Luisa and Michelle

Last night Becky asked a couple of the students to join us for dinner and share a bit about their journeys into ministry and their lives here at the UBL. The two women that shared with us were Luisa (orange dress) and Michelle (blue skirt). They are both Anglican students from El Salvador, and while they didn't really know each other when they arrived, they are now like sisters. Upon completing their studies here, and probably a couple more hoops, they will be the second and third women to be ordained in the Anglican Church in El Salvador. As they shared about the hardships they have encountered in this journey to fulfill each of their calls, Luisa shared about her 8 year old daughter and husband who she had to leave behind. As the two women do virtually everything together and joke about how they are like twins, they even went through an incredibly difficult trial together in November of last year. As they were walking home from a bible study, somebody lost control of their car and hit the two women on the sidewalk. Michelle's head was split open and Luisa endured months in the hospital as her broken bones were pieced back together one surgery at a time. While Luisa is still unable to do all the physical things she would like to do, they are both so grateful to have made it through the ordeal and grateful that they are able to continue their studies. 

As the team later reflected on the conversation over dinner, most of us truly felt that our time with Luisa and Michelle was the time in our day when we felt closest to God. The way they spoke of the UBL community as a family was a beautiful reminder of the ways that God provides for us and also how we are so inter-connected with one another in the Body of Christ. 

Turning our reflections to the moment when we felt furthest from God, many of us felt incredibly disheartened by Rafael's (the contractor) situation. In the back of the lot where the casitas are being built, there is a small shed made of aluminum. During dinner, Becky asked Dona Ema to make up a plate of the leftovers and sent it to Rafael. This is when we realized that whenever contractors from Nicaragua were hired for construction, they would live in this shed while working. There were some bunk-bed type structures and an area that could be a makeshift kitchenette, but we were struck by the privilege we receive just because of the country we were born in. By no merit of our own, we receive more food than we can eat, and we each have our own private dorm room to sleep in. It is humbling to think of all the Nicaraguan workers who make the journey to Costa Rica because they can earn a fair wage, and yet it is customary for them to piece together any form of shelter they can as a temporary home. The world is much larger than the tiny glimpse we see in the USA.