The Journey: El Salvador: Dedications

Thursday afternoon 60 friends and family gathered to dedicate Florinda’s new home to her and her 4 kids. Her story is heartbreaking….married in her late teens to a hard working, resourceful man who was finding great success in his business….so much so that jealous neighbors murdered him and fled the area leaving her with two young children and no income. In the years since she loved a man who she thought would marry her, but he left. Now at age 29 she has 4 children, cannot read or write, has no marketable skills, lives on about 50cents a day ($15 a month from government aid) + a small plot of land where she grows corn and beans to feed her kids.

She told us her story Wednesday at lunch saying that she would love to learn to read and write. She would love to learn a skill like sewing but when would she find the time while raising 4 kids? If she takes time away from growing her family’s food then how would her children eat? She feels trapped but I sensed that with this new home she sees that things that seemed impossible just a few short months ago, can indeed happen. She lives in a community that has a wonderful church that ministers and acts to help raise people up from hopelessness to wholeness.

Near the end of the dedication, the pastor asked our team to come up as he (and everyone else) prayed for Florinda and her family. We gathered around her family, laid hands on them and Florinda & her mother just cried and cried tears of joy. It was a very special moment.

Florinda sister, Her Mother, Florinda (holding baby) and her four children

Then something very unexpected and wonderful happened…..

The pastor asked our team to circle up, so we did with arms around each other. Next he asked everyone in attendance to circle around us and pray over us. As I bowed my head, here is what happened…

Voices circled around us as everyone prayed out loud for us. I could PHYSICALLY feel their prayers weaving together. Have you ever seen a cartoon where one of the characters is playing a musical instrument and the written musical notes are physically flowing out of the instrument? Imagine the words of each person doing that and weaving together into something like a basket weave that surrounded us like a cocoon of protection. I literally felt a physical presence of protection being woven around our team. Incredible.

Pastor Isidro gave a great message today which focused on ‘what is in your hands right now?’ The point being that you don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect to serve. Go with what you have right now and serve. As you do that you will continue to grow and the blessings will flow.

We talked about that tonight as Rachel did a wonderful devotional taking this concept and combining it with Matthew 28:20 “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” She found it interesting that this statement in the Bible is immediately after the Great Commission "¹⁹Go therefore^[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" It was a reminder that though we have traveled to another nation to be Jesus' hands and feet, he is still with us when we are back home. And we can still serve Him every day in our own hometown.

She had started her devotional with stories of men and women she has met serving downtown in our home area. Stories of abuse, drugs, jail, children out of wedlock...but in each of these cases of hopelessness someone took the time to lift these individuals up. Someone acted as the hands of feet of Jesus and loved them....and at some point told them about Jesus and His promise....and each of these individuals had found a better life, beaten addictions, found hope.

What is in your hands right now?

When I started this week I really thought this blog entry on Thursday would be all about the completed house.

Instead, what I find myself thinking about are the relationships formed. I think about the little boy who took the time to write Richie a note and color him a picture before we left....and how Richie put his arm around that boy and said "My Amigo!" And this little boy just cried and cried....and so did Richie as he realized just how much his acts of kindness this week had impacted this boy(playing with him, letting him take all kinds of pictures with the digital camera etc). We later learned that this little boy had no parents and lived with Florinda's brother as a guest.

Richie has decided to stay in touch with this boy, has the email address of the Enlace representative who visits this area regularly and will continue to correspond until he visits again next year. Richie said tonight that he knows love for his wife and his kids, but he has never experienced this kind of love which is coming from somewhere deep within him like a wellspring. It is the Living Water of Jesus Christ in action....

Richie and his "Friend Making" camera. Richie probably has several hundred pictures on this camera where he let the kids take pictures. Emily (pictured in pink) and Richie have a hilarious story of sitting and having their picture taken at least 25 times in a row by all the different kids who were so excited by his camera. Great ice breaker for anyone going to a foreign country!

And then there is little Cecilia who has a heart of gold and an absolute love for our little AJ (and the other kids as well). We stopped in town on the way to the worksite today and picked up a necklace for her as well as some hair pieces etc for some of the other kids & for Florinda. We all just fell in love with this little girl...

Cecilia, Marguerite (Enclace Rep), AJ....the funny thing about this picture is that the look on AJ's face is because he is burping. Everyone really laughed very hard when this picture was taken (great smiles from the other two though!)

Rachel and Cecilia after she received her necklace (still in her hands at the time)

And then there is AJ who was the relationship maker of the week...and that includes relationships with other teammates.

AJ and his Hombres!

Richie and AJ...the blue truck was lost at some point (probably in the cement powder) and may well now be a part of Florinda's porch ;)

The Salvadoran ladies LOVED AJ

Gatorade sword fights

A boy and his trucks = heaven on earth. Take a close look at AJ's clothes. He was basically like the character in Charlie Brown that always has dirt coming off him. I think the character's name was PigPen or something like that. We would take his shoes off at the hotel and literally a pile of dirt would fall out.

Needless to say, Mr. AJ was a big hit this week. It's really an answered prayer as I had no idea how all of this would work out given a chaotic schedule, no real nap time etc. He was a champ. But he usually crashed at some point....

H and a sleeping AJ

WEDNESDAY DEDICATION

Wednesday we had a dedication as well of a project that the last team from our church worked on late last year. Our Pastor said he had never worked harder over a 4 day period in his life. Though the project was completed in December, they waited until this week to dedicate it so that our team could participate in the dedication.

This area of the road was so bad / muddy during rainy season that it literally cut off everyone who lived on the opposite side of the crossing from the main road. Due to this project, all those people will be able to cross this area and still have access to the main road.

Dedication service for project the last team from our church worked on. About 80 people from the community showed up for this hour long ceremony. Afterward, cookies and milk like substance were given to all attendees and those who wanted to buy ice cream could do so. We bought pretty much all the ice cream and gave it to the kids (as well as to our team). The ice cream vendor was pretty smart and showed up at our worksite today and we bought him out again ;)

I love the picture above because as Pastor Phil was giving his remarks at the dedication, a dog walked back and forth across the 'stage'. I don't know if that was some kind of sign, but it would have been absolutely hilarious if the dog had arched his back and done his business when Phil was speaking....but he didn't ;(

THE HOUSE

All the kids really enjoyed putting the rocks together for the floor of the house. We did this work mostly on Wednesday.

Phil, Richie, and AJ loading the wheelbarrow to take to the house

Richie dumping the rocks (roof of house visible in upper right corner). Notice Richie's PINK Boston RedSox hat. We learned that pink has a calming effect the previous day so S gave him the hat for the day so he could be calm ;)

H, AJ, and Emily placing rocks for the floor

Our Family!

The purpose for the rocks is to save money on the amount of concrete needed. The concrete is poured over all the rocks to a point where it is about halfway up the cinderblocks you see lining the walls. So, none of these rocks 'show' when the house is actually done. They just save a lot of time (all the concrete is mixed by hand) and money.

The house has 2 bedrooms and a living room area. There will be a cover for the window as well as a door and the sheet metal will go all the way up to the roof. The concrete for the porch will be poured tomorrow and everything should be done by Saturday.

A new house in 7 days. No quite like "Extreme Home Makeover" (popular TV show in USA where an entire house is built in a week)....but close enough. The house costs $6,000. If Florinda saved every penny she currently gets it would take her over 30 years to buy this house. For her, this house is a miracle. It is hers due to the kindness of the church in her community (which by the way she does not go to...at least not yet) and the kindness of people who feel called to give in the name of Jesus.

Other memories and favorite pictures:

V getting to reunite with a boy she met last year when she came on a mission trip with the church. She taught him how to play the card game UNO and gave him the cards. He wrote her a really sweet note as well.

Our favorite lady from the community was Lillian who just had the greatest personality. On Sunday after church she came straight up to us and picked up AJ & starting passing him around saying "He's so cute! Can I take him home?" Today we said we wanted to bring her home with us to be our adopted Grandmother and she said "Sign me up!" (in Spanish as she speaks no English). She has 11 kids and 15 grandkids....and turns 57 Friday. Love her.

Rachel just loved Florinda's little baby (so did AJ). The funny part about this picture is that seconds after it was taken Rachel handed the baby to Pastor Phil (in red shirt with stripes) and the baby immediately urinated all over him. He had this gigantic wet spot on his jeans and this was literally minutes before we left for the Wednesday dedication ceremony where he was one of the speakers. We teased him saying "So, Phil, you nervous about speaking at this event or something?"