I have only a few minutes to pop in on SHLOG.COM and give a quick update about our trip.  Everyone is well and aside from losing our luggage (we have it now) there haven´t been any hitches in our travels.  We tour the homes of children sponsored through Compassion International everyday and play with the children at Compassion´s ¨project¨ sites.  I´m slowly learning Spanish, enough to ask where the bathroom is, and learning that tickling and falling down to get laughs are international forms of communication all kids understand.

I´m accumulating stories, journaling daily, and will have a lot to share when we get back.  The moral of every story I´ll tel though is that the Church is a global politic, a powerful alternative to the parties and presidents of nations, able to reach into souls in ways that policies and administrations cannot, able to care for the whole person in ways that no one else is able.  I´m seeing that proven here in El Salvador where half of the nation is living on less than $1 a day, 80% of little girls are sexually abused before age 12 and gangs rule the country side.  Even here, in poverty that makes prayer and words feel trite and insignificant, chidren smile and eat and learn and mothers and fathers have hope.  Doctors, teachers, policemen, pastors, singers and painters, lovers of other peeople are born at these orojects daily.  People are being transformed and seeds are being sown for a future with less hunger and sickness.  And it is the Church reaching through the arms of Compassion International to the people we´ve been with here this week.

To everyone who has sponsored a child through Compassion, please be encouraged.  The children treasure your letters and ask us if we know you (they have no idea how many Steves there are in America).  You are solvingreal problems for real people and God is getting the attention and credit for it.  Thank you for loving children.  By doing so you are loving Jesus.  And I´ve seen him smile back at us this week.  I´ve heard him say ¨Gracias.¨

More when we land.

Thanks for the prayers,

Shaun