Update! February 4-10, 2018 Mission Trip
I’m so excited to share with everyone the AMAZING time our team had recently in El Salvador. This was our second official mission team to come with us, many who had served with us on our first trip.
While every trip is special and unique in it’s own way, out of all my mission trip experiences, this one was very special. There are 2 main reasons why I would call this trip a “success” and something special.
The first reason was the emotional rawness of the people we encountered and served. So many emotional walls were completely down, and not only the people we served but also for our team as well. I believe this is a big result from the previous relationships that we have established and been building upon. To me, this confirmed the importance and absolute necessity of making relationships at the CENTER of any ministry. It is a relationship with God that is at the top priority of our faith, so relationships are also what should be the number #1 priority of anything we do in ministry and serving. To see grown men crying as they share their stories, it definitely pulled on our heart strings and allowed us to share in our humanness. It was incredible and beautiful to see the vulnerability that so many people of the island were trusting us to see and be part of.
The other reason why this trip was so special was because we are just starting to see the fruit of what God is doing on the island and how he is using us to take part in that. Here’s just a few bullet points on the projects and areas we are working on, and how this trip and last trip have begun to sprout some fruit:
- Nito’s bakery business that we support is starting to pick up. Before we arrived we were able to fund a trained baker to come into the island and teach the owner Nito and a few of his employees some “tricks of the trade”. They took to heart the teaching and Nito’s pan dulce (sweet bread) sales have gone up and are very competitive.
- The Soap women we support are progressing with their business as they are becoming more consistent with their soap-making, improved greatly on their presentation, and have been selling a quantity which allows them to break even to continue making more soaps.
- A business training was held for both businesses this trip and I believe will greatly benefit both groups.
- We began the first of many trainings and implementation of the home gardens to help bridge the food gap for families.
- We were able to visit 1o different, extremely poor families to listen to their needs, pray for them, and provide them with an essential food basket.
- With the help of a great retired teacher, a dialogue was begun with the teachers in a school that has been very inconsistent in giving classes. That relationship is one that we will continue to build and identify the root cause of the schools issues.
While there were many other wonderful moments, it’s so apparent that God is opening doors, touching peoples hearts, and performing miracles that are helping the people of the Calzada Island know Him and be cared for. We came back seeing a lot more needs, but are excited to take these to the Lord in prayer and rally up to do all we can to help connect those in need.
Thank you to all who prayed for our trip, supported us, and cheered us on! We CAN NOT do any of this alone!
