Que Ondas en El Salvador

Friday, August 21, 2009

Hola Team!!

“Que Ondas” means “What’s Up” in Salvadoran slang. So the title, is to let you know what’s going on here in El Salvador. First of all, I hope that everyone is doing well. (The picture above is a picture of our weekly bible study group.)

So here is the “que ondas” in El Salvador. My roles are the following: Missions Coordinator, Co-Coordinator for the Youth Adults Ministry (with my husband, Jorge), Assistant for the Evangelism and Follow-up Ministry, Discipuler, and English teacher. Other parts of my ministry include taking Biblical classes at Columbia Seminary and taking weekly Spanish classes.

Our church has just started a Young Adults Ministry. We are a current group of 14 people. As I have mentioned before, God has opened the doors to work with a university called, La Evangelica. Jorge Solórzano (my husband), and I are in charge of the Youth Adults ministry (La Evangelica is part of this ministry). Jorge and I are developing a plan to reach these university youth with Christ. We plan to use English, sports, and music as entrance gates to meet and work with the students. Our goal is to have weekly small groups on campus. We plan to do events like concerts, conferences, forums, etc. to attract the students and promote our groups. Of course the mission groups are key to helping us with this University plan. Next month, I will be promoting our Mission Projects for 2010 and we will have a link to the San Salvador church in English, so you can read about what is going on. This site is currently under construction. The link is http://sansalvadorchurch.com/

All GCLA churches are using a discipleship program called, “The Spiral of Spiritual Formation.” It is a series of little books that teach the basic principles of the Christian faith (Salvation, Trinity, Baptism, Holy Spirit, etc.) We give the people of the church the option to study these books on Sunday mornings before church service or individually with local church members who have already been through the process. I’m teaching these classes every other Sunday at church and also on a weekly basis with new women in my small group.

As part of the follow-up ministry, we have a monthly lunch where the pastor gives a welcome and chat about who we are as a church and information about GCLA. This lunch is for all the new people who have visited us that particular month. So every first Sunday of the month, I am in charge of the food coordination for this lunch. Our church has really been blessed every since Jorge started working full-time as the Evangelism and Follow-Up Coordinator , because now the follow-up is much more systematic. Praise God because we have an average of about ten new people each month.

Also we are now translating every Sunday at church for two reasons: to provide a translation in English for those who do not speak Spanish (and open the service up to more “gringos” who are in El Salvador), and to practice the art of translation. Christina, Daniel Marroquin (our Spanish teacher), and I are on a rotating basis for this weekly translation. Thank you again Bay Area for donating the translation system-this gift is invaluable.

This past month, I just began to teach weekly English classes to our local church staff, a group of five. We meet for 2 hours a week and it is a great way to train staff and help them with their English. English is very important to them because as staff, sometimes they have to send reports or do work in English and this is very difficult for them. Not only that, but they say how much they want to work and interact with the missionaries, but they are too embarrassed to speak in English. So I’m helping them overcome their fears, I’m answering their questions, and teaching them English :)

Things to pray for:
1. Plan with La Evangelica University-God directs our steps to develop the Plan
2. Implement the Plan of La Evangelica
3. Online Fall Term Seminary Class called Old Test. Prophets-I start on August 25
4. Promotion of Mission Groups-recruit at least 5 teams for 2010
5. Visa for Jorge for December-Jorge and I would like to celebrate Christmas in Maryland this year, we need to apply for Jorge’s visa

Thank you for your continued love, support, and prayers.

In Christ,
Sarah

Ps. I have posted wedding pictures so please take a look if you get the chance.