Day 1 Sunday Evening

Sunday January 4, 2009 7:00 PM

Words can not describe this day. I have to admit that I don’t really even know where to begin. Perhaps the beginning would be a good place to start and we can just go forward from there.

Kate and her husband arrived on campus right at the appointed time of 3:15 AM. Within minutes we were loaded and on our way to the airport. Upon arrival, as we were getting out of the van, John, our professor and leader pulled up behind us. So far so good. The check in procedure went very smoothly and while we waited for our flight, we were entertained by a 2 year old deaf girl. It’s amazing how a two year old can keep a room full of adults entertained.

Once we were on the plane, I realized how long it has been since I have flown. The plane was equipped with television screens which magically came down from the ceiling in the area where the oxygen masks would come down (in the event of sudden loss of cabin pressure) I believe that the excitement of this discovery was best summed up by the young child several rows in front of me who exclaimed, “How did they do that?” (my thoughts as well)

The change of planes in Houston went smoothly, we met the last member of our group, Melissa, who came in from Detroit and we were on our way to El Salvador. I would have to say that the Cross Cultural aspect of the experience actually began at the Houston Airport. The terminal we boarded from, as well as our flight, was probably 80% or more El Salvadorian. At that point I knew that we weren’t in Indiana anymore.

Our arrival in El Salvador was also a very smooth transition. We got off the plane, got our baggage and went through customs without any issues whatsoever. We made our way out of the terminal and met our guide Cesar Acevedo. He was a relatively young man who seemed to be very warm and friendly. After a moment or two of waiting, our bus arrived to take us to our lodging. While waiting, however, the questions began to pile up in my mind. First of all, I noticed the razor wire wrapped around the tops of all the fences and the buildings. This was something that we would see everywhere in the city of San Salvador. Whoever sold barbed wire and razor wire in El Salvador must be very rich.

I also noticed that the trees all around the airport were covered in white from the base up about four feet. This was also evident thoughout El Salvador. I learned later that this was done to protect the trees from insects, although this was also done in other parts of the country as decoration and also painted red, white and blue in other parts of the country to show support to the Arena political party.

As we began the drive from the airport to the capital city of San Salvador, our first destination, I saw many unique things such as very large trucks hauling what looked like sticks. Actually, it turned out to be sugar cane. (I must have asked Cesar a hundred questions) There was also a man standing in the middle of the road with a torch, it turned out that he was a fire-eater who was performing in the road for money. The landscape was quite beautiful, perhaps a combination of the Appalachian Mountains and the desert of Arizona. It was very harsh but also beautiful, I especially loved the palm trees, they certainly don’t have those in Indiana.

However, I experienced something on the way to San Salvador that I believe will frame the way that I will perceive this entire trip. I started noticing “shanty villages” made up of concrete block, corrugated tin and wood. I didn’t know what they were until I saw children playing and clothes hanging out on clothes lines, then it dawned on me that there were people living in those villages. Then I saw another and another and another. There must have been thousands of people living in those conditions. I’m definitely not in Indiana anymore.

When we arrived at our residence house/hotel, I first noticed that the entry door was a humongous steel gate with razor wire all around the perimeter of the gate and of the roof of the house. Cesar rang the bell and we went inside. It was truly a beautiful house with an awesome patio and garden. We were shown to our rooms, and I am staying in a room with Soon Won and Dong. It is small but nice, and we do have our own bathroom which was also nice. (no hot water) Some points of interest in the house would be the fact that there is an AK 47 Assault rifle mounted on a board under the stairway, and there is a picture of Fidel Castro hanging in a prominent position on the wall. I’m not in Indiana anymore.

We were then treated to a wonderful lunch prepared by the ladies of the house which consisted of rice, beans, beef, bread, watermelon and a wonderful vanilla rice pudding made with real vanilla beans. I thought that vanilla came out of a bottle. Soon Won took an immediate interest in taking pictures, so I let him have my camera and after that we couldn’t stop him. I know that we will all appreciate the pictures when we get home, and I am so thankful to Ben and Crystal for the memory card for the camera.

After lunch we sat around and talked for about an hour and then Cesar returned to brief us on the adventure that was before us. He gave each of us a slip of paper with different facts about El Salvador, and one that I read was truly astounding to me. “Per Capita, El Salvador is the 3rd most violent country in the world behind Iraq and Columbia.” Wow that was both scary and astounding to me.

We then went for a walk around the neighborhood and saw some of the bustling activity, had some ice cream thanks to Cesar, and ended back at our hotel which is called "Los Pinos," or "The Pines." (I don’t think that there are any pine trees around here) I beleive that the plan is to turn in fairly early, we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow.

I am looking forward to hearing about this country, the violence as well as the hope for the future. Today has been a good day. But I am definitely feeling troubled by what I have seen.

Day 1 Early Morning

I have decided that the best way to share with you my experiences in El Salvador is to share my journal with you. I will try to post at least one day of my journal each day over the next couple of weeks. This will also help me to organize my thoughts while I can still read my handwriting. It really is worse than my spelling. The first journal entry begins at 2:45 AM on January 4th. I had just gotten up and was waiting for the van to arrive and take us to the airport.

January 4, 2009 2:45 AM

It is difficult to describe how I am feeling this morning. Well, perhaps not. For one thing, I am really tired. After getting only about two hours of sleep last night because I decided to stay up and watch the Colts all too early exit from the playoffs, hopefully I will get some sleep on the plane. On the other hand, I can now say that I am ready to turn 100% of my attention to the journey ahead.

Why have I been so slow to embrace this journey? I’m not sure that I have an answer to that question. Why in one breath can I understand that this trip is the opportunity of a lifetime and in the next, resist with all of my being any desire to even go on this odyssey? Good question!

Perhaps the answers that I am looking for can be found 3000 miles away in El Salvador. One funny aspect about this trip is that when people have asked me why I chose El Salvador, I have to answer that El Salvador actually chose me. I was originally scheduled to go to Guatemala, but that trip was full so our group was bumped to El Salvador. So, if I truly believe that El Salvador picked me, what does that say about God’s plan for me to go on this journey?

Well, I am about to see if those answers can be found all the way down in Central America. All of the planning is done, it’s time to go!

I'm Back!!!

First of all let me say how glad I am to be back home again in Indiana. I was never so happy to see anything in my life as I was to see the coast of Texas come into view from the vantage point of my window on the airplane. The time in El Salvador was truly more than I can put into words. It was remarkable, challenging, enlightening, difficult and heart breaking. The experiences were more than I can even begin to put into words right now.

Karen’s Mom called a little while ago and wondered why I hadn’t posted anything on my blog yet, and I believe that the truth is that I haven’t yet found the words to describe what I am thinking and feeling. Before I left for El Salvador, there were those who asked why my school required this Cross Cultural Immersion experience and I could only answer that they felt it was necessary to be a well rounded pastor. I had many people ask if it was really all that important to go to these places in person, wouldn’t it be just as productive and certainly cheaper to simply take a course or read a book, maybe even just have someone lecture about these subjects? Well, one thing that I can say for certain, what I experienced and learned in the time spent in El Salvador, could never have been experienced from a book, course or lecture. What I learned and saw has reached me on a gut level, and I know that will never be the same again.

The challenge that I have, is to try to share my feelings with you and everyone else who will be asking me in the days weeks and months ahead the simple question, How was El Salvador, or maybe even more simply, How was your trip, as if the response of “Oh it was very good,” or “I learned a great deal,” could ever do justice to what I am feeling in my heart.

So, I am going to ask for a little patience as I begin to process what I have experienced and struggle to find the words to describe what I am thinking. The time spent with the beautiful, warm, determined and strong people of El Salvador has changed my life forever, their struggle has broken my heart, and their resilience has given me great hope for the future. It is within this frame of thought that I will try to share what I have come to understand about these people and about their struggle. Unfortunately, I haven’t yet decided how to best do that.

Should I share my journal with you? Would that be the best way? Maybe I should just tell you about the highlights? Will I bore you to death with too many details, even though there is no way to help you understand the complexity of what I have learned without the detail? I have two fears, one is that I will bore you, and the greater fear is that I am not going to be successful in helping you to understand about these wonderful people and the challenges that they are working to overcome, and the trials that they continue to face.

I think that I am just going to share with you everything that I have learned and let you decide for yourselves what is important and what isn’t. Let me get one more good nights sleep in my own bed and then tomorrow I will begin to share with you about my journey through El Salvador.

Blessings

See you on the 19th!

Well, the time has come. The trip that seemed so far away is now upon me. I have to say that this has been an excellent day. I had a great trip over to Ohio with Ben and Crystal. I will say that it sure is nice not to have to drive, as a matter of fact, this was the first time that I have made this trip that I didn’t have to drive. They also surprised me with a memory card for my camera. I was hoping to get one so that I wouldn’t have to be too frugal in what pictures I took on the trip, but I just didn’t have enough money to get it and I resigned myself to the fact that would just take pictures of what was “really” important. But, without me knowing about it, they got me a 4 Gig memory card. The way I have it figured, I can take about 10,000 pictures without filling up the memory card.

I will also say that my phone has been busy today talking to everyone saying goodbye before I take off in the morning. It really was nice to hear all of the well wishes, and it sure makes me feel good to know that so many people are thinking about me and keeping me in their prayers.

I also received one of the nicest emails that I have ever received today from someone who reads my blog on a regular basis and her words were so kind and uplifting that it simply made my day.

So, here I am. Everything is packed, and as far as I can tell I am ready to go. I will be keeping you all in my prayers, and I thank everyone for all of their prayers, their well wishes and I especially thank those who have helped to make this trip possible.

Blessings to everyone and I will see you when I return on the 19th. (unless I get access to a computer in El Salvador :)

"E" is for Emergency!

Well, it is 7:00 AM on Saturday morning and instead of still being in my nice warm bed, I have been up and going for over an hour. I think that everything is just about ready. I am packed, and my list of things to get done is getting shorter and shorter. Ben and Crystal will be here around 9:00AM and we should be pretty much ready to load the car and go.

I think that the only time that I have ever been this stressed over a trip would be when Ben and I went to Canada fishing. I understood that when the float plane dropped us off at our cabin on a remote lake that other than putting this gigantic "E" (for emergency) down on the dock, and wait for one of the planes flying overhead to see it, there was no way to contact anyone in the outside world. At least on this trip I have a few more options than that. Although maybe not many more.

I will tell you that the pilots in Canada were pretty amusing. They told us that if we were having a real emergency to put the orange side of the "E" facing up and any pilot who sees it regardless of what company they work for will stop immediately. If we were just running low on Colman fuel or gas for the boat then put the green side of the "E" up and they will fly over once per day just to check on us. Then they get this very stern look on their face and say. "RUNNING OUT OF BEER DOES NOT CONSTITUTE A "REAL" EMERGENCY!" Of course we don't drink anyway, but I have to laugh wondering how many times they have landed, breaking away from what may have been very important flights just to hear someone say, "Hey could you bring us some beer eh?"

As I think about the next couple of weeks, I sure hope that I won't have to put the orange side of the "E" out. That could be a problem anyway, because I don't know where I could even find a boat dock in El Salvador:)

I will plan to write one more time tonight probably while I am relaxing in my dorm room watching the Colts play in their first playoff game.

Blessings

Almost Ready to Go!

Well, today is the day. If I don’t get it done today, it isn’t going to happen until I return on the 19th. You may like to know that I did indeed finish all of my board questions, I finished all of my autobiographical information, I got my sermon put onto a DVD and reformatted my manuscript so that it appeared polished, which is what they asked for. Last night, I put the finishing touches on a lesson plan for a 5 week course for people interested in joining the Methodist Church and now today I need to proofread one more time and then submit electronically the things that go that way, and mail the work that has to be mailed. From there, it is out of my hands and into God’s, and of course the Board of Ordained Ministry.

Now, I can turn my attention 100% to getting ready to leave for El Salvador. I really have no idea what to expect, I am just going to try to go with an open mind and absolutely no agenda. I just want to get to know the people as well as to understand their circumstances. I want to learn how they live, what is important to them, and maybe more importantly, what it is that they would want me to know about them, their country and their culture.

Tomorrow morning, Ben and Crystal are driving me over to school. I am very much looking forward to showing them around the campus, so that they can see where I have been going every week for the past four years. Then Sunday morning at 3:15 AM, I will meet with the rest of the group in the parking lot behind the dorm and we will leave on our odyssey.

I am hoping to be able to post one more time to my blog on Saturday night from my dorm room, but after that, unless we get some unexpected computer access, my next post will come on Monday morning January19th when I return.

Today is one of those days with more work to get done than time to do it; I better get my list out and get started.

Blessings

New Years Day Rant... Maybe I should have gotten more sleep?

I bet that I am up and going earlier than most of you on this first day of 2009. Of course, I probably went to bed earlier than most of you as well. Last night we took Mary and Andrew down to the Senior Citizen’s Center for a gathering of one of the families from Cana Church. It was really a great evening and we had a wonderful time, and it was nice to spend New Years Eve with this group of people that we appreciate so very much.

However, by around 9:00, Mary and Andrew seemed to be ready to go, plus we had promised them that they could watch Horton Hears a Who before they went to bed. So, after they got their PJ’s on, we put in Horton and sat back to enjoy the movie. Within about 15 minutes, I was sound asleep and the next thing I knew, the movie was over and we were all headed off to bed.

So, no ringing in the New Year for me, no watching the ball drop, and thank goodness no Ryan Seacrest. You know, I watched TV for a few minutes before I fell asleep, and wouldn’t you think that Ryan would have bothered to shave before going on in front of millions of people around the world. Ok, I know, I am getting old, but one thing is for sure, Dick Clark would never have gone on the air with a five o’clock, or maybe 10 o’clock shadow.

Ok, and while I am at it, I have 2 other things that bother me about the brief, no more than 5 minutes of television that I watched last night, (I should have stuck with Horton Hears a Who), The first was 2 different programs doing year-end montages in an attempt to paint Sarah Palin into the most negative light possible. I must admit that I simply don’t understand how, even if you disagree with her on some of her positions, such as abortion, that you can’t celebrate what she has accomplished. It seems that many of these people don’t even consider that she was bright enough to become the mayor of a city, and then to run against people in her own party who were totally corrupt and defeat them. No one seems to care that this woman is the Governor of one of the largest and richest sates in the US, and she has an unprecedented approval rating. Of course, I realize that she isn’t perfect, who is, and of course, any politician who has actually accomplished something, can find people who would say that they have abused their power, and speaking of which, isn’t it interesting how all of that simply went away after the spotlight of the national media did “their job” and totally trashed this woman. Could it be that there wasn’t anything to these charges to begin with?

And to my feminist friends, who I actually have (or maybe had after this) quite a few, even though you may disagree with her on many issues, doesn’t she actually live out what feminism is all about? Isn’t she someone who is doing it all? Isn’t she someone who is successful and independent in her own right, someone who has accomplished great things, someone who has managed to balance family, work and career, and is tremendously respected in all of those areas of her life? And, in addition, isn’t she someone who is doing all of this while raising a handicapped child? Yet, instead of, at the very least, rising to say, even though we disagree with her on a number of issues, we celebrate her accomplishments, the feminists, and others, attacked her, and continue to attack her viciously. To be honest, (and I am sure that this won’t endear me to my feminist friends), you remind me of the cartoon character Pogo, who said, “We have met the enemy, and [She] is us!”

My advice to those who live in my home state of Illinois, (which just about the time you think it can’t get any worse in their political roller coaster, it gets worse), Is to pick up the phone and call Sarah Palin. It sounds to me like she is exactly what your state needs to get rid of the massive, endemic, and epidemic corruption that has been a part of the state for my whole life.

Ok, and if you are still reading, one more thing. I am getting so very weary of listening to the complaints in the media about Rick Warren. First the complaint is that he supported (or didn’t support, I get confused) proposition 8 on Gay Marriage in California. Now the compliant is that he could possibly have the nerve and audacity (hints of sarcasm) to pray in the name of Jesus. Oh my goodness, I didn’t know that praying in the name of Jesus was such a horrific thing to do.

First of all, I am a great supporter of diversity; I am also a supporter of rights for all people and for justice. But with that being said, I have begun to understand that those who are on the very far left of issues tend to use these words such as diversity and fairness, and inclusiveness, but only when it means hearing the voices of those who agree with them. Those who are on the far left seek to scream at the tops of their lungs that their voices aren’t being heard, while at the same time seeking to silence (or ridicule) any voice that may be in opposition to them, or even simply have a different opinion.

I remember last year at school, when a student had requested that Sam’s Club be asked to come on campus and sign-up anyone interested in a Sam’s Club membership. (I believe that Cosco had been on campus earlier in the year)You can’t believe the amount of anger and hysteria that was created by this one simple request. (It’s hard for me to believe that some people hate Walmart so much) I spoke to an administration official about this, who was actually quite hurt by the way that she was treated by many students as well as faculty over something that was so trivial. The ultimate outcome was that Sam’s Club was essentially asked not to come, thank goodness. Can you imagine some poor, minimum waged Sam’s Club employee, simply doing their job, walking into the firestorm which would have surely ensued had they come onto campus? So much for inclusiveness, and diversity.

Ok, so what’s my point? There are those who would say that I don’t understand. That’s ok, I have heard that before, and perhaps I don’t. But, I believe that I do understand more than I am sometimes given credit for. And what I understand is that we need to truly be open to hearing all sides, even if we don’t agree. I believe that we should be debating (civilly) the issues and not what someone is wearing, or how they talk, and whether or not they went to Yale or Harvard.

I believe that anyone should be allowed to pray to God, whoever they believe that to be, at any time and at any place that they see fit, and when a Christian is asked to pray that they should feel free to pray to Jesus, and if a Muslim were asked to pray that they feel free to pray to Allah. I also believe that any recognized religion that would like to celebrate their particular holiday should be allowed to do so in our public areas, but they should not be allowed to ridicule or diminish other faiths as was done out in Washington State this year with the display at the State Capital.

My prayer for 2009 is that we put aside this ridiculous partisan arguing and truly seek to hear all voices. Maybe more of us should be willing to do as President Obama has done with his Cabinet and surround ourselves with many different voices, those who agree and those who do not. If we truly hear all voices, then perhaps we can become that diverse nation that we would all like to be.
Blessings