Things have been really hectic and hurried since my return from Spring Break, but I do hate to let the old blog go unwritten upon. So, I thought I'd give a little list of some things that have been going on in my life. Here we go, peeps!
1. Since our trip, there has been overwhelming interest in the work that's going on in El Salvador. This is amazing to see. Most amazing (and exciting and thrilling and whatever else) is that some of the people who just got back from El Salvador want to go back this summer. To stay. To work. To get land cleared. This will be such a blessing for the building that needs to go on there. I am so anxious (in a really good way) to see how the summer plans work out and to see how much work can get done over the summer. And, it looks like I'll be heading to El Salvador a couple of times this summer. Awesome!
2. I had a bit of a breakthrough on the old dissertation front. I mean, "breakthrough" is kind of funny word to use. Perhaps, it's more appropriate to say, "Hey, I had a cool idea about what to write on. I'm really excited about it, and I think it's going to turn out well." I've found some previous research on my topic, but it doesn't look like it's a topic that's been overdone. Not sure yet how to frame it, but that will come. Oh, did I forget to mention what the topic is? :) All in good time!
3. There are two new little boys at the orphanage. They're brothers. Oh, folks, let me tell you. These two are the most amazingly sweet boys you could ever meet. And they are just beautiful. That's really the only way to describe them. Everything about them is beautiful. I was so happy to meet them. And the little brother sat on my lap for the whole bus ride to Cerro Verde. Oh, we had a field trip for the kids this trip. I will write more about this later, but I'll just say that it was great and that the kids loved it.
4. Teaching and tutoring are both going really well, though I am overwhelmed with work at the moment. At least I've learned that I somewhat like being busy!
5. Last night I went to dinner at Katy And Joe's. When I left, John insisted on going out to check my car out. He told me that I had a flat tire, so he fixed it for me. He even kicked the tires to make sure they were okay. It was super cute!
Love you!
Sara
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
I'm Back!
Well, I am officially back from El Salvador. The trip was really wonderful. I got to meet the new kids at the orphanage, eat pupusas, hike Cerro Verde, and just generally have a great time with our group and our friends in El Salvador. I survived a historical election and a bedbug infestation. Time will tell how the election will affect the country and if I will ever stop itching. ;)
One bonus of the trip was that I got to take a bump on my flight into El Salvador, which means that I'm over half way to paying for my next flight there! Or paying for the other traveling I'll be doing this summer...Oh, and that also meant that I flew first class on the way there. It was a struggle, but I made it work!
Okay, there are more stories to tell, but I'm still a little (or a lot) tired, so I'm heading off to bed!
Love!
Sara
One bonus of the trip was that I got to take a bump on my flight into El Salvador, which means that I'm over half way to paying for my next flight there! Or paying for the other traveling I'll be doing this summer...Oh, and that also meant that I flew first class on the way there. It was a struggle, but I made it work!
Okay, there are more stories to tell, but I'm still a little (or a lot) tired, so I'm heading off to bed!
Love!
Sara
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Spring Break!
Oh, how I love Spring Break. I think it might be my favorite time of year. Well, honestly, it might just be my favorite time of year because I really want a break, and (starting tomorrow) I get one!
Early tomorrow morning, I head off to El Salvador. Beautiful, mountainous, tropical El Salvador. Home of pupusas, volcanoes, and some of the sweetest children you will ever meet. If my tone doesn't imply it clearly enough, I am all kinds of excited about going to El Salvador.
And, while I'm totally excited about going, I do know that this is a bit of a dangerous time to be heading there. The national election takes place on Sunday, March 15, and this is a big election year. And, in a big election year, you never quite know what the outcome of the election will mean for safety. Anyways, feel free to pray for me while I'm there! And pray for the kids too; they are amazing.
Much love,
Sara
Early tomorrow morning, I head off to El Salvador. Beautiful, mountainous, tropical El Salvador. Home of pupusas, volcanoes, and some of the sweetest children you will ever meet. If my tone doesn't imply it clearly enough, I am all kinds of excited about going to El Salvador.
And, while I'm totally excited about going, I do know that this is a bit of a dangerous time to be heading there. The national election takes place on Sunday, March 15, and this is a big election year. And, in a big election year, you never quite know what the outcome of the election will mean for safety. Anyways, feel free to pray for me while I'm there! And pray for the kids too; they are amazing.
Much love,
Sara
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Maybe I don't want to grow up. Maybe that's okay.
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child" (1 Corinthians 13:11).
Honestly, I've never given much thought to this verse. It's always just seemed like part of the extra stuff that follows the really good verses about love. Those love verses are good stuff, even if we're all tired out from having heard them at every wedding we've ever been to. But I, with my all too finite knowledge of theology, have generally read the eleventh verse of this chapter as saying "Grow up, already!" I'm not much of a theologian.
There's got to be a more serious meaning, something far more profound and deep. I'm sure of it, even if I don't know it. That's faith, folks. ;)
Anyways, I was thinking of this verse just a bit ago, mainly because it got me thinking about the kind of faith and spirituality that children have. They have such a pure, unquestioning faith, and it's beautiful to see. It made me think that, though in many ways we do have to grow up and do have to put away the things of a child, perhaps the faith of a child is something we should fight our hardest to keep. Sometimes it feels as if we spend so much of our adult lives trying to recapture the depth of faith we had when we were small, as if it is that fullness of faith that we always long for. Maybe that is the one thing we should never put away, no matter how old we get.
Love,
Sara
[Side note: Seriously, folks, there's a lot of good stuff in the Bible, a lot of great stuff even. And there is tons of stuff about love. After all, God is love. So, if you're planning a wedding, be original. Don't go with Corinthians. Try Esther or Ruth. Scandalize the whole church and go with Song of Songs. :) Just, please no more 1 Corinthians 13. Props to Katy and Joe for choosing Hosea. And to Nicole and Anton, whose readings I can't remember, even if I remember so clearly thinking, "That is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard."]
Honestly, I've never given much thought to this verse. It's always just seemed like part of the extra stuff that follows the really good verses about love. Those love verses are good stuff, even if we're all tired out from having heard them at every wedding we've ever been to. But I, with my all too finite knowledge of theology, have generally read the eleventh verse of this chapter as saying "Grow up, already!" I'm not much of a theologian.
There's got to be a more serious meaning, something far more profound and deep. I'm sure of it, even if I don't know it. That's faith, folks. ;)
Anyways, I was thinking of this verse just a bit ago, mainly because it got me thinking about the kind of faith and spirituality that children have. They have such a pure, unquestioning faith, and it's beautiful to see. It made me think that, though in many ways we do have to grow up and do have to put away the things of a child, perhaps the faith of a child is something we should fight our hardest to keep. Sometimes it feels as if we spend so much of our adult lives trying to recapture the depth of faith we had when we were small, as if it is that fullness of faith that we always long for. Maybe that is the one thing we should never put away, no matter how old we get.
Love,
Sara
[Side note: Seriously, folks, there's a lot of good stuff in the Bible, a lot of great stuff even. And there is tons of stuff about love. After all, God is love. So, if you're planning a wedding, be original. Don't go with Corinthians. Try Esther or Ruth. Scandalize the whole church and go with Song of Songs. :) Just, please no more 1 Corinthians 13. Props to Katy and Joe for choosing Hosea. And to Nicole and Anton, whose readings I can't remember, even if I remember so clearly thinking, "That is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard."]
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Making Sense of Love
Sometimes I get emails from David, the orphanage director's son in El Salvador. David is 18, studying to be a lawyer. He's lived most of his life with the many children his father would find on the streets of El Salvador, children abandoned and with no other place to go. Children who find love with this family.
David always tells me that he is praying for me and my family, for my church. Each year we take presents to the kids in El Salvador. The other day, David asked me, "Do you know who sent my present? And who is helping to pay for my university? I just need to know for my prayers."
And, let me be honest. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to me, the kind of faith that David has, the kind of desire he has to pray for others.
Often I think of the children in El Salvador. Their faces come to me like snapshots. I see Saul before he goes to bed, wanting to hear a story. I see Vanessa washing clothes. I see Javier being silly because he's young and loves attention.
And sometimes the thought that comes to my head is, "So which one would you choose?"
And maybe now it seems like the thought going through my head is a good one. And maybe now it seems like I'm wondering which child I'd bring home if I could.
But that's not it.
Let me speak plainly.
Let me be practical.
Let me be sensible.
Abortion is illegal in El Salvador. And, let me also be honest; the legality or illegality of abortion is to me, even now, pretty much a non-issue. Though I believe strongly in legislation that protects and affirms the sanctity of life, I understand that illegality doesn't mean that abortions won't happen; in any work I do that is pro-life, my only real concern is that women and men know that they are loved, that they have other options, that they won't be judged, that they have a community that will care for them. Those things don't change, whether abortion is legal or illegal.
That said, abortion is illegal in El Salvador. El Salvador is the poorest country in Central America, and the number of children who are homeless, without parents, and abandoned is staggering. In Soyapango, children roam the streets at night--some in gangs, some on drugs, some prostituting.
A few years ago, it occurred to me that there was something lacking in the logic of pro-lifers who seemed unable to see a connection between the unavailability of abortion and the fact that there were so many unwanted and neglected children. Surely, they must understand that, were abortion legal and readily available, there might be some decrease in the number of homeless children, that there might be some movement toward every child being a wanted child.
But, this connection wasn't being made. And it didn't make sense.
If I was to be practical, I had to admit that there was something amiss in the logic of pro-lifers who didn't make that connection. Again, I'm just speaking plainly. I'm just being practical. I'm just being sensible. I, even a few years ago, would have admitted that I thought abortion wasn't a good thing. It's certainly not something that we want to happen. But, as I thought of this connection a few years ago, I had to think that sometimes good can come of even those things we think of as bad. Maybe there is such a thing as a necessary evil.
Fast forward a couple of years.
I'm making cookies and bread with David. Javier comes by to look sweetly at us and hope we'll be nice enough to give him a cookie. Vanessa is still washing the clothes and hanging some up to dry. Saul is asking for a story.
And, the thought goes around in my head again. So, just choose one. If quality of life is an issue, if poverty or ill health prevent that quality of life from being what it could be under better circumstances, if the option is no longer illegal but readily available. Then just choose one.
But, I can't. I can't because I know them. I can't because I love them. I can't because I now understand that our collective poverty is so much more if just one of those children is not here. I can't because, though it sometimes seems that there is so little love in the world, I know that, because of these children, there is so much more love than there would be without them. I can't because I have some hope that their love, so pure and unselfish, is the only kind of love that saves us. I can't because, in each of their faces, I see Christ.
And, it doesn't make sense. But it is love.
David always tells me that he is praying for me and my family, for my church. Each year we take presents to the kids in El Salvador. The other day, David asked me, "Do you know who sent my present? And who is helping to pay for my university? I just need to know for my prayers."
And, let me be honest. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to me, the kind of faith that David has, the kind of desire he has to pray for others.
Often I think of the children in El Salvador. Their faces come to me like snapshots. I see Saul before he goes to bed, wanting to hear a story. I see Vanessa washing clothes. I see Javier being silly because he's young and loves attention.
And sometimes the thought that comes to my head is, "So which one would you choose?"
And maybe now it seems like the thought going through my head is a good one. And maybe now it seems like I'm wondering which child I'd bring home if I could.
But that's not it.
Let me speak plainly.
Let me be practical.
Let me be sensible.
Abortion is illegal in El Salvador. And, let me also be honest; the legality or illegality of abortion is to me, even now, pretty much a non-issue. Though I believe strongly in legislation that protects and affirms the sanctity of life, I understand that illegality doesn't mean that abortions won't happen; in any work I do that is pro-life, my only real concern is that women and men know that they are loved, that they have other options, that they won't be judged, that they have a community that will care for them. Those things don't change, whether abortion is legal or illegal.
That said, abortion is illegal in El Salvador. El Salvador is the poorest country in Central America, and the number of children who are homeless, without parents, and abandoned is staggering. In Soyapango, children roam the streets at night--some in gangs, some on drugs, some prostituting.
A few years ago, it occurred to me that there was something lacking in the logic of pro-lifers who seemed unable to see a connection between the unavailability of abortion and the fact that there were so many unwanted and neglected children. Surely, they must understand that, were abortion legal and readily available, there might be some decrease in the number of homeless children, that there might be some movement toward every child being a wanted child.
But, this connection wasn't being made. And it didn't make sense.
If I was to be practical, I had to admit that there was something amiss in the logic of pro-lifers who didn't make that connection. Again, I'm just speaking plainly. I'm just being practical. I'm just being sensible. I, even a few years ago, would have admitted that I thought abortion wasn't a good thing. It's certainly not something that we want to happen. But, as I thought of this connection a few years ago, I had to think that sometimes good can come of even those things we think of as bad. Maybe there is such a thing as a necessary evil.
Fast forward a couple of years.
I'm making cookies and bread with David. Javier comes by to look sweetly at us and hope we'll be nice enough to give him a cookie. Vanessa is still washing the clothes and hanging some up to dry. Saul is asking for a story.
And, the thought goes around in my head again. So, just choose one. If quality of life is an issue, if poverty or ill health prevent that quality of life from being what it could be under better circumstances, if the option is no longer illegal but readily available. Then just choose one.
But, I can't. I can't because I know them. I can't because I love them. I can't because I now understand that our collective poverty is so much more if just one of those children is not here. I can't because, though it sometimes seems that there is so little love in the world, I know that, because of these children, there is so much more love than there would be without them. I can't because I have some hope that their love, so pure and unselfish, is the only kind of love that saves us. I can't because, in each of their faces, I see Christ.
And, it doesn't make sense. But it is love.
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