Spreadin' The Love: Day 5 – June 13th

The Salt of the Earth – Matthew 5:13 – Did you know there are four main functions of salt – to add flavor, to preserve (be the enemy of decay), as an antiseptic (ridding the wound of all the bad stuff), and to stimulate thirst. There are two parts to this.

One – if we are the salt of the earth, shouldn’t we be these things in the hands of God? Shouldn’t we radiate the love of Christ and the glory of God all the time? Shouldn’t we so demonstrate the life of Christ that men thirst for what we have? Shouldn’t we stand in opposition to evil everyday?

Two – we need to penetrate the world. Salt has no function if it does not leave its container. We have to come in contact with those who are decaying, those who are lost in a world of darkness. For so long, we have confined ourselves to our fancy salt shakers, our “church buildings” that we’ve lost all sense of what “the church” really is. The church is not a building that we go to for worship. WE ARE THE CHURCH! We don’t need a building. Let’s start turning our focus on what the church can do to impact the surrounding communities and the world, instead of worrying about Sunday School attendance and membership numbers. Luke tells us in Acts that when the church went out into the community and focused on the needs of other people, when the church participated in fellowship and prayer, “the Lord added to their number daily those who believed.”

Some of you may be asking the question, “But how can just one week make a difference?” One week, without follow-up, doesn’t help. That is why, in everything we did, we did it with locals from the church we were empowering. We, as a group, did not go over there to do some great work. We went over there to continue what God has already begun, and many more groups have and will come behind us every week following.

It’s more than a mission trip. It’s making disciples of all nations. And we don’t have to travel thousands of miles to do it. It’s all about pouring your life into someone, and allowing them to do the same in return. That’s how Jesus did it. And it started with just twelve.

Today we got up and went to our last village – Santa Rosa. This village was far up in the mountains and the view was amazing.

We did the same thing we did the two days before but everything seemed to run much smoother – maybe because we had done it twice before or maybe for some other reasons.

As we started setting up, there was a group of ladies sweeping off the basketball court (which was our main space to use for the sports games). It had rained quite a bit the night before and early that morning so there was water just puddled in the middle. They were sweeping the water to one side of the court where there was this one piece of pipe sticking out the side of the concrete to drain. Emily and I decided to go grab a broom from some of the women and help out. Soon enough, the water was cleared out and the court was as dry as it would get.

Everything went great. The kids loved the face painting and crafts and balloon animals and I soon saw myself swarmed by kids (boys, mind you) who wanted flags of all kinds (Honduras, Italy, America, France, etc.) painted on their arms as well as a soccer ball. This village definitely had soccer fever!

(Notice the division of the table. Boys on one side, girls on the other.)
Soon it was lunchtime and then we were ready to

head out into the village again. This time we carried Spanish New Testaments that we had brought with us. We split up into three groups again and headed out. This time we had a 12-year-old as our translator and let me tell you, she is amazing. If anyone thinks that a girl that young can’t make a difference in the world, this girl will prove you wrong.

Our group began taking turns speaking and praying at each house we came to. At the first few houses, we just handed the bible to the person who answered the door, told them we were with the mission, and asked if there was anything we could pray for them about. The farther down the road we got, the more desperate the prayer needs were and the more hospitable the people became. We began to be invited in to sit and talk and pray. We hugged, kissed babies (I know that sounds a little presidential candidate-ish, but really), and held hands.

At one house we came to there was a man sitting out on his porch. He really looked like he had just finished crying. We handed him a bible and prayed with him, and the group started to walk off. Jason, the only guy in the group, stayed behind. I think the Lord was telling him he needed to stay back and pray and talk with the guy one on one. It was amazing to see.

Once we got up the hill and made our way down the next street, Jason and I spotted a landing a ways up the hill. We thought it would be cool to go up there and pray over the whole village. So here goes our group…climbing the side of this landing amidst the screams of people saying, “Watch out for skunks! They’re really bad in this area!” Thanks for the heads-up guys.

As we reached the top, it was a view unlike I had ever seen before. You could see the whole village…and more. Each one of us prayed and then we headed back down. We hit a few more houses and then decided that we should probably get on back.

When we got back to the mission, everyone was waiting on us. Apparently, we lost track of time and our “B” type personality group leader, Carrie (we love her anyway) was a little worried that we were a bit off schedule. We soon handed over the supplies to the pastor of the mission, prayed for him and the mission, took a picture, and headed out.

On our way out, we took an elderly woman back to her house (which ended up being one of the houses that my group prayed at) and then headed out – all the way, kids chasing the bus. It was like something you see in a movie. Strangely enough, as we headed down the hill, a group of horses ran by. It seemed like they were racing the bus down the hill.