island adventures

written: July 3, 2010

From June 20-29th we had a short term here. It was really fun to have a group here to see the group in action. I have worked with groups in the past and this was defiantly one of the most passionate groups. They were always very willing to give to the community and form genuine bonds with people. Not like a get in, get the job done, and leave. I loved that about them. One of the outreaches that we did that we did was a visit to a nearby island called Isla Calsada. This island is located 1.5 hours by car and then a 50 minute ride in a lancha (speed boat type thing).

Upon arriving to the island we were greeting by running children, pigs and lots and lots of crabs. We walked to the church where we would be staying and set up. It was a 1 roomed building probably 50’ by 30’. We talked with the wife of the pastor and she told us that 1500 people live on this island, 300 on this little part. But it is very rural; there really is not a town or city central, paved roads or stores. People just live and do what they can with they can. Houses were made of mud and sticks and indoor plumbing is a thing of myths, and many of the people that we talked with said they had never left the island.

At the island we were working with the church to reach out to some of the people on the island. Even though there are 1500-2000 people there are only 7 churches and 3 schools. They said that their normal church attended was fairly low. The schools are also very interesting because they only go to 9th grade. So if the children want to continue their education they have to leave the island. However, most people cannot afford the commute of 2 dollars a day to take the lancha. So they are forced to stop school.

Throughout our 2 days there, we did a vacation bible school with the youth, a movie night for families and then had a teen time for the other kids. However, possibly my favorite thing that we did was breakfast. The breakfast was supposed to be for the teens that came to the gathering and then for our team. So we set up, and since we were 10 “gringos” and maybe 15 more Salvadorians, we attracted a little attention. People started walking by and peaking in, so we started to invite them in. We invited in a man we saw working in the field the day before, sat him down and gave him a plate of food and all the cereal he could eat.

Later a very old man with a cane walked in. He told us that his family doesn’t take care of him and he has no money to pay us, but would like some food. We pulled out a chair for him and told him to come and eat. He said that he was 70. I guessed him at about 85 years old, you could tell by his face that he had not had an easy life. He told us about how he did not have a wife or children, so he was living with his sister’s daughter and that they only gave him a little food and don’t help him with other things. He said he would like to go to a nursing home and asked if we could help him. This really touched me. I already love the elderly so I ask that you pray for him and for us that we can find some way to help him get the assistance that he needs.

Additionally, we had made friends with the children that lived in the house next door. They live in a tiny little one room house with their mother. There are 4 children and we think that the mother might be pregnant. We invited them to come and eat with us. The youngest boy even went and put on pants for the occasion. I loved watching them giggle as they ate their chocolate frosted flakes, wondering if they had ever had cereal before, yet instantly took to the custom of fighting over who got to read the back of the cereal box. Later, we took a few pictures of them over to the mother, and she just laughed at how silly her children were, hamming it up for the camera. This is the part of ministry that I love, being able to share in something together. Christ created us to be in fellowship and community with one another and I am so thankful that we got to exemplify that on the little island.