Day 12: God connects His church

Hello everyone!

I'd just like to praise God for who He is. I've turned my back from Him so many times and yet, He still loves me, and He is still working in my life and blessing me so much! He always has His arms open and ready to receive us when we truly run to Him and seek Him. He is such an incredible creator. We are nothing without Him. Lately, I've been learning how blind we can be to our sins. Sometimes, we don't even realize how far away we are from God. It's such a scary feeling, being away from God. If I had to volunteer for 6 months in another country, I couldn't do it without God. It’s our choice to give our life to Him, not just part of our life but every single thing in our life. The way we act, the way we talk, the music we listen to, what we were and who our friends are CAN affect our relationship with God and from my experiences, it has often pulled me away from God. So I pray that God may challenge to give your life to Him and that He may show you the purpose to your life. It won’t be right away but keep praying and talking to God, keep seeking Him to learn what plans He has for you.

Today, we went back to Centro Escolar “Caserio Comunidad Fe y Comunidad San Diego, El Paisnal, San Salvador, El Salvador, which was the school we got to visit in the afternoon yesterday (August 16). Since the school is so small, the kindergartens to 4^th grade goes to school in the morning and 5^th grade to 9^th grade go to school in the afternoon. Yesterday, we talked to the older students but today we had the children. Again, we had different stations like we always do. We had games, bracelets, karate, juggling and the Chinese yo-yo (we ran out of balloons) and story time about Canada or any questions that the children had. When we got there, the students had a breakfast break and a lot of them were eating rice pudding (except, it was more like liquid instead of pudding) Many of them wanted their picture taken haha and kept posing, it was pretty funny. Again, I was helping out in games. The kids weren’t actually too bad and they understood games so well that we basically just let the play the game by themselves. They really enjoyed playing the Octopus game! Unfortunately, two girls crashed into each other and we had to stop playing in the area we were in but we continued to play the game in a narrower area. Usually, the stations get out of hand and we lose the order of transition but today, everything worked out very well! Some kids were hoping that we were staying there for the whole afternoon hehe. It was very cute! I forgot to mention that there was a boy in a group that had cancer on his left eye. It was a little hard to stare away and treat him differently to be honest, but he was just like every other kid. I pray that God keeps him safe.

We went out to lunch and just relaxed for a bit. For once, we were actually quite early to the church, yay! We just hung around for a bit and got used to the place. Some of us played soccer to waste the time while others got distracted by music (Alex was very happy to be able to play drums again). We also helped set up the chairs for the service. People started to arrive early and I went out to the front, the entrance. While I was walking out, I recognized someone right in front of me. It was a boy named, Ronnie (not sure if you spell it that way) who was at the school in the morning! I told him to come over but he didn’t listen to me. Fortunately, one of the women at church went to get him and he went over to sit down with the rest of the kids. Allan, Nicki and I were blessed and had the opportunity to speak to the adults. We all shared our testimony. Since many of you don’t know, my Spanish has become pretty bad and it’s like I translate in my head, so that makes my Spanish confusing. Tonight though, God was telling me to do it in Spanish, even if I mess up and even if I confuse myself sometimes. He told me that He would speak through me and help me get through this. He did exactly what He told me. I told my testimony in Spanish, messed up a few times but the people at church understood me a lot better and I think it was easier for them to relate. It was such a blessing to be at that church today. Everyone was very welcoming. They invited the group to go up to the front and everyone prayed for us. They truly cared about what we were doing and how much God will do through us. Many came up to me after and encouraged me. I honestly felt like home, it felt SO good to be there and I definitely felt the presence of God. Everyone else was helping out with the kids outside and unfortunately weren’t able to listen to the service but still, God works everywhere.

I think it’s incredible how people are opening up their churches and schools to us and allowing us to share our experience and help out the youth. I didn’t really know what to expect during this mission trip to be honest and it has been quite an experience. This mission trip is a lot different than any other mission trip that I’ve done. I’ve had bad experiences but mostly good experiences. Even from the bad experiences, God has taught me so much through this mission trip. I can’t believe it has been more than a week and we are almost done!

Tomorrow, we are visiting the church I grew up in! It’s called “Iglesia del Nazareno Madre Tierra.” We’ll be meeting youth and maybe even children. I’m kind of selfishly excited since I’ll see my friend but also because I’ll be in the church I grew up in and it’s so special! I thank God that He allowed our team to visit this church. We will also be going to another church at night for a service. I’m not really sure what will happen but God is always doing good.

Pray that our team commits to God in these last few days and make the best of them. Pray that God reaches down to us and speaks to us. Thank you for your prayers! Prayer is so powerful and even more powerful when His children unite.

God bless you all!
Laura