El Salvador was amazing, terrifying, fun, eye-opening, and it stretched my faith.
In El Salvador my team and I lived in San Salvador and worked with a ministry called Sus Hijos. We lived in their office building and we lived there with two El Salvadorians.
Ministry was difficult. We were visiting several centers every day during the week. A special needs orphanage, a girl’s orphanage which was also home to boys under 12, a catholic orphanage where most of us spent time with babies, and a girls prison.
It was hard at first, going to so many places, because I felt spread out and like I couldn’t really bond with the children since we were only at each place a few hours each time we went.
My favourite ministry was going to the Feminino, the girl’s prison. I felt like I was really able to connect with the girls there even though we were only there once a week. The main thing the girls there were curious about was if we had ever walked away from our faith or been challenged in that way. They are in a really hard part of their lives and all they wanted to know was that they weren’t alone and that they would be ok when it was over. I felt very close to them in the way that I had walked away from my faith a few years ago when I was very sick and in a psychiatric hospital. It was nice to know I could help them, even if it was just by spending a few hours with them.
El Salvador was really hard for me, because, of course, I got sick there. I went through many tests and many doctors there and ended up coming home for 2 weeks to see my doctor here. We thought there was something wrong with my liver so I had to have a lot of tests done, turns out I just got a really bad case of chikungunya in El Salvador and it’s going to affect me for a while. Basically this virus attacked my joints and now I’ll have post-viral arthritis for a few years
During the time I was sick, at first it was very difficult, but I leaned in to the Lord instead of drifting away like I’ve done before. Part of my illness was a spiritual attack and I was able to overcome that part with God’s help, but I still had some very concerning physical symptoms so after lots of praying and discussing with some of my team, I decided to come home for 2 weeks to see my doctor and now that we know there’s no reason I have to stay home I’m flying to DC to meet the squad.
I’m very thankful I had the opportunity to come home and make sure everything was ok before going back on the field. I also got to spend my birthday with my family. I had a good break back at home, but I cannot wait to get back out with my team.
