Thinking About God

Peace – Paz

Free the Girls, Holidays, Human Trafficking, Thinking About God -

As we find ourselves in the midst of the Advent season, we are so grateful for the peace that the Christmas season brings. Valerie Nikkel is our guest blogger this week as we focus on true peace.  If you had an unlimited amount of money how would you spend it? I’m sure all of us have pondered this question at some point in our lives. The song, “If I Had a Million Dollars” lists the many possibilities. If we are honest with ourselves, material things would top our lists. A car, a boat, a house (and then a bigger house), exotic vacations, and the list goes on! Recently that question was asked to one of the woman in our Free The Girls micro-enterprise program. Her answer might surprise you…it surely […]

Jesus Was A Medical Missionary – Jesús Era Un Médico Misionero

Justice, Medical Missions, Missions, Short-Term Missions, Thinking About God -

Today we welcome a special guest blogger, Mary Frances Morris (pictured below left). She was recently in El Salvador providing healthcare to our clients as part of a medical team from Mission To The World.  Jesus was a medical missionary. The Gospels repeatedly state that Jesus went about the towns teaching, preaching, and healing. “Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:35-36 NIV Jesus also tended to hang out with the outcasts, or the marginalized, such as the tax collectors, lepers, and prostitutes. He even called the children to Him. […]

Saliendo a la Superficie – Breaking through the Ground

Prayer, Thinking About God, Urban Ministry -

Por Alexia Rodríguez  Sembrar y cuidar plantas es quizás uno de mis pasatiempos favoritos. En El Salvador tenemos una planta a la que comúnmente se le llama: Ginger. Es una especie de mata que puede crecer y crecer, con hojas verdes largas y una flor muy particular y muy linda. Hay Gingers rojos y Gingers rosados. Me encanta ponerlos en floreros de vidrio…¡Se ven espectaculares! Y pueden durar en buen estado entre 10 y 15 días. Siempre los admiraba en la casa de mi tía –y los cortaba para hacer arreglos…!-, hasta que un día ella me regaló algunos para sembrarlos en mi jardín, y así lo hice. ¡Me emocionó la idea de por fin tener mis propios Ginger en casa! El “pequeño” detalle que no sabía es que sembrarlos […]

Soul-Tending – Cuidando el Alma

Free the Girls, Human Trafficking, Kids at Risk, Thinking About God -

I remember in my childhood, my mother always had a garden. We always joked about her “green children” because of the time she spent bent over that garden. She would kneel down and gently tend the young plants, work to create an environment for growth, and do everything she could to protect those tender greens from outside predators who would seek to consume them. Tending a soul is not so different. There is kneeling, and toiling. There is a gentle pushing away of dirt, and fierce war against outside forces that would move in to destroy. There are fledging greens that push up through the soil, and we celebrate them and work to make their environment all that it possibly can be so that those sprouts can one day be […]

Father’s Day in El Salvador – El Día del Padre en El Salvador

Holidays, Justice, The Lighthouse Project, Thinking About God -

A special thanks to guest blogger, Alexia Rodriguez, one of our staff members, for sharing her thoughts… “Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close.” Psalm 27:10 There are obvious differences between the way that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are celebrated, at least in El Salvador. Here Mother’s Day is celebrated on May 10, and this year is was a Wednesday.  Department stores and malls had discounts, sales, and gifts starting the Friday before so everyone could spoil their moms. On the actual day, these places were full of lines of last minute-shoppers, restaurants had no space left for those who didn’t make reservations, parking lots were full of cars, and flowers were being sold for marked-up prices on every street corner. And […]

Rest – Descanso

Thinking About God -

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”   These words from Jesus are recorded in Matthew 11:28-30 and they invite us to walk leaning on Him, sharing our burdens, and letting Him do the heavy lifting in our lives. Sometimes we think it’s so much easier to lift the heavy stuff on our own. But then we end up burned out, spent, frustrated, and lonely. The temptation to work it all out on our own is hard to shake because it’s easier to hold my family and […]

Bandera

Crossing Cultures, History of El Salvador, Justice, Places to Visit in El Salvador, Thinking About God -

This past January 16th, El Salvador celebrated 25 years since Peace Accords were signed to end a brutal civil war. That same week a piece of art went on display in MARTE, El Salvador’s art museum, to celebrate the anniversary. The piece of art quite literally laid out the still fought for peace that so many long for. That artist’s name is Carmen Elena Trigueros and her piece is called simply Bandera, meaning “flag.” I recently chaperoned a field trip with my daughter’s class and Bandera was one of the pieces featured by the guide. When I saw Bandera I stood there small, struck by the beauty of the piece and the enormity of the task spilling out across the floor. The flag was white and long and stretched up […]

Connections

A New Dawn, Thinking About God, Urban Ministry -

Relationships not only connect us, they change us. When I look back at my life, everything significant is connected to a relationship. The death of a friend that pushed me on a different track, the ending of a relationship, the beginning of a new one. Parents, grandparents, classmates, teachers, mentors. My marriage, my children. Bosses and pastors. All of these relationships have changed who I am to varying degrees. Some hold more significant spaces in my life, but all have made an impact. It should come as no surprise that God chose to reach out to humanity in relationships. Knowing Him as a personal God has drastically altered my life. It is the most defining relationship us humans can have. If we are so designed and defined…through relationship with Him, then […]

It’s Complicated

A New Dawn, Human Trafficking, Justice, Kids at Risk, Thinking About God, Urban Ministry -

Está yuca. That’s a Salvadoran slang phrase that basically means that it’s complicated. It’s messed up,  and it’s tough to sort out. We use that phrase a lot around our office, and that’s because almost every one of our clients comes to us with layers of complication. Poverty, violence, systems that are practically rigged against them. Here is a glimpse… There is the boy coming to New Dawn because gangs threatened his life back in his hometown. He had to flee and he fled to the streets of San Salvador. Life on the streets is hard…abuse and addiction soon become the cycle that he can’t escape. There is the man who was traumatized as a child, and eventually turned to alcohol. Over time, he lost his wife, his job, his […]

Unseen

Thinking About God -

“Your path led through the sea, your way through the mighty waters,  though your footprints were not seen.”  Psalm 77:19 My father told me to follow the rocky steps across the river where it swirled and raced below the waterfall. He told me to step from rock to rock and I could safely cross. I could see the first few rocks mossy and green beneath my feet but as the river swarmed and the path grew deeper I could no longer see the steps. I could simply feel them out with my toes, sense where they were. Behind me my father called to keep going straight through, until I reached the glistening bank across the water. The river wasn’t so deep after all, it just seemed that way because it […]

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