Acting Like Sunday Tourists in El Salvador - Devotion and Prayer for Tonight

Sunday, July 31, 2016 (DLO)

Check back in a few minutes for some photos of the day.  Lutheran church services were unavailable this morning due to Pastor Carlos having heart surgery and a pacemaker.  He is recovering, needs time off, and does not have a substitute.  Instead, Roman Catholic mass was at the Church of the Ascension just steps from the Casa de Mamapan (http://lacasademamapan.com/).

Today after church, we went on a coffee plantation tour.  VERY interesting, and we were all quite impressed with the place, the work, and the people.

After that, we visited some Mayan ruins, ate lunch at a place called Pollo Campero, then went back to the hotel to meet up with Jason Fisher and Nathan Hack (grandson of Jim).  They had a good trip down, and, like us, met many people on the plane also doing volunteer work in El Salvador, many in the capital city, San Salvador.  Herewith tonight's devotion and prayer.

Sunday, July 31

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands.

-           Psalm 90:17

 “Can you give me a hand?”  We ask when we need assistance.  You might hear it when a test is given to a student, or when someone has nothing to eat, or maybe, just maybe, when in El Salvador to help build someone a home.

The psalmist knows that for our energies and efforts to grow and prosper, we need to know the fullness of God’s blessing and favor, we need to be doing God’s work, not following our own desires.  Before this psalmist asks for God’s prosperous blessing, a prayer is offered:  “Let your work be manifest to your servants” (verse 16). We pray that we might know God’s work, and we ask that it might be done in and through us.  We strive to live out our prayer, “Thy will be done.”

The ELCA logo contains this phrase: “God’s Work, Our Hands.”  It’s a commitment to discern God’s will in the world and the work God calls us to do.  It’s a call to get our hands busy doing God’s work in our daily lives.

Let us pray.

We thank you once again Father for giving us the opportunity to celebrate and praise you with the people of God's Church.  Be with us as we set out tomorrow to make our hands busy in building new homes for these friends here in El Salvador.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.