Saturday, January 10th, my squad and I flew into San Salvador, El Salvador. Since then I have been overwhelmed by the opportunities, excitement, adventure, and love that the Lord has shown me. This month my team is doing something called Unsung Heroes. An Unsung Heroes month looks differently than all other months. This month we don’t have a specific contact, but instead we search around El Salvador for contacts that future teams may be able to partner and serve with for a month. The Lord has led us to some amazing contacts, but one in particular was especially moving for me.
Columna de Amor is a local church that we were blessed to have the opportunity to serve with. The church has four elderly homes here in San Salvador. The homes are fully funded and operated by the members of the church. People volunteer their time to care for, feed, and spend time with the elderly people. The people who live in these homes either have no family left to take care of them or their family is simply unable to do so.
One lady, Maria, told us that she had 17 children who have all passed away. She explained how all of her loved ones are gone, but that she is not sad or alone because she has the love of the Lord constantly surrounding her. Hearing this story was so humbling. It is amazing that despite the sadness that she’s suffered in this world, she turns to the Father all of her days for comfort and love.
Raul was another person that I was blessed to meet. Communicating in Spanish has been a challenge, but with Raul it was especially hard to communicate. He is blind, so we were unable to use any hand signs or facial expressions. He is hard of hearing so understanding my Spanglish was not easy for him at all. Despite all of this, he is the person that I feel like I have connected most with so far. He loves to dance, but hasn’t had the chance to for years, so we danced. It was a precious moment that I am very grateful for. We were unable to talk, but we were able to sit next to each other hand in hand. He could not see the smile on my face or hear the words coming from my mouth, but I know that he felt the love coming from my heart. I am so grateful that the Lord blessed me by placing this man in my life.
