Monday, July 27, 2009

My Time in El Salvador

Last Saturday, a group of 11 individuals from First Colony Christian Church set out on a mission trip to El Salvador.  Our mission: to build a well and provide clean water in the name of Jesus.  The community we would be spending our week with was a small village called “Santa Rosa” which consisted of just the most wonderful people ever.  I will spare the technical drilling details, but we did successfully get a well built and set up!!!  We had many obstacles along the way (such as hitting a rock for almost 2 days) but were able to persevere with teamwork, excellent leadership, and God’s blessing.

I’ll briefly share two of my favorite memories from the trip.  First, the time spent playing with the children and interacting with their parents was easily the most rewarding part of the trip.  By the second or third day, all the kids were calling me “heffe” (“boss” in spanish... =).. ) and we had so much fun playing different games like soccer, tag, keep-away, and more.  The picture below is of me and my favorite amigo, William (“Big Will!”).  



Another one of my favorite memories from the trip was at the well dedication service on Friday.  We had an opportunity to address the entire village and I spoke on the behalf of our group and the rest of our church family back in Sugar Land.  I expressed that we loved the village and saw our work as a small part of the Kingdom of Jesus growing.  I also expressed that we genuinely felt as though each and every one of them was a part of our family.  After the service, an El Salvadorian dad came up to me and firmly shook my hand and said “Gracias.”  I returned the smile, handshake, and expression but he would not let go of my hand.  He then made eye contact with me and said, “de mi corazon” which means “from my heart.”  It was very touching to receive that heartfelt sentiment from one of the members of the community.

God taught me so much on the trip and there were of course many other great memories and inside jokes.  Somehow, I ended up being frisked at the airport on the way there (that will be another blog post), among other things.  Have you ever been on a mission trip?  Where?  What was your favorite part?  Please comment and share!

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