The Faces of El Salvador | A Blog of The Sonflowerz Journey
It was a rush of emotion when I first heard their shouts, those little El Salvadorian children celebrating our arrival. They were about to meet us, the first sponsors ever to visit their Compassion project. And I didn’t know what awaited me around the corner. I imagined first witnessing the children at work in a classroom. I didn’t anticipate hundreds of children waving huge red, yellow and green balloons in one hand and El Salvadoran and American flags together in another.
They lined the street up to the student center. I didn't notice the neglected buildings and make-shift homes around me, just these children in the greatest celebration of their lives! They were thanking us and sponsors like us that resembled hope and a better future to this worn down community. Because of Compassion, they were here in the safety of the project. They showed us love as if we were their individual sponsors, their caretakers and their rescuers.
It was hard to hold back tears when I met Lisa. She was fifteen and 8 1/2 months pregnant. Compassion had welcomed her into one of their newest outreaches called the “Child Survival Program”, to make sure she and her baby were taken care of in this difficult time. I didn’t see any fear on her face, no shame, no worry. Her smile was huge and it lit up the room. Later I understood that the roads many girls walk down are known to be dangerous alleyways with predators around any corner. Many girls are having their first babies at very young ages because of rape. Lisa was standing by with many other mothers and Compassion staff workers. We could tell she felt loved in every way. She may deliver the baby this week, we were told. I spoke to her through our translator and later prayed with her. Where would she be without Compassion’s aid? There wasn’t anywhere safe or clean to have her baby except this facility. There wasn’t anyone to care for her and her newborn but the hands of these workers. Praise God that Compassion saw a need and ran to meet it, even if it meant creating a new program. (The moms in the CSP program range from age 12 – 38.)
It was difficult to leave the school as the kids crowded around us to say hi, give hugs, and still more hugs. I look forward to God growing up these children as world-changing Christians who spend their lives to speak the gospel and lead their nation.
Four members of our team, along with a translator and security guard, loaded into a van to visit a home of two Compassion sponsor children. The girls, Jennifer and Bethany, also rode with us.
After the van had carried us through a rugged dirt road it stopped at the top of another smaller path that led to their home. The path was a steep downward slope that looked more like a drainage ditch, embedded with garbage and eroded by rainwater. We were led down the path by the sisters and entered their house by way of a few large stairs created by a tires and logs. There we met their mom, grandfather and aunt. Two disheveled dogs wandered around looking for scraps of food. We handed their mother a large bag of rice and beans, and other important things as a gift.
Their house consisted of a single room with a dirt floor and bits of sheet metal for the walls and the roof. Inside I saw they had electricity but no running water. They cooked and slept in that small room. I saw a bit of bacon on the dirt floor with hundreds of ants making their way to it. There were three beds, one for mom and dad, another for the two girls, and a third for their older brother. It was very dark and musty and I wondered what it was like when rain was pounding hard on the metal roof. When we asked Jennifer about her sponsor she jumped up to get her letters and find her photo of her sponsor family. She was grinning as she proudly began telling us about them. After the sisters shared stories and hopes of what they want to be when they grow up, we gathered and asked how we could pray for Jennifer and her family. They said to pray for their father to stay close to God.
A great highlight of our trip was meeting Kathya, my very own sponsor-child! I didn’t know how she would receive Becca and me. Would she shy away like some five-year-olds do? It was our last project to visit on the trip and the whole school gathered to welcome us in their assembly room. Proud moms and project volunteers crowded in the back of the room to watch the performance of the children dancing and singing.
Then we were asked to the front of the stage to introduce ourselves. Becca and I were asked to play a song for all the children. Within seconds they were clapping to “All Over The World”. At the end of the song our translator announces, “And now we have a very special person who wants to meet Elissa and Becca!” From the crowd at the back, a small girl came running down the center isle. Her long, dark brunette pig tales flopped as she jumped into my arms.“It's Katya!”
We had just started sponsoring Kathya when we knew we were going to visit her school. She took our hands and we sat down next to her. Our translator asked us if there was anything we wanted to talk with her about. Becca asked her if she had any brothers or sisters. Kathya shook her head. “Tell her we are her big sisters!” I said. Kathya immediately looked up and showed her biggest smile yet. She was glued to us for the rest of the day, and we accompanied her and her mom to see their home. It was a big day for such a little girl, gaining two sisters, and knowing us face to face for the first time. I hope we get to visit her again someday.
Now that I am home I have a different story to tell about Compassion. Real lives, real hunger, real poverty – it’s a difficult world that I have never known first hand before. But among it all is real change, real Christianity, and real love. Jesus is in it all.
A thousand words couldn’t describe the miracles God is doing in El Salvador through Compassion International. I witnessed so many, on the faces of children and the lives finding significance in their Creator. Every Compassion staff member, a native of El Salvador and joyful representation of Christ, carries out his or her work with the truest devotion. I came to see that God has a plan for this nation. Out of the depth of poverty and past civil wars, He is growing up a new generation.
There are 4,000 children in El Salvador waiting for sponsors, already being enrolled in the projects. Will you join me in reaching out to one?
Meet Our Sponsor Child from El Salvador, Katya!
