Christ Chapel El Salvador Family Mission Trip: Hittin the Streets & Dodging the Rain

If you have ever been to Florida, you might understand a bit of what the weather is like here in El Salvador. So far, every afternoon sometime between 1 & 3pm it will rain, and rain hard. Fortunately for us, this just happens to be when our break time is, so this is perfect weather for a siesta! (nap) We go to the schools in the morning, enjoy a rainy nap in the afternoon, and in the evenings we have been hitting the dampened streets.

Last night we went to a large Colonia (town) in a poorer area, with about 2-3,000 homes and invited the neighborhood to a big party held by the local church. We split into family groups, with a few translators per family, and went knocking on doors. We set out to invite the neighborhood to the party that had food, bounce houses, and a movie. At the party they showed a Christian film emphasizing how a man changed his whole life after coming to faith in Jesus. There was then a drama by local teens from the church that showed the story of the Bible. There was then a gospel presentation by one of our Christ Chapel men with an invitation to accept the gift of Jesus. The hearts of many people were greatly affected by each of these presentations. Last night there were about 40 people that raised their hands indicating they had put their faith in Jesus after the event. We went and talked to each person that raised their hand, counseled them, and got their contact info.

The people of El Salvador are VERY open to talking about "religious" things, much more than back in home where the topic is a bit more avoided. It took us out of our comfort zone to talk to people so openly. Before going out we prayed that morning for boldness to share as God would lead. Our translators were also very encouraging to us and pushed us to talk to others. We would walk around with small tracts that asked "El Gran Pregunta"---"The Big Question." This big question was "If you died tonight would you go to heaven?" The response to this question gave us a good indication of whether or not a person had faith in Jesus and gave us a good basis for further questions.

Here are some cool stories from the past couple of evenings:

*One family was able to lead a security guard to faith in Jesus. After asking him the big question, the guard shared that he thought he wouldn't be able to go to heaven because he had done many bad things and hung out with bad people. The 9 year old of the family had been practicing Ephesians 2:8-9 and was able to share with this with the man. "For by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works so no man can boast." This helped the man understand that it is through faith alone that one is saved. The man prayed that night to accept Christ as his Savior.

*One Dad from our group found a man that was exactly in the right place at the right time and needed to hear the message desperately. The man had followed Jesus many years ago, but was now going astray. That night he ran back to Christ. While the Dad from our group was praying with the man, the Mom and Son from our group were on the side praying for their Dad.

*The 11 year old in the group had great boldness in sharing the Gospel with a college student-and partly in Spanish too! He used a great tool called the Evangecube to share the good news of Jesus. (Below is a video of how the Evangecube works.) This was the first time he had led a person in a prayer to believe in Jesus.

*I was able to use the Evangecube to tell a 12 year old girl how she could be sure that she could go to heaven. When I asked her the "Big Question," she said she didn't know if she would go to heaven or not. She understood the story well and in the end prayed to accept Jesus.

For all of these people and others we got their contact information to give to the church. They will be contacted the day after our event and be invited to study the Bible in depth with the church.