Thursday in El Salvador

Today we continued our work with deaf children but at the Christian School for the Deaf in San Salvador. John and I have been at this wonderful school several times before and are glad that we could return with this team. What a wonderful ministry! All the children had assembled in the court yard to greet us, from the little ones ages 1 to 3 to the new class of older teens who have never had the chance to go to school before. This school does use the American Sign system, so that made it ever so much easier for our team members who sign with ASL. As Patsy shared the lesson on Noah, our team could do the interpreting. That was really a joy for them! Then the children "sang" for us, and we got to sing with them. Their lively, animated facial expressions are priceless! We then got to tour the school, learn about their program, see the facilities, speech therapy room and equipment, computer lab and individual classrooms. You could tell that each teacher viewed their work as a special calling, an opportunity to show the love of Jesus to these children as they equipped them for life. We got to spend time in the classrooms doing crafts, talking with students, and just enjoying being with them. As we visited with the director, we learned more about the joys and challenges of this ministry. Their needs, as with all the schools here, are many. The vast majority of these children come from poor families. Very few can pay tuition for their child, so they have a sponsorship program that partially covers the cost. They are in great need of more sponsors for these children. Recently someone broke into the school and stole their computers;quite a blow. Dell Computers has agreed to replace the computers, which is a praise, but they must have a security system in place before installing them so that this hopefully won't happen again. Other concerns are for more participation from the parents to learn how to sign so that they can communicate with their children, as well as hearing siblings. This seems to be a universal need. Parents seem reluctant to learn sign language, which is a great disadvantage for their deaf children. There is a huge need for interpretors to help deaf students. After 6th grade, these children are mainstreamed into the regular schools. They need interpreters to work with them in the schools, help with tutoring students, and even aiding students who want to go to university. What was evident was the dedication of these teachers, their love for the students, and the joy these children have to be able to study not only academic subject, but to be taught from the Bible and know the Lord.

Though the Christian school stands in sharp contrast to the rural school we visited yesterday in the size and condition of the school facility, the equipment and technology that this school is blessed with, it was encouraging to think that without a huge investment, the school at Sosonate could be more like this wonderful school. The students at both schools are eager, want to learn, achieve, and succeed. Teachers at both schools demonstrate their dedication to these children and sacrifice to teach them. Though the Christian school is better equipped and can offer more services, they both have great needs and both want to make a difference in the lives of deaf children and their families. It really encouraged us that much could be done for the Sosonate school to enhance their ministry, and I call it ministry even though it isn't a "Christian" school.

This afternoon we got to meet with the Women of Global Action, a group of women involved in ministry and intercessory prayer who meet every Thursday for prayer and worship. Each one shared their particular ministry with us and why they are committed to prayer. Claudia, the administrative assistant for Global Action, led us in worship. What a beautiful voice! The praise and worship, mixing Spanish and English lyrics, was such a wonderful taste of what it will be like as every tribe and nation is represented around His throne, worshiping together. As we were about to begin the prayer time, Mercedes said that they felt moved to pray for our team, to anoint our feet with oil and pray for us individually as the Lord led. What an incredibly humbling and beautiful experience! One by one, one of the women would kneel before one of us, apply oil to our feet and pray passionately and very specifically for that person. It was incredibly personal and moving for each of us. How much we could learn from these powerful prayer warriors about prayer!! We then prayed for El Salvador, their ministry needs, and then for the United States, the upcoming elections and ministry needs. What a truly memorable time we won't soon forget!!

We have had a wonderful day full of sweet connections with the students, greatly enhanced by the ability of some of our team to communicate directly with them through ASL. We were all greatly impressed by all we saw and look forward to returning tomorrow to share more, do more activities with the students and staff and just "love on" these precious children.

We are so grateful for the privilege of being here in El Salvador! We are experiencing God in new ways, seeing the world with new eyes, and experiencing such joy in being vessels of encouragement, as we are also being challenged and blessed. We'll have a lot to process as we head back home, and a lot to share with all of you. Being with these children reminds us that there are so many people in the world who are overlooked, forgotten, pushed aside, not only because of physical differences, but from many barriers that make them different. So many people feel of no value or important, unworthy and hopeless. It is easy to be "lost" in this world. May we all become sensitized to people all around us who could be easily "unseen" but have very real needs and are definitely valued in God's sight. And may we act upon what we see to reach out to these, even the least of these...as unto Him.

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