The music pulses, blaring so loud Claire Douthitt, graduate of University of Kentucky, has to scream for her dance partner to hear her over Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk."
Her partner doesn't listen. The sun is shining, the song is fast and loud and he's in the throes of happiness. In his home, a facility for handicapped adults in San Salvador, El Salvador, dance parties are savored. This dancer is completely present in this moment—moving, dancing, grinning.
Douthitt laughs and keeps his left hand gripped in her right. She notes his exuberance. She's seen it before during her previous trips to San Salvador. She's met several locals through conversations about the Gospel.
"We see people who are crazy poor and are happier than people in the States who just have so much," she says.
Douthitt, 22, is a member of Concord United Methodist Church in Paducah, Kentucky. She visited El Salvador with Starfish Orphan Ministry, a Paducah-based nonprofit organization. The ministry strives to bring awareness to the plight of orphans and to adoption issues while also providing easy ways for people to serve others in need.
This is Douthitt's sixth time visiting El Salvador. In the past, she has traveled there with her church and worked in conjunction with Starfish and a San Salvador-based nonprofit called Sus Hijos. She's helped build houses and run special events for orphans and handicapped adults—people who don't often get to enjoy special activities outside their rundown facilities.
This party is a treat for Douthitt's dance partner.
But, life in San Salvador isn't all dance parties and happiness.
On trips with Starfish and Concord United Methodist Church, Douthitt sees crushing poverty and hears stories of gang violence. She hands bologna sandwiches and apples to children who huff glue to stave off hunger. But the Salvadorian smile—the one that flits across the faces of the hungry and the destitute—keeps her flying back. The resilience in these people attracts her.
Douthitt, and her teammates at Starfish, want to infuse that resilience with joy—the kind that comes from Christ. She believes if these people meet Jesus, He'll help bear the hardships of living in a developing, gang-ridden nation. Salvadorians might be resilient, but they still need Christ.
"I'm not as concerned where they're living as [whether] they know that Jesus loves them," Douthitt says. "Do they know that he hasn't forgotten about them?"
This desire to spread the Gospel has been growing in Douthitt for years, encouraged by her spiritual environment in Paducah. She says her small church of roughly 250 people, has helped foster her love for other people and her passion to tell them about Christ's message.
"We [at Concord United Methodist Church] have always been very mission-minded, and I wouldn't be in El Salvador without the United Methodist Church," she says. Then, she adds, "They have just been more supportive than I could have ever imagined. They rallied around, not just the youth, but everyone who wanted to do outreach in missions. … I wouldn't change my church family for the world."
Casey Northcutt Watson, Memphis Annual Conference website
One of seven apportioned giving opportunities of The United Methodist Church, the World Service Fund is the financial lifeline to a long list of Christian mission and ministry throughout the denomination. Through the Four Areas of Focus churches are engaging in ministry with the poor which encourages them to be in ministry with their communities in ways that are transformative.
