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.

December 6th

Today we got to sleep in till 8:30, after breakfast and Nate’s devo, we got ready to go out. No one but Whit and Melissa knew what we were doing. We boarded the bus and headed out with our bibles and journals. We ended up going to this park called Balboa Park and getting to spend an hour doing personal time with the Lord in this gorgeous park. We then gathered together and did a couple worship songs and a few people shared what they had gotten out of their personal time. It was great. We then ate lunch, several of us went and got papusas. They were delicious! When we got home, many of us scrambled to prepare for the outreach in the evening so that they could go to the internet café. We then headed out to another small community just outside of San Salvador to an orphanage/church where we did an outreach with a fair amount of children, teens, and a few adults. It was so nice to see some teenagers. This was probably our smallest outreach yet, but it was a lot of fun. Autumn gave the “message”, which I didn’t get to hear, but I know it went well, and I came over just while it was ending. The youth pastor was sharing things with everyone and Erik was translating. He told the group that he wanted to do dramas to draw in more teenagers and then he started talking about who we are. He said that when you look in the mirror, to remember that you are beautiful/handsome and perfect. God didn’t make a mistake when he created you the way you are. It had a strong impact on me and probably many other people who heard his words. For dinner we had (take a wild guess what) papusas, and travis was supposed to do devos, but he asked Chris Kingston to do devos, which he said he would. It was a great day.

December 5th

Today we did another service project all day. We went back to the church/orphanage/radio station from the 30^th that was grassy with a great view of a lake. We planted (by hand) sod. It was CRAZY! It was like, one by one stems of grass put into the ground. That is what we did almost the whole day. From like…9:30 to 4:30. Afterwards, we played soccer with the kids at the orphanage and some of the kids from around the neighborhood. Everyone had a bunch of fun with the kids. Nate pulled out the zip-line, and a few of the kids got up on that with help of course. Even I jumped on for a few minutes and couldn’t stop smiling/laughing. Nate says the funniest things when you are supposed to concentrate or not be silly. Also, today was Whit’s birthday. A group of us went into his room and sang happy birthday to him, and it was SO fun. Because it was his birthday, we went to Pizza Hut and had pepperoni and cheese pizza…and Tammany and Gabriele bought Neapolitan ice cream for desert. EVERYONE was stuffed. Cisco gave our devo tonight and we then got to go to bed early. Everyone was happy to get to bed early.

December 4th

Today we did a huge service project. We went to this church outside of San Salvador. We did four different types of projects: one group painted classrooms and the entryway of the church, one group cleaned the church parking lot, and two groups cleaned two soccer fields. It was a lot of hard work, but it was a lot of fun. We worked from like 9 to 3 with a half hour lunch. At 3:30, after changing into outreach stuff and getting prepared for an outreach, most of us went out to bring people to the outreach. All throughout the day there was a jeep that went around announcing the outreach to the community, so when we finally got around to passing out flyers, most everyone knew already. This was by far our largest crowd, it was crazy. We had this stage that was several feet off the ground and there was a really good band that co-played with Travis, Suzette, and Rachel. It was really cool. We did two dramas, Faithful and Fix You, and both went very well. We separated the children from the adults because if we didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to keep the adults attention, because of the distraction from the kids. We had almost 200 children, it was CRAZY!! I truly believe a lot of people were very impacted by the dramas, testimonies, and the short message that was given. It was a great time.

November 3rd

Today, we split up again into two groups. We all went to outreaches, but in different places. For us, the first thing that happened is that we realized our speaker hadn’t charged last night, so we had no speaker to do worship, and just enough battery to do the drama. It was a bit frustrating. Today wasn’t as organized as the other days, but it still went pretty smoothly. We did two outreaches and at both we did a bit of worship, and then a drama and two testimonies. It was fun. We spent time at an open-air market with a bunch of children and played with them. Sadly, our little buddy (the speaker) died right in the middle of our Fix You drama, but we made it through and it went well. Jared and a couple other people thought that it was better without the music. At about 12:30ish, both groups got together and ate lunch. Then a group of 10 people went up a mountain (hiking) to reach a small church up there whose pastor walks the path every single day and is 73 years old. I found that pretty impressive. The rest of us went to the police station and did a small outreach which turned into a huge outreach. We had dinner for the officers and their families and a bunch of children who showed up for the dinner. It was funny. We had at least 50 kids, if not more and then the families of the officers. We did two dramas and Travis gave his testimony and Greg spoke to the adults. The children however, got to play with bubbles and color and make bracelets. Everything was cheerful and upbeat. Jared pretty much led everything with the help of Greg. It has been awesome to see him step up as a leader for our group as well as Travis and Chris S. Each of them are stretching themselves….Travis by getting up and speaking and by Chris doing devotions last night. I love watching people grow in their walk and in their gifts. I’ve also had the pleasure of watching Nate administrate roles and jobs in the outreaches, and I truly think that he has the gift of administration. No matter what happened, I felt and feel like things run smoothly and without too many disagreements when he leads, because we all look at him and respect him, first off, and he’s the established leader and he does a good job at it. I don’t know how else to explain it.

December 2nd

Today we split up into two groups. One group got up at 4:30 to leave at 5 for outreaches that went all day, and the other group got up at 5:45 to leave at 6:30 for the church outreach planned for them. I personally was on the first group who got up at 4:30 to leave at 5. A good majority of that group didn’t even get in bed till about 12 or 1 that morning, and then got back up and went to the outreach. We first went to a place where there was a bunch of homeless people and fed them breakfast and just loved on them. We planned on doing a drama, but we were told that a lot of the time that people feed them, they have to sit and listen about how God loves them, so we wanted to not be like everyone else, we just wanted to love on them. It was heartbreaking to see all those kids, most of them between the ages of 13 and 20 with a few older than that. Travis and I did worship songs for background music the whole time while most everyone else hung out with the homeless people who were snuffing shoe glue from plastic containers. We made and served them eggs, bread and bananas. I and a few others gave away our sweatshirts to the homeless kids as well. After we left, we headed to a town right outside of Santa Ana, El Salvador, the third largest city in El Salvador, where we (with one translator: Tanto) had the group upstairs doing children’s ministry and Jared and Greg went downstairs and did the sermon. Jared did the majority of the teaching and it went really well. And the children’s ministry stuff went really well as well. The kids were so delighted to have us there, and they shouted out good morning to us several times when we first got there. They were adorable. When church was over and most of the children had been picked up, my group prayed over a young blind boy. It was crazy, because it was so powerful. The whole group wanted to see this little boy with a life ahead of him, to be healed. He wasn’t healed but the step of faith strengthened our group to prepare for what was to come. After we ate lunch, we were just resting on the bus and sleeping when Julie pretty much jumped out of the bus to go to the bathroom. When she got back, the rest of our group was informed that we needed to get Julie some specific medication for her. It was kind of controversial, because we had one more outreach planned for the day, and Greg forced us to think about what we should do. To make a long story short, we headed into Santa Ana following a white pickup truck with speakers to the pharmacy. On the way, the truck pulled over and told us that Julie needed to go with them because she’d be more comfortable, and they gave us the other woman who was in the truck. With the lack of clear communication, we got separated from the white truck. We finally were able to track them down and meet up somewhere but it was a bit of a high emotions time. For me personally, I just wanted Julie to come back to the bus and not leave again. When we finally were back together, everyone wouldn’t let Julie out of their sight. Someone was with her at all times, it was rather funny how protective we were, and it showed how scared we got at being separated like that. The last outreach was one of the hardest outreaches we’ve had. We were reaching out to a group of people who claimed to be Christians, but there was adultery going on in the group of people, and just hardened hearts. It broke a lot of people to see this particular group of people. We actually changed our drama a bit to make it more relevant to the group we were addressing. It was interesting. I was kind of put into a role that make me out to be an adulteress and it made me really think. I didn’t enjoy that role at all. Travis gave a brief teaching time, which he did wonderful for his first time really teaching from the bible that wasn’t a testimony. I was very happy for him, even though he had one of the hardest audiences to reach out to. It was a day where we all got stretched to the limits. It was good though, I know. J Everyone in my group said that it was a good day. I talked to Tiffany about what she did in her group and I wanted to share with you what she said. When they arrived at the church at about 7, they served breakfast to a bunch of the neighborhood children, showing and did one of our drama’s for them. They didn’t really get to stay and chat with the kids because they had to go do some children’s Sunday school classes. The group got split into three groups and did three different Sunday School classes, with about 70 kids altogether from the three S.S outreaches. After they finished S.S. They went to a government-run orphanage. It was very different from the Christian orphanage we went to earlier in the week. There were individual dorms and there were bars over the windows and doorways, almost like a prison. The children ranged from ages 8 to 18 and none of the children had clothing that fit them properly and most did not even have decent shoes. Tiffany told me that she and Michelle spent some time talking to this little boy who was about the age of 11. He had been in the orphanage since he was 3. He was very sick and had bumps all over his body, but they weren’t sure what it was. They asked him if he believed in God and he told them yes, but when they asked him if he believed in Jesus, he said no. They asked him why, but he didn’t really want to answer them. He said that he did believe in God but not Jesus. At the end of the time they spent with him they asked him if they could pray for him. He said no, but both Tiffany and Michelle, who were extremely touched with compassion for this little boy named Robert, are praying for him that he will be healed and that God would reveal Himself to Robert. Overall it was a humbling day. We all experienced the feeling of how blessed we were and compassion for the people we saw.

December 1st

Today was our first R & R day. It was great. We went to the beach and totally hung out all day. Some of us went in the ocean, which was really warm, considering the time of year, and some laid on the beach tanning, and some of us went on a walk and found LOTS of awesome colored shells. I got to see a live Sand Dollar, which was completely awesome, and a bunch of snails that bury themselves into the sand after the water washes over them. It was kinda gross, but cool at the same time. The guys played with the Frisbee and we got to order fish or chicken with a couple sides for like $3. It was a great, cheap meal. J It was so nice to just relax and see the world in a different way. There was like no one on the beaches and the water was so clear. We got home and immediately started preparing for tomorrow. We have a really big outreach tomorrow…well, two outreaches. The groups are going to be splitting up and going to two different things. The first group is getting up at about 4 to be ready to leave by like 5 for the outreach and then they won’t be home till 5 in the evening. And the second group is going to be up at about 5:45 so that they can be ready to leave at about 6:30. J And they will be home at around 2. I hope to get someone from the other group that I am not in to write something about how it went. Also, our team leaders from HSE came today. Elise, Chris Kingston (now there are three Chris’s J), Naomi and Cisco. It is going to be awesome to see them and show them what is going on here in San Salvador.

November 30th

Today we got to sleep in a bit. It was a nice change, not to mention no one was in bed before 1:30 because Devos ran a bit late….well, more like a lot late. But anyways, we prepared for our outreach at a small church in a town outside of San Salvador, and then headed to drop off our laundry at the laundry mat, and then to the mall. It was a nice short break for all of us. We finally got back on the bus at about 1:45 and headed out. We arrived at the church and were promptly split into groups for passing out invitations to the poor people in the area surrounding the church. This church was amazing. There was grass, like, manicured grass everywhere; and there was a soccer field and a nice place for having outdoor meetings like the one we had today. We had the three clowns dressed up for passing out flyers. It was a lot of fun. Camille was one of the clowns, and the mental picture I have right now of her dressed up skipping in between the rows of poorly kept houses was just a sight to behold. She was so cheerful and reached out to the kids out on the streets. I’m personally very glad the clowns were there to help. We got back to the church about an hour before we were going to start. Oh, I forgot to mention, that this outreach was planned for four o’clock but ended up being changed without our knowledge to six, and so we had to change all the flyers by hand. It was really funny, even through the frustration of not being exactly on with what was going on. Anyways, the sound system was put up and worked out, not the way that we would have liked, but well enough to get sound projected to the crowd. It was a really nice setup and a warm, inviting place in my opinion. People started to show up at about five minutes to six but the majority of the people weren’t even there till 6:15 or later. We started with a drama and then a testimony by Angie. She did a great job and she really didn’t want to give her testimony but she did it anyways, and I believe she blessed the audience. We then did a bit of music and then Rachel and Chris S, who we have affectionately nicknamed Justin and Brittany, did their awesome dance and then we had a second skit. After our skit, we had one more testimony and Nate closed us out. It was such a great time. After everything was done, we were hanging out with the kids doing jump ropes and Whit had a child on his shoulders as he skateboarded around the arena. It was CRAZY. I personally told him he was loco. J When we finally left, it was about 8:15-8:30, we drove to the mall and had pizza at Pizza Hut. I think that is the best pizza I’ve had in a long time (we hadn’t really eaten since like 12 that afternoon, so we were REALLY hungry). The closeness in our group is definitely tightening and I feel that we are becoming more of a family every passing day. I know that when we come home, the relationships we created with each other will keep us closer than a family for the rest of our lives.

November 29th

Today we got up and went to a Christian radio station. We got to help promote the station through passing out flyers to people at different street corners. It was a lot of fun. There was a lot of traffic on the road we were on, and we got rid of the flyers pretty quickly, as did most of the other four groups. Our group went around with our banner running between the sitting cars that waited for the green light yelling out the gospel is cool in Spanish. It was funny. Melissa did cartwheels in the crosswalk with the sign being held by Nate. And we climbed on the buses and passed out flyers. When we arrived back at the radio station, we ate lunch and a couple people, Melissa, Michelle, and Jared went and got on the air and answered questions. It was an awesome time. We got home about 3:30ish and a small group went out to do one more outreach for the day at a private bilingual Christian school. It was so much fun. We did the dance team first. We almost didn’t do the dance because we didn’t have the music, but the kids wanted them to do it anyways, so we did. It was a hit. Afterwards the kids were swarming Rachel to show them how to dance. It was adorable. We then did the sin chair drama and then music. We also did the Fix You drama. The kids just soaked it all in. They were so smart, and you could tell that they enjoyed it. When we finished we were served sandwiches and drinks that were provided for us by the staff. It was a great time. The girls went around asking for email addresses and autographs. I could tell it totally made Adam’s night that one of the girls asked for his autograph. It was such a good day.