Well, I am back from El Salvador. I had a very enjoyable experience, but I am very happy to be home. I have not traveled much, but everytime I do, it makes me thankful to live in the Ozarks!
El Salvador is a beautiful country. Someone on the team said it reminded them of Hawaii... a tropical climate with lush, green mountains (many of which are dormant volcanoes). I found the people of El Salvador to be wonderful. They were very gracious hosts, and loved to laugh and make jokes.
Despite its many good features, El Salvador has a great deal of poverty and violence (although apparently less than other Central American nations). The city we worked in, Apopa, is considered to be one of the "roughest" cities in the country. Although I never personally felt in danger, we were very cautious not to be found in the wrong place at the wrong time. As with the big cities in America, a little common sense goes a long way.
For our mission work, we partnered with Iglesia Bautista Primera (First Baptist Church) of Apopa. This is a healthy congregation of 120, with strong leadership and a heart for missions. The church has several "mission points" in villages just outside the city, and these mission points are where we did the majority of our work.
One mission point was a house church in the village of Tonacatepeque. Up to 20 believers met in a room that was about the size of a small, American bedroom. We spent two of our days adding a bigger room onto the house for church meetings. The church was most grateful for our help.
Another mission point we worked at was Joya Grande. This community was particularly impoverished, but hungry for the Gospel. On Sunday afternoon, the adult believers gather under the porch of an old, abandoned house while their children gather for Sunday School under a nearby tree. I was able to preach to this little congregation, and was blessed by the experience. They too are in desperate need of a meeting place, and this may be a focus of future work.
I wish I could blog about the whole trip from beginning to end, and write down everything I saw, felt, and experienced. But that would take up too much time, and still not do justice to the trip. To close, let me just write down some thoughts I came away from the trip with...
1) I love my wife and kids very much, and am sorry to say I often take them for granted.
2) I come away longing for a more simple/authentic expression of Church in America.
3) I come away determined to focus on prayer and the Word in my pastoral duties. I'm spending too much time doing stuff that doesn't matter in the long run. The Salvadorans are good at focusing on what's important, and not sweating the small stuff.
4) I come away with a desire to spend far less time in front of the television, computer screen, and on the cell phone. Maybe the biggest blessing of the trip was to be away from these things.
5) I come away thankful for hot water heaters and toilets that flush toilet paper!
6) I come away with a renewed desire to be physically healthy. We're so overweight in America, it almost feels normal to be so. El Salvador is far different. They are smaller structured people, and being a big white guy makes you stick out like a sore thumb. At times, I felt like a freak. This was good for me, as it was humbling. But the next time I go, I will be smaller.
7) I come away reminded of the blessing of cooperative missions. I am so thankful to have gotten to know the wonderful people of FBC-Crane. The SBC family is big, and we are enriched when we work together.
8) I come away amazed that I can be more refreshed after a week of hard work on a mission trip, than a week of laying around a beach. I am convinced one never experiences the peace, presence, and power of God more, than when on mission.