My knitting protegees. :)
Falling Action.
We’re nearly halfway through our final week of work!
That’s so crazy to me…
We spent Saturday at the good ole’ Pacific. The sand on the beach was black and super shiny. I wish I would have remembered to take some back with me to show you guys! But I didn’t. Lo siento.The beach was covered with rocks and it was a rather windy day so we couldn’t go into the water very far. That was sort of a bummer, but Susy and I enjoyed what sand there was. I attempted to build three sandcastles. They were all swept away…
Sara and I tried squid! It’s…chewy.
On Sunday Elsa’s dad had a birthday party here. There were probably 20+ family members. We had grilled steak, guacamole, rice, tortillas…such a good meal. Sara and I spent a lot of time in our room. (With the door wide open, of course. The little kids would peak in once in a while.) It was fun to hear eruptions of laughter from the family, though. Made me miss home. Apparently Jaime is quite the joke teller.
This week we’re working at the office a lot doing a few random tasks. Sending out postcards, condensing the packing list for short-termers, and working on our reflections. We’re excited for the change of pace! It’s also great that we’ll be able to finish some important things for the long term missionaries.
Elsa has enrolled in a seminary class and Sara and I have been able to sit in on it. We’re pretty excited. I didn’t go this evening (there was a dinner for all the missionaries at Javier’s so I skipped out to attend that), but I think I’ll go again tomorrow. It’s on biblical counseling. Pretty neat.
Thursday Sara and I are going to visit my mom’s compassion child, Elizabeth. I’m really really excited. It’ll be nice to get outside of the city for a bit and see some more of El Salvador. Even more exciting to meet my mom’s little friend. :)
Friday is our last day of work and our last day at Bendicion.
Saturday we’ll spend time shopping and hopefully get a chance to hang out with Mattie and Rebecca! (two other short term missionaries)
Sunday is church and packing.
Monday we return to see your faces!
:)
Proverbs 3:5-6
At the office the other day one of the new missionaries asked how long we’d been working with CFCI. We told her nearly three weeks. She asked if we were about ready to go home with a tone that assumed we must be exasperated and ready for some peace. It didn’t take me long to respond with a firm “No…not at all.”
It’s not that I don’t miss home, or won’t be really excited to be there again when my time here has been fulfilled. It’s more that everything about this trip has felt right. Like this is exactly where God wants me to be and that I’m doing exactly what He wants me to be doing. It’s one of the most peaceful comforting feelings in the world, knowing that you’re within God’s will, doing His work, serving his people.
It’s weird to look back and think that a few weeks before the trip I was so exhausted (in so many ways) that I wasn’t at all looking forward to coming here. I was coming off of one of the most spiritually and emotionally draining years of my life. I wasn’t sure I had the capacity to love and serve the way that I should, the way that I would want to. “I don’t think I can do this anymore…” was on the tip of my tongue every time Sara and I discussed plans and logistics, but, thankfully, God kept my mouth closed.
Two nights ago Sara told me she felt the exact same way.
We were having a conversation about God’s perfection, how he has a plan, and how that plan becomes manifested in our lives when we walk with Him. We both felt convicted to be here, we both knew that at one point or another God told us that this is what we needed, so we came. We came despite the questions, despite the doubt. We came, and it has been beautiful. To say the least.
During my time here I have been learning so many things, but the overarching lesson has been faith, and learning how to be faithful even when you don’t want to be. Since before this trip God has been laying large sized revelations on my heart about some large sized things. He has been asking me to make choices I don’t want to make, to go places I don’t want to go, and to press on when giving up seems so much easier.
This trip has been a reminder of the beautiful truth that He knows best, a reminder that when God asks you to do something you don’t want to it’s not because he wants to hurt you or make you suffer, it’s because he can see the bigger picture. Trials may come as a result of those decisions, but ultimately, if you’re living for Him, His will will be done. His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Through the trials, peace can be found in the knowledge that He is with you, He won’t leave you or forsake you. Especially in the valleys. Especially when he has brought you there.
Through these realizations, He has given me the strength to stand firm in the decisions that He has been asking me to make in regard to the coming year, as well as the faith to trust His ultimate plan.
I have no doubt that El Salvador was a part of God’s plan for my life. Through it He taught me so, so, much. It’s scary to think that had I chosen to ignore His will and given in to my fears and doubtful human nature, that I would have missed out on all of that growth. The fruit that has come from this time has renewed my faith and has brought about a jarring realization of how little I have had in the past year. I spent a lot of time trying to escape God’s will for me. I tried to work around it and to justify walking away from it. I won’t say it was wasted time (Hebrews has recently helped me to see the beauty in God breathed discipline), but it was a painful time. Had I embraced his plan and had faith in his provision I would have struggled a lot less to keep my head above water.
If you can learn from my mistakes, please do.
The next time He wants to take you in a direction you don’t want to go, submit and recognize that he is God. Take His hand rather than slapping it away, because before you know it…it may be the only thing left to hold you up.
If this is something you already knew…
you should have told me! Haha.
I feel like there is so much more I could say, as is usually the case when God teaches you big things…
But that’s the gist of it.
So I’ll leave it at that and look forward to further conversations with many of you when I return!
Love.
My little Josue. :)
…I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering it things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.
—The Kite Runner.
An Afterthought.
This happened near the beginning of the trip, but I told Sara about it today and we both had a good laugh, so I thought I’d share. :)
We were into our first week of teaching classes on our own and the day had gone really really wonderfully. First grade was surprisingly well behaved and we had a few laughs in third grade when a boy randomly decided he was Michael Jackson. Sara and I had just finished our break and were eager to put the cherry on top of a great day. That cherry would be the kindergarten class.
On this particular day, the students were instructed to draw and color a bubble-letter number four. Being that most of them can’t even write, they needed a lot of assistance. In any other class it might seem a tiresome activity to help every single student with their assignment, but not this one. Sara and I had fallen in love with all of their chubby little faces the moment we walked through the door a few days earlier. We would sing and dance all class period if it would make them happy, and we were certainly willing to help each and every one of them draw their bubble-letter number four.
Much to my surprise, I began to feel less and less inclined to help as the 40 minute class rolled on. I knelt down to miniature desk after miniature desk, and as I did, I began to notice something: all of the students smelled. Bad. It was the same odor lingering around each one of them. I was really confused.
Should I say something to the teacher?
Would that be rude?
I decided to just let it go and hope that a bath was just around the corner for each of them.
Later that day, Sara and I kicked off our shoes and hopped on our beds eager to relax after a long day of teaching and romping. Around 5 minutes into our relaxation, Sara called me out about my smelly feet. Remember those white slip on shoes we bought before our trip, Mom? Well I had been wearing them almost everyday. They’re comfortable, easy to run around in, and they match almost everything I brought. Apparently, all the use had finally taken it’s toll and I decided (Sara confirmed.) that they were no longer fit for use.
You’ve probably already connected the dots, but it took me a few days. As previously mentioned, everything in the kindergarten room is miniature. That day, as I squatted next to kindergartner after kindergartner, holding my breath, confused and uncomfortable…I was smelling my own shoes.
Mystery of the stinky kindergartners: Solved.
I want to issue an apology to every student that attends Siloe. Almost all of you are a good two feet shorter than me putting you in much closer proximity to my stinky shoes.
A special apology goes out to the kindergarten class…the shortest of them all.
Updates.
Completed week one of teaching!
New missionary arrived!
Taught four kids how to knit with chopsticks. (sort of)
Swam in the pool.
Ate pupusas. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupusa
Heard a beautiful testimony.
Baked cookies and banana bread.
Strolled through La Gran Via. (A giant mall)
Began reading a book. (Kite Runner)
Sara finished one. (The Mark of a Man. Don’t judge it by it’s cover, haha:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0800751213/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books)
Watched Jane Eyre with Elsa.
Aaaannnd we’re going to a volcano today.
Happy weekend, friends!
:)
Teaching and Learning.
First day of teaching went really well! Much better than we prepared ourselves for. We had help from one of the other missionaries, Mattie. She speaks quite a bit more Spanish than Sara or I so it was good to have her around. She’s also just really fun to be around. We can only hope that the rest of this week, and next, go as well. Prayer would still be appreciated. Por favor y gracias. :)
On a less happy note, I have made Kevin cry two times since I’ve been here. Once the day we arrived and once this very evening.
Remember how I said his favorite game was Run Away From Everyone? Well, apparently he’s not quite as fond of the follow-up game, Get Chased. I thought that since I’ve been here for nearly a week and a half it wouldn’t be scary for him anymore. I was wrong. I will never chase Kevin again. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. It’s really awkward to hand a parent their crying child and not have the ability to tell them what happened…
Well, Sara and I are about to watch Armageddon, and armageddon kind of tired (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) so I’m going to call it a night. I miss you guys! Buenas noches!
Our humble abode. :)
