Dear Friends & Family,
I have some exciting updates, stories, and pictures to share with you from my trip to Central America! These experiences, memories, and lessons would not have been available to me if it had not been for your generosity, contributions, and prayers. I had the time of my life, learned a lot, and have a better perspective because of this trip, so I thank you once again for allowing me to have such a rich experience serving and traveling.
I am sharing a lot in this email so feel free to read what is relevant to you. I am sharing our team’s accomplishments, my own personal takeaways, a few stories of people we met, prayer requests for the people in El Salvador, ways to support the ministry, and some pictures! Enjoy!
What We Accomplished:
Your donation made it possible for us to donate $1,000 of medications and to set up clinics in some of the most impoverished communities in El Salvador. We saw 720 patients, mostly children, who have limited access to healthcare. I am attaching a spreadsheet of the breakdown of our clinics.
We were able to distribute food, vitamins, bibles, and were also able to pray with the kind people of these communities. We were able to meet practical needs and grant them the dignity of physical care, but we were also blessed to serve their spiritual needs as well. We came to serve them because God loves them, and we love them too. Any stress, uncomfortableness, fatigue, or sickness (which we had!) was worth it to be used as the hands and feet of Jesus in this country. We used every opportunity to communicate this to them—that they are worth it. Worth the money, the trip, the labor, the time, and the care.
Personal Takeaways:
1) There were many things I personally took away from this trip and felt that God had been communicating to me. One was the need for community. The team I traveled with on this trip was composed of some truly phenomenal people. I was inspired by our conversations over meals and in car rides. We talked about theology, family, personal struggles, and all kinds of life experiences! I learned so much in these times of vulnerability, true listening, and community. Life flies by a hundred miles a minute and I realized I don’t always make time to just be with people and to create spaces for these types of conversations and depth of relationships to take place—whatever form that looks like. I came back with a conviction to prioritize community and life-giving relationships in my life. For me, this means getting more involved in my church, joining a bible study, giving myself the permission to go on long lunch breaks with a good friend, and most importantly, being more intentional in my relationships. Asking better questions. Truly listening to understand. Being more vulnerable and allowing myself to really be known. And at times putting myself aside to really care about where someone is at and what they are going through. We weren’t made to do life alone. And our individualistic society and pace of life wasn’t created with community in mind. In this country’s culture, I truly experienced the art of “being” instead of “doing” and I think that’s something all Americans can learn from.
I challenge you to think about your current community. Who are you doing life with? Do you have solid people in your life? Do the people in your life really know you and know what’s going on with you? Do you give them the chance to or do you hold them at a distance? We can only be truly loved as much as we are truly known. We were created for intimacy and depth in relationships. How can you reach out to the people you do have in your life to communicate you care about them?
2) The second big takeaway was that as amazing as this trip was, I realize I don’t have to travel to another country to serve people! When we were on the trip, we realized there were so many volunteers from the community who showed up, without pay, for hours and days on end—and do this on a regular basis! They love their country and these people. Their passion and willingness inspired me and I realized, once again, how much I fill my schedule so that I don’t have time to do the same here in the U.S. Being a full time student and working through grad school, I don’t have heaps of time. But I can surely commit a few Sundays out of the month to get more involved in my church. Or spend an evening serving a local nonprofit. So that’s where I’m starting. You don’t have to travel far to find someone in need. God opened my eyes to this.
I realized God uses whatever you have and whatever you do (even if you feel it’s not much) for much bigger purposes than you even realize. And you usually walk away feeling like you’ve also been blessed. That is something I can do here, now.
Look at the needs around you. Is there something you can do where you are to serve someone around you? It is just as important to a human being across the street as it is to someone across the globe. We are all highly valued and sought out by God. How can we show each other that?
Stories:
I wish I had all the time to share the stories of those we met. I will share two of them.
1) There is a woman named Hilda who works for Sports Outreach El Salvador. She shared her encouraging story with us. Several years ago she had gotten sick and was unable to speak. She lost her voice and was mute. This lasted for 3 years. During that time, her faith was tested and she questioned why God allowed her to go through this. She was angry and depressed. At the time, she was living in Honduras, and her father asked if she could stay with Humberto (the director of SOI El Salvador) to get the surgery she needed to speak again. So she moved to El Salvador and loved with Humberto and his wife. During this time she needed something to do to keep her mind busy, so she studied and learned English as well as American Sign Language. At the time, she felt it was pointless because she truly didn’t know if she’d ever speak again. But she did it anyways. She eventually had the surgery and it was successful. She was healed and could now speak three languages; Spanish, English, and ASL. Since then she has served as a translator for missionaries who come to El Salvador. She works full-time for SOI (Sports Outreach Institute) and has received a scholarship from them to obtain her bachelor’s degree and is currently working on her Master’s degree with the goal of becoming a math teacher. God took a woman with no voice and transformed her into an educated teacher and translator. While there, she translated mine and a team members testimonies to a group, countless prayers, and logistics. Many a times she came to our rescue when we couldn’t understand our patients. She once counlsnt speak, but now she is being used as God’s mouthpiece to communicate the Gospel. We loved working with Hilda and miss her greatly!
2) Another story worth sharing was in our door-to-door ministry of handing out vitamins and a few bibles. There was a man we visited who invited us in and told us about his mother’s health issues. He said she had an illness that no doctor has been able to diagnose. She had seen specialist after specialist to no avail. Her son had even gone to lengths to buy several medical textbooks on pathology with the hopes that he could discover what was wrong and help her. He was that desperate to help his mother and was that motivated to finding the truth about her condition. We felt helpless to resolve her medical issue, but what we saw was a need for hope. A need for peace. For a source greater than our own abilities. We offered him a bible. Which was our best effort within our capabilities in that moment to serve them. The man was interested and thankful and accepted it. We prayed for them and left. We saw a hunger and motivation for some kind of truth in their lives. We saw the lengths he was willing to go out of love for his mom. And we saw a teachable spirit. As we left, someone from our team said, “We were just able to put a bible in the hands of someone who is so desperate for hope, so motivated to find truth, and so teachable.” We are still praying for this woman’s health issues. We are also praying for her son as he engages with the Bible we were able to give him that God would reveal Himself and that he would find the Truth of all truths; that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Prayer Requests:
If you’d like specific things to pray for:
-8th grade boy named Frank who has a terminal muscular disease and confined to a wheelchair. His mother asks for prayer for a new house and a new roof.
-Dr. William—the El Salvadorian doctor who served with us in the clinics, doesn’t have a full time job. Doctors in El Salvador make little money. They go through the same extensive schooling as in the U.S. but do not receive adequate compensation. Money is not a motivator for doctors here, they do it to serve. Specifically, Dr. William, wants to serve his people. He is looking for a full time job and has applied for a permanent position. Please pray that he receives employment so he can support himself and continue to do the work he does.
-Kevin—who is not a Christian, but a volunteer who spends countless hours at SOI. Asks for prayer for his family who gets in trouble with the law. Pray that Kevin and his family would be safe and would come to know Jesus.
-Nearly everyone we asked to pray for asked for good health—“salute”. Please pray for the health of the El Salvadorian people.
Unmet Needs/Opportunities to Support the Ministry:
-Humberto (SOI director) recently had his house flooded and it needs ongoing construction. Please let me know if you know of anyone who could help with this or is willing to contribute to this need.
-Frank, the 8th grader with muscular disease. Please let me know if you’d like to send a donation to his family for their housing situation, a care package for him, or an encouraging letter to him and his family.
-The ministry is in need of a quality camera to put together videos and photos of the work they are doing to document and promote their ministry and share the good work they are going. If you would like to donate financially towards this or have a camera to donate, please let me know.
Some fun highlights of the trip!
-playing soccer in the streets with the children
-a surprise surfing lesson on our rest day
-some beautiful sights!
-a tour of the cadaver lab at the medical university in El Salvador
I have some exciting updates, stories, and pictures to share with you from my trip to Central America! These experiences, memories, and lessons would not have been available to me if it had not been for your generosity, contributions, and prayers. I had the time of my life, learned a lot, and have a better perspective because of this trip, so I thank you once again for allowing me to have such a rich experience serving and traveling.
I am sharing a lot in this email so feel free to read what is relevant to you. I am sharing our team’s accomplishments, my own personal takeaways, a few stories of people we met, prayer requests for the people in El Salvador, ways to support the ministry, and some pictures! Enjoy!
What We Accomplished:
Your donation made it possible for us to donate $1,000 of medications and to set up clinics in some of the most impoverished communities in El Salvador. We saw 720 patients, mostly children, who have limited access to healthcare. I am attaching a spreadsheet of the breakdown of our clinics.
We were able to distribute food, vitamins, bibles, and were also able to pray with the kind people of these communities. We were able to meet practical needs and grant them the dignity of physical care, but we were also blessed to serve their spiritual needs as well. We came to serve them because God loves them, and we love them too. Any stress, uncomfortableness, fatigue, or sickness (which we had!) was worth it to be used as the hands and feet of Jesus in this country. We used every opportunity to communicate this to them—that they are worth it. Worth the money, the trip, the labor, the time, and the care.
Personal Takeaways:
1) There were many things I personally took away from this trip and felt that God had been communicating to me. One was the need for community. The team I traveled with on this trip was composed of some truly phenomenal people. I was inspired by our conversations over meals and in car rides. We talked about theology, family, personal struggles, and all kinds of life experiences! I learned so much in these times of vulnerability, true listening, and community. Life flies by a hundred miles a minute and I realized I don’t always make time to just be with people and to create spaces for these types of conversations and depth of relationships to take place—whatever form that looks like. I came back with a conviction to prioritize community and life-giving relationships in my life. For me, this means getting more involved in my church, joining a bible study, giving myself the permission to go on long lunch breaks with a good friend, and most importantly, being more intentional in my relationships. Asking better questions. Truly listening to understand. Being more vulnerable and allowing myself to really be known. And at times putting myself aside to really care about where someone is at and what they are going through. We weren’t made to do life alone. And our individualistic society and pace of life wasn’t created with community in mind. In this country’s culture, I truly experienced the art of “being” instead of “doing” and I think that’s something all Americans can learn from.
I challenge you to think about your current community. Who are you doing life with? Do you have solid people in your life? Do the people in your life really know you and know what’s going on with you? Do you give them the chance to or do you hold them at a distance? We can only be truly loved as much as we are truly known. We were created for intimacy and depth in relationships. How can you reach out to the people you do have in your life to communicate you care about them?
2) The second big takeaway was that as amazing as this trip was, I realize I don’t have to travel to another country to serve people! When we were on the trip, we realized there were so many volunteers from the community who showed up, without pay, for hours and days on end—and do this on a regular basis! They love their country and these people. Their passion and willingness inspired me and I realized, once again, how much I fill my schedule so that I don’t have time to do the same here in the U.S. Being a full time student and working through grad school, I don’t have heaps of time. But I can surely commit a few Sundays out of the month to get more involved in my church. Or spend an evening serving a local nonprofit. So that’s where I’m starting. You don’t have to travel far to find someone in need. God opened my eyes to this.
I realized God uses whatever you have and whatever you do (even if you feel it’s not much) for much bigger purposes than you even realize. And you usually walk away feeling like you’ve also been blessed. That is something I can do here, now.
Look at the needs around you. Is there something you can do where you are to serve someone around you? It is just as important to a human being across the street as it is to someone across the globe. We are all highly valued and sought out by God. How can we show each other that?
Stories:
I wish I had all the time to share the stories of those we met. I will share two of them.
1) There is a woman named Hilda who works for Sports Outreach El Salvador. She shared her encouraging story with us. Several years ago she had gotten sick and was unable to speak. She lost her voice and was mute. This lasted for 3 years. During that time, her faith was tested and she questioned why God allowed her to go through this. She was angry and depressed. At the time, she was living in Honduras, and her father asked if she could stay with Humberto (the director of SOI El Salvador) to get the surgery she needed to speak again. So she moved to El Salvador and loved with Humberto and his wife. During this time she needed something to do to keep her mind busy, so she studied and learned English as well as American Sign Language. At the time, she felt it was pointless because she truly didn’t know if she’d ever speak again. But she did it anyways. She eventually had the surgery and it was successful. She was healed and could now speak three languages; Spanish, English, and ASL. Since then she has served as a translator for missionaries who come to El Salvador. She works full-time for SOI (Sports Outreach Institute) and has received a scholarship from them to obtain her bachelor’s degree and is currently working on her Master’s degree with the goal of becoming a math teacher. God took a woman with no voice and transformed her into an educated teacher and translator. While there, she translated mine and a team members testimonies to a group, countless prayers, and logistics. Many a times she came to our rescue when we couldn’t understand our patients. She once counlsnt speak, but now she is being used as God’s mouthpiece to communicate the Gospel. We loved working with Hilda and miss her greatly!
2) Another story worth sharing was in our door-to-door ministry of handing out vitamins and a few bibles. There was a man we visited who invited us in and told us about his mother’s health issues. He said she had an illness that no doctor has been able to diagnose. She had seen specialist after specialist to no avail. Her son had even gone to lengths to buy several medical textbooks on pathology with the hopes that he could discover what was wrong and help her. He was that desperate to help his mother and was that motivated to finding the truth about her condition. We felt helpless to resolve her medical issue, but what we saw was a need for hope. A need for peace. For a source greater than our own abilities. We offered him a bible. Which was our best effort within our capabilities in that moment to serve them. The man was interested and thankful and accepted it. We prayed for them and left. We saw a hunger and motivation for some kind of truth in their lives. We saw the lengths he was willing to go out of love for his mom. And we saw a teachable spirit. As we left, someone from our team said, “We were just able to put a bible in the hands of someone who is so desperate for hope, so motivated to find truth, and so teachable.” We are still praying for this woman’s health issues. We are also praying for her son as he engages with the Bible we were able to give him that God would reveal Himself and that he would find the Truth of all truths; that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Prayer Requests:
If you’d like specific things to pray for:
-8th grade boy named Frank who has a terminal muscular disease and confined to a wheelchair. His mother asks for prayer for a new house and a new roof.
-Dr. William—the El Salvadorian doctor who served with us in the clinics, doesn’t have a full time job. Doctors in El Salvador make little money. They go through the same extensive schooling as in the U.S. but do not receive adequate compensation. Money is not a motivator for doctors here, they do it to serve. Specifically, Dr. William, wants to serve his people. He is looking for a full time job and has applied for a permanent position. Please pray that he receives employment so he can support himself and continue to do the work he does.
-Kevin—who is not a Christian, but a volunteer who spends countless hours at SOI. Asks for prayer for his family who gets in trouble with the law. Pray that Kevin and his family would be safe and would come to know Jesus.
-Nearly everyone we asked to pray for asked for good health—“salute”. Please pray for the health of the El Salvadorian people.
Unmet Needs/Opportunities to Support the Ministry:
-Humberto (SOI director) recently had his house flooded and it needs ongoing construction. Please let me know if you know of anyone who could help with this or is willing to contribute to this need.
-Frank, the 8th grader with muscular disease. Please let me know if you’d like to send a donation to his family for their housing situation, a care package for him, or an encouraging letter to him and his family.
-The ministry is in need of a quality camera to put together videos and photos of the work they are doing to document and promote their ministry and share the good work they are going. If you would like to donate financially towards this or have a camera to donate, please let me know.
Some fun highlights of the trip!
-playing soccer in the streets with the children
-a surprise surfing lesson on our rest day
-some beautiful sights!
-a tour of the cadaver lab at the medical university in El Salvador