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Today’s guest blogger is MTES staff member, Cecilia Leiva de Benavides. Thank you Cecy for sharing!

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When we were little and talked to our siblings about what “super power” we wanted to have, there was one power that was the most desired, and that was to go back and travel through time.

I think that more than once, even as adults, we have had the desire to go back in time and think of all that we could do if that was possible. That way we could correct actions that brought us unpleasant consequences, actions that have destroyed moments that could have been lovely memories, or actions that have wounded people that we really love.

That was the wish of one of our clients whose son is still a baby, and while she was giving him a bath, the boy clung to her arms because he felt the cold water. She said to me how she wanted to go back in time and be as old as he is now, and I asked her, “what would you do if you had the opportunity to be born again?”

She sighed and in her eyes I saw the longing to go back in time and change things. At the beginning, she couldn’t find the words to describe the things she would do, but then she told me decisively , “I know that I wouldn’t make the same mistakes again, and I would decide on a better future.”

In real life, we don’t have any such “super power,” but we do have the best resource and opportunity available to correct lives, futures, families, and relationships…we have the only powerful God who can transform and recover what was lost through his beloved son Jesus Christ.

God’s Word tells us, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.”   (1 Peter 1:3-4)

Mission To El Salvador has given me the opportunity to see the “before” and “after” of many lives that have opted into this opportunity for change. It’s exciting to see the teams within our organization plan and act with so much strength, energy, and above all, desire to see these valuable changes demonstrated in each life.

However, along with these efforts come frustrations, sadness, low moments, and difficulties because it’s not as easy as we would like. But God has been showing us that his faithfulness remains both for our clients and for our staff members themselves, and this encourages us to believe that the opportunity to be reborn remains valid for all who yearn and strive for it.