We All Need Some Good News

****The media is inundated with terrible news right now. Its unrelenting. If you are weary, this news is for you.*****

 

You guys! If you could just see everything that is going on here through my eyes! Warning, this post will be filled with absurd amounts of exclamation points.

Three little girls who have trouble with attachment because of home lives, now run to us, call us by name (which is huge) and make sure that they will see us tomorrow!!!

Pastor Ivo's wife Marielos is now working with us!! She is a natural teacher, and her love for these children is something to behold! This is a huge answer to prayer.

Yesterday and today over 100 people will/have received medical care from a Total Health team visiting!!

Very soon we are going to open up a second computer school at a different location to reach a new group of people!

In September we will be welcoming into our nutrition program another 10 children!!! Children who right this very minute go to bed every night hungry, who are malnourished, distended bellies.... and then in October another 10, and in November, another 10!!! 

In 10 days 2,000 fortified food packets will arrive!!!!!! 2,000! Free! Because of the generosity of A Child's Hope International and friends who donated shipping costs to Florida.  And The United States Navy who will then ship to us for FREE, we will be able to minister to and feed not only the children in our center, but their families as well!!!!  In addition we will be able to bless the other members of our community with much needed food and vitamins.  This is huge!!! Hundreds of people being fed, can you even grasp it?!!!!

Thanks to the very kind teachers and friends of my sister in Minnesota we will soon have over 50 paperback books to read to the children, and to teach with. In the U.S. literacy, libraries, story times and book stores are almost considered a human right. Here in La Libertad, there are very few books in stores (other than school books), no library, and no bookstores.  The books that are here, are way out of the price range of anyone that we serve.  A friend from the Navy donated a couple of bean bag chairs, and as soon as the rehab on the CDI kitchen is done our little reading nook will be opened up to the kids!!!!

On August 30th we will have a movie night for the whole community. We will hand out invitations to the community, no one will be left out. We are going to serve popcorn and refreshments and project "God's Not Dead" onto our screen!!!  This is going to kick off regular movie nights for our community and sharing of Jesus. He is everything. He is surely Alive. 

You guys, I turned on my Yahoo news page today and its was streams and streams and streams of bad, really bad, worse and horribly devastating. Its tempting to think that God has turned his back on mankind. But if we look carefully, we can see that mankind is in fact the one that did the turning. The promise of Heaven to those who put their lives in Jesus' hand is as real as you and me. One day, all of this tragedy will be at an end, and He will return.  People are dying for this truth. 

But He didn't leave us. He is here, and he is at work through millions of people fighting evil with good in the name of Jesus. This is all we can do. We must make a choice to not turn a blind eye. To not continue about our rich, egocentric, entertainment lives, but to reach out and help. If we say the world is ugly, and evil, it is because we have allowed it. We have a choice to make each and every day, a choice to follow Jesus and to do good, because he did the ultimate good for us. 

God is surely alive. And He is at work my friends. I see it every day. The story of Central America is not made up of the picketers you see on your news feed. Its is not all gangs, and poverty, and people sneaking over the border. Here in El Salvador, the local church is fighting every day to raise up the people, so that they can change their country. A friend I met this Summer described it like this. "We must all be the tide. Because the tide can raise up a fleet of ships in the harbor." If we educate, feed, and above all, teach the gift of God, the people will change their country.

Be the tide. It takes sacrifice, yes.  But it is so, so worth it. Not everyone can move to El Salvador, but you can sponsor us to do the work here.  You can advise. You can share with your church, and bring a team for a week. You can sponsor the salary of a second pastor to bring on staff. We are so incredibly thankful to be here. And that is only possible with you guys. 

For more information on how you can be involved, email me at marilee.marks@gmail.com