Standing in Awe

Something I have dreamt of ever sense I became serious about my faith is a community that lives like the first Chriatians did. In Acts there are stories of people coming together and sharing their resourses so that everyone always had enough. This type of sacrificial love and recognizing that NOTHING really belongs to any human being, but that EVERYTHING belongs to God is a radical but beautiful way of living.  In today's society people may call this socialism or communism or what have you. When people love this way to honor God and to truly love one another the way God calls us to I cal it Christian community. This is what first drew me to El Salvador, and now I would like to try and give you a glimpse of it! Here is a picture of our small group that meets on Sarurday nights. It may not look like much but if you look closely you will see that young and old are together. In the background some women are cooking food for the group, and on the right is Ricardo with his bible preparin...

This is the first of my feature entries I'm going to write. Considering I spend a good chunk of my week at the CDI (or nutrition center in English) I thought it appropriate to write about it first. The basic goals of the CDI are to love children by providing for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. How do we do this? Each child that we serve in the CDI is sponsored by awesome people like you that have decided to give to help meet their needs. Marielos, our pastor's wife, writes the menu each month according to the budget.  What does this look like for the kids? The majority of the kids arrive around noon. They play for a few minutes and then around 12:30 they form their "filas" to go wash their hands. This is one of my tasks. I distribute soap and manage the mayhem that accompanies 30 children all trying to wash their hands in 4 stalls. I have recently taken to timing them. They then head back to the kitchen where the table is all set up. Soñya and Melanie,...

16  Rejoice always, 17  pray without ceasing, 18  give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.  -1 Thessalonians 5 Writing this post is so hard.  I feel like I could write about a million things, but I have decided to dedicate this one to what God has really been showing me.  The next few posts after this one I am going to do features on different aspects of my job here and help you learn more about where I am, what I do, and the people I work with.  For now though lets talk about prayer. Throughout my support raising experience prayer was something I struggled with pretty frequently.  It felt risky and there were times when I really didn't trust God with my pain and I didn't trust him to lead me through it.  Furthermore, asking him for the deep desires of my heart was not somewhere I wanted to go for fear of being abandoned.  As you can probably tell there were a lot of negative ass...

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This has nothing to do with how my week went, but I would like to tell you all that I slammed a cockroach multiple times just minutes ago with my shoe.  That's all I have to say about that. So this past week has been a whirlwind!  I arrived just one day after a mission team of 21 from Maryland and worked with them most of the week.  A lot of great things were accomplished.  Have a look! Jose and I are reunited! The mission team performed silent dramas in order to share the gospel.  In this picture they are sharing with the parents of the CDI children. Here are some of my girls coloring. Not a great picture, but the team built a house for one of the families that have children in the CDI program! Happy Independence Day!  Pastor Ivo got us some fireworks to help us celebrate! Here are just a few of the awesome fruits that grow in our yard.  Mangos (whole and eaten) and oranges! After a long week with the mission team t...

I made it.  The past 4 days have been some of the craziest, most spontaneous, and beautiful 4 days of my life.  Friday was so perfect.  I found out I had reached my support goal and already had plans to grab dinner with a friend, and it was such a blessing.  The entire night felt like a magical gift from God.  I was basking in his unending blessings and could not stop smiling.  Saturday I bought a plane ticket, Sunday I packed, and Monday I left.  Sunday evening I took time to pause amidst the seemingly endless to-do list to celebrate and say a final farewell.  It was great to celebrate and feel loved, but also sad.  On my drive home a ton of emotion came rushing in and it suddenly hit me that, even though a month is not that long, I really do love my friends and I really do miss them.  It's funny how in the face of a void not yet there you realize how essential something is.  I realized how wonderful they all are and what a key ro...