Roosters Crowing

At home in Canada I wake up to an alarm clock. Here in El Salvador it is to the rooster crowing. He starts at about 4 am. I love waking up to that sound. It makes me know that I am back in El Salvador. I am essentially back home. I truly love this country. When I go home to Canada I always say I leave my heart here in El Salvador.
Today we are going to the village of Las Brisas. This is where Canadian teams built 123 homes. Two of Bethany teams built in the village. All the homes are complete now. Each family has a home. We want to make sure that even though the homes are complete we have not forgotten them or abandoned them. They are still in our hearts. We still want to minister to them.

We are also going to San Felipe to meet the famlies we will be building for. This year I felt that we as women on the team should go and meet and visit with some of the local women in the village. We have hired a female transator to spend the mornings with us so we can have an opportuinty to visit and pray with the women. We want to hear their stories. We want to be Christ hand extended and pray with these women who have had to endure so much. May we have open hearts to be used by God in this new ministry. May God be glorified in all we say and do.

Valerie

I hate spanish keyboards.

So, after a morning that started too eearly to be acceptable, we managed to board the plane, get off safely, see Phil´s smiling face and get through customs with a ton of medication and arrive at the hotel safely. We (meaning young women) bonded over songs in the backseat while Caleb sat there awkwardly and made friends with each other.
   I´m really glad to have met Kaitlyn, Dana and Jen and room with Darlene and I feel like we have a very special week ahead of us. Even now as Caleb and I try to figure out how to make the other computer work... Which it probably won´t because there´s only one functioning internet cable. And don´t even get me started on the spanish keyboards!
   I feel like I´m finally really meant to be here with everyone even though we didn´t really do much today other than meet a lot of people like the other missionaries here. It´s like god really wants me to experience this to the fullest. I miss eveyone at home and I´ll try to blog tomorrow! No promises though.
Love,
Amanda

What Are You Good For?

Morning came a little earlier today than it usually does. Having to meet at the church at 5:45 AM meant that I had to get out of bed by 4:45 AM to do some last minute packing (Relax Grace), take a shower and eat some breakfast. I decided to make a bowl of oatmeal which is my usual routine. Everything was going according to plan until I added the last ingredient. The second I shook the container over my bowl I knew something was wrong! Who left the garlic powder on the table where the cinnamon usually sits??? In a flash I had memories of a famous cheesecake I made a few years ago where I mistakenly used salt instead of white sugar. Not willing to accept defeat I ran to the kitchen and, using the largest spoon I could find, proceeded to remove the mountain of garlic powder from my bowl of oatmeal. After removing as much as I could afford, what remained in my bowl was a little less than a serving. In spite of my removal efforts and plenty of brown sugar, my oatmeal had a distinct and unusual ¨garlic toast¨ flavour. You should try it in a pinch. You might like it. The experince reminded me of Jesus´teaching in Matthew 5 . ¨You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.¨ What I learned this morning is that a little garlic powder goes a long way when it is unexpected. Wearing our yellow T-shirts with El Salvdor 2011 on them gave several of us opportunities to share our faith and mission with airport workers and fellow passengers on our flight. One person even asked how they could get their hands on some Spanish bibles to start a bible study with other flight attendants. Tonight we went to the church for supper where some of us were able to see old friends. The rest of us were able to make new ones. Thanks for a great meal ladies of the church. On our way home we stopped for ice cream at the local Texico gas station. Tomorrow we are going to visit the people we are going to be building the houses for. I think we all agree that building the houses will be rewarding, but building relationships with people is more important and lasts longer. May we never lose our saltiness!!!

NO MORE SLEEPS!

WEŔE HERE!! It is such a blessing to be back in El Salvador. We met so many wonderful people today and had so many opportunities to share about why God has brought us here. Many of us said that the building of homes is definately part of our reason to be here, but more than anything itś the relationships we are building with the people of El Salvador. El Salvador truly is the "small country with a big heart." Although they are constantly mentioning the blessing we are to them, they are such a blessing to us.

It is my prayer this week that even though it is my second time to El Salvador that I will not be content just being comfortable with the familiar, but be stretched and pulled out of my comfort zone. I pray that God will challenge me, that I will not be content with complacency, but embracing what he needs to teach me here.

Heading South in the morning

Well, first thing tomorrow morning I head to the airport to begin my mission trip to El Salvador.
Thanks for everyone's support. We were able to buy 8 goats and two quilts!
Please continue to pray for our team

Christine

Armchair Woodworker...Armchair Christian

My father occasionally jokes that I am an armchair woodworker - a theorist more than a practical woodworker. You see, I spend a lot more time reading woodworking magazines and articles on-line than actually picking up a saw, plane and a piece of wood and making something. It is not that I don't want to do the real thing, it is just a lot easier sitting in a comfortable chair, looking at pictures and admiring someone else's hard work than getting up and doing it myself. Sometimes I wonder if my Heavenly Father thinks that my Christian life resembles my woodworking life. I read a lot of good books on the Christian life that inspire me to live better or differently, but do I really change my life or habits in response to these writers? Most days I try to read my Bible. Sometimes I read things that challenge me to live very differently than I am. Often it is easier to close the book and to think about something else (like woodworking) than to think about what I have read and to figure out how I am going to live differently or more obediently. I was recently reading in the book of James. Chapter 2 vs. 14-17 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him or her, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his or her physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. This trip to El Salvador that we are about to embark on is an opportunity for our faith and actions to work together. It is hard, no impossible, to go on this trip with only faith or only action. I think this trip will help our faith to become more complete in one way or another. I don't want to be just an armchair Christian. I think this trip is going to help me overcome this in more ways than one!

9 SLEEPS TILL EL SALVADOR!!

WE'RE IN THE SINGLE DIGITS!! I am so blessed to be able to say I get to visit the beautiful country of El Salvador for a second time! God is so good! It's so important that everything we do on this trip be for His glory and not our own. May we reflect who Christ is to everyone we meet.

Every year teams mention how much they learn from the people of El Salvador, and similarly, they taught our team so much last year because of the unconditional joy they have in the midst of poverty. Sometimes I struggle with the fact that we have so much here in Canada and they have so little, but I believe we have been blessed to be a blessing to others. My prayer is that we could be intentional about shining the love of Christ so clearly that there is no question about who we are there to represent.