I’m sure you’re wondering, “What an odd title.” Let me explain.
In El Salvador, we put on a youth camp called “Students Living a Mission” or SLAM. We did this in Nashville a week and a half before, so we were excited to see the youth be moved by the Lord through service to those in need, worship, and fellowship. Our time through the SLAM service camp was amazing in El Salvador, and I would love to reflect on a specific moment. On our last full day of service, we went out for a service project to do clean up at a slum called Milagro De Dios. This slum is positioned in a place in between commercial or urban areas that are developed in such a way that when it rains, the waters flood into this neighborhood/assortment of homes.
Leaving our campus to get to the slum, the students and leaders were divided into different groups for traveling, and the group I was in was on a City Bus that our ministry had for the day. These buses are notoriously intimidating for anyone not used to them or the driving. When I was in the city leaving the airport, we drove through some cities and areas where these giant buses fly through the streets with their loud Cummins Diesel engines. These manual buses seem to be much faster than they are because of their huge size compared to most of the civilian cars and motorcycles that are on the roads. I’ve attached a photo of what they look like so you get the idea. Anyways, I was on the group that got to step on this bus, and I was so excited.
If you know me, you know I have a love for cars and things that go vroom. These giant manual transmission buses make you feel like you’re the champion of the world. As we left for the service projects, we navigated through the rural roads by our campus into the city and eventually, offloading to Milagro De DIos. This blog is not about my time in the slum, I am still praying through my experience and when I am ready, will give a blog specifically from that time. What I wanted to share here was about my time after dinner with this very special City Bus.
We load up after an amazing dinner (stay posted for the blog about the service project and dinner), and we make our way back to the campus. It is very dark in the bus, and a few students have their flashlights on so that they could see eachother. I was standing in the bus holding on to a railing above me. I was looking around and talking the the kids around me in the best Spanish that I could, it was a great time. I could tell they were tired, it had been a very long day for them. Grabbing on to the ceiling railing above me, I decided, “You know what? I want to do some pull ups.” I go up for one, and one of the kids I connected really well with, Kevin, shouts, “¡Uno!” and others begin to follow. I hear, “¡Dos!, ¡Tres!” and on an on until I ended at “¡Ocho!” because I was laughing due to the entire back of the bus yelling for me.
One by one, kids made their way to the ceiling railing. Flashlights out, they put on a show and I found out that many of these kids are able to crank out way more pull ups than myself. Once everyone in the back of the bus got their share of their hanging workout, they decided to move to the floor. They cleared the isle out and I started out by doing a whopping 29 push ups. It is very hard to do push ups while the road is bumpy. The kids followed after me and I couldn’t help but express my gratitude to the Lord as I was a witness to the incredible unity that came from something as simple as doing a few workouts.
We got off the bus with smiles on our faces, and an awesome shared experience that most of the rest of the campers questioned us about when they heard about the bus ride back from dinner. What I took away from this experience was that the Lord can move in any moment. I may have wanted to just exert some more energy, but the Lord used this to unify the young guys at the back of the bus and it turned into an amazing time.
This moment really reminded me of the theme for this trip, “Nu Nation” which comes from 1 Peter 2:9. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
In just a small moment, God used my light and impact as a leader to move youth to a unifying moment. It is an amazing thing to see what the Lord can do through his people. I thank God for the safe space we had that was free of judgment or conflict. I saw so much joy and laughter out of the kids and am so grateful to the Lord.