Well, I’m going off the grid for a week…that is I’m not going to have computer access. I am leaving the city tomorrow morning to go to San Juan Nonualco. It’s a town about an hour or so outside of San Salvador and there is a new church that recently started there. I am going with the other DTS students to help the church get the word out that they exist and are working in the area. We will be doing some work on the streets in the town, as well as going into local schools, and also some rural areas. From what I hear we will be doing a lot of hiking into the jungles and woods around the town.

Meanwhile, back in San Salvador, Jon will be taking care of the kids for the week. I can’t wait to hear all the adventures that they will have while I’m gone! The kids are pretty nervous for me to leave. With a lot of people coming and going around here they get a little freaked out. Jon went to Costa Rica a few weeks ago and Tori had a hard time with that.

I won’t have internet access all week, so maybe Jon will post something up here this week! He’s planning on going out to Apopa to get more information about what is going on with those three kids I mentioned so keep praying!

We also ask that you keep our family in pray this week as we are separated. Please pray for health and safety for our whole family, and also for me personally that I would have many opportunities to “be Jesus” to those that I meet this week alongwith my teammates.

The thing about working in a third world country is that there are days that seem really hopeless. Days where person after person comes up to us asking for money. Days when everywhere we turn there seems to be someone else in desperate need. It’s hard not to get discouraged and feel really low when so many around us are hurting.  

To be totally honest, it’s really draining.

Daily we see people in need surrounding us, but the last few days have just really impacted me. Last night I went out on the streets of San Salvador to talk to some of the prostitutes that work there. Doing this is way out of my comfort zone, but I am so glad I went. Every young woman I talked to has at least two kids that she is working to support. It’s hard for me to imagine being in their shoes. But listening to them talk makes it hit so close to home because I’m a mom too. Some of them are there because it’s the quickest way to make enough money to support their kids, but it’s also a very dangerous life. Some of them are there because they are truly desperate and they need to feed their children.

We also found out today some information about some of the families we work with in Apopa. One girl who is around 13 years old is in the hospital right now because she has leukemia. She is one of the smartest, quickest learners in our literacy program. She was already picking up English just from talking to Jon. And now she is probably going to die.

Another family in Apopa consists of four siblings ages 7 to 12. These kids have four different fathers and their mother has recently abandoned them. The pastor found them living alone with no food and no adult to care for them. We are committing to helping this community so we are going to look for the best solution for these kids. There is a grandmother who may be able to care for them if we can help her with groceries, medicine,etc. There are so many children in this community who end up joining gangs and we are hoping that these four don’t become part of those statistics.

Our hearts are heavy this afternoon while we think of all these people who are in need. We ask that if you are reading this, that you would consider taking some time to pray for the people in these situations.

But the thing about God is that we know He is working even in desperate circumstances. I will be honest, sometimes He seems far away and sometimes I have questions for Him about the suffering that I see daily. These are my own personal struggles that I will continually face, but I can choose in this moment to say that God is good, that He is still God, and that He still brings hope to the hopeless.

As many of you know, our sending church is Discovery Christian Church located in the suburbs north of Pittsburgh, PA. They have been invested in El Salvador just as long as we have and our church really has a desire to make a difference in the lives of the people of this country.

They support us financially, prayerfully, and in many other ways. They help us with our mailings, organizing our finances, and they also send teams to help with our ministry. This past year they sent two teams and they did so much to help us…they ran children’s programs in the orphanages, fed the homeless, did work projects in rural communities, and helped us around the YWAM base. We couldn’t be here without them!

Once again they are reaching out to El Salvador with their annual El Salvador Orphanage Fundraiser and Golf Outing. The funds raised at this event will go towards ongoing work that Discovery is supporting in El Salvador including not just our family but also the many volunteers who give their time and resources in El Salvador. The thing we love so much about our home church is that they are committed to helping others outside of the church walls. We love being their representatives in El Salvador!

So mark your calendars today for October 2nd starting at 10Am at the Pittsburgh National Golf Club. I can promise you that there is never a dull moment at any event that Discovery puts on!

If you would like to play, or you would like to consider being a sponsor, check out these links:

 Facebook invite:  http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120533937997043

To register to play:  http://www.discovertogether.com/golfouting

To be a sponsor:  http://www.discovertogether.com/golfoutingsponsorship

We hope you’ll be there!

We serve a BIG God…a really big God. Bigger than us, bigger than our churches, our denominations, our ministry organizations, our countries, and bigger than our imaginations. I got a taste of the hugeness of God’s kingdom this afternoon.

If you’ve been reading my posts, you know that right now I am currently taking a Discipleship Training School through our organization, Youth With A Mission. As part of that program we spend three hours each week in intercession. Intercession is basically spending time talking to God on someone else’s behalf. Wednesday is a time that we spend interceding for other nations in the world. Today we focused on the 10/40 window which is the part of the world that has the poorest of the poor, and very few missionaries. These countries are the birthplace of many animistic religions, as well as Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism. There is a lot of violence and fear in the lives of these people. So today we dedicated an hour to praying for this region.

As we were praying I could not help but feel the biggness of God’s Kingdom. Yes, it’s not just on earth but here on earth it’s the biggest show in town, by far. So we prayed for the advancement of God’s Kingdom in Northern Africa, the Middle East, China, Indonesia, India, and so on.

We prayed as people from four different nations. We prayed in two different languages. And together we prayed for freedom from fear, for protection of life, and for hope to break through on the other side of the world.

I know God works when we pray. I don’t know why and I don’t know how. But today I felt a connection to the lost billions in the 10/40 window. Some struggling for their lives today, some struggling for their dinner, some just struggling for hope.

In our group we have some who have left a life influenced by gangs, some who are hurt by their parent’s divorce, some who were drug addicts, some who had trouble with the law, and some, including myself, who were caught up in the daily distractions of suburban America. 

We are just a few in the city of San Salvador. But there are “just a few” today all over the world. In Toronto, in New York, in Nairobi, in London, in Tokyo, in Buenos Aires, in Auckland, in Moscow, and everywhere else. And God’s Kingdom grows, it moves, it takes ground, it’s alive. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.

 ¡No me gusta! This phrase translates “I don’t like.” And what don’t I like you may ask? Well, today it’s Spanish. You see, I am really and truly sick of Spanish.

For nine months I’ve been trying to learn Spanish. Actually longer if you count my months of Rosetta Stone pre-move. For nine months I’ve been limited in my communication and for nine months I’ve sounded like a toddler. For nine months I’ve failed to roll my rrrrrrrr’s even after remedial r trilling class. For nine months I’ve ordered wrong meals in restaurants, and caused a lot of awkward silences in conversations. It’s actually really quite sad. 

Today I literally think I may vomit if I have to conjugate another verb, or hear another commercial in Spanish. If I have to read another road sign, or have a Spanish phone conversation I may beat someone up!

So in an effort to find joy in the language learning process and to laugh at myself, I’ve decided to list a few positives to learning Spanish. Here are my Top Ten Reasons For Learning Spanish:

1o. It really will be worth it in the end because I’ll be bi-lingual (right????).

9. When I visit Mexican restaurants in the States I’ll find out what the waiters are really saying about me behind my back.

8. I can relate on a personal level with my three year old son…”yes, honey, pronouns are hard to learn”.

7. I can swear and no one will know (um…unless they speak Spanish).

6. I can walk into a Taco Bell and pretend I don’t speak English.

5. I can look really cool posting facebook status updates in two languages.

4. I get to put cool swirly things over n’s sometimes.

3. I can understand all the words to Livin’ La Vida Loca

2. If I ever meet Antonio Banderas I can converse with him in his native language.

…and the number one positive thing about learning to speak Spanish…

1. I have to think before I speak. (ok…you can stop applauding at this one)

I realize these are stupid and silly but I think some good can come of this language learning process. Maybe I will actually grow up! Maybe I will learn that someone else can say it better than me, maybe I’ll learn to be a good listener, and maybe I’ll learn the art of entering someone else’s world and loving them on their terms, not mine. If I can get that, it makes it worthwhile.

I’m sitting in my house listening to fireworks echoing off the volcanoes all around the city. This week there have been many fireworks, and parades, and carnivals…but not a lot of traffic! The reason for all of this unusual activity is that this week is the Las Fiestas Agostinas (The August Feasts).  This is the week where Salvadorans celebrate their patron saint who is El Salvador del Mundo (the Savior of the World).  More specifically they honor the Transfigured Christ Jesus as their patron saint. There is a statue called “Salvador del Mundo” not too far from our house. It looks like this (photo credit: emagister):

In honor of their patron saint, El Salvador (which literally means “The Savior” by the way) spends the week on vacation from work. Many people party all week, head to the beaches, or spend time with their family. The parades I mentioned earlier are all part of the celebration. We did see one parade from afar, and one day I got detoured by a parade of beauty queens getting ready to start.

Despite all the celebrating, vacationing, and parades the sad irony remains that although many Salvadorans celebrate this day of The Savior, and know the name of Jesus, many of them are not living daily in relationship with Him. They don’t know what it means to have Him transform their lives, and transform their society. Our prayer is that through the ministries and relationships we are developing we will be able to lead people into a real, living, growing relationship with Christ.

Here are some pictures of our family at the fair, “Consumas” as it is called taking in some local culture. The kids had a blast!

Family photo in front of a fountain on the fairgrounds.

It was kind of wet and rainy on the evening that we went, but still fun.

The kids loved the rides. The best part was that as long as no one was in line, they let them just keep riding as long as they wanted.

Tori loved the carousel.

I had to post this picture because it’s so funny. Since it was raining, there weren’t many people there so they got to ride this one for a long time. Tori started imitating Jon driving in traffic and Ian decided he was going to jump up and down (no safety belts here), so we had to ask the operator to stop the ride, but we were cracking up.

The kids were excited to get real cow milk ice cream at the fair! Here, ice cream isn’t usually made with real milk so this was a “real treat!”

Jon is the ever-adventurous one in our family when it comes to strange and unusual foods so he got elected to taste test the “Elote Loco.” It’s an ear of corn boiled, then covered with mayo, butter, ketchup, hot sauce, some mysterious “salsa negra”, mustard, and cheese. He said it wasn’t too bad. Ian tried it and spit it out. Tori and I couldn’t bring ourselves to try it but one of our Salvadoran friends with us said it was pretty gross so we figured it was okay if we skipped this experience!

There was an indoor section with a kiddie play area set up. This was one of the rides there. The kids loved it and didn’t even seem to notice it was made completely out of cement and being hand cranked by the guy in the middle. How’d you like that job?

The kids loved the inflatables set up!

Today I was wiping off the kitchen counter when Ian asked if he could help me clean. Ian’s idea of “cleaning” usually involves spitting on something and getting mud on something but I decided to let him help anyway. I gave him everything he needed to clean the glass doors…a rag with some water on it. But he insisted on trying every other object to do his little chore. First a broom, then a dust pan, then a toy, and finally an eraser. After many, many tries he finally ended up using the rag that I gave him in the first place. He went about his work singing and scrubbing happily. After he wiped the windows, the coffee table, and the floor he just looked at me beaming. I really didn’t need his help at all to clean up today but seeing the joy on his face made it all worth it to me. He was so happy that he “got” to help clean!

And then it struck me…isn’t God the very same way with us? He really doesn’t need us to do his work. In fact, we often end up getting things way muddier than they ever would have been if God had just left us out. We always try to use tools other than the ones He’s given us, and it takes way longer for God’s purposes to be accomplished when we’ve got our hands in the mix. But we “get” to do His work anyway! We get to pray, to serve, to give, and to obey Him and in the end we are part of what He is doing on earth! It’s just amazing to me that the God of the universe loves me so very much that it brings Him joy when we do our “work” for Him. I hope that my face continues to be the same face that Ian had…one of joy, excitement, and satisfaction as I work for my Father.

This is Jon here and I wanted to share a little bit about a new ministry that we have recently started here in El Salvador. Ever since we moved here, I have been working really hard at building relationships with some of the street kids right down the road from the YWAM base. These boys live on the street 24 – 7 and have nothing. Some of these boys come up to you at this particular intersection and beg for money while others wash your windshield and even others just sit there and hope someone throws them 5 or 10 cents. While it has been a process to build trust with these boys,  I am finally feeling like I have some relationships being built with them. It all started by just rolling down my window and giving them a piece or 2 of candy or gum and making small talk with them while I waited at the intersection. It then turned into taking time to walk down to this intersection and talk with them and bring them some food or juice. While this was all good, I felt there had to be more. So we decided to try something. We decided to setup “stations” in the garage of the YWAM base. There is a station to take a shower, another station to get new shirts, pants, shoes, etc., another station to get your hair cut, another station to cut your fingernails, another station for minor medical treatment, a station for eating and another place to just sit and talk. While we opened up the gates to the YWAM base, we also went out in my truck, which all of the guys in the area know by now and we picked them all up and brought them back to these stations. The first time we did this, it still took a little persuasion to get into the back of my truck. It was a really neat and humbling experience. We then did this same ministry setup a few other times this summer when we had teams in and it went really well. With everytime we did it, we built more trust with these guys and when we came to the intersection and told 1 guy, we litterally had 7-10 other guys start running towards the truck. So we decided that we are going to do this every Tuesday afternoon. This past Tuesday we went out and got these guys and they were really excited to hear that we were going to do it reguarly. I even had 2 guys come to the base yesterday as they saw my truck there and ask for me to make sure I didn’t change my mind about this coming Tuesday! This past Tuesday we got some information from everyone who came in such as their birthday, information about any family, etc. We also asked them if they had any prayer requests and prayed with each one of them before they left.  I am not sure where this is going to go and what other things will be brought about by this ministry, but I know I serve a great God who is going to use this ministry and do unimaginable things through it. I will try to post some pictures over the next day or so, but please pray for these guys and even right now as I type they are on the street.  Pray for their saftey, their daily lives, that God would minister to each one of them and that He would provide for their every need. Please also pray for guidance and wisdom for ways to better serve these guys.

Many of you who know me well already know this fact about me: I like to self-examine and reflect a lot. I often find myself asking the question, “How can we do this better?” Many of you have often been on the receiving end of my famous “…and here’s how I think you can do better.” My self-reflective attitude can lead to a lot of negative thinking, discontent, and general criticism of myself and others. I could go on for a significant amount of time about this internal struggle, but I’ll save that for another day.

So, what’s my point you may ask?

Well, my point is that every year on or around my birthday I tend to reflect on the previous year and ask myself, “Danielle, what could you have done better?” It may be kind of weird (especially since I’m referring to myself in the third person), but it’s how I think. And since today is my birthday, I feel in a reflective kind of mood.

A year ago I was still living a comfortable, affluent suburban life. I still filled my days with playgroups, trips to the library, and free walks down my street (meaning it was safe to walk and I didn’t need an armed guard to do it kind of free). I was on the brink of something new and exciting and honestly the naive little me a year ago had no idea what she was getting herself into.

So on this side, what are my thoughts? To be brutually honest? A lot of things about this past year really sucked. I know you may not expect that coming from a missionary, but in the self-reflecting mood I’m in, honesty seems the best road to take. Why did it suck? I had to leave a comfortable life…learn how to live on donations…say good-bye to my family…leave all my friends…move two preschoolers to a third world country…learn a new language…get diarrhea a lot…vomit a lot…clean up diarrhea a lot…clean up vomit a lot…well, you get the picture. And it’s not very pretty!

My point is that getting from 30 to 31 this year has been kind of rough. I wish I could say that throughout this whole year I rose to the occasion. I wish I could say that the struggles of this year brought out the best in me. But again, to be honest, that wasn’t always the case.

This year could be called “The Year of the Whine” because I did a lot of whining. I whined to my husband, whined to God, whined that my kids were whining, whined that I had to learn a new language, whined that I felt sick…well, you get the picture. And again, it’s not very pretty.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that in the “Danielle, what can we do better?” part of this reflection I’m realizing that there is a whole heck of a lot that I could be doing better. And that’s when I remember God’s grace. Because when I see myself as I really am (the whiny missionary), I realize how poorly equipped I am for this job.

So many days I don’t want to love the person in the grocery line who is trying to be polite and make small talk in Spanish when I just don’t want to hear it any more. Other days I don’t want to love my Latin American teammates because frankly , it’s a big struggle to have staff meetings in Spanish and to submit to their version of a schedule. I don’t always want to go and sit and talk to the girls at the orphanage because their stories hurt too much, and I don’t always want to constantly be a “learner.” Sometimes it’s easier to be a judger, a criticizer, or a know-it-all.

So to wrap up my reflections on this year I would say that yes it is okay to strive to be the best I can, but also to realize that it doesn’t matter how much “better” this next year will be it will never be good enough. Because honestly, I pretty much stink at this whole missionary thing. But the crazy thing is that God works through me anyway. I don’t have a chance of sticking this out on my own. Not a chance.

But God has shown up big time in my life when I’m at my weakest, most whiny, and most selfish moments. The best days here are the ones where I start off the day saying, “God I literally cannot do this. I literally don’t have the strength, or the desire, or the ability. Please, God you do this.”  So my goal for this year…to get a lot “better” at saying those words to God.

Yesterday was one of those days for me. One of those days when I feel the contrast between myself and those who have grown up in El Salvador. My “previous life” in suburban America is worlds apart from the experiences of the people of San Salvador.

I heard a young woman share her life story. It was a story filled with pain and with loss. The pain of never having a secure family life, the pain of wanting to belong anywhere even if it meant joining a gang, and the pain of having lost almost every person close to her because of the violence that fills the streets of El Salvador.

But there is more to her story. There is hope because someone shared the truth of Jesus Christ. Someone changed her world with that message. But she still has a long road to travel.

The worlds that her and I come from may be separated by deep chasms of culture, language, and life situations but there is one constant. Jesus. I don’t understand God’s plans…how He chooses our families and our histories.  But I do know that we are all on a journey and my journey has brought me to El Salvador. My journey is also drawing me nearer and nearer to the heart of God.

I’m finding that I see Him in the tears in the eyes of my friend as she shares the hope that hearing the story of Jesus brought her, and in the man who has worked his land for years and continues to work hard to serve his family, and in the missionary that comes from the U.S. for a week of their summer vacation to love people in El Salvador.

Right now I am living in a world far apart from all that I knew.  It’s like living on a roller coaster : culture shock, sickness, raising finances, loss of my freedom, and I could go on. But I get to share in what God is doing. I know that there are hundreds more like my friend who need to hear about Jesus. They need to know what it means to be loved. Will I ever make a difference in El Salvador? I don’t know. But I am in this with God and that is worth it all.

Working in a cross-cultural setting, working with the poor, moving to this world has changed me. God brings us more and more into His plan when we get out of our “worlds”…our idols.  The things that hold us back from pursuing God. A desire for a bigger and better house, a certain position in a group of friends, or a job that we feel is more impressive.  But maybe God has somewhere for you to be…far from your world where He wants to draw you into a life lived completely for Him.