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 :)