Unanticipated Blessings
A Reflection on the El Salvador Mission Trip
By Leo Sarrade
About three years ago I started going back to church and putting God at the forefront of my life. I realized this was important for my journey, as I was feeling the pull of the Holy Spirit. Once back in church, I felt I was being a good Christian. I attended church every Sunday I was in town and watched remotely when I was away. I volunteered for as many things as I could, attended Lenten services, and joined the church council. I began working on my first read-through of the entire Bible. I seemed well on my way to understanding and living my faith.
Then one day at church Diane Devos-Schmidt announced she was seeking volunteers to join a mission to El Salvador. This seemed like a good opportunity to share the blessings of my life and give back to needy communities. Diane even convinced me to invite my wife for the journey.
With a bustling home life and a flurry of family trips that led up to my departure, I hadn't really given this trip the mental preparation I should have. I was still working just hours before hitting the road and hadn't even started packing. In my mind I was going to simply show up, give myself to God's will, and help these communities however I could.
But this experience completely flipped my expectations. I thought I was going to be “emptying my cup” to fill others, but it turned out that it was my cup that was running over.
The simplest way to put it is that I felt I saw the Bible come to life right in front of me. At the forefront was the love that Jesus brought to us all. Yes, the communities in El Salvador appreciated the needful things we brought them, but more importantly, they LOVED the people who brought them. The trinkets and drawings they gifted me will live on my bedside table and adorn our home along with my own children's gifts for the rest of my life. Receiving the love of these Salvadoran communities has changed me forever.
Another theme I saw come alive in front of me was God multiplying his gifts. Children that were previously given support and scholarships from mission groups are now part of the medical mission, serving as doctors and nurses. This enabled our group to see more patients and distribute more aid. Just such an invitation brought someone to this mission who felt moved enough to secure financial aid for many more college students. And now, those students want to help and give back to the program that helped them. It's like a nuclear reaction. One gift turns into two, then the two gifts split into four, then the four split into eight, the eight into sixteen...and so on, till I was “blinded by God's light” in all this giving.
I also recognized that the hard parts of the Bible were also present in our mission. I learned of the civil strife and death in the recent past of this beautiful country. I got to meet people who have lived through some of the most unimaginable heartbreak--lives filled with loss, death, and suffering. Whenever I imagined myself in such situations, I felt like I would crumble and become a shell of a person, but the hope of the people I met amazed me. They leaned into their faith and lived like Jesus would. They found God's love gives them strength to overcome the past and rebuild their community. They rejected fighting back--answering death with death, but instead took up God's Word as their sword and His salvation as their helmet. True warriors in Christ.
The hardest time I had on this mission was witnessing God's grace and love at Archbishop Oscar Romero's memorial chapel and hospice center. It took all I had to not fall on my face before God when I witnessed the grace and love given to the hospice patients. The nuns and nurses that ran the hospice were eager to share with their patients the love we had brought. I could not utter a word or even a sound for fear of my breaking down in a sobbing mess. In silence, I stood alongside one of my mission mates while a pastor said a prayer next to the bed of one of the patients who sat up, put his hands together in prayer, and closed his eyes. The golden light from the afternoon sky beamed in from the window as he soaked in the moment. He looked incredibly grateful and at peace from our visit despite the fact that people at this hospice typically don't stay longer than a week and a half. Before I knew it, we were ushered out because visiting hours were over. The memory of this moment will be etched in my mind forever.
There are many more things I could reveal here and keep writing about for pages and pages...the love of the children running up to give you hugs, the pride of people whose church was built on the side of a volcano, the support of the LGBTQ community from ELCA organizations, and the injustices that continue today...the list goes on.
The last thing I want to touch on is our mission team. We were a group of around 30 souls. My church and spiritual life has mostly been around rather reserved groups, but the energy and enthusiasm from our mission group was awe-inspiring. There was exuberance in every song, excitement in every story, and love in every word. The energy of the Holy Spirit was around us all, and we lifted each other higher than I thought possible. I am eternally grateful to this group for letting me become part of their mission family.
As I prepared to head home, my head and heart were full. I have MANY experiences to pray over and deeply reflect upon. (I have also learned many logistical things I can apply to my home church.) In closing, I send my deepest love and gratitude to everyone that made the El Salvador mission possible for me. My life has been forever changed, and I trust my future holds more missions of serving God and his people.