This past month Team Dubs and I were in San Salvador, El Salvador at a ministry called Envision Wired. My team was on its own for the first time which was awesome…especially since team changes happened at the end of the month, but I’ll get to that in a later blog. Envision is currently in a state of transition so our role there was to come alongside their staff and help them out however we could.
The first week we went to Vinculo de Amor (Love Link), a center that works to recuperate malnourished children, teach the mothers proper care, and eventually send the children back to their families. The photo below is of 2 boys, Joaquin and Jose, that I got especially attached to.
The Envisioned staff has a team that plays in a flag football league every Saturday. A lot of the players in this league are ex-cons that have been deported from the United States after they were released from prison. Since the majority of them have spent their lives in the States and part of that life in prison, they are unfamiliar with life in El Salvador and often feel out of place. The staff has been able to gain the respect of these men and form relationships with them. The second Saturday we were in El Salvador we helped out with a barbeque/awards ceremony for the football league. It was neat to be able to meet some players from the league and to realize that they are really no different than me. We are all sinners in need of a Savior, no matter what our past holds. Below is a picture from the barbeque.
One night Beth and I were able to help hand out meals to homeless all over El Salvador. What an eye-opening experience that was. We handed out meals to men, women, prostitutes, transvestites, even children. My heart broke for these people…especially the children. How is it fair that I was able to grow up in a comfortable Christian home with enough food, a soft bed, running water, the list goes on and on…and these poor children grow up on the streets…not knowing where their next meal comes from… sleeping on the cold, hard pavement? Below is a picture of us preparing the meals.
About midway through our month at Envisioned, a short-term group came from Gospel Alliance church in Pittsburgh to help out with a construction project at Father’s Heart ministry located outside the city. The vision of Father’s Heart is to have a children’s home made up of multiple houses of 12 children with “parents” looking after each house. The group started construction on a security wall that will go around the perimeter of the ministry and they also cleaned an elderly neighbor lady’s house. Our roles were to help cook food for the group as well as help with construction and cleaning. Below are some pictures from the construction project.
Envision sells coffee that is grown and roasted in El Salvador to help fund their ministry. We were able to visit the coffee plantation and roasting plant to see how the coffee is produced from beginning to end. It was so interesting to see how good coffee is made and to be able to taste different types of coffee. Rodrigo, the coffee roaster extraordinaire, made us the best cappuccinos we have ever tasted! If you would like to support Envision by buying their coffee you can visit www.envisioncoffee.org or email them at [email protected].
My time in San Salvador is something that I will always remember and I treasure the relationships that I was able to make while being there. El Salvador is a country that I kind of overlooked on my World Race route, but it has ended up being my favorite month so far. It’s going to be a hard one to beat too!
As always, thank you everyone for all of your support! God Bless!
Rita
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