Beautiful Feet: May 25, 2015

Amazing day! I am sure that this will be a two-part blog today, for Dwaine and I each worked with different groups on our day of campaigning with the Franklin group. We kept the same groups as Saturday, so I was blessed to go out with a great couple, David and Lisa. Our Spanish speaker was Edgardo, the man who preaches here some and is working as an assistant. He is a great friend, so it was good to have him join us. For the day, we had four studies, three lasting about 45 minutes and one about 15 minutes. While Edgardo is very experienced in leading Bible studies, we truly wanted our campaigners to take the initiative. And they did just that. David came prepared with several scriptures to share and Lisa was very supportive and compassionate. David would also lead the prayers and I did the interpreting for him on his studies. Our first lady was Sandra. She owned a small store and had three children. She had also let us enter her home and study with her on Saturday. One lady, Angelina, talked with us a long time and then also invited us into her home. She was a seamstress by trade and she had lots of questions. Edgardo added some verses to the study and gave a very moving illustration on different churches. He drew a stick figure and asked if this were the church, who was the head. Of course, Christ. Then, he asked was the body? Of course, the church. He proceeded to draw many bodies extending from the one, creating a distorted ‘person.’ Christ died to be the head of one body. While he named a few bodies that might be false bodies, the power of the drawing was great. He ended with the description of marriage in Ephesians so that the thought of being married to more than one bride was not so appealing. It was a powerful example and Angelina was moved by it. Our third study was with the wife, Felicity, of a man, Roberto, we met Saturday. David led all of this study and did an impressive job. She was an elderly woman and did not want us to come in, but she stood and talked for a long time. Later that afternoon when we brought food back to our studies, we learned that she was crippled in one leg and could hardly walk. She had sacrificed a lot to stand and listen to us for so long. Our next two families that we had studied with on Saturday, were not home. We headed back to the soccer court and then on to Hector and Rachel’s. Several ladies from Ataco had cooked a great meal. What a blessing. We visited a bit and then headed out to distribute food to several homes that had invited us in. One of the most moving was the elderly couple, Robert and Felicity. Robert said that he would not agree to accept the food unless we agreed to accept his blessings on us and his promise to pray for our outreach. Sandra, our study who had three children invited us back in to her home and cried when we gave her the food. We were all deeply moved. One of our first studies was back home and this gentleman, Ruperto, could only get around with a cane. He was afraid to open his door for us, but came out and listened to a verse and prayer. He prayed all the while that David prayed. It was funny because I felt like I needed to interpret David’s prayer for him and Ruperto’s prayer to us simultaneously! While this was all amazing, we still had the meeting to go for the night campaign. First, a lady I had visited about a month ago came and I sat with her. I had been in her home with some ladies and she said I could come back and study with her. She is the mother of a member here. Then, Mirdna came with her son. She is the lady that was baptized Sunday. Both of these ladies lived some distance away and traveled to come. Sandra had come to the meeting on Saturday night but not tonight. Angela lived next to the court and she stood outside her home with a couple of friends for the entire meeting. The Franklin group gave out scarves for a gift, so Edgardo and I walked to her home and gave her and her friends a scarf. Then, I discovered that Roberto had also come. He even stayed and help load chairs after the meeting. I also met some of Dwaine’s contacts and it looks like we will have lots of follow-up work to do when the group departs. We are moving to a different area on Tuesday, and I could see that many were having a hard time saying good-byes. I know that makes me long for heaven when we will all be united in one family. (Dwaine) This was the first campaign I had been on since the one in 2012 when I came to El Salvador for the first time. Saturday morning when I went out with Greg and his daughter I was trying to follow the instructions from Hector that I thought I had understood which was to introduce ourselves and talk a few minutes and invite them to the 5:00 meeting at the soccer field. Afterward, when I had time to think more, I felt guilty we had not at least asked each family if we could pray with them. I apologized to Greg on Sunday and he of course said not to worry about it. When we went back Mon. morning I asked the first lady if we could share a short scripture and pray with her. With that, she invited us into her home and we sat for about 30 minutes and had a great visit. She keeps 2 grandchildren and she brought both of them to the 5:00 meeting. She asked us to pray for her son who was not attending church. The next lady stood at her gate as we studied some scriptures but when we said we would like to pray she called her 8 yr. old son who had fallen on Sunday and hurt his right arm. It was swollen and he could not move it but she said someone was supposed to come to her house to look at it. When we took the food back in the afternoon he had a sling on. She was so appreciative of the food because she was very poor and had 3 children. The next young man, Melvin, who is 19 and single, stood at his door and we studied and prayed. He said he was not very interested in religion but was willing to listen and he also came to the evening meeting. The next house was the best of all, there were two fairly young ladies who between them apparently had several children though we were never quite sure how many (they stayed in back). We had about an hour study with these ladies who both said they did not go to church and it was really great. When we went back with the food no one was home so we put it inside a porch door that hooked shut. As we were coming back by we met one of the ladies arriving back home and we talked and prayed again. Both ladies and several children and one teen girl came to the evening meeting!!!! The last lady was strongly Catholic and had been very afraid Saturday morning but this time she also invited us in. We had a good study on the importance of knowing the Bible for ourselves and not just taking someone else’s word for it. Saturday morning I think we were the first group to finish. This time we were still studying with the last lady when Charlotte called to say that the group had to go to lunch. This was truly one of the most exciting days I can remember in a very long time. Happy Anniversary to Dan and Christina for eight years!