A typical first Sunday in El Salvador means that we meet the families that will be receiving new homes. Today we met the 8 families. Some of them had a married couple, some of them had single moms, some of them had inspiring stories of hard work, some of them had tragic stories of illness, abandonment or worse, loss of hope. What purpose does this serve? Is it worth it? Those are always good questions to ask.
In the late afternoon we attended church in San Vincente. It had actually been a two or three years since I have had the opportunity to join together with these brothers and sisters on a Sunday. The message was on Numbers 6: 26-27 (I think), the benediction or blessing. Pastor Oscar gave an excellent and inspirational message - encouraged me all the more to keep up our use of benedictions.
He then transitioned into a time of giving thanks and blessing to the team leaders, 30 of us. He spoke of the importance of long term relationships and how the presence of the team leaders and the teams throughout the year give encouragement and inspiration to their church family. How it has compelled them to be more intentional in their own mission endeavours, in fact they have changed their name, from Templo Christiano, to Templo Missionaro. They want to be about mission, all the time.
The best part is the music we sing here at this church. They make a point of singing two or three songs, that Canadians know, and doing them at very high enthusiastic volume. It's actually incredibly powerful to sing songs of worship to our Lord in one Spirit, though in different languages. Today songs like: God of Wonders, Agnus Dei, Free to Live - all very powerful and all a reminder that one day we will sing these songs together in Eternity. But for now, we're given a little glimpse of what it could be like. Can you picture it?
Thanks for praying.
Deve
