Transition

(Please see previous posts for more details about our church´s mission trip to El Salvador, from where I´m writing this post.  Frankly, there´s more substance in those previous posts, as this post is pretty thin today.  Sorry!)

Today was a day of transition for our group.  Pastor Mike returned home, and for the first time we had a day dedicated to touristy things – visiting an artisan market, the Quetzaltepec volcano in San Salvador, and the National Anthropology Museum.  Unlike other days, we did not meet with members of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, nor did we visit sites related to the civil war.  It was a bit of a lighter day, and perhaps that is good (particularly because two members of our group were feeling a wee bit sick today).  The fatigue of being on the road now for six days seems to have hit us today.  Perhaps that is why we ordered Pizza Hut for dinner tonight.  To a weary (and for me at least, homesick) group, pizza hit the spot.

But it was a good day of rest, because the next few days will be intense.  Tomorrow we will visit the Central American University, where six Jesuit priests were martyred in 1989, followed by a visit to a Lutheran congregation in San Lorenzo, a community along the Pacific coast that was hit hard by the 2001 earthquakes.  We will likely have some time to talk with members of the church, hear about their ministry, walk through their neighborhood, and worship together.

On Saturday we head out to Cara Sucia, to a Lutheran congregation ministering among the poor there.  We will meet members of the church, hear about their ministry, and have time for fellowship.  We may also get to visit a beach near the Guatemalan boarder, Bola del Monte.  That night, we will stay with families in their homes.  On Sunday I will preach – in Spanish – during the worship service.  I´m about half-way done composing my sermon right now . . . and I will be preaching this sermon with a manuscript – I´m not about to preach in Spanish from an outline or simple notes!

I will probably write a brief post tomorow night, but will not write on Saturday as I will be away from an internet connection.  On Sunday evening, our final night here, I´ll write again.