A Thankful People

Our trip to El Salvador was an unforgettable experience. Even though it was a few years ago, it seems like just yesterday we were standing in a schoolhouse, in an orphanage or on a farm, where the people could not have been kinder or more thankful. Thankful? You ask. Yes, thankful. You see we traveled there to get a “missions” experience, yet walked away with a life-changing viewpoint and calling. 

My extended family has been influential missionaries in El Salvador for many years but we had never experienced it first hand. Excited at the opportunity to help serve and learn what it means to truly give in heartbreaking circumstances, we had no idea what was ahead. The children’s gleaming faces in the midst of poverty and the tireless giving from adults, who sacrifice their lives to provide shelter to the needy, stopped us in our tracks shifting our hearts, heads and lives. 

We can remember arriving home thinking, what have we been doing our whole lives? How can people with almost nothing appear thankful? Yes, in our “to do” list, college is very important, dating is fun and marriage is a blessing, but how did we miss the needy, the broken and the hurting? Simple. We had never come up close and personal to the reality of what goes on outside of our own world. It is this simple answer that has inspired ROW to bring people along a journey showing them the reality of the broken world, and at the same time partnering to bring a change, making the difference in thousands of lives. If we can be successful in giving others a window into the hurting and broken, then we believe people will come alongside and help us provide a hope and a future to every hurting child. We look back and are so blessed by “a thankful people” in El Salvador. For they caused us to take an internal look at our lives reminding us to stay thankful, thereby shifting our focus to the needs of others around the world.