Well, I am back to work and on break right now, so I decided to write my last blog from El Salvador. I didnt get a chance to write any on Sunday cause everything was a flurry of activity and then we were gone. Kind of like a ninja. Yesterday I needed some recharge time and wasnt quite in the mental space to recount everything. So here I am.
I am missing everything already. Its kind of weird to be back. The roads are a lot less bumpy here and its not as humid, but its almost sad getting back to life. I may not be able to tell the perspective change right away but I know that God has made me a new person through this trip and am excited about what that new person will bring to life.
As I said, Sunday was a little chaotic. I was singing for service and also giving the preteens and teens' lesson. That morning I was trying to get out early to get suplies cause I was doing some science experiments with the kids, but Mario was running a little late so I had to go straight to the church and send some other people for the supplies. That turned out to be something straight from a sitcom. I was asking for diet coke and mentos to do the geyser trick for the kids. The first time they brought back regular coke and some generic mints because I forgot that in spanish mints are called mentos. Well, apparently they dont have mentos down there which was odd because its a latin candy.Sso I experimented with icebreakers mints and some coke zero and it looked like it was going to work but I still needed diet coke. I sent them out again and they brought back Coke zero. I decided to give it one last try and Jonathan talked to another guy and made sure he knew it was DIET coke. He brought back another 2 liter of regular. So in the end I scrapped that experiment, but it was fine because the other 2 experiments turned out to be just the right amount of time. I later found out that the confusion arose from the fact that down there diet coke was called coke lite. Next time...
Then there was a little bit of a problem with the track for the song. Juan had to convert the file so it would play and we didnt know if it would until about 10 minutes before service. Anyway, it turned out great. I was really happy to sing for them and to them in their native language. I think I did a pretty good job with the spanish.
They took up their special contribution and it was amazing to see. Even the little ninos and ninas brought their little envelopes to put in the basket. And to see people like Inez and other poor families giving as well was humbling and inspiring. It reminded me of the woman with two denarii.
It was an honor and a joy to be able to teach the teens and preteens. I spoke about how amazing God is and opened with the two science experiments and then basically stole a bunch of stuff from Louie Giglio's How Great is Our God series, which, if any of you know it, you know how powerful that is. I talked about how God is a ginormous (Carla coudln't translate that) and powerful God. I told them about waves and that I had a little difficulty with them, which Carla took the liberty to expound upon without my permission, and how He makes volcanoes and stars just to show how powerful and ginormous He is. And yet with all these amazing creations His favorite creation is us. He knows all the stars by name and He knows each of us by name and He desires to have a relationship with us. And this amazing creator God came down to earth and became a man and He died in order for us to have that relationship. Then we gave them shirts designed by Sara that said "You're a Shining Star no matter who you are" with Phil 2:15 below that. And I gave them cars to build donated from Mad Science. The kids loved it and were very involved in the talk. One little boy told me (through Carla) that he did an experiment once where he mixed hydrogen peroxide and acetone together and lit it on fire. I told Carla to make sure she tells him not to play with fire. Sheesh!
After church it was a flurry of saying goodbye to people and people giving us cards and such and taking pictures. We all got to put our hand prints next to the commemoration on the mural and take pictures. We then had a little time to eat before we left so Mario took us to a Brazilian place, the kind that just keeps on bringing meat until we're stuffed like Thanksgiving turkeys. PUCHICA, it was good! Erick met a new friend and it was hard to tear him away from conversation.
After lunch it was time to go and we headed to the airport. We got there and got a call from JP telling us the police stopped him with our luggage and interrogated him. Apparently a lone man with a bunch of luggage is a little suspicious. But the luggage got there okay and we boarded fine. The flight was good despite the suspicious mist flying overhead. I did not understand it. But I'm here now so it doesn't matter.
I am a full man right now. I feel like I am full without a clue where to empty myself. So my prayer now is to continue emptying myself into the ministry here and people here. This trip really illustrated to me that we empty ourselves to be filled up with the love of Christ. I am so grateful and dumbfounded that He was able to use a lot of the talent He has given me to serve others and Him. I can't wait to sare with everyone, although with most people I don't even know where to start. What do you say after a trip like that when someone asks "How was your trip?" Maybe I'll just tell them to read my blog.
I have already decided that I want to go back, but whatever God's plan is for my next adventure I open wide my arms and say "Bring it on!"
