Last year at these meetings, I met one of the leaders from out west, Jake Fluker. Among the many things that I have appreciated about him, is his heart of mercy for children. He and his wife adopted two children from the New Orleans area following the devastating floods. They have also sponsored a Compassion child here in El Salvador.
During our trip last year, Jack told me of his visit to meet his Compassion child, Wilmer. His emotional description of that encounter inspired me to think about including a trip for our SEMC team this past October. Through the connections of Steve Metcalfe, our own resident Compassion Advocate and the Canadian office, we were able to get everything arranged. It was truly a day that we won't soon forget and it was captured beautifully on a previous blog by Tracy Robinson-Van Dyl .
Jake also happened to be in El Salvador during that time, and after seeing our team return from our Compassion visit. He followed up with the Canadian office and arranged for his team to visit a Compassion project when they returned in November.
In the meantime, on October 31, the SEMC hosted the CEO of Compassion Canada. During his visit another 12 children were sponsored in El Salvador. During the visit of Jake's team in El Salvador another 9 children were sponsored.
And now, Compassion Canada is working with the two families who are here in El Salvador about being Advocates so that they can have portfolios of children available to be sponsored, to show to the teams when they come.
Which then brings us to today. Again following our growing connection with Compassion we were able to arrange to have the Regional Director of Compassion in El Salvador attend our meeting and share some of the key principles they have used in the process of providing long term sustainable relief in this country. He spoke right from the heart of God and into our present circumstance. All of us team leaders would later agree that the principles that the Lord has taught to Compassion would be valuable for us to learn from (i.e. discipline in purpose, handling of money, teaching life skills, etc.).
It was pretty powerful to think back to how the Lord has developed all of this in the course of just one year and how he's changed the lives of dozens of children and their families here in El Salvador and at home in Canada.
It's amazing to walk in the great wide of open of God's Kingdom.
Deve
