I hope you guys enjoy this. What an awesome trip!
Greetings from El Salvador! I apologize to all those who have been checking this blog only to find no updates. I can assure you I have been trying, but the internet access here in in El Salvador is not very dependable to say the least. So I guess I have to fill you in on what’s been happening here since Saturday. ( I don’t know really where to start)! Today is the third day running medical clinics here in El Salvador. Each day we have been traveling to a different Calvary Chapel church plant throughout the country, and running free medical clinics. People in the neighborhoods where the churches are have been waiting to see our doctors and dentists for a couple of weeks now. For many, this is their only opportunity to receive medical and dental care because they lack the money to pay for the treatment. So usually we arrive at our site with a line of people already waiting to be seen. While the people are waiting to be checked out, we have a team (some from our C.C. Philly group, and some from the local Calvary) that shares Christ with them, and gives them Gospels of John as well as a pamphlet with directions to the church. Many people have gotten saved throughout these three days and we are praying for even more to believe on the name of Jesus during the last two clinics.
Everyone on our team is healthy, and doing great. They are all working extremely hard, and each night their exhausted from serving the Lord in this incredible heat! (I forgot to mention that we are all sweating by around 7:30 in the morning, and we don’t stop sweating until the daily thunderstorms come and knock out all the power, and close the roads – that’s at around 4:30 every afternoon). I would ask that you continue to pray for us – that the Lord would strengthen all of us for the remaining clinics, that He would be glorified in all that we do, and that many would continue to trust in Him as their Lord and Savior. We want to be a blessing to the local Calvary’s here, so please also pray that their church is encouraged by the clinics and by those who end up coming to hear God’s Word being taught every Sunday.
I think that’s all for now – I will try to update tomorrow, and will also try to get some pictures posted on here in a little bit. Thanks for all your prayers, we can all sense the Lord’s hand on this trip – please keep them coming!
Blessings,
Carlos
Hello everyone, sorry it’s been awhile since my last post. I guess I’m not doing very well with my commitment for a once a week update. I just wanted to write to ask you to pray for our Medical Missions Trip to El Salvador which will take place from September 26th – October 3rd. This trip was a trip that we had to postpone last November because of paperwork that couldn’t get done in time in El Salvador, and because of lots of red tape that we didn’t know about going in. Anyway, the Lord’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts far beyond ours right ? SO I think that last November wasn’t His timing, but I am praying that this September will be! And I am asking you guys to join me in praying for this trip. All the important paperwork is done, and it has all been submitted to the El Salvadorian government. At this time we are just waiting for the official “green light” from them. Please pray that we will get that soon, and that we can go ahead with the final planning and preparation for this trip. As in all trips that we do, we want to see Jesus magnified and exalted amongst the El Salvadorian people, and we are going to use free medical care as an open door to tell them about our glorious God and Savior. We will be able to meet some of their physical needs, and most importantly get a chance to share the gospel, and pray for them all while they will be at a Bible teaching church in their mountain village (where the clinics will be held). SO I am very excited about this opportunity but we certainly need your prayers for this trip – for right now in particular, so that we can get the approval from the government to host these free medical clinics. I will keep you guys updated on the status of everything as I get more information. Thanks for praying!
Secondly, I just waned to share with you a great resource that my buddy Matt Ellison from 1615 told me about. The book is called “From Akebu to Zapotec” and although I think it has been around since 2002, I have just learned about it recently. We just started carrying them here at the bookstore at C.C. Philly. The book is basically a children’s book with illustrations and info on Bibleless peoples going from A to Z. Each people group has their own page with a beautiful illustration and then a story about life in their culture. It’s a great way to get our kids to be thinking about these peoples, to be praying for them, and also for the Lord to send someone to give them the Bible in their language. Those of you who know me know how close to my heart that is. This is just another tool, another resource which enables us to talk to our kids about the importance of sharing Christ and His Word with those who have never heard. Check it out, I know you will not be disappointed !
I know it has been a week since we got back, but it took a little while to get back into the swing of things. I figured an update would be appropriate. I really just wanted to thank everyone for praying for our team, and the trip as a whole. We saw the Lord provide for us in incredible ways, and we were encouraged to know that we had our brothers and sisters praying for us back home. The foundations for the radio tower were poured (all four), the Inductive Bible Study was a great blessing and the pastors and church leaders were all excited about putting this techinique to use. The Lord opened up a huge door to continue ministering in the Leper Colony, and our relationship with Mukinge Hospital continued to grow as we partnered up with them for our clinics in the villages. Our two lost bags were found, and the hospital was able to receive them – they contained a large amount of much needed medicine. We got to debrief at Kafue National Park where we had the pleasure of seeing lions, hippos, crocs, zebra, and even a leopard. It was a great trip, and the Lord is still showing me things that He is desiring to teach me through our experiences over the last three weeks. We will be showing a short video in the next couple of weeks at Calvary highlighting some of what we did.
I’ll post some video on our dropshots site soon, but for now, you can check out some pictures that I loaded on www.dropshots.com/ccphillymissions
Blessings,
carlos
Carlos is visiting the Chief of the area around Kasempa today, with gifts from our fellowship (Pastor Joe’s MP3 teaching set and a player with batteries). The chief is very open to hearing about Jesus and what the Word says about being a believer, please continue to pray for him.
Also, tomorrow the team will do work in a nearby leper colony. Keep praying!