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By Narayan Mitra
AS Andrew Stoesz was preparing to lead a mission team to El Salvador for the
fifth time, word came that their intended destination had just been devastated
by a mudslide.
The natural disaster forced the team to transform the mission’s goal – from development and child evangelism, into a relief effort.
“I was encouraged by the team’s unanimous decision to continue the trip – even with little information regarding availability of water, possible
transportation issues and the certainty of seeing many people in extremely dire
situations and hardship,” said Stoesz.
The team he led was from the Powers Creek Church in Westbank. Stepping blindly
into a disaster situation, Stoesz had many questions; and he knew more would
come when they arrived. To his relief, help came from the leader of a previous
team, who had stayed on and was willing to give a hand.
Villages with whole blocks of homes were destroyed. People were busy helping
neighbours, while many were still searching for loved ones amid the debris.
Team members were shocked by the magnitude of the disaster, and had a difficult
time taking in what they were seeing. But they realized they had an important
opportunity to help. After visiting the first shelters to be set up, they
learned that they were some of the first ones to arrive with relief, thanks to
funds made available by World Partners.
They also soon realized that the damage was not necessarily widespread, but
localized to some areas.
While they still hoped to carry on their original plan of building homes and
doing children’s ministry, they decided to dedicate their first efforts to relief work.
On the first day, the team helped remove mud and rocks from two different
houses. Working alongside families who narrowly escaped with their lives was
hard work, both physically and emotionally.
The next couple of days saw a lot of progress as the team constructed four homes
in two and half days, a pace normally matched only by experienced construction
teams.
“I believe the team was recognizing the opportunity we had to show the love of
Christ to our friends in El Salvador and were working extra hard to ensure we
could do as much as possible with the time we had on our hand,” said Stoesz.
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“The speedy construction allowed us time to purchase more relief supplies; and we
spent time working with a local church, sorting and bagging food for the future
needs of the local people.”
In the latter part of their 10-day stay, the team was able to shift focus. They
decided to minister to the children. They bought a lot of piñatas, and visited some shelters, hoping to bring some joy into the lives of kids
surrounded by pain and suffering.
Before they left the country, the team visited the first village again – where the villagers showered gratitude upon them.
Stoesz recognizes that it is a hard thing to enter a country so soon after a
natural disaster, and leave within a short time.
“In El Salvador there is so much need and every day of work we did on our trip
seems like such a small gesture in comparison to the heartache. But we were
only one team involved in a bigger picture,” affirmed Stoesz.
“I know I speak for my whole team when I say it was a blessing and privilege to
be part of that bigger picture.”
February 2010
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