The sight of our medical clinic work on Monday and Tuesday, and the location of the Por Gracia School where we are sponsoring students, is also the venue for the church we attended on Wednesday night. This church, pastored by Javier Osorio, Christ for the City’s base director here in El Salvador, is a beacon of hope and light in an otherwise desperate place.
We were warmly welcomed as we entered and then when the time came to
“Meet and greet” those around you, we were delighted to discover that many of the hugs and handshakes coming our way were from people who we recognized and had spent time with on the previous few days.
One delightful part of the worship service was the chance to sing songs that we were familiar with. “Abre Mis Ojos, O Cristo” (Open the eyes of my Heart, Lord) and “No, no, no me Soltaras” (No, no, you never let go) Out of their hearts of hospitality and humility they even posted the Scripture verses in English so that we could follow along.
At the end of the service, they called Susan forward as leader of the Mariner’s Team and presented us with a painting that had been done by our preacher’s wife, Flori.Proving once again that you can find just about ANYTHING here in El Salvador, we left church and went out to a local MEXICAN restaurant. It was great to continue spending time with our friends from Christ for the City’s base here including Jonathan Maltez.
Jonathan, a talented young soccer star whose transformed life is testimony to the power of Christ over the power of gangs, works with the soccer school boys leading devotions, offering mentorship and of course, teaching soccer skills. Yvonne was especially excited to discover that Jonathan’s father was Puerto Rican and they spent a lot of time talking about their common heritage despite the fact that neither of them have ever lived in Puerto Rico.
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