York Alliance - El Salvador - July/August 2018

Ruth opens this evening's church gathering with songs and praises to God. Hands are clapping. A tambourine jingles. Bodies are moving in time to the music, keeping step with the Spirit. Ruth and the other musicians switch from English to Spanish and back again. Every time she switches to Spanish, it as if the small congregation receives new fuel. They sing enthusiastically. “Send the rain and open the floodgates of heaven.” Our team is asked to share and many of us take a turn up front, sharing what God has been showing us. We look out on a see of faces. Young and old. Men and women. Latinos and Non-Latinos. The people have made us feel so welcome, we feel like family. Steve Slyder tells the story of the beggar at the temple who had nothing and was asking for money and how Peter came and by the power of God, healed the beggar. God gave the beggar one hundred times over what he asked for, Steve says. That's what he's doing here for us. We didn't know what to exp...

When Can We Go Home? 1-30-18 Today our team is going three different ways. A team will stay here at Templo Emmanuel, a team will go back to Pasedena Alliance and Todd and I (Priscilla) will travel to the temporary residence of Thompson Intermediary School. I don't know what to expect. It is a school, so there will be children going to school of course. But when I arrive I realize it is a different kind of school. Temporary Buildings Provided By FEMA After Hurricane Harvey came, the Thompson school campus was no longer habitable. When the flooding receded it left behind a nasty sludge and a building ravaged by about a foot of standing water. We meet with several assistant principles. Assistant Principal Wayne Sanders Assistance Principle Wayne Sanders says that he thought the children would be divided up and sent to different schools and the teachers would be parceled out in a similar manner. This additional stress on the children and teachers, ...

From the first missions trip planning meeting, I knew Steve Slyder would be trouble. When I get back to Templo Emmanuel after the interview (see Is Hope Possible ) with Mrs. Domingo, I admire the hard work I see going on around me.  Glenn and Nate are doing some of the more intricate detailing work with their paint brushes. Steve and Deb are running primer-caked rollers up and down the brick walls and Millie and Kandi are painting a banister railing. Everyone is cheerful and in good spirits. Then Steve calls me over. “I gotta show you something,” he says. He motions for me to walk around the front of the church building. I'm not sure what I'll find. The grin on Steve's face is not reassuring. I round the corner and see words in fresh white paint cluttering up the side of the church building. This is a church, Steve? What have you done. I can think of a lot worse things to paint on the side of the church building. I can't help laughing instead. W...

This morning we are waiting for supplies, but in the waiting I listen. Larry McHaney, the CMA coordinator for the disaster response in the Houston area shares with several members of the team one of the greatest challenges he has encountered since Hurricane Harvey hit. He says that he hadn't realized the extent of threefold disaster recovery. It takes time and relationships to not only physically recover but emotionally and spiritually recover as well, he says. When the water rose and spread into homes, it wasn't just the drywall and wooden boards that were affected. How do you care for souls? How do you trust God after Hurricane Harvey topples your carefully stacked possessions on the floor, saturates them with chemically laden, putrid water for days, and then breathes mold up the walls of your home? How do you come back from that? Is hope even possible? Today I am going out with Larry McHaney, David Young, an Alliance Pastor in the Houston area and Sam Christ...

When we touch down, we aren't sure what to expect. Spirits are high. We joke. When we pick up the rental car, there is an issue with availability and the agent tells us a vehicle is available but hasn't been detailed (fancy word for cleaned), Todd pipes up, “Is there any Pizza left under the seat, 'cause we're hungry.” The girls behind the counter laugh, and apologize, “Sorry, there is no pizza.” We go to Whataburger for lunch instead. We get the vehicles and head to the first church located in Pasadena. Under the overcast sky, the church looks tired on the outside like the rest of the houses in the neighborhood. The house next door to the church has an RV in the back yard. A woman rinses a plastic bowl with a hose. There is a pile of trash, rotten drywall, pieces of wood, bits of stuffing and other indiscernible household items piled in a heap behind the house. We enter the church building and Mrs. Garcia welcomes us. We sit and listen as the church service co...

Team Member Jeff Stock (on the right) sent this to me Sunday afternoon with the following comments. "Landen wanted to raise money for Hurricane Victims in TX. His “crazy” idea was to sell cold soda on a cold January day. $75 later and Daddy was humbled by how God agreed with Landen’s heart." The decision to go never just affects one person, but draws each member of our families into the opportunity. And, in a much larger, but just as significant way it draws all of you into this trip as well. The team that goes is just the tip of the iceberg. Thank you for supporting us through prayer and encouragement and for taking up the slack while family members are away.  Here are the names of the 14 members of the team for prayer reference. Deb Boyd - Baker Priscilla Cash - Homemaker Mike Dugger - Firefighter Nathan Eyler - Mechanical Engineer Todd Jackson - Handyman Kim Kessler - Retired Larry Kessler - Retired Engineer Mike Krape - Lawn Care...

Image Credit - Wikimedia A week from today we'll be setting our feet down in Houston, Texas, embarking on a mission of being the hands and feet of Jesus to people who experienced Harvey up close and personal. They made an evacuation plan. They watched the rain blow sideways, bending trees like they were twigs. They watched the streets fill up with water and spill over into their homes. When the rain stopped and the flooding receded they tore apart their ruined homes, piled their possessions at the curb for pick up and began the work of starting over. Into such devastation, what can we possibly offer?  For our team there are many unknowns . We don't know exactly what we'll be doing, though we know it will involve construction work.  We don't know who'll we'll be serving. We don't know what their stories are. We don't know how those stories will affect us and we don't know how our presence will affect them.  We don't know what...