Hello, everyone!
I hope you all have been having a refreshing summer, wherever in the world you are! July was a pretty busy month for our staff here in San Salvador. We’re still in the middle of hosting some mission teams, so I’ll keep this update short and sweet. Here are some of the highlights from July:
Mission Team Season Continues…
We hosted two mission teams this month, both from Bay Area Community Church in Annapolis, Maryland. Both teams brought with them multiple youth, so it was nice having some extra energy along to help us accomplish everything we felt like God was calling us to do during their visit. Both of these weeks were packed with activities, but the the best of all was that we saw DOZENS of Salvadorans give their lives to Christ during their time with us. Thank you to all the members of these two teams and to Bay Area for their continued support to our church here!
Academia Gran Comisión – Great Commission Academy
Our church in San Salvador (our main church location) is starting up a brand new outreach project, an English academy! Pastor Victor, our lead pastor and director of projects, has expressed how God has given him a vision for an English academy that would help to reach youth and young professionals for Christ and at the same time help our church to grow. Victor has placed this vision in the hands of about six of us from church. All of us are either staff members or leaders in the church, and we have been in the planning stage for a few months.
That being said, we are launching “Academia Gran Comisión” or “Great Commission Academy” NEXT WEEK! We feel unqualified to do this on our own and are trusting and confident that God will equip us and use us for His will for this project. Please pray for us as we start English classes and at the same time work on evangelizing to each student and hopefully start discipling some of them.
If you’d like to keep up with this project, and support us with a “Like”, visit our Facebook page HERE!
Welcome, Moriah!
Last month, we welcomed another international missionary to our team! Moriah is from Iowa and she will be living in San Salvador for six months to serve with us. Moriah has a heart for the children at our Development Centers, so she will be spending lots of her time there. She will also be helping me with my English classes at the Centers, and we soon hope to have ALL 220 kids at our Centers learning English weekly!
This month, I’ve been reading through the book of Romans and I wanted to share this tidbit with you all:
And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. // Romans 5:3-4
This reminds me how God doesn’t let us suffer through trials because He wants to punish us, but instead it is because He loves us so much and at the same time understands how foolish we can be. He knows that a lot of times we will only truly be able to trust Him after being brought to the worst situations. Even though I miss my family and friends and struggle without the comforts I was used to having in the States, I can rejoice in my afflictions because I trust that God is using this to transform me so that I may better able glorify and serve Him. May we always turn to Him first and place all our hope in Him as we live out the highs and lows of the life this earth offers us.
Thank you for your continued love, support, and encouragement. It would not be possible for me to do what I am doing without your obedience to God’s pulling in being a part of my team!
Bendiciones,
Ali
Prayer Requests:
- For the mission team from Rock City Church (my home church) that arrived on July 29th and will be with us until August 6th. Please pray for their safety, all of the logistics, and most of all that more people would come to know God through the work we will do together.
- For the launch of the English Academy on Monday, August 7th. Please pray for people to show up! Also, that people would come to Christ through these classes and that it would help our local church to grow.
- For Moriah as she continues to adjust to her new life here in San Salvador and as she settles into her roles within our ministry.
Facebook // facebook.com/ali.howard.52
alihoward.co 