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.