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.