El Salvador 7/28/08

7/28/08

It's a few minutes before 9 pm now, and I'm exhausted. I could have gone to sleep an hour ago, and will once I've finished writing this. Today was our first day of work, and we spent it transporting sand and gravel uphill in wheelbarrows to the beginning to the driveway, then digging out rock, concrete, and asphalt with jackhammers, picks, shovels, hands. Our project is to refill this area where the drive meets the street with concrete so that the driveway makes a smooth transition to the road (right now many cars bottom out just pulling in). The gutters here are also drains for gray water from the homes nearby, and this gutter added to the bump traffic had to deal with; the water also flowed into the trench as we worked. We will also bury a pipe beneath the new concrete so the water will drain without affecting the traffic. Tonight, Loran said, "I feel like I got in a fight ... and lost! But it doesn't break you down spiritually." This sums up the experience so far. We're tired, sore, a little sunburned ... but we know for whose benefit we're working - God, this facility, the kids - and having this cause makes all the difference.

After lunch, half our team took a short van ride with three other visiting American missionaries to one of the satellite projects of the orphanage, which they call Oasis. The facility is a very simple room with a roof and some screening over a concrete floor; three times a week, staff from HIS bring food into this neighborhood, do a devotional - prayer and worship - for the children, then distribute the food and spend time playing with the kids. For many of the people that come, this is the only meal they will have that day, and most live in houses made of tin sheet metal and cardboard. This setting, contrasted to the Shalom orphanage, is different as these are some of the poorest people in the world. But I was told that. I would not necessarily have known this, despite seeing the neighborhood, for our interaction with the kids felt almost the same as with the ones at Shalom, who call the orphanage (Shalom) and school (Amilat) their home, with three meals a day, dorms, clothes, etc. The kids at Oasis were thrilled to see us, as joyful and attentive in worship and as happy as the others. I played a version of tag with them for a while at the end. These people don't have much, but they can be happy with so little because they have their primary need placed in God, and they have Him. And He provides through HIS.

In Matthew 18:1-6, Jesus tells his disciples that they will never enter the Kingdom of God unless they humble themselves like children. I have learned what this means, as a witness to it in practice. These children put God first: they spend 4 hours every Sunday in service for 2 hours at a time, and were involved and focused with more attention and enthusiasm than I could pull together. They are patient and treat each other as family. And us. And they love strangers, as I wrote yesterday, without hesitation or judgement. They represent the simplicity that Jesus called his disciples to understand and become. I have seen the face of God in these children, and He was smiling.