Walking With El Salvador

The Mission of Healing lasted one week.  In the end, more than 1000 people received love, prayer, touch and healing.  On Sunday, we gathered for worship in our sister church community, to give honor to God and to the history of the Mission which began there twelve years ago. The assigned texts for the day involved leprosy and healing.  From the Old Testament (2 Kings 5) we heard the story of Naaman, a Syrian general, a man of power and wealth and stature, a man who had helped to conquer and enslave the people of Israel, and whose wife was served by an Israelite girl who was enslaved.  Naaman suffered from leprosy.  The girl remembered the miracles of the Prophet Elisha, and after a demand from Naaman's king and an invitation from Elisha, Naaman traveled to Israel to meet Elisha.  Elisha sent a message to Naaman that he should bathe in the Jordan River.  Naaman was insulted not to be received in person as a fine man, but in the end, he bathed and he w...

It has been quite some time since my last blog post...the past month has included a Salvadoran journey which kept me quite busy, and a few times I opted for sleep in place of writing.  Thanks for your patience.  And now for a story... It was time for announcements.  Like most churches, our sister church in El Salvador has a time at the conclusion of worship during which anyone from the congregation who has something important to share may step to the front for a few moments and a few words.  And, in like in many churches, there is that special person who gets up frequently to share more than just a few words.  In our sister church, that person is David.  David really likes to talk, and he is quite eloquent and quite passionate; he has a bit of a gift for public speaking.  Yet, congregational patience is sometimes tested, and if people wore wrist-watches in El Salvador, one could imagine that folks would be glancing at them when David gets up to spea...