Sunday, January 18, 2009

Trabajamos Mucho! (Sunday, Jan 18th)After a much-needed night of rest with a cool breeze blowing through our windows, we awoke to a beautiful morning with the sun shining bright in the sky. (yes, just rubbing it in a bit to all our of cold NC families and friends!) After breakfast, we all began our morning work, which included doing work around Lorraine’s house (aka the Mission Base). The guys fixed the showerhead, scraped paint, & repainted, while the gals helped with the laundry, cleaning, and other odds and ends.

While we were not advised to leave the house today, we decided to venture out for a quick trip to the grocery store around the corner. On our walk we noticed busloads of people flying flags in support of their political party, some even chanting as they went by. Luckily, the store was open, as a majority of the stores and shops were closed today due to the elections. In the parking lot, we met a nice man name Raphael who asked if we were missionaries. He told us that he was a Christian as well, and that he would be praying for us during our trip here. How inspiring!

We had a little down time in the afternoon. A few of us headed out once again to try and find a propane tank. We eventually found one from a gentleman who seemed to be selling them out of his house. Back at the house, everyone else was trying to brush up on our Spanish speaking skills. The medical team was even able to practice learning the parts of the body in Spanish on a mannequin. We were also able to meet Ken & Pam, American Missionaries living here. Ken is a commander in the US Navy and works with the US Embassy. Their insight and information about El Salvador will surely prove to be extremely valuable for us in the days to come.

After dinner, Jahaziel & Brenda stopped by. They are an El Salvadorian couple with a huge love for Jesus. Jahaziel leads worship and works in youth ministry at his church, where his father is the Pastor. We are pumped we get to visit the church on Wednesday night and worship with them! Brenda is a schoolteacher and has endured major persecution at her school over the past few days. Please lift up this amazing couple in your prayers-that the Lord will guide their steps not only in ministry, but that He will lead Brenda to another school.

During their visit, they led an amazing time of worship out on the back porch. Out in the night, there were sounds of small explosions (don’t worry, we think they were fireworks), car alarms, barking dogs, and excited voices eagerly awaiting the election results. We felt honored to be able to contribute to the above-mentioned sounds by singing praises to our Lord. We don’t feel it is a coincidence that we are down here during this historic event for El Salvador. What better way to help serve a country than with prayer and worship echoing into the open air on an election night?!

We continue to anxiously wait our time to go and serve the people of El Salvador!

***Just as we were done writing…This just in! We have just received word from some neighbors that the Arena Political Party (Democratic) has a huge lead over the FMLN Party (Communist) in the elections. These elections were for the Mayors and other important government positions all over the country, and the Arena party is said to have 85% of the country won. This is amazing news, as reports as early as today said that the FMLN party was leading by 10%-15%. We’ll see how tomorrow will turn out, but the FMLN Party is already accusing the Arena Party of foul play…

2 comments:

  1. Love the pictures! You guys are amazing!

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  2. We are all so proud of our Hope Team. Thanks for the great blog update a know we are praying for you. Expect the MIRACULOUS as Jesus did! BTW, we're expecting snow here on Mon/Tues. Pastor Bill

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