big vision, big God

we had dinner at layos tonight [layo and his wife luchy are the national directors here in el salvador.. they also oversee campus crusade for the rest of central america, mexico, and the caribbean.. they are incredible people].. anyways, they gave us a big picture view of why we are here and what we are helping them accomplish.. it was incredible! i got goosebumps several times sitting at that dinner table, and i wanted to share it with you as well.. i want to give you a picture of the reality of this country, and the reality that God can use our team to literally change the course of history for this entire country!

layo shared with us a bit of the history of his country, which many of you have probably already heard through my conversations with you.. el salvador, like many central american countries, was conquered by the spanish empire long ago.. when they came, they pronounced everyone Catholic, and declared that the native salvadorians had no souls and were not equal with them.. when they finally did recognize the humanity of the natives, they forced them to abandon their gods and embrace Catholicism.. the natives, however, continued to worship their gods internally while practicing a ritualistic, external Catholicism.. this created a fracture in the salvadorian culture, fostering a dual morality that exist to this day; there is no conflict here between doing whatever you wish during the week, and simply performing a few rituals at mass to be forgiven..

five percent of the population owns almost everything here.. this five percent is made up almost entirely of people of pure spanish descent.. they are called criollos.. they run the banks, the government, the media, they own the land.. there is little opportunity to move up in class.. in the past few decades, a small middle class has emerged that now is about twenty five percent of the population, mostly made up of mixed spanish and native descent.. they are called mestizos.. the rest of the population, about sixty percent, live in poverty.. if they dont sell something today, they do not eat tomorrow.. sixty percent of the population!

there have been a steady stream of missionaries here since the fifties.. as of 1970, less than three percent of the population claimed to be evangelicals.. during the war, the Catholic church became very political, driving away people who genuinely wanted to worship apart from connections to political issues.. the evangelical church exploded during the next few decades, and continues to grow.. as of now, one in every three people here are evangelical Christians.. there is one church for every seven hundred people here..

this is incredible! praise the Lord for using an ugly war to bring life to so many people.. but here is the thing that i find so inconsistent.. why, when the evangelical church has grown so much and there are so many believers, is the country still wading in poverty? why have crime rates skyrocketed? why is there no real change?

this is the case because the vast majority of the true evangelicals are in the ninety percent of the population that are relatively powerless to change much.. the way the social system is set up, it is nearly impossible for that ninety percent to move up in the social system, let alone affect any sort of lasting difference in their society.. an attitude of, 'this is just the way it is' permeates this country.. no one is motivated for social justice because the ones who need the change are powerless to produce it.. and the ones with the power to change it simply dont care enough..

here is the point: in order to see real change happen in this country, that top five percent need to see Jesus.. they need to hear how Jesus had compassion on the sick and the poor, how he changed the world, turned religion and politics and economics upside down.. if this top five percent really sought to be more like Jesus, the entire country would, without doubt, transform.. the only way poverty can truly be solved is if the countrys leaders want to see this transformation, and begin to have a heart for the poor and the starving..

the sweet thing about all this is that this is what my team is here to do! we will be sharing Jesus' powerful, radical, life-changing and life-giving message to the current and future leaders of this country.. we will be working with students who will literally assume control of this country within the next five or ten years! if these leaders are truly touched with the message of the Gospel, they will literally alter their countrys history..

how sweet is that?! what an honor it is to be here in the very foundational stages of such an incredible awakening! it is so humbling to think that the Lord may use ten college students from another country and eight national staff to forever change el salvador..

please be praying! pray for the hearts of the students we will be working with, that they will see how beautiful the Gospel is! pray that they will want to be the men and women that God uses to change the violence and corruption in their country! pray that our team and the staff would be united in this incredible cause! this is a huge vision, but there is a very big God who is in control..

thanks guys!