This time of year seems to be volunteer season. I don’t know if it's the cold weather or something else that makes thousands of volunteers flock south to warmer weather and service projects. A few colleagues will have as many as 15 volunteer teams in the first quarter of 2011. All this to say, you good people make a difference!

This week I visited Jucuapa to visit a team from Cherry Hills and Waverly Baptist Churches in IL. While team leaders Dale and John have been to El Salvador more than 15 times, most of the team was here for the first time. I think we all were encouraged and inspired by this group's desire to serve, work hard, and give generously. Thanks to the enthusiasm of Dale and John, hundreds of people have come to share their time and talents in El Salvador.

Currently serving in El Salvador for 3-month is volunteer Becky Hall. Becky has committed a year to learning about missions and serving throughout Latin America. Becky spent several months helping out with Deborah’s House in Tijuana, Mexico where IM Missionaries Ray and Adalia Schellinger work with victims of domestic violence. Here in El Salvador, Becky is working with 3 churches and communities as an English instructor, helping churches here be better prepared to receive future volunteer groups.

Just over a year ago, I had the privilege of receiving a team from Palmer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. A year after the trip, members of the team continue to lift up in prayer Salvadoran seminary students. Team member Marikay Green shared this reflection about how she saw God in the people she met in El Salvador.

“God provides them hope when their world offers them nothing.  God gives them peace and love in a place known for its violence.  God gives them grace and a faith bigger than that little mustard seed to see them through.  It is in El Salvador, I saw God living amongst the people. I saw Jesus in their faces, and the Holy Spirit ushering in the Kingdom of God.  Palmer Seminary offered me the opportunity of a lifetime to study abroad, but God showed each of us on this journey, the love of a lifetime that we have been called to share and live as seen through the eyes of the Salvadorans.”

May we continue to encounter God and be transformed through small acts of service and big leaps of faith.

With you on the journey,

Kim

To learn more about becoming a short term volunteer on a mission trip or for information on volunteer opportunities, call 800 222-3872 ext. 2366 or email us at bimvolunteers@abc-usa.org.