Providing safety

Today was an awesome day.  Not quite as hot as the last couple of days which was a blessing. We had two teams building this morning and each team built one house. 

The building when quite quickly. Ainsley and I always work together and second day building we always just fall into place knowing what our jobs at the site are. So fun working with a young girl who at 16 is already so passionate about helping and serving the people of El Salvador.  

During the day I had a few short chats with the home owner, Marina. She's 32 and a single mom with four kids, ages 15, 11, 7 and 2. The 11 year old is at boy and then 3 girls. Throughout the day Marina worked hard beside us helping to dig holes and help wherever needed.  It wasn't until I heard her story that my heart broke. Her two oldest kids and two youngest kids have different fathers. She was with the father of the two younger ones until 9 months ago.  After the youngest was born he began drinking and eventually became violent, beating her in front of the kids and at times basically raping her. When the youngest was a year old he beat her so bad she had to go to the hospital with her left eye swollen shut....and this time he went after the one year old too, causing her head to bleed. She told him he needed to leave. She took him back a short while later and he went back to beating her. She kicked him out again, this time for good. Marina works selling candy again and gum in the market sometimes making $6 a day and other days only making a dollar or nothing.  Providing for her kids is very hard. She went to the father asking for financial help. He said he would with the condition that He move back in. She stood her ground and thought of her kids and herself and said no. When we were standing with her in front of her house she broke down crying and kept saying "thank you thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you. My kids will be safe. I thank God that he sent you to give me this house. Thank you than you."  My heart just broke. I was able to look her in the eye and affirm her that she has made the right decision for her kids and herself. That God will provide for her and that she is now safe in a house with locking doors and windows. We cried and I gave her and a huge long hug.  She was so overwhelmed.

The problems here are so extreme and it can be overwhelming thinking of all the people that need help. But I need to focus on the fact that Marina and her family now have a safe place to sleep and that has changed her life forever.

Hard work and a lot of sweat.....totally worth it.

Today was beyond amazing. 

It is so hard to put into words all that has gone on today. It always takes me time to process all that I have experienced and seen. But I will do my best.

We started the day bright and early at 7am with a pancake breakfast YUM!  We need to get the work day started before the high heat of the day, today was over 35 plus humidity.  This is a big group, 30 of us, so they split us into three groups to build. And each group was to build two houses today.  They purposely split up any friends/ relatives so that we can connect and get to know others in the group.  So Stephen and I are not on the same team.   We were right next door to each other so I was able to watch from a distance as the guys took him under their wing and taught him all the different things that needed to be done and how to do it.  Being able to observe from a distance was more fun than being right by his side.

I will have to get Stephen to write something about his experience. I don’t even know much about the families that he built for today. But at the end of the day he said it felt really good seeing how incredibly happy the families were when their new house was complete, and to know that he played a part in them getting that house. 

The first house I helped to build was for a family of three. The husband (Vidal) and wife (Berta) are in the 50’s and have an adult son with mental disabilities living at home with them.  Both Vidal and Berta work; Vidal is a janitor at a church and Berta is a maid in a private home.  Between the two of them they make about $140 a month. I chatted with Berta quite a bit learning more about her family and struggles. She has respiratory problems due to the dust in their old house and the dust that would come in their house every time a car would drive by.  She’s so thankful that this new house will have cement floors and good doors and windows to keep most of the dust out.  She’s also a diabetic, and I asked her questions about the health system here. So the government supplies her insulin but she has to buy the needles which are 7 for $3, which is a lot of money for her family, so she’ll use each needle three times before throwing it away.  She’s also supposed to take two injections a day….but only takes one, again to save on money for the needles.  She said she takes her pills after lunch and feels fine so doesn’t really need to take more insulin.

The second house we built was for a single mom, Esmeralda, and her 16 year old daughter Patty. Esmeralda is working full time and makes about $5 a day.  Patty is in grade 11, which is amazing most kids are a couple of years behind. I was talking to them about what it means to be getting a new house and about the community.  El Salvador is not a safe country and there is a lot of violence and corruption. But we don’t always see it.  The community was very welcoming and great hosts to us so I assumed it was a more stable area and a little on the safer side. But I made a comment to that extent saying it felt like a good neighbourhood. She was hesitant but said no, it really wasn’t and that getting this Shelter house meant that for once her and her daughter would feel safe at night with locking doors and windows.  I couldn’t imagine the fear that they had to go to sleep with every night. It is so comforting know that a huge difference has been made in their lives with just a few hours of hard work and sweat.

Aside from building today and meeting the families, I can’t say it enough, this group of people is amazing!  Their passion to share God’s love with the people of El Salvador is inspiring.  They sacrifice their own time and money to come down here multiple times a year to lead groups and build. It has been awesome to connect with them and hear more about their personal stories, how they got connected with Shelter and why they keep coming back. One constant in each of their stories is that they have heard a clear calling from God that they are to be here, that their hearts feel fullest when they are here.

We ended the evening at Stuart and Carie's house (Canadians living here) for a delicious BBQ dinner. And we had our debrief time there too. The debrief is always a highlight as we hear what each person experienced during the day. And tonight we got to hear Gustavos story, he's one of the local workers, hired by Shelter. He had an incredible story of coming out of a life of drugs, crime and three suicide attempts.....but God saved him from all of that and brought Stuart and Carie into his life and three years later he is passionate about God and the work that he is doing in him and through him. Such a powerful story of a life completely changed

Light in a dark place

Being back in El Salvador feels like I am home. The smells, the sounds, the language, the people....God has built this into my DNA. 
And to have Stephen along with me this year makes it even more adventurous and exciting.

Today we went to meet the 8 families we will be building for this week in the community of Nueva Esperanza (new hope). The community is well organized but very poor. Most families have a monthly income of less than $200. The houses are made of mud bricks with leaky unstable roofs....not good in an earthquake prone country. I work with the Shelter team leaders all year round making sure team money is transfered, insurance is in place, flights are paid for and accounts are in order. Coming down here and connecting with them in person is such a huge blessing and privledge for me. To walk through these communities with them and see the local people coming out to say hello to their Canadian friends just radiates just how big of an impact these men and women are having in this country. The connection goes beyond the language barrier and I can see that they are truly bringing Gods light into a very dark place.

At church this evening they made the service a missions Sunday to honor and bless the people of Shelter and the work they are doing. They did a pantomime to the old Ray Boltz song "thank you for giving to the Lord". They had Jim, the president of Shelter " sit up front as a representative of the group. As i was watching and listening to the words i thought back to last year when they had a celebration for all the families that received a house....there were over 600 people there....that was just from one building season. Shelter has been building here since 2001 it is mind blowing to think of how many lives have been impacted and changed because these men and women give of their own tifme and money to come  here and build, some of them two to three times a year. Wow!

Tomorrow we start our day bright and early at 7am and will be building. Both Stephen and I are excited to get our hands dirty.

It was very hot today in the high 30s plus the humidity, we had one young girl faint while we were out just from the intensity of the heat. If your one of the many praying for us while we're here, health and sfety from the heat are huge prayer items for tomorrow as the temp should be about the same.

Stephen summed today up as adventurous. A lot of new things for him to process from riding in the back of a pick up, to walking through communities of extreme poverty and hearing their stories of how they survive and provide for their kids. Cant wait to see what he walks away with from this week.

Thank you again for all your prayers and support.