I never really wrote anything about my second trip to El
Salvador this past summer. Eight people from from my church went down to El Salvador with me mainly to discern if our church
should partner with a Lutheran church in El Salvador.
It was an incredible trip and I couldn’t possibly do more to
tell you about what we did and experienced than what has already been written
on our church blog. Each of the group
members wrote about a day from our trip.
If you haven’t read these, you really should. I would also highly recommend that you read
the posts the group wrote leading up to our trip. You can read all these blog posts here: Our Savior Blog Posts on El Salvador.
But I would like to brag a little about the group from my
church I brought to El Salvador.
I could not have imagined a better group of people for me to
bring down there. From the beginning
they were incredibly excited and eager to learn about the history of El
Salvador, to meet Salvadorans, to experience just a little what life is like
for Salvadorans. The group was
incredibly open to all we experienced in El Salvador.
I loved seeing “light bulbs” go on in people’s heads as they
understood something. I loved seeing the
quizzical and shocked faces as people tried to make sense of events and
situations that are beyond human understanding.
Beyond the serious aspects of the trip this was a very fun
group. They especially liked to make fun
of me. One of my group members liked to
call me “mom” because I had to be like their mother telling them what they can
and cannot do while in El Salvador. My
goal was to keep everyone safe and healthy while in El Salvador (I promised
wives and friends of those on the trip that I would bring everyone back safe),
so that meant there had to be some rules like not wondering off, not petting
dogs and cats that might have parasites or other things we don’t want to catch,
not going swimming in the ocean with very big waves and rip currents, not
eating street food, etc. For the most
part they followed the rules (and everyone did come back safe!).
We had some great bonding experiences- some of our own
creation and some God blessed us with (e.g. when the running water stopped
running, we were all dirty and smelly together for a couple of days). It’s amazing what community and fellowship
can happen in a week!
Most of all I loved seeing this group fall in love with El
Salvador and the Salvadoran people. Seeing them fall in love with El Salvador
reminded me of the first time I went to El Salvador and my heart was broken yet
my faith was strengthened by the hope and faith of the Salvadoran people. Since we have been back from our trip, that
love and compassion for the Salvadorans has been evident in the way the group
has shared with the congregation about what we experienced. We are working on discerning next steps, but
I continue to be beyond excited for what God has in store for my church and our
partnership with Christians in El Salvador to work together for God’s Kingdom.
