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As we reflect on our experience in El Salvador this summer we realize that we had a tremendous priviledge to be part of something which was much bigger than us. We are so humbled by all that we saw God accomplish in us, our team, and the students of El Salvador. There are too many stories to recount them all, but I hope that these few will encourage you. The map shown here represents a memorial of remeberance for those who we saw entrust Christ (all 18 names are recorded on the pink post-it notes) and those we are still praying for (on the green notes). Lift praises to God with us, for those who are and are not mentioned specifically here.
When one of our students Katie first met Rafael and his girlfriend on the campus of the Universidad de Francisco Gavidia we had no idea what would lie ahead for him. He had been dating his girlfiend for some time and they seemed so happy. It seemed perfect that when Katie shared her faith with the two of them that they each entrusted their life to Christ in turn over the course of a few days. However, God's plan for this new Christian couple turned out to be different from what we first imagined. A couple days after Rafael accepted Christ his girlfriend broke off the relationship with him. It was amazing actually, we thought this event would make him very sad, but he reacted much differently than we expected. He showed tremendous peace in his circumstance and wrote a letter to our team as we left El Salvador:
"The reason I'm doing this little letter for you is because I want you to know how this trip that you made, helped a lot to change the life of someone that wasn't sure about the way that it needs to be followed. (If I made a mistake writing this letter please don't laugh on me, I'm still learning English. I hope you understand). I was afraid about talking to you, because I cannot speak English very well. I really don't know why but I felt like God was pushing me to do it, and... I did it. I overcome all my fears. I didn't know what God was planning for my life until I started to meet you all. Then I just realized that God was doing that because he wants me to be back to his way, and start to be an architect of his kingdom. I leaved real hurt moments but you have no idea how much all of you helped me to pass that trough, leave that behind on that moment to feel that wasn't the end of the world, maybe the beginning of something incredible and real. Anyway, I just wanna tell you that I really appreciate all that you have made in my life on a few days. And I don't know exactly the reason why you were here, but I your goal was change someone and give them a better life let me tell you that... YOU DID IT WITH ME!!!"
Ken met Joaquin at our Fiesta outreach. After talking to Joaquin for only a few minutes, Ken could see that not only was he spiritually open to hearing about Christ... he was really interested in learning more. Ken simply asked him if he would like to be 100% sure that if he were to die today that he would go to heaven to be with the Lord. Joaquin said he would as Megan approached the two talking at the Fiesta.
Megan, a student from our main Crusade movement at UC Davis, invited Joaquin to the Fiesta from the campus of Dr. Jose Matias Delgado. She later recounted to us that she ran over to join the conversation that Ken was having with Joaquin after she saw them speaking because, as she put it she knew Ken "wouldn't stick to small talk" and she wanted to share Christ with Joaquin. After joining the conversation, Megan, with the encouragement and support of Ken shared the Gospel with Joaquin. After hearing it for the first time, Joaquin said "This is what I've been looking for my whole life". In the two short weeks that passed after the fiesta before we returned home, we saw tremendous growth in Joaquin. We feel blessed to have been part of the beginning of what God is doing in his life.
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