On Wednesdays we teach english…
English in a public school, where we learned that english is a hard language but also one that brings community. We, team lighthouse, had the wonderful opputorunity to go into our host school and help teach her classmates english. Here is were I learned how hungry and eager people are to learn a language that I take for granted. English isnt just a language to be learned but it is one that brings great oppurtunity, see in El Salvador if you know both spanish and english you are more likely to get a higher paying job. More doors will be opened for you to help make your dreams happen. As I taught enlish I looked into the students eyes and saw hope, hope that we, english speakers, will help them learn a language that will help set them free, that we will help them understand better so they can speak english and their dreams could get closer to becoming a reality.
What ended up happening, was greater than learning english, we got to evangelise in an environment where it is not normal to speak about Jesus. We got to show them that Jesus cares about your dreams but most importantly He cares about you.
On Tuesdays/Thursdays we teach English
to the church members; children, young adults and our host sit with us twice a week. We split them up, children one way and young adults/host another. The children are soo smart and advance, they know their colours, numbers and full sentences in english and can translate it to spanish if needed. The goat layed in the boat as the toad walked in a coat. (something like that, and yes that’s real life haha). The young adults and host engage in conversational english. They already speak really well english and are practing their translation skills. I admire their boldness, the children are eager to learn and draw in with their full attention, when we see them outside of the classroom, they continue to speak in english and will randomly just start shouting the color/things they see (in english of course). The young adults and host encourage me to push and fight for more, the way they push themselves to learn a language so they can translate for their church and family inspires me to always do more, fight harder and always have a passion worth doing it for.
On Fridays we discover…
El Salvador, so friday is what we call adventure day. Adventure day is when we explore the country that we are in. We as a team have given our amazing host freedom to pick and plan our fridays. Why you ask? Who better to show us El Salvador than someone who loves and lives here. We have seen the many beauties of El Salvador, from the volcano, to the natural springs, to the beautiful beach (Pacific Ocean), to a LightHouse that reminded us why God send us. Our host has shown us the most beautiful parts of her country and also her heart.
On Saturdays we get dirty…
Has to be my favorite day, this is our project day. Down the street from the church we are staying at is a field, a field of trees, grass, trash, bugs, ants, insects of all sorts and dirt with more ants. Our host showed us what we called a jungle and said our project was to clear it out. My first thought was well, please do not let there be snakes, than she said the commuity will be joining us and the vision for the field is for the neighboorhood children to have a save place to play soccer and for the church to have a space to expand their ministry. Community is all I needed to hear, I was ready to dig in regardless of what was ahead.
On your mark, get set, bit…we dug into the project and the ants, poisionous caterpillers and only God above knows what else, just attacked us (well more like my team, appartenly bugs in El Salvador do not like me and I am not complaining) but we kept pushing pass the physical attack and focus on what God was going to do with this field. Fast forward three weeks later and we are playing soccer, making pupusas (El Salvadorian deliciousness), handing them out for free and praying for people who walked by.
On Sundays we have church…
Church outside of America was one of the things I was looking forward to the most and it still is. To worship without a timer, to allow the Holy Spirit to just come in and stay as long as He pleases and do whatever He wants, my happiness. We had to pleasure to visit a church about a hour away from where we are living and we got to bless them with not one but two dances and a skit. I am not one to enjoy being in front of people, let alone a church but for God I will set my nerves aside and do whatever it takes to share His love and gospel. To see the smiles on the children and adults faces made it all worth it.
