El Salvador--Day 3

 Buenas Dias!

Today, we got up and headed out to a remote village, Ichanquezo, about an hour drive from the mission house. The traffic remains ridiculously busy. I am amazed at how early the traffic starts…around 5:00 or earlier. I've also been surprised at how early we get started. We have been heading out by 7:30 each day, and tomorrow will be 6:30!! The clinic today was held in a church, Tabernaculo de Santidad. We saw patients inside the church walls and it was SO loud!! We had five providers doing patient visits for reasons such as upper respiratory infections, scabies, parasites, and headaches. We also had a dentist and two dental assistants working in that same space!! The walls are like stucco on 3 sides, and then the 4th side is all open!

In December, I started shopping for a new stethoscope. The tubing wears out after a number of years and you don't hear as well. I had heard about a newer type of steth that has amplification and noise cancelling features. It was MUCH more expensive than a regular one, and since I don't work ER anymore, I rarely have a need for the noise canceling. I looked at them for literally 6 weeks before one day in February I decided to pull the trigger and order one. I KNOW without a doubt that God put that desire in my heart, as well as the peace to spend the extra money to buy the upgraded one. It was the best investment ever for this trip!! I had no trouble hearing heart and lung sounds in these small, loud areas that we worked in! That is one of the cool stories of how God provided for me in preparation of this trip!

It seems depression and anxiety also lives in 3rd world countries. I saw 2 teenagers that wanted something for anxiety. Unfortunately, we have a one page paper formulary that includes about 15-20 meds total---for colds to worms to diabetes to high blood pressure. I was able to counsel a little bit about using the bible as a resource to help deal with the emotions...but in depression and anxiety, my experience has been, that people still want other things to help them combat their feelings!

the people were already waiting for us under the makeshift tents when we arrived!

This young lady got a medical exam, a new pair of glasses, and a sweet little bear that was made by the granddaughters of a friend of mine from church!!

she was SO excited by these new prescription sunglasses.....her smile says it all!

The people were absolutely THRILLED with the glasses!! I might have mentioned in a previous post that I had accumulated nearly 200 pair of glasses--from mens/womens/childrens to prescription sunglasses, bifocals, and even reading glasses! A lot of the people were looking through the boxes and trying them out! Quite a few of them found glasses that worked for them! The prescription sunglasses and the reader glasses were the biggest hit!! 

There is also a dentist and her brother, whom she has trained to help. They do deep cleanings, fillings, and teeth pulling.  

In the church, we were unable to bring the dental chairs…so they sat in $5 plastic patio chairs and tipped their heads back over the back rest while they had their work done. It looked SO uncomfortable. But the people wait in line for hours, and they are so grateful for the painful dental problems to be fixed.

I literally watched a 10 year old girl have the biggest baby tooth pulled out that I have ever seen!! She took it like a champ.

My Spanish is definitely worse than I thought, and sometimes it is hard to converse even with our 2 translators. Edwin, is a young man who desires to work in the mission full time. He is working very hard and doing a great job, but there are just some English words…especially medical terms…that neither he nor Sylvita, our other translator, can translate. I have always been one to talk with my hands before…but I am getting really good with charades…even with our Spanish teammates who work in the dentistry and pharmacy. A good facial expression and tone of voice and translate a lot of things!! We laugh a lot. 

an outdoor kitchen where the church ladies cooked all day to feed our team, including snacks at the end!

By the time we left the clinic and headed back for the hour drive, we got there and literally had 15 minutes to “freshen up,” whatever that looked like. We got BACK in the van and drove ANOTHER hour to get to a very beautiful restaurant on the side of a volcano.

The dusk and sunset views were like none-other. It was really ethereal because we were higher than the clouds, and the way the sunset reflected off of them was truly crazy beautiful! A good reminder that God was the first Artist...and the best One!

While I was SO tired after not being able to sleep more than 3 hours each night, I couldn’t go to bed early because I wanted to stay up and talk with my new friend from Nova Scotia. She is one of the most beautiful souls I have ever met, and we shared a kindred spirit!! It was so incredible to just be in the same presence together..sometimes talking, sometimes quiet, but always content!

Selfie with Monica (one of our team leaders, and also a precious soul) and Susannah

We shared our experiences of the past, the things we had seen God doing in the present, and our hopes for the future. It was an encouraging time. Often I have found that there are only a few people in our lives who can help to refuel our tanks and encourage our walk with Jesus that is life-giving. Susannah was one of those people! We say good bye to her tomorrow, as she is heading back to Nova Scotia after 7 weeks of mission work around El Salvador!

Enjoy a few more pictures from today and their captions below! Don't forget to click on the last image and listen to the great mission oriented worship song!!

Monica and Maribel (the mission house care-taker) with the biggest fresh pineapple I've ever seen!!

Thanks to WIFI, we learned how to communicate via Facebook video options. We were pretty bad at figuring out the ins-and-outs of it all, but we managed!

Aqua Fresca--cantaloupe style!

eating some fried pastries (Pasteles) that the church ladies prepared for us as a little snack before we left! They were little fried dumpling like foods with a hot piece of potato on the inside. They also had a fermented cabbage slaw that you kind of lump on it and eat all together/

brotherly love in all languages

sunset over San Salvador. We were above the clouds!

El Salvador--Day 2

Day 2!!

 Our first work day. I sit to type in the open air under a Salvadorian sky with my new friends Susanna from Halifax Nova Scotia, and Edwin, a native Salvadorian who taught me what a "moto-taxi" was (they are seen driving all over the place here) And I taught him that it is really called a "golf cart." We sit in the silence of our reflections but in community of One Spirit. It is sweet.

Today was my 49th birthday. And though I deeply missed my birthday partner (my hubby who also turned 49 today), it was a special day that will go down in the history books for me. 

I actually have no pictures, because we went to a boys prison. We couldn't wear our watches in, let alone take in a phone. In fact, in the morning meeting, we were told that if one of us got caught TRYING (or FORGETTING) to take a phone in our pocket, that we could all get in trouble and it might carry a 3-5 year sentence. I promise you, I checked my pockets about 6 times. They also made us bring our passports in. And they kept them. Until we were ready to leave. A bit unnerving for sure!

We started with more team members today. There are 5 of us from the US. Susanna has been here for 7 weeks doing a long term mission and is leaving Wednesday night. She isn't technically part of this team, but she feels like one of the team and was very helpful to us today!! We had the medical director/MD, 2 dentists, a pharmacist, and 2 interpreters. So about 12 of us, including our very skilled van driver. He is amazing!!

We drove 2 hours to get to the department (or we would say state) Tonacatepeque. We were actually within about 15-20 minutes from Guatemala!  The views were great all the way and we went through a number of SO CUTE little villages. The cows are bony and sad looking, chickens roam all the streets, and I rubber necked more than once just making sure I had really seen a goat grazing the median between the road lanes while leashed. 

The prison has been locked down from health care professionals for two years now since the pandemic started. So this was the first visit for many to assess their health. We were encouraged to ask the young men questions about their life goals and career choices, and of course the door was opened to talk about God with them. I had packed 2 books that I found at the Christian book store before I left. One was a daily devotional by Max Lucado called One God, One Plan, One Life, and another called the Revolution, geared at teaching men to become God fearing husbands and fathers and to be biblical men. I also had some story book bibles, which I found out yesterday are bilingual, and will be a great tool to help the kids learn English!

I was allowed to keep the books and give them to the men that I thought would benefit them. I was nervous about that, because, how exactly would I decide which one of the 75 kids would get one?? It turns out, that God orchestrated all of the conversations in a detailed manner, that allowed me to know who was to get each book!!

Last night at about 10:30, our facilitator told us that they would be bringing the young men out in groups of about 10, and that they would be having a short devotional time....and that each of us would have the chance to lead one. I knew EXACTLY what I was going to share, because God put it on my heart last week as our study group finished 2 Chronicles, chapter 33 specifically. I had told my study group what the Lord had taught me about the story of King Mannesah, and that it made me think about what I thought the prison ministry might hold for us this week. 

I reviewed the story this morning...The gist of it was this...Mannessah became the King when he was 12. He was wicked...and did all of the wicked things that HE HAD BEEN TAUGHT. He continued to lead his people in the wicked ways that he wanted to go. The Lord tried to counsel Mannessah, but he refused to listen, leading his people further and further away from God...God finally was provoked to anger...and He allowed the enemy to put a ring in his nose, and bind his ankles and led him away. And finally, when Mannessah had been squeezed long enough by God, he FINALLY cried out to God in his distress. AND GOD HAD COMPASSION. He listened. He loved Mannessah. And He forgave him. He allowed him to reign for 55 years total. That was more time as the King than Solomon or David. What I saw last week was that this young man was taught wickedness...it's what he saw, and what he learned. And then, he was unable to get out of his wickedness because of his own rebellion. But finally, when he was really in a hard spot, his heart became soft to the Lord...and the Lord had compassion. And he gave Mannessah new life...while allowing him to continue to reap some of the consequences of his previous attitude and sin problems. It really resonated to me that many of these prison kids could be much like a Manessah...and that there really wasn't any amount of sin that God wouldn't forgive when they earnestly and humbly sought Him for forgiveness and a new way!

We had 2 pastors there today...so I didn't get to present that story. Well, not to a group anyway. But God is kind...and one of the first young men that I got to talk with told me that he was getting out in a few months. He was really hoping that he would be able to stay on the right track. He told me that he studies his bible mucho...and so I gave him the 2 Chronicles:33 chapter to read to encourage him. I was able to talk to him briefly about the example of Manessah! Then I was able to give him the book about how to be a godly man..which he was excited to get...and he wrote down a book that had changed his life..which I fully intend to read about a prison testimony!! 

The second book was given to a young boy who didn't really know about God's story. He had "heard some stuff" from other pastors that had come, but he was interested in hearing about God's gift of salvation. My translator presented the gospel to him, yet he wasn't sure that he was ready to take that next step. He did want to take the story book bible, so my prayer for him is, that he will read it from cover to cover, and accept Christ in the near future. The local pastor will be following up with him now that they are allowed to visit again.

The third book, another story book bible, went to a young man who had a stand-offish attitude, but I could tell he was definitely listening to me and was willing to engage. He wants to teach math one day, and he wants to learn English. The story book bible will both deepen his faith and teach him how to read and speak some English. He wants to learn to be able to teach others. The book was a perfect fit for him based on our conversation!

The last young man that I saw for the day was so interesting. I thought that I would be taking the last book home for another day....until we got to the very end of our encounter. He asked that I pray for his parents. I pressed him to know whether they were ill, or in conflict, or something specific. He asked that I would pray that they would continue to want to know God. Interesting, and very specific request I thought. I told him that I would definitely pray for that, but that I was most interested in where HE stood with knowing God and wanting to know Him better. He shrugged and smiled. Yeah, maybe sometimes he would like to do that, but sometimes not. He took the last book that had daily devotionals by Max Lucado...I am certain that God sent it just for him and his walk with the Lord!!

El Salvador doesn't import any fruits or veggies, and so that totally makes up for their lack of good meat!! Tonight, I ate my first fresh, ripe papaya. I wasn't sure about the first bite, but ended up eating 3 big chunks. My stomach probably isn't going to appreciate that! We have had grapes that were triple the size of normal grape. I have decided to love Aqua Fresca...which they serve everywhere. Today it was made out of CANTELOUPE!! They blend the fruit and thin it with water and a little sugar as needed. Think really thin smoothie...like pulpy juice. I would have NEVER tried cantaloupe juice. But no one knew what it was until we put our palates together and decided that was what it was!! It is so interesting to see so many stands in the ditch of the roads selling fresh produce. I hope to get some photos of that!

Tomorrow, we will drive about an hour to a very impoverished village to partner with a church to provide medical care for the people. I understand that between our 5 providers we will see 200 patients or so. It will be busy and tiring. But I don't doubt it will be amazing in many ways!!

I'm hoping to be able to journal it tomorrow night because then I will be out of WIFI until sometime Friday evening.

Please continue to pray for the hearts that will feel God's eyes on them this week while we laugh, love, and serve these people. We are getting closer to getting the eyeglasses given away, and so I also pray that needs will be met through those! One of the saddest things about today's ministry was that they won't allow the kids to have eyeglasses in the prison. Two of the boys I saw couldn't read the poster on the wall...My heart broke for them, because I know how terrible it feels to take my contacts out and not be able to see clearly. WOW. 

God is teaching me a lot through this trip already. And He is graciously allowing me to minister, not only to the people of El Salvador, but to the new friends I am making that also have servant hearts! 

Thanks for your prayers!!

El Salvador...day 1

The worship team used slides with all the words for the songs. I can read Spanish, so once I got the tune down, I enjoyed singing too!

 Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!

HALLELUJAH!

I made it to El Salvador! 

I will admit, I was a nervous, hot mess on Friday night and Saturday morning. I was soooo anxious about so many things, but primarily about the bags getting into the plane!! I worked hard to get as much packed in both the checked bags. I was praying for favor from the attendants weighing in the bags. The first bag with my clothes and extra love offerings (toothpaste, toothbrushes and some more glasses) weighed 50.0 pounds. (the limit was 50 pounds or less) The sweet man looked up at me and said "I am going to have you buy me a lotto ticket!! The second bag went up and went down, and stopped on 50.5 pounds. I looked at him with my best puppy eyes. He looked me and looked back at the scale and said "It ok!" The weight of the world came off my shoulders at that point!

We are staying at Christ for the City International headquarters in Soyapongo, El Salvador. The streets are at all kinds of crazy angles with tons of cars, trucks, pickups, and motorcycles moving at all speeds. We parked right inside the mission gate in an open air courtyard underneath the kitchen...and the bedrooms open right into the garage area. They just installed a large hot water system last week--there were no hot showers or hot water prior to that upgrade. This morning I was really thankful for a hot shower!

We traveled to the church plant of our Coordinator's family. They planted a church 20 years ago in a little neighborhood, and it was fun to hear about all of the things that have changed in those 20 years!! The joyous singing was unbeatable, and I enjoyed reading the lyrics of the songs and figuring out what they meant! Many of the words were easy to figure out when you know what the Bible says about who God is and what He does!! 

No temer! 

That was the phrase today in the service.

NO FEAR is the translation.

 We are nothing without Christ, and when we have Him as our life guide and salvation, there is NOTHING to fear!

NO TEMER!

We enjoyed getting to know Pastor Rudy over lunch! His son, also known as Rudy, is our coordinator for the week. He is doing amazing things for the kids in these small villages and the people. I can't wait to continue hearing about his ministry!

Speaking of lunch, we drove for what felt like forever, hot, hungry, and a little nauseated from the back seat of a van on the twisty, turny roads, we finally made it to the top of a very cool mountain that overlooked the valley that included the town of San Marcas, the place where the Rudy's live. It was outdoor dining with many people enjoying a lengthy lunch and laughter. 

I don't remember what it was called in Spanish, but I enjoyed chunks of chorizo, chicken, and steak bites-along with fresh, thick tortillas, THE best refried black beans ever, and Queso Fresco. We also enjoyed Aqua Fresca. I opted for strawberry. It was refreshing!

We hiked down past a strawberry farm to get another breathtaking view of the valley!

This was a BEAUTIFUL agave plant, the largest I have ever seen in real life!! Actually, the trees are amazingly beautiful. So many different colored flowers that bedazzle them! Purples, yellows, whites, lavenders, magenta, and rosy red! Simply stunning!

We spent about 3 hours just eating, resting, chatting, and hiking. Very refreshing!

Strawberry plants grown in towers along the hillside and covered with white sun shade over top to prevent the berries from burning.

A view of the tiny houses covered in rusting tin roofs

After lunch and goodbyes, we drove back by a souvenir market where we stopped and picked up a few things. I can't WAIT to get home to try the handmade hot chocolate powder that I bought!

For some very strange and random reason, eating Mexican street corn in Mexico is on my bucket list...but apparently they also have this in El Salvador. My new friend Monica assures me that she can make it better than the street vendors...so we will be enjoying this one evening this week! I can NOT wait!!

I am ready to get to work. It has definitely been fun to bond with people on our team!! We were planning on going to a youth prison ministry tomorrow, but due to a plan change, we are now going into a men's prison. Most men, as I understand, are in there for a minimum sentence of 30 years, and the majority of crime is for murder or possession of illegal weapons. It sounds like it will be an amazing opportunity!

The Mission

 Well....now this blog has been used for a lot of things since blogs were the thing back in the early 2000's...

In 2009 when I started it, things were a lot different in our lives!!! It's been used to keep my far away family updated on the fun details of our growing lives...been used to document all the plants that I have grown and probably killed by now...used for short stints of bible study sessions...used to show some of our best memories ever...used to allow me to exercise the story telling aspect of the personality God gave me. I have many fond memories here...

BUT...as the kids grew long and tall, the minutes grew shorter and shorter...and things pressed in on our time. The blog was the first to go. Since my last post in 2017, we have graduated our last son...we have our little sweet girl left at home. We have two daughters-in-love and 3 precious grand babies with one more on the way!! 

I lived my life to be a wife and mom. It's what I dreamed of as a little girl. I had my house decorated from the JC Penney catalog (the one that my short grandma stacked 2 high on her car seat so she could see out the window)..I had their names picked out and my life planned!! SO, as the kids grew and left, grew and left, grew and left...I began that inner tension that many moms feel.....God, WHAT am I gonna do when these blessings you entrusted to me leave. And every once in a while, He would show me a glimpse. 

The first glimpse I had was when our babies were quite small...I knew that I wanted to take some of my medical skills, and go on a mission trip to love others in a different way than they were used to. Some day. Some day. As I grew in maturity, and in faith...I worried that SOME DAY, would never get here. And in the meantime, I was blessed to take our local youth group kids on some week long mission trips to inner city streets and Indian reservations...I loved those moments. I loved how God spoke to each of them..and to me. I loved seeing how He works things together, and uses the smallest details to do it. I loved talking and touching and hugging and loving the forgotten (even when they were forgotten as consequences of their actions.) I've always had a tender spot for the underdog. And for those whom God made in HIS own image---just like me--who are victims of circumstances beyond their control. 

About 6 months ago, the Lord brought my dream of a medical mission trip back to my heart...whispering, "Soon!" We had just moved Devin to college...Cami is going to be in high school next year. Maybe, I thought. Maybe I could start looking at mission opportunities. Things would come through my mail box...I held on to a Samaritan's purse letter for months..vowing that I would check into that opportunity to work with them. I scoped the internet for an hour once last fall, just to see what else is out there. It was overwhelming. There was a lot. I wasn't ready. Not enough time. Not enough courage. I dropped it and put that desire back into its little box in my heart. Not now.... 

This past fall, I found myself really wishy-washy about taking our high school youth group on a spring break mission trip. Those trips have resulted in some really amazing Kingdom work over the years, but it is also a big investment of time, energy, and money. The day after Christmas, there was a tragic car accident that claimed the life of young woman who encountered God in a really amazing way on one of those trips to inner city Dallas, Texas. I felt the Lord nudging me to move forward with one. 

The kids were excited! And honestly, so was I! We had a very short turn around time to get the arrangements made and the money sent. I sent the deposit in, but the week that the final payment was made, a series of events occurred that led to a necessitated cancellation of the trip. I was devastated. 

Fast forward through mid January into late February, February 23 to be exact, I slumped into the couch that Wednesday night after youth group to rest and read the mail. There was a letter from the organization that we use for our Urban Plunge mission trips. It was a receipt for our mission trip down payment. The trip that had already been cancelled! But before I figured that out, the top of the letter was talking about what their organization had been doing in early 2022. There were 2 sentences about a medical mission trip in March. I realized at this point, that the receipt had been lost in the mail for nearly 4 weeks. 

Now, I had never pursued getting a passport, because it just wasn't a realistic thing to do. Jeremy encouraged me to at least call about the possibility of still being able to go with this team, provided I could get a passport. But because of COVID, it looked like passports were out 7-11 weeks, or 3-5 if you paid to expediate it. I had 3 1/2 weeks. 

After a phone call with CFCI to let me know that I could definitely go with the team, and a phone call with the doctor who leads the team who assured me that I would be an asset to them, he and I began looking at third party companies that could attain a passport in time for me to go.

I called a few places on Monday--which was February 28. The prices that they wanted to get a passport were more than I was willing to pay; which left the final option of buying airplane tickets in faith, and waiting until March 7 to call the center in Dallas (the nearest place to us-7 hours away) and pray for an appointment that had to fall within FIVE days of the trip. Even though I knew that this was becoming crazier by the second, I had an inner peace that God had allowed the misplaced letter so that He could show up and show off the way HIS timing works. After one more call to Dr Miller, he found out that because of COVID and the opening of travel, lots of people needed to get their passports updated for spring break travel. He offered one more place to call, and told me that he and his wife would pay the cost of the third party people to get my passport in 3-5 days. 

It was the encouragement that I needed to act in faith. When I got home that night, I got on the computer. I ordered roundtrip tickets to El Salvador and went through the paper process for the Passport Agency. The next morning, I was able to go to our courthouse, and my friend took us through all the steps of getting the paperwork specially sealed so I could overnight it to Houston Texas. That was March 1. It was a huge act of faith on all of our parts!

On Tuesday March 8th when I got back from lunch, I had an email that reported that the passport had been issued....and that it was being shipped. March 9 that passport reached me and I knew that it was GAME ON!!

On Thursday, I ordered some things from Amazon after talking with Dr Miller about bringing some things as a love offering. My friend donated a huge suitcase to load up and leave in El Salvador. The Lord laid glasses on my heart, but I knew that I would need something really light to fill up the suitcase and still weigh less than 50 pounds. That night I put out an ISO on FB for eyeglasses and stuffed animals! 

Only God could have accumulated the things that got packed into that suitcase...and ultimately spilled over into MY suitcase to get it all there!!

189 pair of glasses

200 toothbrushes

144 small tubes of toothpaste

30 punch balloons

120 snap bracelets

a package of clothespins (I have no idea why)

30 or more stuffed animals

7 story book bibles in Spanish (they weighed over a pound each so they didn't all make it-I absolutely could NOT get them all in...so there are 3 left for the next trip)

2 Spanish inspirational book for the prison ministry

I opened and closed those two large suitcases a hundred times...Moving things from one to the other, stuffing a few more things in and pulling a few more things out to get those two bags to weigh less than 50 pounds each. Jeremy has a great little scale he uses in the shop that I could put the bags on and weigh them!! I definitely got a workout doing it!

As I sit in a hotel room tonight, putting my story into words, I continue to pray for favor tomorrow at the airport...Favor that those 2 big bags would STILL weigh less than 50 pounds on the airport scale...that my huge carry on backpack, loaned to me by a friend, would be acceptable (it is at the limit of carry on sizing) and that my old lady body will be able to handle the luggage, a 30 pound pack, and a 10 pound purse stuffed to the absolute max. 

I haven't been nervous....but I do feel like I have just made the long ascent to the very top of the first loop on the roller coaster, and I am holding my breath--knowing that it is a matter of moments until the steep drop starts and it leaves you breathless in a world of emotion--fear, laughter, and heart-pounding exhilaration!! I am confident that the Lord brought this trip together...and equally confident that He will be by my side each moment! I can't WAIT to see what He is up to!

These past 10 days, while using Rock-my-run on the ifit app on my treadmill, I heard a couple of songs that had me captivated in the first stanza!!  It was more reassurance from my Father, that I am in His will for this journey!! I keep a notebook and pen in the tray on my treadmill for writing down things I need to remember when I am working out. I was able to jot down lyrics and locate the songs...I was provoked to start a Spotify playlist called MISSION WORSHIP. I want to share some of those songs with my posts.

I will have no phone service at all for a week while I am in El Salvador, but I will have access to WIFI for several days. Journaling God's providential goodness in the still of the night each day, is so helpful to ME to process where He has worked, and what I have seen and learned. I am hoping for enough WIFI to post the daily story on the blog...but if I don't...I will be posting them when I get home. 

I do NOT want to forget the details of this trip...and I PROMISED that I would vocalize God's work through this endeavor!

Enjoy this song... I had never heard it before last week. I. LOVE. IT! 

It's about more than being sent out on mission to another country...When we belong to Jesus, it's about being sent to wherever He needs us...and most of the time it isn't an exotic place...it's right in our own neighborhood. 

Don't read my story this week...without wondering what God is asking YOU to do...If you have trusted Him to be in charge of your life, He has big plans for you--He just desires a willing and obedient heart to trust in His sometimes small voice...crazy as it may seem or sound! 

Be strong and courageous...For the Lord YOUR God is with you wherever you go! Joshua 1:9