Laughter

Did we mention that one of the benefits of spending a week 24/7 together, is laughter? There has been a lot of it. 

Last night at dinner we asked everyone to write down the answer to the following question (It can be a great place to start engaging us in conversation when we get back home): 

The funniest thing I did/saw this week? (names are not provided to conceal the identity of those involved :) )

• During an interview I received a double middle finger from a young boy as he slide behind view from his father

• Hearing that Quinn was in the washroom for 20 mins with no toilet paper and the locals laughed at him for waving toilet paper under the stall asking for some. No one from our team realized till we were about to leave. 

• When we were walking through the market there was a guy who was walking behind us and pretending that he was a motorcycle while he passed us making loud honking sounds

• When Omar was driving through a windy road and a chicken ran across the road. I yelled, Don’t hit the chicken!!. As we looked back there was no squished chicken. Omar said phew and wiped his forehead then went fast the next time he saw a chicken in the middle of the road. I said to not hit the chicken a lot while driving with him......he said “oops just saved $3”...

• Matt and Ben applying sunscreen...this a story that needs to be told, acted out and made into a short movie.

• I peed in the outhouse and it came out of a tube at Karen’s feet outside. 

• Or maybe the dog peeing on Pats backpack. 

• Wearing a goofy hat while a large room of people sang happy birthday in Spanish 

• The failed fist bump high five between Pat and Brittany.

• Kayli injuring herself on the rainbow loom (she got sliced)

• Set my alarm at the wrong time, got in the shower in the middle of the night, woke up roommates

             Everyone is going to think the above alarm-time mistake is mine!It wasn’t me!

             I change mine to the above conversation 

• Stuart saying the chicken salad sandwiches “should” be okay...They were not.

            Now that we have mostly recovered the above is now funny......maybe funny

           Nope, still not funny....

            ....if it’s not funny then why was everyone laughing when my insides exploded for the first time in ten years...

           Yup that’s funny

• Jason’s funny hat

• A child pooping at the side of a house and a chicken gobbling it up after

• Teammates laughing at me for being overprotective of my body from ultraviolet light rays

Honourable mentions:

• Shailah almost getting pulled in for not knowing what was in her luggage that wasn’t actually her luggage...customs guy: “what’s in the suitcase?”...Shailah “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....”

• Matt’s bird sound recording playing while anyone was in the bano 

• We check all the channels on the tv to see if there is anything to watch...when we get to the end we just turned the tv off. This is a reoccurring thing every night. 

• Matt: “Ben, look at all the fluorescent lights along the road!!!”

            Ben:  “I....don’t...care.”

• When Tyson found out about the blog

Lead, Follow and Bless

I’m so guilty of trying to map out my life. I get ahead of myself all the time in a sad attempt to prevent anything that could cause me to feel unprepared or anxious. I dreaded the thought of boarding that plane and the lack of control I would feel once in the air. It almost kept me from stepping out in obedience to the Lord. I asked a friend to pray for me and this is what she said, “When you feel like you are hanging on by a thread...make sure it’s His garment you are holding onto.” Talk about a powerful truth! I clung to those words and that image the entire flight and the peace that washed over me was incredible. 

In my devotion at the beginning of the week the verse I read was,

“You go before me and follow me. You place a hand of blessing on my head.”

Psalm 139:5 NLT

This has stuck with me all we as I think about how it pertains to what is happening in and around me here. Before I even got on that plane, God had already got gone before me and he was right there following me keeping me safe. And then He began to place a blessing on me that I felt continually unfold all week, blessing after blessing.

He used the ElSalvador Shelter team in many ways. They acted as our guides having gone into these communities before us and prepared the way by interviewing the families and determined  the best and safest routes. They interpreted for us, allowing relationships to be established. They presented our team to the communities in a way that allowed us to be welcomed in and best of all to be able to work side by side. And they blessed us when we had come to bless by sharing in laughter together, praying together and celebrating Gods goodness.

I am so thankful that God is all three of these things and the Shelter team has modelled each of them. He leads us, He follows us and He places a hand of blessing upon us.

Leisha

We're Not in Sarnia

We arrived in San Salvador on Sunday. As soon as we went outside, the first thing that hit me was the heat. It was dark and hot. We (the team) waited at the side of the road for the vans to come and take us to the hotel. As we waited, I took my jacket off, sat on my suitcase, and continued to observe my surroundings. There were kids standing in the backs of trucks zooming past us. Loud, non-American music played. Already I could see that the land was obviously rough. All these things were very not Sarnian.

When the vans had arrived and we started for the hotel, I was starting to actually feel like I was in Central America. It was the first time I'd been outside North America (or in a North American isthmus) in ten years. I marveled at Christmas lights, which, in my Canada-centric mind were out of place in the snowless town. My dad was marveling at the lights too. But not the Christmas ones. “Look,” he said. “Fluorescent lights.”

Ben