Day 1 in El Salvador

It’s always a great time reuniting with old friends in El Salvador and making new friends, as we meet so many new people and also start to bond as a team.  Bonding goes quickly when you’re riding on the back of a truck together!  It took about hour to get out to the villages to meet the families in the San Felipe and surrounding area.

What a privilege and joy to meet the 30 families we will be building homes for and working alongside all week.  It blew me away me how many young families were in the group – several with babies of only a few months old.  Almost 20 of the families had children under 5 years old.  What a great thing to see that these young families will come under a roof of their own, providing the security and shelter from the elements as they raise their children.

We also had the chance to meet the community leaders in each of the communities we will be building.  These are people who serve and make sacrifices to improve the lives of others in their community.  And the leaders are usually no better off materially than their neighbours.  One of the leaders, Marta, has served her community for 8 years and is finally receiving a home for herself and her family this week!  She has worked tirelessly to help her neighbours and has put others ahead of herself all of these years.  How great that we can be part of her joy in seeing her house go up.

There were many smiling faces today, many “holas” and much anticipation of the week to come.  As much as we are excited to get going and become friends with these families, we sensed the same anticipation on their side.  It impacted our team when one of the community leaders shared about how he had been praying for our team for months already.

At our church service this afternoon we were able to sing worship songs in Spanish and English together.  What a beautiful picture of how we serve the same God and are lead by the same Holy Spirit.  May God’s spirit be present in us and all around us as we bring the love of God to the families and communities this week.