Landed

This morning the All Saints mission team to El Salvador was on a flight from Seattle to Houston.  After spending the bulk of our morning in the George Bush International Airport, we boarded our final leg to Central America.  Soon we were high above, the land ornamented with volcanoes sleeping under rain-forest blankets coasted far beneath us; it was a beautiful site.  Before long we were looking for familiar faces in the crowded San Salvador Airport.  Dr. Boris was there to spearhead our reception.  Boris is a good man and it is an honor to work with him.

The bus ride to Castillo Del Rey, the Kings Castle campamento, takes two hours.  From the vantage of the highway it is possible to learn a few things about El Salvador.  It is the prerogative of the police to create roadblocks in order to pull vehicles over at random for questioning and searches.  Fields recently burned tell of either drought or expeditious farming techniques.  Volcanoes offer a deep green back-drop to the slums and markets.  Everywhere is the richness of God’s world seen through the struggling human lens.  And now beauty is everywhere.

As I found in Tucson, my vision has changed.  I see the beauty of God in places I hadn’t recognized before.  I believe that I was not looking for that beauty before, that I had not asked God to reveal it to me.  Is there ever a more beautiful place than the one you are in?  Would God have us thinking that there were, or would He have us appreciate the beauty we find before us?

At days end, our team of 15 was eating a special meal of pupusas, rice and beans in the Castillo Del Rey cafeteria.  The blessings to a missionary seem endless at times.