La Victoria!

After 6 months, two attorneys, many dollars and multiple trips to Extranjeria (immigration), we received our temporary residency visas! We had exactly one week left before our tourist visa expired and we would potentially have had to leave the country, return, and start the process all over again. Thank you to all who faithfully prayed for this day.

One of the local pastors jokingly offered to act as our "coyote" and get us across the river if it didn't work. At least I think he was joking. Attached is a photo of the simple little stamp that gives us permission to stay for another 3 months. Who would have thought it would take so much to get a stamp? Now we have to go through an interview process and further review of all our documents to be issued a one year residency visa. I understand that this is usually a formality but would still appreciate your continued prayers.

Christina's Corner: Finding Treasure

It was great to have the team here!!! I enjoyed every moment. To be surrounded by people from back home brought a sense of comfort to my heart. What a blessing it was to spend a week serving the Lord in El Salvador together. The week was busy and at times tiring to the point of delirium but the sound of laughter brought much happiness to my soul. Over that week, I realized that every moment was a treasure and a blessing. Funny how when you go out and serve others you are the one that ends up being blessed abundantly. In every thing we did that week, it was for the glory of God. May His light shine in us, so that we may go out and be a light in this dark world!! 

                                               ~Christina 

Pouring a concrete floor over dirt

Mixing concrete by hand

Enjoying God's Creation

Serving small, Loving big

We have our first youth group joining us on Saturday for a week of service and ministry. Part of their focus will include an evangelical outreach to the community and a separate time to encourage the local church youth. During the week they will also be making roof repairs and pouring concrete over the current dirt floor in the home of a single mom. They will also be helping out one day at an orphanage in San Salvador. Some might ask can one week change the world? Does it really make a difference?

To answer those questions I will simply quote Mother Teresa from her book The Love of Christ:


"What we are doing is but a drop in the ocean. This may be only a drop, but the ocean would be less if it weren't there. What we do is something small, but we do it with big hearts. At death, we will not be judged by the amount of work we did, but by the amount of love we put into it. We do not strive for spectacular actions. What counts is the gift of yourself, the degree of love you put into each of your deeds...Do you want to be great? Pick up a broom and sweep the floor."

Typical poor home in El Salvador with a dirt floor

Christina's Corner: Deep Waters

This past week, I hit a rough patch. Most of the time, I always want to fix things myself. Make things go away, shove things under the rug. The last thing I want to do is give it over to the Lord. I don't know how many times it will take me, until I give everything over to Him. I know that with Him by my side the unknown feels less scary, the pain feels less painful, and my questions are answered with His assurance. But I am me. Which means I want to put matters into my own hands and then I realize I'm not God, I am not in control, I am only human. I realized today, as I looked back on my week, for every tear I shed, for every hurt I have, there is a reason and a purpose. I may not see it now, but the Lord has my future in His hands. Everything I go through is for a divine purpose. I may go through fire and deep waters but with the Lord by my side, I won't burn and I won't drown. ---- Christina

Do not be afraid for I have ransomed you.

I have called you by name, you are mine.

When you go through deep waters 

and great trouble, I will be with you.

When you go through rivers of difficulty

you will not drown!!

Isaiah 43:1-2 

Culture Clash

To think that we have been living in San Julian for 4 months now is hard to believe. In some ways it seems like only yesterday. In other ways it seems like forever. Along the way we have experienced a wide range of emotions…joy, fear, sorrow, excitement, frustration, disappointment, hope. One of the more challenging aspects, though, is adapting to a very different culture. For me, one of the largest cultural gaps is in the thought process.

Before leaving for El Salvador I had a conversation with a dear friend who himself had been on the mission field in a foreign country for years. He told me that understanding this cultural thought gap would be a challenge for me. At the time I heard his words but I didn’t fully understand what he was trying to communicate. He said that in America we have a mind-set or attitude that we can do whatever we set our minds to do. If we have a goal to achieve or a need or a problem to solve we are confident that we can find and implement a solution. America is, after all, the home of the brave and the land of the free. It’s a country where you can rise from poverty to success if you only try hard enough and don’t give up. It’s a culture that for the most part doesn’t care where you came from as long as you know where you want to go. At least that was my experience. Here, I find a different cultural attitude. One that often says “what can I do about it – I’m only one person.” Or, “this is the way it has always been and the way it will always be.” Or, “this is just the way we do it here…don’t rock the boat.”

I drive a Mustang!

Laundry Day

Recently I was asked to teach at an all city church service on the topic of what it is like to be a missionary. The cultural experience was to be part of the discussion. But in preparing for this I had to ask myself if my own cultural thoughts were correct just because they were mine or were “American”. As a Christian, we need to ask ourselves some hard questions: What is God’s culture? What does God have to say about this or that issue? Is my thinking in line with God’s thoughts as revealed in the Bible?

Frequently when we read the scriptures we superimpose over them our own cultural belief system; often without realizing we are doing this. There is even a tendency to change or ignore what Jesus said because it is hard to understand or fit into our own culture. For example, Jesus said this to the crowds that were following him:

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple…So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:25-26, 33

As a disciple, I have been forced by these words to ask myself if I place anything or anyone above Jesus. Am I willing to renounce ALL that I have to follow Jesus? Now that, my friends, is a cultural clash!

Hear the rolling thunder!

I recently had a conversation with a Salvadoran friend and he was asking me about heaven and what it will be like. Will we eat? Will we wear clothes? Will we have work to do? These are all valid questions but they are like small planets orbiting around the sun. The center of our universe is the creator of the heavens, the Father and His Son. There will be many things to do in eternity but the primary purpose, and our greatest source of joy, will be to glorify and worship Him who made the heaven and earth, the sea and springs of water (Rev. 14:7). Later that night I was sitting up on the roof talking to the creator when a severe thunderstorm came through. Each trumpet blast of thunder rolled on for what seemed like an eternity. It was truly awe inspiring and I was reminded of the words to a hymn that includes these lines:

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder

Thy power throughout the universe displayed

 So often in my daily routine I can get so distracted by the details of life. How great it is to be reminded of the incredible love that the creator has for us. How great it is to not have our hearts troubled because He has prepared a place for us. How great it is to know that one day He will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. How great is our God and Savior. Listen to the words that follow and dwell on His greatness.

The widow's eggs

Two copper coins and Two eggs

This incident happened over a month ago but I am just getting around to writing about it. We were visiting a church on the outskirts of Lourdes. The church is located in a very poor, rural colonia (neighborhood) in a gang-infested area. As I was talking to the pastor an old woman who looked like she could be Noah's grandmother hobbled up to the pastor and gave him a small bag. He took the bag, thanked her and gave her a traditional Salvadorian blessing. When I asked what was in the bag he explained to me that she was a widow who lived in a shack and did not have a job and inside the bag were a couple of eggs from her chickens. This was her "tithe" because she was so grateful to God for His blessings. Please understand that this was not something that was required of her by the Pastor or church. This was done totally voluntarily. I was so humbled by her grateful heart while living in a condition that is well below any level of "poverty" that an American would find outrageous. I have found that so often here it is the financially poor who are richest in contentment, gratefulness and faith. It reminded me of the story Jesus told of the poor widow who put two copper coins in the offering box. Jesus went on to tell his disciples that she gave far more than the rich because she gave of all that she had to live on. Please re-read this short story in Mark 12:38-44. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.