El Salvador!

Hi! It's been a long day, so I will post pictures later.  I just wanted to let you all know that I made it to El Salvador in one piece.  However my i-pod nano was stolen on the plane!  This was quite sad, though I'm more sad about losing my music and earphones.  Oh well - this is life sometimes! 

I am working with a women's ministries team from the Potomac District.  We have painted classrooms, cleaned floors, eaten tortillas, played with children, set up a teachers quarters, visited a refugee camp and so on.  Friday, we have an open house for the community and families.  The Women's Ministries has poured alot of money and time into this school in a rural community of El Salvador.  It will truly be a blessing to the teachers and students!

I have had fun using my spanish, playing with children and eating the food of El Salvador.  There are certain foods that are just hard to get in the states like papaya, mangos, pupusas, plantains, certain cookies, and so forth.  I've had the opportunity to pray for a couple El Salvadorian ladies dealing with health issues.  I can't wait to post some of my pictures to share with you of some of the kids who I have become friends with and the children I visited with at the Refugee Camp here in El Salvador.  I even got a loofah from a little girl today!  I wonder what customs will think of that - ha! 

Anyhow I am going to go - I need to clean my room and go to bed - Its late and it was a long day.  I pray all is well with you!  Everytime I hug a child, everytime I pray with a little old lady, everytime I paint a school wall it's because of your faithfullness and support.  In a way it's you hugging that child, and you praying for the little old lady, and you painting a school.  May you be blessed today!

Claire Balch

Ramblings of Claire Balch

Today we had chapel. I was asked to pray, which was kind of awful. I don't have a problem with public speaking, but public praying has also caused me to sweat a little. Popcorn prayer when everyone prays always leaves me thinking when the best time is to "pop" in, I worry about when it is ending (after all I don't want to sit there with my eyes closed, while everyone else is done!), and I worry about what to say. I always get more nervous praying at Convoy - especially during chapel! I think today I said "Lord" about 100 hundred times, possibly stuttered, switched around my words, used bad grammar and so on. I suppose that is last time I will be asked to pray and at least the Lord knows what I was attempting to say. =) At least the speaker stopped and thanked me for my prayer. I guess I will keep my opinions to myself on what I thought about his facts on Christopher Columbus....

One person the speaker also mentioned was George Washington. He is one of my favorite political American leaders. The fact that I always loved about George Washington is that he was offered to be the President of the United States for a third term and he turned it down. I have always thought that this was a noble action. He knew his limits (he was feeling old and was tired) and in doing so set a precedent for leaders to come. While it is now a law, congress and the following Presidents have honored it. Though I could not find it in any of the articles I briefly reviewed, I wonder if he wasn't well aware that his actions would set a precedent. This is a quote I found about good old Washington "He wrote, 'It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn.' This call to his fellow citizens was meant for each of us as well."

Every action has a consequence. The consequence may be immediate or in the far future and good or bad. Every action affects the people around us. Our actions not only represent ourselves, but our families, friends, beliefs and so on. This is a tough pill to swallow at times for the individualistic culture we live in. So, when we make decisions we need to not only think what is the consequence for me now and in the future, but what is the consequence for those around me both now and in the future.

I head to El Salvador on October 16th and will be there until the 29th. The 1st of Novemeber I will head towards Fresno, California for a Convoy Outreach. Please keep me in your prayers as I travel. In El Salvador I am helping with a Women's Ministries team, so you can pray for things to go smooth and that everyone is protected as they travel. Also, life can be tough sometimes for a California girl living in Springfield, Mo. While, I can only speak for myself I have seen the transition be a little rough for my sisters as well. Not that there are not things to like about Missiouri. After all it has Bass Pro Shop, Fireflies, Andy's Frozen Custard, lots of trails and some cool parks, a restaurant where they throw rolls and serve fried Okra, Lolo Balch, Sarah and Josh Young and of course Branson. However, it is far from California, family, the ocean, its much more conservative and the winter is cold, but without very much snow. I have a little less than a year left, so if you can remember me in your prayers I would be grateful.

Live in His Love,

Claire Balch