suchitoto

We leave today. I´m not ready yet. This place has gotten into my heart and I am so excited about helping the Turning Point to feel more connected with the church here in El Salvador.

Yesterday we drove out to a small town called Suchitoto, about an hour from San Salvador. There is school there that serves this rural community. They have four classrooms, but only enough funds for three teachers. One of the teachers is a disciple in the church here. She used to live closer to San Salvador, and walked to work every day for eight years, forty five minutes each way because there is no public transportation out there. Then she decided to move with her two small kids to live near the school so she could help more.

The church here does a lot to help this school. They recently pushed hard for a collection to be able to build a small concrete area so that the kids had somewhere to eat their lunch instead of sitting on the ground. It cost them $200, and has made the biggest difference there. Also, members of the church have started ¨sponsoring¨a child in the school, which means they adopt them, in a way, and get to know the family, and bring them clothes, presents, etc, and encourage them to keep going to school.

Our goal yesterday was to give them all of the toothbrushes and toothpaste that you guys donated, as well as giving them the clothes that we brought. Also, they have a field where the kids play soccer every day, but it was filled with rocks. Big rocks. And sheet metal. Did I mention that the kids play barefoot? So, we also were clearing the field of all of that so the kids could have a great place to play. So many disciples from the church came, and it was such a great experience.

The big moment for me came when we had walked over to visit one of the families who lived close by. Liz Gitto sat down with one of the boys who lived there and was helping him with preparing some flowers or seeds, or something. He was twelve years old, named Julio, and had such a sweet spirit. He quickly fell in love with her, and I happened to walk over right as he looked straight in her eyes and asked her to be his sponsor. Of course, she had no idea what that meant, since it was in Spanish, but it was obviously important to him, so she asked for someone to translate. The person who translated said it meant ¨sponsor¨or ¨godmother.¨ Liz didn´t know about the sponsorship program, but the term godmother put her over the edge. She said yes, as any of us would, and then tried to figure out what she had agreed to. Josue explained it to her, and she was so excited. None of us could hold back the tears. The family probably thought we were a little crazy.

As we loaded up in the back of the truck and drove away, Julio stood in the middle of the road waving until we were out of sight.

Last night, we all sat around sharing about our experience this week, and what God has done in each of our hearts. Those of you that have been somewhere like this know what I´m talking about. It changes you at a core level, and you don´t ever want to go back to how you were before you came. I pray for the Turning Point that our hearts will all be moved more to help other people move toward Christ, whether it is in Sherman Oaks or San Salvador. I pray that we can let go of the things that hold us back, and the temptation to focus on our own lives and our own problems to the exclusion of the needs of the world around us. I pray that we can find what moves us and then we will let ourselves be moved. Jesus came to share good news with the poor and freedom for the prisoners. If we claim to be in him, we must walk as Jesus did. (1 John 2:6)

Today, we will go to church. It is the Anniversary Service, and we are expecting over 400 people. Remember, there are only 100 disciples in the church here. I have the opportunity and great honor to preach. Please pray for God to move through my message to help many people here find him, even in spite of the language barrier.

After church, we will spend a little more time with our host families, and then we will leave for the airport around 4:30pm, to arrive back in LA around 10:45pm. I can´t believe we are home tonight.

Thank you for reading these blogs. Thank you for caring about other people. Thank you for your kind donations of clothes, shoes, dental supplies and money. Thank you for your prayers for us, the church in El Salvador, and more importantly, the lost in El Salvador. The prayers of the righteous are powerful and effective.

Love you guys!