, and the air less heavy. It is hard to fully articulate the change, though. We are living in Apastepeque, El Salvador (a small city atop a small mountain); the main city is San Vicente, which is at the bottom of the mountain. We drive down to San Vicente often to attend church services at Primer Templo Cristiano.
We are so blessed this month with our location and ministry. The Lord has told many of us that this month is a gift. We have more down-time than normal and a less rigid schedule for ministry. Our lodging (a fairly new orange house) is by no means sketchy, the view outside is beautiful, and we aren’t taking freezing cold showers! We can already see numerous differences in El Salvador compared to Guatemala. We’ve noticed thus far that this month will allow us more intentional down-time for pressing into the Lord, and this month is allowing many of my teammates to recover from past emotional, physical, and spiritual hurts and wounds.
A few differences we've noticed so far:
The weather is different …
In Guatemala it is hot and humid
In El Salvador it is hot and dry
The landscape is different …
Guatemala is similar to a very lush Florida
El Salvador is similar to California
The people are different …
In Guatemala they are warm and friendly
In El Salvador they are friendly but more shy
The spiritual atmosphere is different …
Guatemala felt spiritually heavy and you could sense the disunity of the churches
In El Salvador there is a peace, but it is a stagnant peace
The infrastructure is different …
In Guatemala you can easily see that capital improvement is not a priority
In El Salvador the roads and establishments are a bit nicer
The churches are different …
In Guatemala there are a lot of small, independent churches
In El Salvador there is a significant Catholic influence
The currency is different …
Guatemala uses the quetzal (7.5 Qs exchange for about 1 USD)
El Salvador uses the USD
We are so privileged to experience 11 different cultures in less than a year.
Our orange house … we are very blessed this month … the photo on the right is our front yard!
A beautiful view of El Salvador Los Chorros … where we went on our off day
The church we attend 4 times a week A very upscale outside mall in San Salvador
Hugh's and Kate's teams hanging out at Los Chorros on our off day with our missionary contacts
