Tuesday, February 26

Monday´s Thanks - Thanks to a group of local interpreters who spent their day with us sharing the love of Christ through their bi-lingual capabilities. That was so appreciated by all of us!

Tuesday, February 26 - Ephesians 6: 10-11 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Tuesday was fantastic as we kept this passage in our heart all day and felt His strength and saw His might. rather than ours, at work AND being fully aware that our enemy is the devil. We started by going back to Astoria for a medical clinic where Bridges of Hope supplied significant money for the medications and the manpower to prepare the medications for distribution as well as the manpower to distribute them. This is a bi-annual medical clinic put on by the local Christian Medical Society and it was held at the Astoria school. This school is 'open air'...I think the kids in Indiana would be easily distracted in these shools! The buildings are only one room wide so the classrooms have two open walls with a mesh over them, two concrete walls, and a roof. There are no hallways, you are simply either in a room or outside. School was out for the medical clinic as the doctors saw the patients in these rooms and a pharmacy was set up in one of them to fill prescriptions. The people were waiting outside where there were benches and chairs. It was packed! Parents and children (and dogs!!) were everywhere with stories to tell about why they were there. We talked with the people about their lives, shared our lives, and then as God gave opportunities we shared the gospel with them and prayed with them. There was Boris, a local teenager, who heard we were going to be there. Every turn I made he came by with more children who wanted to have their picture taken and then see it. By the end of the morning, he asked for two New Testaments. Others team members were talking specifically to one lady and her daughter and sharing why they came. By the end of the sharing, there were at least eight others also listening and when asked if they wanted to pray, they said, yes, and several from this group accepted Christ as their Saviour. As we were leaving the kids were clinging to us as many positive relationships had been developed with them. After singing with them and sharing the gospel, we prayed with them. There was a lot of joy in that circle.
All too soon we were off to new destinations where our team split up. One group went to Getsemani Church where the Pastor and congregation were waiting with a full service prepared to share with us to praise God. They were very welcoming and even had prepared songs in which we sang both Spanish and English and two of our team members went to the stage to help lead the singing. Others shared in front of the congregation a personal message of how God led them to come to El Salvador. At the end of the service, we passed out food supplies with them again being basic flour, sugar, beans, rice. We wish others could see the excitement they had to receive these very simple packages of food!
This team then was off to Exodo Orphange where they met the other team who was there all afternoon painting. Exodo is an orphange where children are sent by the court because they have either been abused in their homes or abandoned. The paint team definitely made a difference for these orphans as their home units were in very definite need of a new coat of paint. The money provided to this orphanage is sufficient only to keep the very basic operations going which consist of four camp style home units and also to keep food on the table. There is more painting to be done tomorrow and the painters are really glad to be able to do this for them!
The kids, well, when you see the pictures you will see that even with all of their abusive pasts, they have smiles on their faces now after being shown the love of God. Three sisters have been there for eight years (18, 16, and 14) and they shared a song with us. The others, well, suffice it to say they clung to us and were longing for some one on one attention which we gladly gave them! Among other gifts of sheet sets, towels, and Spanish New Testaments, we gave each child a baseball cap and their own personally sized bathing suit wrapped and labelled just for them. Still, the greatest gift we gave them was showering them with the love of Christ which will last much longer than any of the other material gifts.
From a culture standpoint, as we drive between poverty and luxury, just feet apart, and between a relatively modern city of almost two million and the villages of tin homes just outside the city, we understand clearly that we are all lost without God as our personal Saviour. The culture differences and economic status mean nothing. The real question individually is: Who am I living for? Self? God? It is one or the other.