Divine Appointments

As I reflect on the week in El Salvador and all that took place, I am awestruck by the many God moments and divine appointments that occurred.  It was an incredible week of seeing God at work! You know, we plan for months in advance – booking flights, gathering supplies to bring, trying to prepare for what we are going to do when we get down there, and praying for the people we will meet and to whom we will minister.  And down in El Salvador, there are months of planning as well – the community leaders choosing the families who the next homes will be built for, organizing all the materials to be at the right place, arranging transportation and translators for our team.

And then God takes that and puts it together and uses it in ways that we could never have planned in advance – He sets up Divine Appointments and meets needs in such specific ways that we could never have known how we would be used.

Who knew that as we collected kids’ ministry supplies a month before leaving, and realizing that we had way more than expected, that on our first day in the village we would have 60 children from the nearby school come join us for some fun in the morning! And we had more than enough for everyone! We had a school of 26 children join us on the second day – we still had more than enough!  We had so much fun making bead necklaces and crafts, painting their smiling faces, blowing bubbles, playing soccer and so much more!

On speaking with the principal of the school of 60 children, we found out that they had virtually no books to teach from, and their writing books were completely worn from having been used for 8 years.  The writing books were used by the children with pencil and then all the pages erased at the end of every year so that they could be used again the next year.  Each of the 3 teachers had only one book to teach their whole class how to read.  One of our teammates had Spanish Bible story books and board games along and it was clear that these needed to go to this school.  A connection was made so that we could follow up and send more reading and writing books for the school to use.  We were able to give them Spanish Bibles that they will use to teach from, and a number of soccer balls to play in the yard.

Before we left, a team member was given a bag of little toy cars to bring down to hand out to the children.  As the cars were being handed out, one of the community leaders asked if she could take one for her neighbour’s boy - a 6 year old boy suffering from a brain tumour who was bed-ridden from his illness.  When she brought 3 of the toy cars to him, he said that he had been dreaming about having cars to play with, and now his dreams have come true.

One of the family interviews was a bit dis-heartening as our teammates had difficulty connecting with the family.  The family was reluctant to give much information about their lives and when asked if they had any questions for our teammates, they shared that they didn’t feel worthy to even ask any questions.  Our teammates tried to explain that we are not above them in any way, that we are equals, and that they aren’t any less than anyone coming from Canada.  It didn’t seem like this message came across.  However after spending 3 days working and laughing together, our teammates were able to share some verses with them at the Key-giving ceremony.  The verses were from Galatians 3 "there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."  The family shared how much these verses meant to them.  Despite cultural and language differences a connection was made.

Who knew that when extra Spanish Bibles were packed in our bags that we would be in a new community that never had teams there before.  This community hungered for God’s word and they treasured the gift of the Bibles we could hand out, pouring over the pages.

This and so many more God moments happened throughout the week.  So often you don’t immediately see how God uses these connections and experiences, but we were blessed that God would show us how He was at work in our midst.  We go not just to bring temporal relief but to bring the hope of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ.   It’s truly humbling that God allows us to be part of His plan and that’s what it comes down to – it’s His plan.  We come back changed because of the experiences we have had and the people we have met. Our prayer is that God continues to use us to transform lives and bring hope to those living in the most desperate of conditions!