El Salvador: Part IV

For those of you who are praying for my team and me as we acclimate to the environment in El Salvador...
















...stop it right now.















!















Just kidding. Mostly. The thing is, we're not in quite in El Salvador yet. Yes, I know, I can hear the shock in your voices now:



"What?! All this time we've been praying for the safety of your flight on the twenty-fifth, praying for a welcome reception that day, praying for you to go to El Salvador!!!"



Well now, my shocked prayer warriors, take heart. Everything is fine. It's just behind. We got to the airport yesterday just in time to be told that our flight had been cancelled. After a moment or two of scratching our heads about what to do next, our team gathered together for a word of prayer, and then left it to our fearless leader to....fearlessly lead.







After a little broken English, a little broken Spanish, a little more confusion, and a little more prayer, we gave all fourteen of our passports to a little lady with a nametag on a lanyard, and hopped on a shuttle to the Hampton Inn.


Yup. Just gave her our passports.  Some things just don't make sense unless you're following God. 



The airline (Taca) put everyone from the flight up in the hotel for the night, gave us vouchers for dinner yesterday and lunch today, gave us a $200 voucher in case we had any luggage that was overweight, and put us on a flight for five o'clock today. 




On the busride to the Inn, Miss Fay and I were able to talk with a lady named Roxanna.  She is going to visit her family in El Salvador.  She was struck by Miss Fay's testimony of having a son who is a missionary in Indonesia.  Who would let their children be so far away for so long?  Someone who knows that God's love and glory is worth it.

The restaurant we ate at, a Colombian joint "Patacon," had incredible food, and an opportunity for me to use a little of my Spanish.

The beds and showers at the hotel are....awesome.


The experience as a whole? One to chalk up as a win, I think.

Praise de Lord.



Is there a lesson to be learned here? Oh yeah. All kinds of lessons.  Let's list them, shall we?

1.) The best thing to do in a crisis situation where one is traveling internationally is to give your passport to a stranger as soon as possible.
2.) Stressfully powering your way to get what you want/need does not always work...we can probably say that it's generally unneccessary. And that's because...
3.) God is in control.
4.) Matching t-shirts and good attitudes are a great testimony for Christ.
5.) The mission field involves every moment, every day. There's no need to wait until you hit foreign soil to testify of God's importance to you.




Alright, so some of that is a little facetious in nature (you can sort out which parts) but the moral of the story is: God wins.  Our plans and schedule are all in his hands.  The extra night of sleep here provided some much needed energy and rest for members of the group who have been feeling a little under the weather. 

"He's got the whole world...in his hands..."



I have greatly exceeded the fifteen-minute limit on the "Business Center" computers in the lobby of the hotel, so that's all I'll write for now. 

Hoping to write again soon! Pray for us. :)