“El Salvador has lots of gangs, and many young people do not know God,” says José Del Rosario. “They need Christ in their lives, and they need people who can guide them to know the Lord.” So at the invitation of his home church in El Salvador, José, who prepares food for Hartland Lifestyle Education Center’s guests, organized an evangelism trip to El Narangho, a city with no Seventh day Adventist presence. Three area churches prepared the city for the well-attended two-week series. miracles_in_elsalvador.jpgWith him went Fredy Castro, a health ministries major, who taught hydrotherapy, massage, poultices and other remedies to about fifty young members of the host churches in the mornings. During the evening meetings he lectured on the eight laws of health. “We saw and heard their appreciation, but the week that I spent there is nothing compared with all the work that needs to be done,” said Fredy.
Liesel Dettwiler, a Bible instructor major, provided special music on her viola, but when Fredy returned to Hartland for classes, Liesel also presented the health lectures. “Foreign missionaries are needed. We need to take the light we have to places where people don’t have the same opportunities we do,” says Liesel.
José recounts God’s blessing in preaching Present Truth each evening. For example, the meetings were held in a park, which had no electricity for sound or light systems. That need was supplied by a non-Adventist!
Where the light did not reach, the powerful sound did. Some Catholic residents hid in the park’s darkness while they listened. Their priest had gone house to house, warning his church members not to attend. One woman told José, “The priest said, ‘Don’t go,’ but I went. I listened, and not only that, I applied it to my life, and then I taught somebody else about health.”
Even a non-SDA taxi driver, hired to transport the team three hours each day, heard enough to accept his first Bible study.
The biggest need was a place for people to meet after the evangelism crusade ended. Where could they gather to continue their studies of God’s Word? The city had no Adventists to offer homes or buildings. Again God used a non- Seventh-day Adventist in His harvest plans: “No problem. My house is going to be the church. You can do whatever you want in this house,” this man said. “Move that wall there and make a bigger church if you want.” Who else but God could arrange all this?
