Me-Ray-Ya
That is how the youngest son, Samuel, taught us how to correctly pronounce his mother’s name.
Little did we know that was the start of something so special.
The Alvarez/Duran family is one of (if not the most) loving families I have ever encountered.
I grew up in a family of servant hearted, loving people.
I always thought my family was so good at welcoming people in, loving them well, including them and serving them. And I truly still believe that.
However, my El Salvador family had opened my eyes to a whole new realm of community, selflessness and servant-heartedness.
A typical day for our host, Mireya, looks like this:
2:00am her husband leaves to work for her mother
5:00am she wakes up to make food of her youngest son an adopted daughter before they go to school and work
She drives them to work/school
Comes home to make food for herself and oldest son
Drives to the church to make us breakfast
Either picks us up to take us to go to English class with her or drives back home to make lunch for everyone.
Drops us back off at the church for us to rest
Picks up her youngest son from school
Comes back to the church to either learn English or prepare for that night’s church service
6pm church service (back and forth between leading worship, preaching and helping her mother in the kitchen to prepare dinner. Her mother cooks dinner for everyone while leading the children’s church service.
8pm serves dinner to us, her family and anyone left in the church
9pm they communicate the plans for the next day and head home just to do it all again the next day.
On top of their crazy day-to-day life they have opened their church and home to us. They provide SO MUCH food. If they hear any conversation about something we like, the next day it is on the table. Any meal we eat, they make sure we have a table, they serve us, then proceed to eat their meal in whatever obscure place they can find. If we offer our chair or service they insist that we sit and let them serve us. They drive us everywhere and sacrifice one of their rest days to take us on adventures and show us their country. It is an understatement to say they go over and beyond to make sure we are fed and comfortable and enjoying ourselves.
Not only did Mireya’s family adopt us in but the WHOLE COMMUNITY welcomed us into their family
On the first day, we arrived at the church, which is where we sleep and stay, and we were craving water. Since we can’t drink the tap water here we decided to take an adventure up the street to a local store to buy bottled water.
We got just up the hill when a sweet lady invited us to come sit in front of her house. We agreed as we took a seat on the lilly-pad painted tree stumps. We tried using our very broken Spanish and google translate to communicate the best we could. Within moments we met 5 more people from their community including 3 little girls and 2 men. After praying in this lady’s house one of the men told us he would get us water, so we followed him out. A few seconds later we were right back at the church still trying to explain to him that we want to go get water.
We eventually were able to communicate enough for him to take us back up the hill. He took us to 4 different stores before we finally found water and headed back to the church.
As we walked into the church we thanked him and tried to part ways, but he proceeded to follow us inside.
Hesitantly, we sat and tried to include him in our conversations until he decided to leave.
Little did we know the neighborhood is not safe for us to walk around by ourselves and we were never suppose to leave the church doors.
The next morning we realized that the lady who had invited us in is one of the church members and the man who followed us into the church is the worship leader. Mireya had told them we were staying in the church and had obviously asked them to keep an eye out for us and to keep us safe.
From that moment on every person who attended the church took us into their family
There are countless times when we would be talking or playing a game at night and a whole family would walk into the church to bring us food or drink or popsicles.
When we go into a home to preach or pray we are welcomed with some type of bread/pastry and coffee.
We have been invited to be a part of birthday parties, soccer games, parades and absolutely everything else in the community.
Here in El Salvador I have been taught what it looks like for a community to be a family, how to serve with my whole heart and to love without boundaries.
As I start my last week in El Salvador I am sad at the thought of leaving.
However, I know God has used us to make an impact here and the impact they have made on my life is one that will last forever.
I absolutely love this community and part of my heart will be left in El Salvador.
I genuinely believe this will not be my last time here.
Keep an eye out next week for my video of our whole month here in El Salvador
