To El Salvador and Back

A group of university students who are connected with Resonate Global Mission’s partner campus ministries throughout the Central United States region, traveled recently to El Salvador to listen and learn from Resonate’s ministry partners there. And now they are incorporating what they learned into their daily lives back home.

“We took a group of young adults who were already mature in their faith, and this experience helped them to see another side of reality in God's kingdom,” shared Mark Lachonce, a Resonate Local Mission leader who helped guide the students during the trip.

The group traveled with Resonate on a Witness Trip, a new short-term mission opportunity that sends small groups to a country or context different from their own to visit Resonate missionaries and ministry partners, local churches, and other ministries. A Witness Trip is all about listening and learning so that groups can learn more about being witnesses for Christ.

“I have an interest in missionary work and want to be an effective witness for Christ, whether that is in another country or not,” said Samantha Crespo-Krause, a student at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine who participated in the trip.

“I was really curious to see how the people there express their faith. It’s a totally different environment [from ours]. They have a lot to teach us about how to live out the gospel and share Christ’s love,” added Rickiel Franklin, a Ph.D. student at Iowa State University.

Resonate’s partnership with the ministry Casa Semillas in El Salvador provided important connections for the students to learn from a number of ministry leaders. The group spent a week visiting various historic and ministry sites, including the old downtown area of the nation’s capital, San Salvador; hearing how a church is extending hospitality during the current immigration crisis; and seeing how a church is intentionally discipling their congregation’s children for the future.

The group talked with students, teachers, pastors, and other ministry leaders about the challenges they face, the dreams they have for the future, and what their faith means to them. They saw how people in El Salvador have lived out the gospel and have shared the love of Christ. 

“In all of that, we saw a holistic approach to gospel sharing that gives hope and resilience in suffering,” said Lachonce.

To start and end each day, the group also gathered to work through a trip guide adapted from Resonate’s Witness: Equipped to Share the Good News curriculum. Working through the guide encouraged the students to pray for one another and the people they were visiting, dig into Scripture, and ask questions about the Bible, mission, and the ministry they experienced so that they could get the most out of the trip.

Franklin said that one of his most vivid takeaways from the experience was in seeing how people work together despite differences.

“There are a lot of common problems, and they are able to put aside their differences and say ‘Let’s talk,’” he said. “To me, that’s church. To be a community. We have a problem—we have a lot of children to take care of—how can we be efficient and spread the gospel and share the love of Christ with these children?”

Similarly, Crespo-Krause appreciated the opportunity to connect with “people who seem so different but are so similar in their love for Christ and their daily struggles.” 

While the students were in El Salvador for only a week, they are still debriefing from their experience. They are currently meeting together as a group to process their experience and to explore how to apply what they have learned as they live out their faith at school, in their work, and in the communities where they are living.

"How the Witness Trip influences them will be something that unfolds gradually over time. . . . We are looking for long-term transformation, not flash-in-the-pan things," said Gillian Bruce, who leads Resonate's Volunteer Ministries.

“One of our main goals with the group is to enable these students to best communicate their experiences in El Salvador with their peers,” added Lachonce. “This trip was about not only a handful of young adults but also the many people who will hear about their experiences and hopefully be challenged and encouraged as well.”