El Salvador: Building Relationships by Building a House

Enlace is an organization that links churches together both from the US to El Salvador as well as within El Salvador itself.  Walter, one of the leaders, is with our team this week and he said one of the key principles behind how Enlace works is that they want the local church (and thus Jesus) to get credit for everything.  So, they work in the background and take no credit for things that might happen in various communities based on what they have helped 'link' together.  It is a beautiful and humble principle to live by and even more wonderful to see in action.

Walter said something important to our group on Sunday night.  He said "Tomorrow you will start building a house for a member of the community, but what is more important are the relationships you build.  It is those relationships that Jesus uses in His own way to further His purposes.  The relationships are the most important part of the week."

I'm really glad he said that.  Our team member Chris was without question the first person to start breaking the ice with the kids.  His knowledge of Spanish + his fantastic, outgoing personality with kids got things going early on.  Then AJ started making friends, the Salvador kids let their guard down, started playing tag with the girls, climbing trees with whoever would climb, learned how to play the card game 'Uno' (much fun), and finished the day with a game of soccer.

If building relationships was the purpose of this trip, we are off to a very good start!

Chris got things going with the Salvador kids

AJ joined in and was a big hit as the day progressed

You know your child is playing hard when one of the Salvador kids says "He is very dirty!"  And he was...

The tree climbers

Rachel and Emily making lunch with the ladies (the Salvadorans had never made PBJs or Ham & Cheese Sandwiches)

New best buds

UNO!   Since we are in a Spanish speaking country should we call it ONE?  

I know this looks like S is kicking the Salvadoran kid, but she really wasn't (I think)

Sorry Phil, wide left.....

V, Walter, H (ps Walter was REALLY good)

Hey, who's that guy in the red shirt scoring a GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL!  

The Soccer Crew! (notice AJ holding the ball ;)

I might add as well that Emily mentioned at dinner tonight that the relationships built with the Salvadorans was great, but she also valued the relationships being built within the team itself.

Oops, didn't mean to post that one ;)  But in all seriousness, we are forming some great relationships here on the team as well....

Richie & Andrew

AJ Phil Rachel

Look at those PIPES!  Not bad for a 60 year old dude....

Let's see, what else happened today.....oh, yes,.....we made some pretty good progress on the house we are building!

Site near the begininng of the day

Direct quote from Walter "Sarah is a hard worker! She is like a machine."  And she really was an incredibly hard worker all day.

Just before lunch.  

Best looking laborer....EVER ;)

The Girls left their initials in the concrete they helped pour earlier in the day

End of Day

Most of the afternoon, we dug trenches for the cinder blocks that are in the foreground and then we had to take about 4 inches off about half the floor to level it out.  We were thinking we worked pretty hard and then I asked "Did you all bring in a machine to dig this site or do it all by hand?" (notice the hill is dug out and at the highest point is about 7-8 feet high).

I knew the answer as soon as the words left my mouth.  Of course they dug it by hand with the same pick axes and shovels we had been using to clear a wimply 4 inches!  Chris, Phil and I just kind of stared in awe at the sweat that must have gone into clearing away all that hill and leveling as much as they did.  Anyone who says the poor aren't hard workers is a fool.

The house itself costs around $6,000.  It is being built for a single mom who has 4 kids.  Her brother loaned her the land (it it right next to his home)  In fact the entire area is filled with homes belonging to this family passed down from a large parcel 100 years ago to smaller parcels and homes now.  Her brother also helped us throughout the day building the house.

Here is a view of the area where the house is being built.  I don't know how to put pictures together and overlap.  I just took 3 pictures left to right and you get the idea.  The house is over on the far right.

Other Memories from the day:

• We were a little goofy this morning.  The trucks were late so we did some team building exercises including cartwheels (hilarious), hand stands (some better than others...AJ got the biggest laugh) and upside down push ups.  
• Richie nearly passing out from heat (literally looked close to death), camped out in a hammock for a couple of hours, and then came back to not only work at that the end of the day but also scored 2 goals in the soccer game.
• Richie's moving devotional tonight based on Romans 12.
• AJ tears (while trying to be brave) at having to ride solo with the driver in the truck with his car seat.  We figured out a way to get Rachel up there too and he was happy
• Swimming pool after we got back.  We were filthy and it felt AWESOME.
• AJ learning to effectively splash
• I have a ton of video of the kids playing.  It was really endearing to watch all the kids play.
• AJ wanted to work so he got a trowel (which he called a little shovel) and helped move concrete mix from one area to another.