December 14th

Today was our last day doing outreaches. We first went back to a church that we had visited earlier in the trip and did a seminar type thing where we taught the locals a drama and how to be clowns, and make balloons. It was fun. Then we went to lunch at the Metro Center, one of the largest malls in El Salvador, and the largest mall that I’ve ever been in. You could get lost really easily in there. After lunch we went back to the first place we had done an outreach, back on that first Sunday in San Salvador, in the parking lot. We set up chairs and a small sound system, and just started an outreach. It went so well. Part of the local group that practiced that morning did the drama and it went SO well, it was great to see that our impact wouldn’t end tomorrow, but would keep going with the dramas. The clowns did their drama and we did music and a testimony. Then Chris gave a message and we started balloons and candy for the kids. After a bit of time playing and spending time with everyone, the pastor in that area asked us to sit down in the chairs because they had a surprise for us. So we all sat down, and the men took some of our equipment for props and turned on a song. They had written a drama for us. They first came in lugging the guitar, the bongo, and a suitcase that we used for ministry supplies. They stopped as if they had arrived to San Salvador and put the stuff down and started pretending to take pictures; it was so funny because we did exactly that. Off to the side there were a couple boys who were sitting next to each other and they started fighting so the three men went over to them and did a very good interpretation of sharing the gospel with these two boys. They both prayed and then reached out to other people in the audience. It was adorable. And then at the end of the skit, the song about how they thanked God for us coming to them and sharing with them the good news. There were very few dry eyes among our group. We boarded the bus soon after that and went to what we thought was home…only to stop at a gas station and someone telling us to get off the bus. We then followed Tanto and ended up in front of this nice restaurant. It was so awesome. The food was really good and everyone was excited to have really good food. We then did this little survey of who was the best soccer player in the girls and of the guys and other things. It was fun. After all the numbers were tallied, they announced them to us, and gave out prizes. The gifts were hilarious. We had a Papusa man and a Papusa woman and they got these cool gifts for getting that category. Like, Gabby, who we voted the best clown, we gave her this funny mask that everyone laughed out loud at. It was just so much fun. We also got to go out for ice cream. We then took Eric, Mike, Kristin, and Tanto home. As we dropped them off, I was sitting next to Fermin, and he happened to look down at his temperature gauge to see that the bus was starting to overheat. I could tell he was concerned and I just reassured him and told him to just get down the hill and to the nearest gas station. The first gas station we stopped at had no water, so we moved on to the next one. This next one had water and a bunch of people sitting with their cars. I ran inside for a moment and came out to the whole group outside the bus pulling out the CD player. They had decided to totally do another outreach right there in the middle of the gas station and they had a pre-made audience too. It was awesome! Rachel and Chris did the best job ever on their dance and then we had the Fix You drama team do the drama and it went so well. I was watching on the outskirts and I could totally tell we had the most captivated audience from the whole time we had been in San Salvador. And then Jared got up with one of our translators, Ana, and totally busted out his testimony with a gospel message. He did so well, and I know that it touched people’s hearts, I could just tell in the spirit that it was heard and accepted even if they didn’t walk up to us. We finally left that gas station and Fermin called Greg up to the front. Fermin proceeded to tell Greg that his bus had never overheated in the whole time that he’s driven and owned the bus and that he hadn’t used a bunch of water and the temperature went down almost immediately and was fine on the rest of the drive. It was a definite “oh snap!” moment. It was awesome! And I could tell that it had impacted Fermin. We have left our imprint on Fermin’s heart and he is coming to HSE next semester Lord willing. All of us are so excited for him to come, and it sounds like we’re gonna have a grand ol’ party when he gets here. It’s so hard thinking about the fact that we leave tomorrow, even though I’m excited to go home, I’m going to miss all the people I’ve met here and the friends I’ve made in Eric, Mike, Kristin, and Tanto, Fermin, Ana, Sarah, and countless others who impacted the influence of our group in San Salvador.

December 13th

Today we split up into two groups. We had one group that went back to the church from the previous night to paint and the second group went to Santa Ana to do a couple outreaches. We painted the whole sanctuary inside and out, with three different colors. As Dan puts it, it was like 80-90 hours of work that we completed in about 6 hours I believe. It’s crazy. And there was only 12 of us doing the work, and it only started with like 4 people working because we didn’t have enough supplies to have everyone painting, so Melissa, Erik, one of the men from the church, and I went to get paint supplies. When we got back we had to water down the paint so that the paint would be able to be stretched and it worked so well. Everyone had a blast painting and laughing. The second group went to do a couple outreaches in Santa Ana. The group was told one thing after another and nothing went as planned. They ended up visiting this poor community that was built in a trash dump area. It was so sad. Gabby said that at one house it was like piles of bags of stuff, just like a pack rat, while the house next to it, even though it seemed buried in trash, the house had order and a sense of cleanliness to it. That whole group was so impacted by the outreaches and the people they saw and talked to. When we had all gotten back, we cooked dinner and blew a fuse of some sort, so we had like no electricity. It was sad, but we all made the best of it, and many of our group didn’t get to shower because the water pump is the reason the fuse box was getting so hot. Thank God that Travis was an electrician even if he couldn’t tell us exactly what was wrong because he didn’t have the tools; he gave the best advice he could about the situation. Praise God that our house didn’t burn down and that Suzette smelled the melting plastic and the sparks that came from the fuse box. God is truly good.

December 12th

Today we got to spend time getting ready for the afternoon outreach/VBS (Vacation Bible School) that we were going to have. We had to create a children’s friendly program with crafts. It was so much fun. We created a Christmas Drama with lines and we had a bunch of awesome crafts that Kristin pulled out. We got to the church around 3pm and went to work. We put on an outreach sort of program for the first hour. It went so well. We did three skits/dramas. And each went well. We also did a story and Whit did a Jonah and the whale story with a balloon. It was cool. And the kids really enjoyed it. For the second hour, we had crafts and balloons and face painting going on. There were about 60 kids (we were planning for 90, so the 60 was nice because we over prepared and so we had enough for the kids to do multiple things. When we finally wrapped it all up, we came back to the house and had devos. Since we were going to Fermin’s Church for dinner we decided to have devos before we left and it was nice to have devos early instead of late. The devo was on relying on God’s strength to get through the last few days. It was a really good devo. Then we went to Hephzibah church (Fermin’s Church) and had the best papusas EVER! It was so much fun.

December 11th

Today was different from most of our days. We got up and ate breakfast and did devos. We then left to do an evangelical outreach where our team went out and just talked to people about God. We prayed right before we left about this particular outreach and prayed for some specific requests for the time. One of those requests was that we would get to talk to some people who spoke English. I asked Breanna to tell me a bit of what happened. When she got there, the first guy she talked to was a Christian. He helped her learn how to read the Spanish in the little green book. As she was walking around, she handed out a flyer to another man, and he happened to be a pastor. He listened and wanted to get hooked up with the Festival of Life and so, Erik, on the Festival of life team, gave him their number. During this whole time she was giving out flyers. One person she gave a flyer to asked her about something on the flyer. The flyer said that Christianity isn’t about a religion but a relationship and he was really curious as to what that meant. So, they started talking and he was really interested in Christianity. So, Breanna hooked him up with Fermin’s church and she is hoping that he will go and get more involved in the church. She also got to talk to an older gentleman and he was a Christian, and he had his only flyers too. He was 84 years old and became a Christian when he was 20. He told Breanna that he knew that Christ was going to come very soon and that we needed to be prepared. She also got to pray for him. The last person she talked to, Hanna and a couple others got to talk to him. He was from L.A and he was very bitter towards Christians and the church. He was born into the Catholic religion and had seen a lot of hypocritical Christians. They talked to him about faith and how it’s an active process. This particular man was in a wheelchair. He was a counselor who taught people to do good things. He wasn’t as open at the beginning as he was near the end. When we all got home, we ate lunch and then got back on the bus for an outreach in a small town outside of San Salvador. I wasn’t feeling very good, so I didn’t get to go around inviting, but I was told that the houses they went and stopped at were very run down and pieced together with whatever they could find from around. It really broke a lot of hearts to see the condition of the homes. When everyone got back, we started our outreach. We had music and then the dance. The music went really well considering it was partly thrown together because Suzette didn’t get to come with us because she got sick from food poisoning and she was the one who knew the Spanish songs the best. But it seriously went so well. We incorporated a clown skit that we had started at the end of last week, and like, everyone loves the clown skit. It’s so cute and shares how you can’t get to heaven by a ladder, a spring, or wings. The only way you can get to heaven is to have a personal relationship with God. We also did the Sin Chair skit, and it was so funny. Everyone loves Sin Chair because the music is upbeat and the actors really get animated in this play and it opens up the door for a good message/explanation. We then had someone give their testimony and do children’s songs. During the whole outreach, there were a few people in the bus making balloons and becoming deaf because the balloons kept popping. But the three of them continued on and worked at not getting discouraged when the balloons popped and it actually helped the clowns to have three people inside creating the swords and hearts and dogs. It was such a good day.

December 10th

So, today was our second Rest and Relaxation day. There were going to be two groups of people doing different activities, until Camille found out that the ruins were closed on Mondays…so everyone ended up going to the beach and to go shopping at a town on the beach. It was beautiful there. The sand is so much darker than San Diego sand, and it’s all sparkly. It’s pretty much an open market in the middle of the town and I enjoyed strolling through the town and eating shrimp cocktail and fish. We also went to this really nice private beach resort. It was so nice. They had wireless internet, a nice pool, and access to the beach. The bathrooms were nice and had showers in them and room to actually move around in them. I also believe that there was warm water in the showers…we take showers here at the house in cold water all the time…we don’t have hot water…so people take showers very quickly. Everyone enjoyed hanging out at the resort, it had a deck with hammocks strung up and Nate brought his zip-line and Jared practiced till his ankles hurt trying to walk across it without help. The water at the beach was so refreshing and everyone got a bit darker than before. Sorry for all you people stuck with cold weather, we’re enjoying the warmth of not being in winter country. We do get random rain showers however…as one happened today during evening devo. A few people scrambled to grab their hammocks (that they bought) from outside so that they didn’t get wet and there are several people outside sleeping in their hammocks. It was a nice day of relaxation…really no schedule, just being together having fun. It was lovely.

December 9th

Today, just like last Sunday, we had a group go and feed the homeless somewhere in San Salvador. They also passed out the clothing we brought with us to give to the homeless. The stories I heard were crazy. Just like last week, these homeless people were majorly addicted to shoe glue. It’s so sad, and when they left, they were fighting over the clothing, and taking it from the smaller people and just fighting in general. After they got back to the house, we all took off in these two TINY buses called Coasters to go to a jungle village. They were awesome little Toyota van type vehicles. We were heading into the jungle literally. There were no towns or businesses. There were shacks throughout the road, but nothing like grocery stores or anything like that. And the road on the last stretch of the trip was INSANE! Seriously, it looked like the rocks had been put there by hand and there were ruts everywhere. I and several others spent most of the ride praying that the bus would make it to the village without damaging a tire or the engine dying on the hills. It was an interesting experience. When we got to the village, we were welcomed by a bunch of the children and the very kind pastor. Everyone was completely excited to see us. We had brought a lunch of hot dogs (500 to be exact), chips and soda. And we had to prepare them there. The outreach went really well, and we got all the hot dogs finished cooking and put into buns and eaten in a very organized manner. It was so much more calm, though busy than like at the Police Station. It was awesome. After finishing the feeding of the multitude as I like to say, we went to a church service. Jared impromptu brought the congregation a message, and did a very good job of it. Then the Pastor got up and asked all of the team to get up and come stand up front because he wanted to pray and lay hands on each of us. Right before the service, the group had the option of going to the service or staying by the bus and hanging. I’m so glad I went to the service, I was so blessed. There was so much power behind the pastor’s prayer. He really genuinely cared about us as a group, and I have to say it was the best “service” I had been to the whole time I’ve been here. Plus, the music wasn’t a show. They had a cd playing as background, but the singers, they just sung their heart out, and it was wonderful to hear that although they weren’t perfectly in tune, they sang for the praise and glory of God. I was so blessed by that service. I personally think that today was one of the best outreaches we’ve had. The atmosphere was wonderful, things weren’t perfect, but in that imperfection people still shined with God’s love. It was a great day.

December 8th

Today we got up and did devos and had about a half hour of personal devo time. We then left for a tourist town called Suchitoto. It was next to this huge lake and a very safe place since tourists visit there often. The lake was gorgeous. We were supposed to take a boat ride, but it ended up not working out, so we just got to hang by the lake for a little bit before we headed back to the main part of town. Part of our outreach for today was to play soccer (football) with the church’s league. So, when we got back to town, we met up at a “soccer field” and our team was given a uniform for the game. It was really cool and funny. Even Greg dressed up in the uniform…it was a bit small, but we all got a good laugh out of it. We lost the game, but we totally had lots of fun playing and watching. We then jumped on the bus and followed a truck that had three of our clowns dressed up, and Tanto going around and announcing the outreach to them. It was great, because, even though we went door to door during the game, it got more people out of their houses and got them to jump on the bus to go. The outreach went really well. We added a clown drama that got a good response from the audience and Michelle gave her testimony and taught. We then did balloons, and promptly ran out, because we had so many kids. We were given more, but we ran out pretty quick of those too. The kids were so adorable, and it was sad to not be able to give all of them balloons, but there were so many kids, it would have been impossible to give every one of them a balloon. Oh, I forgot to mention who was a clown. Autumn, Gabriele, Loni, Camille, and Chris were clowns. They all did a good job at their part, and I could tell the audience loved them. They are all so animated. After we finished with the balloons we packed up and came back to the house. It was about an hour and a half drive one way, but we always enjoy long bus rides. It gives us more opportunity to talk to each other, or do homework or catch up on sleep that we didn’t get the night before. Good use of the time. We got home and waited for our caterer who has been late almost every time we’ve used her, and got our food. We had devos and then free time until we decided to go to bed.