Faith in the Face of Obstacles

   Where do I even begin to describe the experience this Mission trip has been and the work it has done in the hearts of all the team members and families both Canadian and El Salvadorian? 

   Well we have all been moved to tears by the stories of the people we have had the honor and privilege to build homes for and they have been moved to tears by Gods love for them. We have made forever friends here who feel like family even though we have only known them for 3 days.          That’s what going on a mission together does, what working for a purpose together does, it unites us and brings us together.  

   This week has been full of a lot of sweating, laughing, building and learning together and it has bonded us  and made us all realize that no matter where we are in the world we really are all the same.

Incredible, impossible things happen when a bunch of people who share Gods heart to ‘love as I have first loved you’ are obedient to ‘go’ and ‘follow’ the example of Jesus, loving and giving and laying down our lives for others. 

   Although I haven’t been able to speak much coherent Spanish without mucho laughing this week, actions have spoken louder than words where we have had none to say. 

  It has been so evidently visible this week that “love” is not a word or a feeling, it is action. And in these actions we have all seen an incredible outpouring of Gods love and  how it is powerful enough to transcends cultural differences and language barriers.   

  Building this week has not felt like building a house for a stranger it has felt like building a home for a family member. It has been providing hope with a roof that doesn’t leak, opportunity in a floor that isn’t dirt, safety in a door that shuts and locks, and most of all a sense of pride and hope in the hearts and futures of these families. 

 Today I met Jose Santos and his wife as we built their home. They told me their story of their struggle to get by and survive in the same breath as they praised the Lord for his goodness and blessings. Let me tell you one tiny peice of their story.....

   Jose Santos had his foot shattered in the civil war and waited years in pain for 8 surgeries. He still can not bear much weight in his foot, which leaves him unable to provide well for his family of 5 in this country. Jose and Maria have been praying for a house for 3 years faithfully, and rejoice in the Lord always. When they heard the were receiving a home they then had to remove a boulder the size of my Mazda 3 from the only land they had in order for our team to come and build the home. 

With the landscape here in El Salvador, removing seemingly impossible obstacles Was reoccurring theme this week. other families dug for 7 days or moved rocks everyday for 2 weeks to create a space for a home. 

What struck me in all this was how many obstacles these people have faced in their life yet they persevere and press on. These people face struggles many can’t even fathom in North America. They are starving at times, unable to have drinking water, no money for medicine or health care and no opportunity for education to name a few. 

These people don’t have a “future based” mentality like many North Americans who are busy collecting and dreaming about our goals, hopes and futures. These families, their goals and hopes for their future are much simpler -make the next dollar to buy more food to feed their families and survive the next day. 

It convicted me today of how many “mole hill” sized obstacles we often have in our path to Gods promises and how easily we give up when faced with struggle, hardship,  or most often in the grand scheme of true perspective -simple inconvenience. We so often do not persevere through to receive the promises that God has for us, we give up faith when the going gets tough, we cease to pray when we don’t get our way, often shaking or fists at god or turning our faces from him. On the other hand these people persevere through years of “mountain” sized obstacles we will never know, yet they stand firm in their faith that God is good despite circumstance, singing his praises always and being steadfast in prayer. When faced with the obstacles of weeks full of diffing rocks out of the dirt with your hands in the incredible

El Salvador heat, they do it but may of us would sit and sulk and tell God he had better do it for us. How many times can you think of in your life that you gave up too quickly, you didn’t put in the hard work, you backed away from Gods will for your life because it was more uncomfortable than the “American dream”? I have to humbly say my list is unfortunately longer than I care to admit. 

These families  tilled that rock hard ground to create space for Gods blessing, they did the hard work in the face of obstacles to see their harvest come.  in this case their harvest was in the shape of a home that they never would have been able to provide. 

countless time this week our team was called ‘angels’ and called ‘ impossible answers to prayer’, but Jesus specializes in doing the impossible when we have faith in him. Yes, we came but these people created the miracle by trusting in God in any and, they created their own miracle and we just got to be Gods delivery drivers. 

I am so thankful for this week here, these people have left me with so much eternal blessing and I can only hope that this experience has provided them the same. Its feels like I am walking away from this trip truly having received so much and given so little. So many fathers said his week “I have no words to describe the gift that you have given me and my family” and I feel I can say the exact same thing to them. I had the privilege to do this trip alongside my mother and I can say that we are walking away from this experience with the gift of more thankfulness, humility and inspiration, memories, testimonies and relationships that we will carry with us  and share with our family for the rest of our lives. 

Gracias.