I'm still alive, 5!

Dear Not-So-Small-Small-Group: Thanks again for your prayer support during my trip to El Salvador. It’s been nearly 2 weeks since my return & I’ve been wanting to write you at the very least to thank you again and to explain why I’ve been seemingly MIA (“missing in action”). I’ve definitely been missing you guys and hoping to join you on Friday soon. I’m praying for your mom Helina and all around her. It was totally awesome for the small group to do the service project together with Love Mission Viejo, too! Besides catching up with work and home life, there were visits to see Jadon and my dad, as well as a short bout of food poisoning (thankfully unassociated with visiting family!), as well as hope-filled preparation of a gift to the children at the Shalom home in El Salvador. As I’m sure many of you have experienced with trips overseas, just as with previous mission experiences for me long ago, while I was abroad I felt a desire to be home (to be among the familiar, to serve people close to me), and now that I’m back, I feel a longing to be back in El Salvador (to join God in expanding His kingdom, to experience new things & learn from people outside my normal sphere of influence). I am so grateful to have been able to follow God on this trip, as it is so clear as always that He knows what I need and what I can handle. As some of you know, I didn’t know my work schedule before departing the US, and I had told them I was willing to serve in any medical capacity I could. Work turned out to be from 7am to 3pm, with the rest of the day open to spending time with the kids, exercising, reading, & relaxing. Work itself was a great deal of fun (I got to concentrate on my pediatric skills) and occurred at a pace that allowed plenty of time to talk with families about their needs. Clinic cases, while certainly stretching in terms of scope of practice (learning tropical diseases and monitoring malnourishment), were far from life-threatening or bleak, as opposed to some truly disheartening cases I remembered from Africa decades ago. Giving the talks to the school and home were challenging but fun putting my mind and mouth to express the truths of God’s world and word in new ways. Evenings I got to read two books that World Medical Mission gave me: a devotional by Billy Graham, as well as “Medical Missions: Get Ready! Get Set! Go!” by Dr. Bruce Steffes, as well as finally to get moving on 2 books I’d been slowly nibbling: Edward Welch’s “Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave” and Neil Postman’s “Amusing Ourselves to Death.” Saturdays were spent checking out different cultural or historical sites with staff and the other older, wiser missionary, which sparked a lot of inquiries into the history of El Salvador, Central America, and the world at large (I wish I paid more attention to history when I was younger!). Sundays were spent at church and back at the Home. As I’ve shared in past letters, of course, the highlight of the trip for me was spending time with the children at the orphanage, whether it was at mealtimes, helping with homework, watching them play violin (I didn’t let on that I play a little myself!) or outside playing soccer or tag together. I hope my taking an interest in their lives helped them to know how precious they are in the sight of God, which made me wonder how their emotions might be affected by the recurrent influx and outflux of short termers like myself, especially when some of the children undoubtedly deal with the pain of abuse or unexpected separation from loved ones. Dr. Bruce Steffes’ book encouraged building long term relationships with clinic/hospital sites for longer term fruitfulness, especially through supporting long-term missionary and national (Salvadoran) staff, which I think is a wonderful idea. Would you kindly pray with me for the following? 1. Is the Lord leading me back to El Salvador? If so, when and how? 2. How can I serve the Shalom clinic, school, and home while Stateside? I just bought a copy of “The Jesus Storybook Bible” in Spanish that I plan to mail their way once I finish recording it (for either fun listening or as a read-along literacy tool). I’m posting it on YouTube If you’re interested. 3. How can I be softer of heart for the needs of God’s kingdom here at work, among friends and family, & in the home? How can I be more faithful to “Mi Salvador” (my Savior) wherever He leads me? Many many thanks to all! I’ll be seeing some of you in a few hours… Sidney (el Dr. Esteban)