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If God can use me, he can use anyone!
We have been greatly blessed during our time in San Salvador. My sons—Evan, age 12, and Ellis, age 10—have made many friends. As a mother, it is interesting to watch the boys enjoy long conversations with their friends when they speak only English and their friends speak only Spanish. The kids say they understand each other, and I notice that they use their hands a lot.
Ellis says the country is much poorer than he thought. He has a hard time comprehending why mothers, with their babies and young children, would walk out between the cars at stoplights and beg for money. So many homes that we see are very small block homes. Others are not much more than tin walls and roofs.
Our church is a long way from the center of the city and the people are very poor. The little town that we are in is San Marcos. While our attendance runs around 75 to 100, nearly 35 children meet each evening for their programs. I have been told that all 35 children are non-Adventists. A number of young people sit in the adult meetings. Someone provided a fill-in sheet on each nights topic for the children, ages 10 and up. A sweet little girl hands out the sheets and pens and collects both when the meeting is over. She has an adult make out the answer key, and then each night she takes the sheets home to grade them. We have given her stickers to put on each sheet of paper before she returns it to the owner.
Michael, a 19-year-old dynamic children's' teacher, teaches Bible stories with The Quiet Hour felt illustration kits. The children have also enjoyed doing crafts and coloring Bible pictures. Tonight, three children were baptized. When I asked about their age requirements, they told me that they baptize children when the children ask to be baptized, if the parents agree. Michael told us that these children were from the little town, in which the church is located. Their parents are not Adventists. The culture here is different than at home. Here they nurture those who are baptized and they will continue learning and growing spiritually with the close-knit church family.
This church was destroyed by the earthquake in 2001. It sits at the edge of a cliff and most of the church fell down the cliff. The members worked together to raise $10,000 of the $30,000 cost to build another church. The rest of the money was provided by insurance. They have built a lovely little church which seats approximately 120. Two small rooms beside the entrance into the sanctuary provide room for at least 30 to 40 children. They do not use chairs, to allow room for more children. Michael showed how he had nailed the Quiet Hour felt background to the block wall so that all of the children would be able to see the story illustrations.
Michael teaches a very enthusiastic program and has great interaction with the children. He asks them questions about the Bible lessons that he is teaching. He told me tonight that he would like to attend college and take psychology because he loves working with children. I suggested elementary education, but he indicated that this is what he should take if he wants to work with children. I don't know much about their college programs.
We have used our digital camera to take close-up pictures of 40 to 50 children. When children who are reluctant to have their picture taken, see other children smiling at their picture in the digital camera screen, they suddenly decide to have their pictures taken too. It brings many smiles to their faces and often friends will come and ask for their pictures to be taken together. We have been showing their pictures on the wall, which is used for our sermon pictures too.
What do two boys, ages 10 and 12, do each night? As soon as we arrive, the boys unload the rolling suitcase which holds our laptop computer, digital projector and connecting cords. They set up the equipment in record time. I believe we have it down to 6 minutes, which includes running two extension cords and surge protectors to two outlets. Then the boys hurry outside to visit with their friends who come early to the meeting. We carry apples and a few other healthy snacks in our backpack at all times, along with plenty of bottles of water. The boys take a break at 6:00 p.m. and have a light supper behind the church, which overlooks part of the city. As soon as they are finished, they spend more time with their friends and then return to turn on the projector for the health talks before the program begins. It is good to see them involved in the program. Evan has also done health talks. I have been doing them recently because of my need to provide a job for my non-SDA assistant translator.
She responded to the Adventist radio ad for translators for these meetings. The pastor and translator, Daniel, were reluctant to allow her to preach so we put her to work on the health talks. For a few days she worked with the medical team, because she didn't think we needed her. Finally we got her back and put her to work as she wasn't able to attend the meetings with us when she finished helping the medical team at 6 p.m. . This way she attends the meetings. We have developed a special bond, probably because we are both mothers of four children. Each night she takes a one and a half-hour bus trip to get here in time for the meetings. She always brings one child with her as she says she can't keep track of all four when riding the city buses.
Tomorrow morning we are going to take her and her children to the zoo and out to eat pizza before going to visit her home where the children will stay while we go to San Marcos for the meeting. Her husband is a security guard for 18 houses and works 24 hours a day and then rests 24 hours. This family has an incredible story which I will be writing up for The Quiet Hour. Kris Allen, the videographer, recorded Karen's testimony. She's precious and loves God very much. I'm still learning more of her story but you'll see it in writing as soon as possible.
Evan is preaching more than half of the sermons. He took homiletics at Young Disciple summer camp last year and preached a six or seven minute sermon on Sabbath, along with some other campers. He came home from camp saying, “Mom, I just want to preach.” We learned about this El Salvador evangelism trip at the [Adventist-laymen's Services and Industries] ASI convention, and are very thankful to The Quiet Hour for providing a scholarship so that we could come. Evan loves preaching and is doing a great job. He was very nervous the first night, but our translator says it was his best night. The first sermon lasted one hour and 15 minutes. Evan is becoming more Hispanic in his mannerisms. Before, he was very quiet and formal. He started learning Spanish at home, but only completed an hour or two of Spanish tapes. The translator tells me his accent is very good. We plan to work hard on the Spanish lessons once we get home, so that we will be able to communicate with these precious people.
It took awhile to get used to children bringing me stickers. They were anxious to put one on my dress each evening. I asked the translator if I should take it off before preaching, and he said “No, the people will think some child loves you.” So I've preached with Mickey Mouse and many other cartoon characters. The people are so loving. Precious little children bring us stickers, cards, notes and candy each evening. Everyone loves to shake hands, and one of our songs is a song of greeting that we sing each night. We all go around and shake hands with everyone.
Since I was recently diagnosed with certain allergies, I have had to be rather careful to avoid wheat and a few other foods. One lady was so anxious to cook for me. The popular food here is papusas (spelling unknown). Many of our people have enjoyed eating papusas. After checking my allergies, the sweet lady made papusas just for me. She made some of the traditional bean/cheese ones for the boys, but for me she ground up corn and made the papusas, and then filled them with what she called baby pumpkins. Then she cooked up fresh tomatoes and made salsa. They were absolutely delicious. I told her when I see her in heaven someday, I will ask her, “Did you bring me a papusa?” She is so precious. Tonight she sent us home with tamales, wrapped in banana leaves. Tomorrow night she has promised that she will make me more baby pumpkin papusas. She is one person that I will never forget. It is her daughter that grades all of the children's papers. Her husband provided transportation for us for the first week. Because of his work, he was very late one night so we made an extremely fast trip to the church.
My assistant translator, Karen, talked with one of the conference officials and pointed out the danger of having my sons ride in the back of a pickup in San Salvador 's traffic. Now we're riding to the meetings in a car, which is a little more safe. We've had an unprecedented number of accidents among our pastors. The devil has worked hard to keep us discouraged. Seeing the devil work in such blatant ways is a new experience for me. We've had unexplainable equipment failures, numerous accidents, and other problems. But God is greater and seeing Him work only strengthens our faith. God is stronger and we're seeing Him work in a very powerful way. We are not discouraged!
Pastor Tucker says he has never seen this many pastors having accidents during a campaign. Our people have seen bodies in the road as well as mangled cars. It makes us realize how much we need to share the message with these people, as their lives may be very short.
One night we had technical difficulties so the pastor preached on a moment's notice. He was very animated, and the boys enjoyed watching his enthusiasm.
Maria desperately wants to be baptized. She told my translator of her desire with tears in her eyes. She and her common-law husband have been attending an Adventist church for a year now, but since she is not legally married she is not allowed to be baptized. He is the father of her three children and for some reason is in jail right now. She says the problems are very big, but we encouraged her that God could help solve any problem. Her husband is attending Bible studies in the prison with some Adventist pastors. Before they can get married, he needs to divorce his first wife who is now living with someone else. Common-law marriages are very common down here as it is very expensive to get married. In order to get married the couples must visit their birthplaces to obtain birth certificates. The conference has a lawyer who is helping couples to get married so that they can be baptized. These problems are so foreign to what we have been used to at home.
Our pastor administers ten churches, and spends his day visiting people. He already has plans to split the church membership in half and begin another church as soon as these meetings end. This church has had a reputation for controversy, and the pastor says that he will split the church and get the people busy so they won't fight anymore. What a good example for our churches at home! The church membership was over 100 when a cultic sect came and took nearly all of the members away. (This is what I have been told by the members and pastor.) The pastor took over the church five months ago when there were only ten members. He has spent 12 hours a day visiting, to get these people to come back to church and attend the evangelistic meetings. The Holy Spirit is convicting their hearts, and I enjoy seeing the joy on their faces as we study various topics from the Bible.
Preaching these sermons has not been as difficult as I had thought. The sermon and health-talk materials and DVD software make it easy for anyone to preach. Our translator, Daniel, is being mentored by a local pastor. Daniel would like to become a pastor. When I arrived, he let me know that he wanted me to train him. How can he understand that even though I'm a home-schooling mom, I'm not trained to train him!
I told him that I was here to learn from him but that I would help him in anyway possible. Together we have learned to work together in the translating process during a sermon. I use shorter sentences to make it easier for him. He studies my sermon notes ahead of time to be sure he understands all of the words. Each evening he brings me a list of words that he doesn't understand. Occasionally I am amused. One evening he questioned the word STAKE as the sermon talked about people who were killed for their faith. After I explained it, he laughed and said he thought I meant STEAK. (As in “burned at the steak?”) Daniel is a 34-year-old single man who loves to share Jesus with others. He is very quiet and points out that he is not enthusiastic like other people. I've told him that if God can use me, he can use anyone. I also told him that it is OK to be a preacher with the personality that God gave him!
I am very anxious to get others in our church to come on a mission trip like this. I believe there are other young and old people who could do a very nice job of preaching. God gives the power—we are only His instruments. Being here really shows me how much we have to depend on God. At home everything goes fine, so we often end up doing it ourselves.
It has been an interesting experience living in a new culture where problems are talked out thoroughly before being solved. It seems to take forever to solve a problem. But it has been fun working together with them.
Many of the other people here will have more stories than I have because they are able to visit in the homes, which is more difficult with me because of having my boys here. But if this mission trip can help train my two sons to get involved in missions, my influence will have a wider sphere when three of us are traveling.
My oldest daughter just returned from a mission trip to the Ukraine with Ouachita Hills Academy , in southwest Arkansas. It is a self-supporting academy with a big emphasis on service and mission trips. Our second-oldest is currently in the Philippines on a five and a half-week mission trip with Young Disciples, out of Washington . She is working with the children's programs during their evangelistic campaigns where some of her friends will be preaching each night. My husband is home working to support the expenses that five of us have had for our mission trips.
My dream is to take another mission trip when both of my daughters are free from school, probably summer of 2006. I would love to preach a series and have each of my oldest three children preach a series also. Of course I would be sure to have adults go with each of them for security, possibly as the health talk person, etc. When my ten-year-old gets a little older, maybe five of us can preach! I'm so thankful for these opportunities to work for God in this way. |
