El Salvador stories, Part 2!

Story time!
First of all let me just say, I am so so thankful that I kept a journal for most of this trip. This was the first mission trip I did so on, and it was so great in helping me process and remember all of the little details. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy at times to keep writing in it! Especially when I wanted to be hanging out with everyone and getting to know the staff, team from Montana, and super-cool translators since we only had 2 weeks there, but I am glad for the little bits of time that I devoted to journaling. I highly encourage you if you're ever on a trip to do the same!

So let me refresh your memory. In ES, we went down to work with "Wired", a ministry site that connects short-term teams with local pastors and ministry that is already in place. And Wired connected us with a ministry called My Father's Heart. MFH is a ministry still in the beginning stages, in comparison to what they have planned. The missionaries Samuel and Charity Okurut have been there for 2 ish years. Samuel is from Uganda, Charity from Canada, and God brought them to El Salvador! They have been ministering in this village in Quezaltepeque (Q-town) and have an incredible vision. They have a large piece of land there, in which they are in the process of building an aquaponics system... basically what it incorporates is a fish pond, and that pond water is pumped into a greenhouse and fertilizes produce,  which will then also drain into the field below and fertilize other crops, and then somehow (I think) it ends up back in the pond and the nutrients help feed the fish?? or something like that. I probably just butchered the system completely, but it's a self-sustainable and AWESOME system. They plan on letting anyone in the community come and harvest the crops if they need it. When we were there, we helped move bricks so they could build up the inside of the pond. Other plans for the site include a soccer field, a ministry center, and a children's home. They also have a 'church service' every Saturday. This is actually more of a Bible study/discipleship time, where those that come can ask questions and they discuss things in the Bible. Generally, there is a fairly small group that is consistent in coming. 
(If my weak description of this ministry sparked any interest for you at all, I would be more than happy to connect you with Samuel and Charity if you want to find out more, because I know they are very open to having people come and help!) So now you understand a little bit more about the ministry we were helping to serve for our two weeks in El Salvador. (sorry for the random highlighting... I didn't put it there and I can't get rid of it for some reason!)

Tory on top of the brick stack!

Part of the train that was used to move the 2,000 bricks into the pond.

Getting dirty digging trenches for pipes for the pond/greenhouse!

The first Saturday there, we were asked to help lead the church service and children's program for My Father's Heart. We got there a bit early, set up some chairs, and waited. And waited. Fifteen minutes after it was supposed to have started, no one was there yet. We found out that many kids had gone to swim that day because it was so hot out (or something like that), so we were going to go around and invite people for church and a papusa lunch together afterwards. (Papusas are a traditional Salvadoran meal. They're kind of like a burrito inside a flat tortilla.. yeah, sorry, that's a very poor description.) We ended up getting a fair amount of people to come, and some of our team helped lead worship in Spanish and others helped lead the children's story and games. After the service Samuel had everyone write down their contact info so he could connect with them in the future.

The church service

It's crazy how the Devil tries to get you down right before you're going to go do some work for God. So on Sunday evening I found something out back home that really put me in a sad mood. What it was is irrelevant,  but it was really a big distraction for me that day and the next. On Monday, we continued with CPE (read my previous post if you don't know what that is). Once again, I was disappointed when I found out we wouldn't be able to go back to the other village and I wasn't going to be able to talk with Jessica and Catalina! (Again, the previous post talks about that.) To be honest, I was in a pretty sour mood. I didn't want to do CPE. I was frustrated, disappointed, distracted, and hot. Ok, well everyday was hot there, but since I was already upset it just made me even more lol So we got in the vans to go do follow up appointments from Saturday's church. (You know, that contact info we got. Well we went to go meet with the people and get to know them better.) Rodrigo and I were the last pair to be dropped off. We were told that this was CPE/just connecting with them, so neither of us really knew how to approach that. I ended up sharing a little bit about why I was here, showed some pictures of family and friends that I had brought (we used these at all CPE visits), and then Rodrigo and the family talked for about the next 45 minutes. Every few minutes or so, he would translate an overview of what they had been talking about, and occasionally I would pipe in with a question, or they would have a question for me, etc. But it was mostly him talking. It started getting closer to time when we would have to go, so Rodrigo started talking to them about God. He went over some of the questions we had as a guide about if they knew who Jesus was, and what He did, etc. (And mind you, this was all in Spanish and I didn't really know what was going on most of the time.) After awhile he turned to me and said that they understood who God is and they wanted to accept Him, but he didn't know a prayer to say and he asked me if I knew one. !!!! (They were Catholic and believed a lot of the same things, but the sweet part about this story is that Rodrigo was raised Catholic, so he understood where they were coming from and what points were important to bring up with them, such as accepting Christ as their personal Savior.) So I've been on quite a few mission trips right, been around a ton of different people, but never before have I had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ. This is the part where I kind of laughed to myself because it was the moment where I had flashbacks of being a kid at VBS, or being in a chapel or a church service, where you would hear someone say the whole "repeat after me" prayer. And now it was my turn! The best part about it is that there is no perfect formula for salvation; there is not one prayer that has to be prayed in order for someone to accept Christ. I felt SO humbled as I was asked to help lead them to receive Christ. I prayed with the father, mother, and one of their sons. While I was praying with them, my spirit was doing a dance. I could feel an uncontrollable smile come on my face as I was filled with joy from the Holy Spirit. Even though I wasn't the one to share the Gospel, I still feel honored and blessed to have been able to be there and pray with them. 

This is the family (the grandmother came by at the very end) that accepted Christ!

Before this Monday, through CPE, our group had the opportunity to lead 12 people to Christ! Then, on Monday alone, through follow ups with previous CPE appointments and connecting with those people that had come to the church service, ANOTHER 12 came to know God! It was awesome to see how something that seemed negative (no one came to church and we had to round people up), God actually used for His glory!




And that's all the story time for now :)

El Salvador stories, Part 1

El Salvador
It's not that I haven't wanted to write about the trip, it's just that I've had a hard time figuring out how to write about it. So, throwing all caution to the wind, I'm just gonna write. I might ramble. You might get bored (I hope not!). It might suck. But these are some of my experiences and some of my memories.
In El Salvador (ES), we worked with the missionaries at a ministry center called 'Wired.'
And before I forget, here's a quick shout out to the team I went with in '09 to ES, Peru, and Guatemala. Do you remember when we went shopping for groceries for families at a store, and saw parking for pregnant moms? One of the last days, we drove by a store and I saw this sign again and realized it was the SAME store, AND I had been staying just three blocks from it! I thought it was cool anyways :)

The first ministry we were a part of is called Church Partnership Evangelism (CPE). It was tough. The format of CPE is that you go meet with a person/family (pre-arranged was the plan.. but we did a lot of door-to-door too) and get to know a little bit about them, share your testimony, and then go over some basic Gospel questions and Bible verses. Our end goal was to partner them with a local church for further discipleship. It was just us and a translator. The first CPE visit I had was 'challenging', as we (my translator Rodrigo and I) called it. We spoke with an elderly woman and her husband. He was a Christian, but she was a Jehovah's Witness. It was frustrating because she knew and agreed with parts of the Bible, but then she just wouldn't believe other parts. Rodrigo and I were tested because we really didn't know what to say at so many different times in that conversation! I wanted to share this story for a few reasons. As a team, we actually encountered many Jehovah's Witnesses. We were surprised! But I also felt that I was supposed to share it for some reason to show that missions isn't always perfect, or easy. There are times when we've done or said all we can, but we don't feel like we've made a difference. We have to remember that we are just a tool God is using. Everyone has their own personal choice; we can't make them choose and neither does God. For all we know, maybe we made her question a few of the things she believes.

<< Rodrigo and I

For about the first three days of CPE, nothing too crazy happened, but I had some good conversations and was able to pray with and encourage other Christians. Then, we went to another village. (Oh, I forgot to mention, the whole time we did ministry in ES, we were in a little town/village called Quezaltepeque.. aka Q-town, which was about a half an hour away from the Wired ministry center.) The vans dropped us off, and the group started walking down the dirt road. Right away, we came across a group of 3 or 4 guys hanging out, and our team was trying to figure out which three groups to send to them to talk one on one (group= team member + translator). Well, Rodrigo and I were right there and it was suggested that we go, but I just wasn't so sure about it. Something inside of me was hesitant, so I didn't volunteer and let others go instead. Come to find out, that was definitely the Spirit guiding me. Travis (our team mentor from Simpson and the campus pastor at Simpson), James (from the team from Montana that was also there with us for the two weeks), and Samuel (the local pastor whose ministry we were helping with) and their translators talked with them, and soon discovered the 'interesting' situation they had walked into. They were talking with the dangerous gang members of the area, one of the men in the group being the self-proclaimed hitman in the area. I really can't tell the story about this situation, because it is kind of confusing, but it wasn't a very good one to be in. Yes. SO GLAD I followed my gut feeling! They talked with the men for awhile, but because they were drunk, really got nowhere.  While all of this was happening, I was over talking with a family just a few houses down. I met the mom and son, and she introduced me to one of her daughters, Catalina. My heart soared! Catalina was my name in Spanish class in high school, and I ironically remembered the fact just the day before. For some reason it made my heart really happy. Then, another daughter came out of the house and was introduced. Make a wild guess at what her name is. JESSICA!!! They were both around my age too. I can't really explain the feelings I had or why. Maybe it was because of their names, but I felt a strong connection to this family. I was a little lost in translation on the family's situation, but from what I understood, the dad was a co-pastor at a church in a dangerous area, and because of that, the family doesn't attend church. It sounded like the kids new about Christ, but hadn't accepted him yet. I ended up just praying for the family, and we gave the son (in his 20s) the name of Samuel's ministry to look up online. I left feeling like something was missing. Like I needed to talk with that family more. As we went back and sat in the van, I was going crazy. I wanted to see them again! We hadn't gotten any contact info to come back or invite them to church. A little kid and one of the daughters came down the road and talked with Rodrigo, and asked him to come back because they had something for him. I went with them, and they had something for me actually. Jessica gave me a teddy bear :) It was probably one of the most touching moments of the trip. Once again, I don't know if I can give a good explanation of why, I just felt a connection for this family! We got their contact info this time, and they said "they would wait with open arms for us to come back." Oh, how I didn't want to leave! As we left that day and were all talking in the van, I heard the story with the gang members. I also heard that 2 people received Christ in another group while all of this was happening! But because of the potential danger, the missionaries decided we would not return to that village. My heart sunk. I never got to see those girls again. I have no idea why God led me to those girls, but just for that short visit, and nothing more.But as you just read about them, I ask if you wouldn't mind lifting them up in prayer. That the family would ALL come to know God.

Here is a picture with the family

With Jessica :)

I could write forever, but I doubt anyone wants to read forever... so you'll have to wait for another post of more stories!