Daily Devotions - Tuesday, Aug. 8

Tuesday, August 8

And Jesus said to them, “What is it you want me to do for you?”  -  Mark 10:36

We always seem to be asking Jesus for something.  We want better lives, better jobs, more money, food, forgiveness, healing, happiness, safety – the list goes on.  We pray,  “We want …  or give us …”  Sometimes we ask Jesus his own question:  “What is it you want me to do for you?”

Each of us has unique, God-given talents, gifts, circumstances, occupations, interests, and hobbies.  It is through these blessings that we serve the Lord.  Our special skills and knowledge become the tools to be part of the work of God’s kingdom.  We each have a job to do for Christ.  We are never asked to do more than we are able to do; with God, all things are possible.  Jesus has given us something to do here in El Salvador.  Living with the love of Christ is an adventure waiting to happen tomorrow.  God has answered our question “What is it you want me to do for you?”  by being here in El Salvador, where Jesus will help us and the Holy spirit will guide us.

Let us pray.

Dear Lord, make each of us part of the body of Christ, so we can play our part in your work.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

Monday - Rain, Laundry, and the Store

Jaquline's mother lives in the home shown below.  We use the location as a base for construction of the new home for Francisco, Jaquline, and Josua.

At about 2 p.m., a rainstorm with thunder rolled across the mountains, and we had to stop.

In the meantime, Jaquiline showed us how she washes clothes.  She has a pool of water, a shallow sink, a chunk of Bex soap, and she scrubs each item, then rinses it, and hangs it up.

Dean decides to make a trip to the adjacent store that Jaquline runs.  I bought about 10 bags of snacks for one dollar.

Monday - Build Day 1

We began the day with breakfast at 7 a.m.: fruit juice, two pancakes, some scrambled eggs, and fresh mango, pineapple, and cantaloupe.  It seems that everyone likes the food.  More on food later.

They put the large figures in the hotel lobby for the night, and they go out front right after breakfast.

Just to remind you how we all looked when we got here, we appear below on Saturday at a restaurant in San Salvador, the capitol of the country.  Included is Flor, another Habitat staffer.  It seems that when the group exceeds 10 (we have 11), they add another person, so Francis is not on her own.  We look pretty good for having awoken at 3:15 a.m. in Indianapolis to catch a hotel bus to the airport at 4 a.m. for a 6:44 a.m. departure from Miami.  The flight from Miami to El Salvador was 2 hr 10 min.  It is an hour earlier in El Salvador compared to Illinois.

Below, we arrive at our worksite after a 7:45 a.m. departure on Monday.  The site is only about a 10-minute drive from the Mamapan hotel.

We meet our head mason, Julio, who greets us.  He has two assistants, Alex and Oscar.  Francisco, the homeowner, lives nearby and spent the morning working with us.

Most of the cinder block work was completed by earlier work crews.  We spent the day prepping the walls for a primer coat of paint.  We also prepared rebar for the top blocks which form an angle for the roof.

Alex demonstrates how a small piece of cinder block is used to smooth the walls.

 

Nicki demonstrates the tools of whitewashing the walls, that is, putting on the primer coat of paint on the walls, inside and out.

Bob makes his own progress on painting.

Oscar, one of our masons, puts mortar in the joints between the blocks.

Julio, the head mason, instructs Angela (Sam Fisher's aunt) on some construction details.

AJ shows how the masons made a hacksaw out of a length of rebar.

Daily Devotions

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, August 5 - 7

Saturday, August 5

Then I heard the Lord say “Whom shall I send?  Who will be my messenger?”  I answered, “I will go!  Send me!”  -  Isaiah 6:1.

You might be thinking:  Who, me?  What was I thinking when I made the decision to go to El Salvador this year?  Jim, Dean, and Jason have been on this trip before, but not me.  But why are they going back?  It’s hard work, a lot of sweat, maybe some blisters and a sore back. 

Our El Salvador Mission Trip is a major step in service as we fulfill the Lord’s command to love our neighbors and put God’s words of love into action.  You will experience joy in traveling with a group from our home base, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, to form a partnership with our southern neighbors to build decent, durable homes for them.  This trip gives us the opportunity to share our love and see what we can do together.  Loving one another is important.  People are different but we are all children of God.  You may not be able to have a conversation with our friends in El Salvador but a touch, a thumbs up, or a big smile all go a long way. The folks you will be working with have huge hearts of love.  Do things humbly and sincerely with an open heart, and everyone will be paid back in many ways.

Let us pray.

We thank and praise you dear Lord for bringing us all together in one place to do your work.  Prosper the work of our hands this week, O God.  May your work and your will be done in us and through us while we are here in El Salvador.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

 Sunday, August 6

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 El Salvador.  Be with us as we set out Monday to make our hands busy in building new homes for these friends here in El Salvador.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen.

 

Monday, August 7

On Mission Match Sunday in 2015, when we raised money for the trip with the help of empty tomb, Jason Fisher was asked by Barbara if he could say a few words regarding his experience in El Salvador.  He chose the a reading from Luke 10: 1-11, and expanded on the words:

“Going out two by two”

“The harvest is rich but the workmen are few”

“Carry no bag, or sandals”

“Whatever home you enter first say ‘Peace be to this house’”

“Eat and drink what they provide for you”

Jason mentioned “dust” in a different way than the Bible describes kicking the dust from one’s sandals, but the story sure hit home.  Our dusty work will be as hard as we expected, but the home we help build for our El Salvador friends will be a lasting memory.  As scripture says, “The Kingdom of God has approached you”.  This will be for us more than what we give.

Jesus sent the disciples, 70 of them in pairs, to tell of the good news.  We may not be able to say the words because of the language barrier, but we can certainly act it out by the love we show to these new friends. 

Can you imagine Jesus’ closest friends coming to your door with the good news of the gospel and showing their love for you?  What an exciting moment!  We are all children of the Heavenly Father and we must show the love He has for us to others.

Let us pray.

God, when you send us to places unknown, help us to know your presence in all we say and all we do.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.

Arrival in Ahuachapan and Meeting our Build Family

We arrived safe and sound in El Salvador Saturday morning.  We had lunch and proceeded to Ahuachapan and our hotel called Le Casa de Mamapan.

Among other things on Sunday, we met the family for whom we are building the house. They are Francisco, Jaquline, and 5-year-old Josua.  See below.

Above, the group is pictured with the family.  Left to right:  Andrew "AJ" Hack, Nicki Kyle, Dean Olson, Alex Swanson-Linville, Lorraine Stamberger, Angela Walker, Bob Clark, Deb Swanson, Marilyn Dudley, Jason Fisher, Jim Hack, and the Diaz Family in front.

Cristo Rey Church in Santa Ana (40-min drive) was unavailable to us for worship today.  Pastor Carlos was at a special event in the capital city of El Salvador, so no service at Cristo Rey today.  We will go Wednesday afternoon instead.

Several of us walked across the courtyard this morning for 7:30 mass at the Catholic Cathedral of the Ascension.  The church was full and members of all ages were in attendance from children to grandmothers.  We participated as much as we could with the service in Spanish.

Later in the morning, we visited a coffee plantation.  Our tour guide, Hector, showed us the coffee trees, and explained the processing steps in detail.  Harvest time is in the late autumn, so the machinery was idle.  The group is pictured below at the tasting area for the coffee plantation.  Francis Padilla is in front on the right in the photo, and has been our Habitat host here for the 4th year in a row.  We will visit her mother's bakery just down the street from us in Ahuachapan.

Departure on Friday, August 4, 6:30 p.m.

You are welcome to see us off to El Salvador on Friday, August 4, 6:30 p.m. in the west lot of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

Our 2017 El Salvador Mission travelers this year are:  Jim Hack, Andrew (AJ) Hack, Jason Fisher, Bob Clark, Deb Swanson, Alex Swanson-Linville, Marilyn Dudley, Lorraine Stamberger (St. Andrew’s student), Nicki Kyle, Angela Walker, Dean Olson.  This includes 8 newcomers and 3 veterans!

We’ll carpool to Indianapolis to spend the night and catch a 6:44 a.m. flight on American Airlines to Miami and then San Salvador, the capitol.  You are invited to bid us “bon voyage” on Friday evening, but a more appropriate salutation in Spanish would be “ve con Dios” (go with God).  You can share prayer and evening devotions with us on this blog accessible via the Service tab on the church website, or directly at:  http://gslc-cu.blogspot.com/   

We return the night of Sunday, August 13 about 9 p.m. 

In the photo, Nathan Hack and Adriana appear in Ahuachapan, El Salvador last August 2016.

Thank you for your support and prayers again this year.

El Salvador Trip Benefit Dinner - April 22, 2017