Inspiring People Inspiring Action

It’s been over a week since I last wrote a post and I have SO much to say! Sorry for my delay! After our first full week on campus our team got some good bonding and relaxation time and then started our second week on our separate campuses! Some exciting news!--We found out that Evangelica's bible studies have grown from 1 to 3 in just this past week! There is the normal bible sudy for anyone and now there is a nursing one and one for athletes! God is moving so much here :)

So..Last Friday we had lunch with the VE (Vida Estudiantil) students at Evangelica and prayed specifically for the Evangelica team like we did for Matias the day before. We also played games and just hung out with the students! That day we also got to visit an Artisan market and did a little gift shopping. To top off the day we went to a place called Shakes! Shakes is similar to your Jamba Juice back home but WAY BETTER. They have really unique fruit flavors--like sour grape!—and you can have it mixed with sugar or honey and THEN you can decide if you want your mixture to be like a smoothie or in sorbet texture! They just take fruit to the next level here.

Saturday was our first visit to the beach!! We drove to Playa de Tunco which is about a 45 minute drive from San Salvador. One of the VE students was so kind to allow us to use his family’s membership at Club Tecleno and stay there at the beach…they had a pool and hammocks! The water was warm and very salty…very different from Cali. Like I mentioned before, El Sal is known for its surf and there definitely was some sick waves! This beach was crawling with surfers from all over the place!

On the drive to and back from the beach our team was able to really see the giant gap between wealthy and poor. It was a scary site. It seemed like the only kind of place to live was either a slum or mansion. We drove by locals who were bathing and washing their clothes in a sewer river. It is horrible to see how excruciating some people can live but I pray those people are rich in spirit. Sometimes it is hard to remember that God is bigger than all the pain on this earth. This life on earth may not be fair but we have a Just and Sovereign God!! [Romans 8:33-39] When Jesus returns, Justice will be given and we will live for eternity with our Father!

I read Psalm 23 the other day and it just reminds me of God’s true nature:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
In the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

            On Sunday, instead of visiting a church in El Sal, our team listened to a sermon online by Francis Chan called “Living to Display the Gospel.” If you have time I really recommend this sermon… It is an awesome reminder of our purpose here on this earth and how to love others like God loves us. For dinner that night the boys held a little appreciation dinner for us girls! They cooked everything themselves and dressed up! To get these boys to dress nicely is a big deal. The group of guys we have on this team are so respectful and great men of the Lord. I could speak for all the girls here in saying that we felt very special!

This past week was the first full week at Matias for the Matias team!! Vamos a Matias!! Matias is very different from Evangelica not only in the structure of the campus but also how open the students are in talking about their faith.  It was a little more difficult to bring up spiritual conversations with the students at Matias but the Lord always provided in giving us people to talk to. Most of the VE students go to Matias which is a blessing to our team because none of us speak very good Spanish and the VE students are always so helpful in translation.  It seems that the VE students are less willing to go sharing at Matias because it is a little more intimidating… these students are also their peers (who they see in class everyday, walk by everyday). I have to put myself in their shoes sometimes when I am confused why they are so hesitant to go sharing with us. If I was on my own campus and had to go sharing with students who couldn’t speak the language, I would probably be nervous and intimidated too. I have been seeing more and more that our team’s main ministry is to really build up and encourage the standing ministry. Both teams (Evangelica and Matias) have equally important missions but just look different… both serve the God’s kingdom and both are just as important to the other. Every time we go sharing, we try and bring a VE student with us to get help them become more confident in their faith and more reliant on the Lord instead of themselves. The VE students are amazing and love the Lord and I am so happy that I can help them in their walk with the Lord and give them the extra support and affirmation that they may need. 

On Tuesday, I was able to talk to one of the main leaders of VE one on one and just see how she is doing and feeling. Fiore, led weekly meetings last year, helped with the bible study, and discipled other students. She was very very very BUSY! She is going into her last year before she graduates and this year she is taking on less responsibility to focus on graduating and working. I love talking to Fiore. She is so loving and easy to talk to. Fiore and I are at very similar points in our lives and it was really cool to talk to her about things I am struggling with and for her to encourage me and I the same to her. God is doing so much through her and I can’t wait to see where he takes her next.

The HIGHLIGHT of my week: meeting Alexia Cardoza. How I got to meet Alexia—On Monday, Shannon and Kristen went into an English class and gave an announcement about Vida Estudiantil and that if anyone was interested in learning more or practicing their English they could write down their name and number down for us to call. Well, later that day I was given Alexia’s number to call and so I did… As I was talking to her on the phone she kept giggling and telling me that she was looking at me. I was so confused and didn’t understand what she was talking about but then I turned around and there she was one table away! Alexia was still laughing and I walked over and introduced myself. She is always so full of joy :) We planned to meet up on Tuesday to just hang out. That next day she met up with me and we got to talking about VE and I found out she is a Christian but never heard of VE.  We talked further more about her faith and I could tell she needs to be a part of VE and VE needs her!! I introduced her to our team and we all got to talk and just hang out for the rest of the day! She met up with our group again on Thursday for lunch and brought her older sister. It was such a great day…Her sister (Fatema) also is a Christian and we got to show them what Soularium (a sharing tool) is and how we share our faith. They both were very interested and loved Soularium. After we practiced with them, Alexia went sharing with us for her very first time and helped translate!! She is unlike anyone I have met, in a time when I thought we were going to be giving her extra encouragement she was encouraging us! She knows how to love people well and it can only be because she loves the Lord so much.

This week was inspiring to me in many ways…all the conversations with students we had were awesome and the Lord has been teaching me so much about myself and growing me more than I ever thought. A few prayer requests: PLEASE pray for the students that we talked to on Matias and just that they will be receptive to the conversations we had and desire God. Also, pray for the Vida Estudiantil students in that they will feel inspired by the Lord and not discouraged by being too busy or intimidated. Pray they will feel the strength of the Lord urging them on. Lastly, pray for my team and that we continue to unify and love each other well :)

We go into this next week with a crazy start…we will be going on a 3 day retreat with the VE students to Rafa’s home in the country (3 hours away) and doing all sorts of crazy things! Pray that we don’t get sick on the food (who knows what we could be eating!) and that the Lord will provide plenty of rest (Salvadorians don’t know what the word “sleep” is). It is going to be an exciting start to the week! Can’t wait to share what happens when I return! Love you all so much!!

Meg

¡Somos los Gringos! (We are the white people!)

       The area of San Salvador has started to become more and more familiar and the Spanish is becoming easier to pick up each day! First I will explain the title of my post: the students of Evangelica Universidad think it is funny to call us los gringos when were in one big group. And so we just go along with it and call ourselves los gringos as well!! The students get a kick out of it so we don't mind it all! On Tuesday, it was a sports day at the University and so we went earlier to the school to join in on the festivities. The three sports they played are soccer, basketball, and volleyball.  All the boys on project played soccer on a team together and their team name was "Los Gringos." Unfortunately they didn't have a chance against the Salvadorian students who are amazing at soccer!
       I mentioned in the last post that we were going to Cecy and Manuel's (directors of Vida Estudiantil) church on Sunday. The name of the church was CEFAD (not sure what it stands for). The church was more than welcoming to our team and I felt very comfortable being there.  Although I could not understand the sermon (since it was all in very fast spanish!), I enjoyed the pastor's personable character. He gave a very passionate sermon and had the attention of every Salvadorian in the room. It was a unique experience that I am thankful I got the opportunity to take part in. After church, we all went to lunch at Galleria mall (they LOVE their malls) with some of the students of Vida Estudiantil. They have a lot of American fast food and some other random fast food places as well. I found out today the reason they love their malls so much is because it is a safe place for Salvadorians to hang out since the malls have guards (with weapons) watching for the safety of all the people there. Now don't worry, that doesn't mean that anywhere else it is unsafe...ever since the start of the Civil War in the 80's to 1992, there has been a scar left on the country and Salvadorians just take extra precaution to maintaining peace. We are in the country duing an interesting and transformative time. The rest of Sunday was a time of relaxation before a week of business! We also had a nice surprise for dinner--Papa John's Pizza!! We were stoked!
   Monday was our first full day of ministry on Evangelica Universidad. We were on campus from 10am to 2:30pm which is on average how long we will be on campus from monday to thursday. My roommate Amy and I teamed up again to go sharing with the students along with our Salvadorian friend Rafa (Rafael). Rafa is a student at Matias university and a ministry team leader for Vida Estudiantil. He has been a part of the ministry for about a year and came to be in the ministry from the past summer project. It is awesome to see how God uses summer project to play a part in the lives of the Vida Estudiantil students in their own growths with God.  Rafa is very good in both spanish and english and helps in a lot of translations. Also, for those who don't know what I mean by "sharing"...when I say sharing, I mean that we go out and try to start conversation in hope to talk about the gospel and see if they know what the gospel is and if they believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  I also want to clarify that as a group, we are first and foremost forming relationships with the students and getting to know them and not just throwing our belief in their face and trying to convert them. We want them to come to know the Lord through their own time and understanding but we also know for that to happen someone has to tell them about Christianity and the hope and the life Jesus provides us all. Salvadorian students are very open to talking about their faith and God and do not see the conversation offensive at all because talking about spiritual things is fairly common in El Salvador. Like I was saying, Amy, Rafa and I went sharing and the two first people we talked to were two girls named Lucia and Celina. The girls were so honest and open with us right from the start and were telling us about how much they love the Lord and how they treasure their relationship with Him. It was great to meet them because they desired a community of believers to talk about their faith and share their faith but they didn't know about Vida Estudiantil! So we were very happy to tell them that there was community right there on campus to join! Amy and I met up with them both again on Wednesday morning to just talk and hang out which was so encouraging. We further talked about their relationship with God and if it was difficult not being able to have the support that a community of believers can offer.  If you could pray for their desire to go to the Vida Estudiantil meetings that would be great!
     Tuesday, like I mentioned was a sports day on the campus and so we got there around 8:30am to participate in the games and stayed till around 2:30pm. That day Vida Estudiantil threw a fiesta for students to come and see what the group was all about. Our group did a little drama (but with no words) to demonstrate the role Jesus plays in our life. Some of you know what the Lifehouse "Everything" drama is...that is what we did! I definitely did NOT play a part...being in front of a huge group of students is not my strong suit ;) The group that performed did wonderfully and it was very affective (they only had a night to practice!). If you want to see what this drama is..you can look it up on Youtube. The rest of the fiesta had worship songs, testimonies, games, and time to just hang out, talk, and eat snacks! The Vida Estudiantil students were very happy with the outcome and all in all it was a success!
    Wednesday looked very similar to Monday. After having a very good conversation with Lucia and Celina, Amy went out to share again and met Karen, Natalia, and Katia. Only Natalia spoke some english but were able to understand Karen and Katia pretty well through the small amount of Spanish we know and Natalia was pretty helpful in translating. A lot of the students are swamped with studying during the school hours (I think it is midterms week too) so they like to make appointments for future times. Amy and I hit it off pretty well with these girls and made plans to have dinner with them next week at a restaraunt called Buffalos which is famous for their buffalo wings at Plaza Futuro (which is right next to our hotel).  They love Buffalos!
     Today, we met up with old students that we made dates with to hang out and also met new students as well at Evangelica. After a day of getting to know students more at Evangelica, our team went to the second university we are doing ministry at--Matias University. Matias's classes don't start till Monday but we went there today to do a prayer walk. We just walked around campus and prayed specifically for different parts of the university and its students. We also found out today that our team is going to split up on the campuses for the rest of our time here. There will be 6 of us only going to Matias everyday and doing ministry there and 9 at Evangelica. Joe and Kristen did a lot of praying and thinking about what each university needs and the strengths that each of us can offer. I found out I will be working on Matias University!! I am thrilled with this decision because I feel like I am more suited for the type of ministry that will be done at Matias.
    Like I mentioned before...there is so much that is happening here but it is very difficult to share it all in a post and I also don't want to overwhelm you!!
    Fun things to look forward to that we just found out...At the beginning of August, our team will have a mid-project retreat along with the Vida Estudiantil students at Rafa's home which is on a farm!!! I am so excited because we will get to meet Rafa's family and also get to be in the country! He has all sorts of farm animals and it looks like we may get to milk a cow! We will definitely be roughen it for three days but it will be an adventure our whole team will be in  together!! :) During that week we will also be going to an old folks home to spend some time with the elderly. We were told they desire people to just come and give the elderly some care and love since they receive enough money but not enough people give their time. So we are excited to do that as well!!
   Hope you are all well and enjoying all that summer has to offer!
Love,
Meg
   

¡Bienvenido a El Salvador!

    I have officially been in El Salvador for three days!! It is unreal and amazing. There is so much to learn (mucho espanol), to see, to experience, and people to meet! Good thing I will be here for 6 weeks to do many of these things! These past three days have been about becoming acquainted with El Salvador and with people from the ministry that we will be working with for the majority of our stay.     We arrived on Thursday morning at 7:45am and I could already feel the heat through the airport walls...thankfully the weather has been pretty cool (for El Sal) ever since...we will see if it stays that way. Right now as I am writing this post, it is raining intensely and there is consistent thunder and lightning which to me is fun and exciting!!
    The next thing I noticed was how green and beautiful the landscape is here!! The country has seven volcanoes and I think two of them are active. Our hotel is actually very close to one of the volcanoes (Not sure of name) and I think we will be able to hike it at some point in the trip which is SO awesome!! If you don't know already, El Sal is known for their coffee (MMM!!!) and surf. Most Americans that come to El Sal are here for surfing. Some more info...it is now a Socialist country but it used to be a Democracy. This is a recent change to the country and does not settle well with the wealthy but helps the poor a little more. If I had to choose a city San Sal is similar to LA...CRAZY CRAZY drivers, very dense, a lot of shopping, many buildings on top of each other, many universities...the only big difference is that you can get almost anywhere in the city in about 10 to 15 minutes. There is also about 2 million people.
    One of the first cultural things I learned was that Salvadorians are very warm and welcoming people even to strangers. We were told when we got off the plane that a normal thing in Salvadorian culture is to kiss people on the right cheek when greeting and meeting! Such a different lifestyle than Americans for sure! It takes a little to get used to but it just shows that Salvadorians desire loving relationships with everyone and want people to feel welcomed!
     On Friday, we were able to visit Evangelica Universidad which is one of the campuses we will be visiting regularly. We had the opportunity to go around campus and pray for the students along with our new amigos y amigas from the ministry team at the University. After our prayer walk, we got a chance to meet some of the students and practice our espanol and get to know some of them in hope that we will see them again on campus during our stay. Seeing the same students on campus, we were told, is very likely since they are small universities. One of my roommates (Amy) and I went together to talk to a group of four girls and soon found out they spoke no english! Amy thankfully speaks spanish pretty well and I can understand spanish fairly well just not so well at speaking. The girls were so young compared to college students here...some were 16 and none older than 19. Even though our spanish wasn't the best, we still were able to understand each other pretty well and they were continuously laughing at our spanish (in a nice way) which made the conversation fun.
    We have had a lot of good team bonding and it is amazing how well our team has been getting along so far...God has really unified our team so quickly and it will be awesome to see how close we all will be by the end of the trip. Our first day here, we did a team devotion time and went through John 17 which is about being unified with God, believers, and nonbelievers and so that everyone will be one with God...we can see that God is already answering prayers. Speaking of prayers.... God provided full support for our team!!! Thank you again for your support in this project!
     Saturdays (today) are adventure days for the team and today we went to a Judo competition!! Definitely something random but really awesome because San Salvador happened to be hosting the world cup of Judo and USA is staying in our hotel so we went and cheered them on!! I never even heard of Judo until now! For those of you who don't know what it is...Judo is a modern martial arts, it also kind of looked very similar to wrestling. We saw both girls and boys participate for USA and they rocked!! After Judo, we went and saw Harry Potter 7.2!!! That was definitely exciting!
    Tomorrow, we are going to church with Cecy and Manuel (directors of Vida Estudantil-the Campus Crusade of El Sal) who are very much the grandparents of the gang. We are going to their church which is a very traditional Salvadorian Christian church. Kristen and Joe (our Project Directors) told us we will be going to different churches throughout our time to switch things up!
    I am looking forward to this coming week, since it will be our first full week and we will hopefully get into a groove of what we will be doing each week!! This week the majority of our time looks like we will be on Evangelica Universidad. We also will be doing service projects in the near future with an orphanage and a Senior Living Home. I am so excitied for what's to come and to share all that is going with you!!! I feel like I still haven't told you enough since I feel like SO MUCH has happened and I am sure will happen but I will do my best to explain it as concise as possible! It also seems that I will probably be updating posts about once or twice a week because of time! Thank you so much for reading and if you have any questions please do not hesitate!!!
    A verse that I want to share with you all is a verse I felt comforting when I first arrived and was a bit nervous...Colossians 1:9-20
   since it is a long verse (and you may look it up for your selves) I will give you just a small part of the verse: we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God...
I love you all and pray you are doing well,
Meg

One Day!!

     One day till my team and I meet for briefing and the adventure to El Salvador will then begin!! Thank you all so much for joining me on this amazing journey God has allowed me to be a part of. I am so blessed by your support and encouragement that has brought me to this point and will be with me for the whole six weeks in San Salvador. I am so excited for what is to come and how God will be moving in San Salvador! I still can't believe I am even going! I definitely don't think I would be going if it weren't for all of you...so Thank you again and again for your constant prayer and support!
     I can't predict how good of a blogger I will be but I will do my best to give many updates on all the excitement!! And PLEASE feel free to ask questions or just write comments through which ever way is easiest. I also would LOVE to skype with anyone who would want to or call by phone via gmail account! Just let me know so that I can plan ahead to do so!!
    I am thrilled that I will have internet so that I can share this experience of God's love with all of YOU!!
In Christ,
Meg