God is truly amazing and did some pretty amazing things in and through us today. We all were up and cheerful this morning after we got some much needed rest. We knew that the morning/afternoon was going to consist of leading a marriage retreat for the church members at Ruta, the church where the missionary Wally preaches at. They have never done anything like this before. For most people in El Salvador, the concept of marriage and waiting to have sex until after you are married is a foreign concept to them. They believe that you have to live with someone 5 years before you can marry to see if you are compatible. Many have children in these relationships as well. The Ruta church is made up of mostly 18-30 year olds, and most of them aren't married and some even have children. Our goal through this retreat was to share with them about what God says about marriage. Instead of preaching at them and telling them what they were doing was wrong, we focused around the theme of relationships: relationships with God, their parents, their friends, and their spouses. We had a great time with them building relationships with them as well. We started out with putting together puzzles in groups and seeing how that can relate to relationships. We took several stories in the bible about family relationships, several group members shared their testimonies about their family relationships, and we gave them time to reflect in journals that we brought for them about what God was speaking to them through us. During this time, some of our group was playing with the children who were there, keeping babies happy, grilling burgers for lunch, and interacting with the adults there. After lunch we got to play some crazy "Minute to Win it" games, give out lots of door prizes from things people sent with us, and then we had a panel discussion time to answer any question they had for us. It was a neat experience because the whole team sat in front of them and shared our testimony with them about how God used our relationships to bring us closer to Him. Hearing everyone's story, I was able to see that God is able to take us, no matter what we have done, what we have gone through, and use us to minister to others if we let Him. To end the retreat, we all gathered around and sang a song, in both English and Spanish, and then shared communion together. At the end, one of the pastors asked if they could pray for our team, so they had us stand in the middle of their circle and then they came and laid hands on us and each prayed out loud at the same time. We couldn't understand all they were saying, but you could just feel the Holy Spirit there during that time. We were deeply touched by that, and none of us had a dry eye at the end of it! The picture attached is a picture of our team with the girls that attended the retreat. Don't worry, you will see the guys picture at a later date!
After the retreat, we then went to Ruta church where they had church service. They do church on Sunday evenings only, and like I said, most people there are between the ages of 18-30. Experiencing church in a foreign language is an interesting experience. There were some things that we couldn't understand. The songs were completely in Spanish and their projector was broken, so we couldn't sing along, but a few songs we did know the English to, so we sang along with them, praising God during that time. Several people got up and shared their testimony and how they heard God speak to them through the retreat, and then Currie preached the sermon. During the time of invitation, people were able to come up front and pray, and others would come to them and just pray for them. It was much different than what we experience in our church, but you could see how genuine it was, and how much these people love God!
We are so excited about all that God did today, and are thankful that He has given us the opportunity to be here to serve the people. We are looking forward to seeing more of what God has in store for us this week! For the next 3 days, we will be leading Vacation Bible School for children in a very poor community. We will have about 50 kids in the morning, and then once they go to school, we will have 50 more kids who are getting home from school. They will get to participate in crafts, games, and hear Bible stories. We are using a lot of the Bible School we did this summer, unfortunately they didn't make the songs in spanish! We have other kids songs in spanish that we will be teaching them. Pray that we are able to really love on these kids and show them how special they are to God. Pray that we will have the energy to have fun with these kids, and do the same craft or game, or story 6 times a day! Pray that we continue to stay healthy and get the rest we need, and pray that we will be open to what God would have to say to us through this whole process as well!
Thanks for checking in with us, for praying, and for sending encouraging notes back! They mean a lot to all of us, and we hope that you are able to experience part of what we are experiencing here through this blog. Because our day is so packed, most updates won't come until midnight Eastern Time, so check every morning to see how things have gone for us the day before and pray for us as we get ready to serve for the day.
Lauren
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