November 17, 2007

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Let’s say it costs $700 for a round-trip flight from the states to El Salvador for our group of 13, then, we’ve put $9100 into this effort before we ever leave.  $9100.00.  Feed, house, and transport that group, and now the cost doubles.

Setting that thought aside for a moment, let’s look at just some of the needs we encountered in Puente Azul.  Luis pastors his church on a salary of $150.00 monthly.  Not surprisingly, that doesn’t meet his needs, especially since his mother is ailing in eastern El Salvador and travel, even by bus, can add up quickly.

Health care?  Where to start?  There are many short and long term health care needs in the community, needs that require both human and financial resources. 

And what about education, the current focus of Central Christian’s (Lebanon) efforts?  One year of high school, one [sic], are thousand dollars plus.

Sooo, why wouldn’t it make more sense to raise that money and put it into direct use?  That twenty grant, we know all too well by now, could do a great of good.

Of course, the answer, as we already know, is that without the personal connection, there would be little or no fundraising.  If the plate were passed on Central American Sunday, with a picture of some nameless Napo on the envelope, we would sigh, fell a tinge of something, drop in a few bills (or hide the envelope in the hymnal) and look back at our bulletins.

But once you’ve held the real Napo – however momentarily – in your lap, you will never again be able to turn your eyes away.  Connecting with some of God’s Salvadoran children in this way is life-transforming.

Having our lives awakened then, is a blessing that comes of this financial commitment.  Working side by side with the people of Puente Azul, playing with their children, walking however temporarily in their shoes, or shoeless footprints, our lives are touched by God’s hand forever.

That’s the charge – both the calling and the lightning bolt that typically strikes teams such as ours.  That is what propels and compels us to return home and look for ways to maintain and deepen our connection.

But just as there is a predictable rhythm to a trip such as ours, there is a rhythm to what comes upon our return.  Full of stories, emotion, and pictures (especially if you have a big stick) we return to our congregations and our lives and our culture.  There we are met with a whole range of responses: some say “sign me up for next time”; some look and listen with real interest as we share; some tuck a few bills in an envelope and turn back to their own worlds; and some never hear us at all.

What then?  Where do we go with all of our awakened compassion and love?  What happens to those lives that in just a few hours from now, we will say have been so inevitably transformed?  What becomes of our investment?

The answer, for me (those questions were only semi-rhetorical), is what this interchurch team does next.  However, God hand led each of us to this team, the value of this trip ties in what we do once these awesome ten days are behind us.  God’s gift in all of us is beyond this journalist’s ability to capture, plus Dale is ready for his turn.  But, just as each of us has been lifted up during this time, our team has been just as powerfully transformed.  The trust, the friendships, the shared struggle to make meaning, the laughter – so much laughter – and the love have made us what we were not.  For me, that is why we raise the money and accept the challenge – that is why this effort cannot be initiated through an email network.  We are, as a team, God’s hand, with shared history and shared responsibility.  For this trip to be not an interesting stop on our path, but the place where the path changes direction, we will take those next steps together.

The team from FCC and Darryl has brought many unexpected blessing and joys into my life; for that I am so grateful.

--- Scott Williams, Central Christian Church (DOC), Lebanon, IN