Day 9: Cute Smiley Dancing Kids

Today we woke up early and went out to visit our first community. 

The first community is one that we also visited on our trip to El Salvador last summer, and it is most memorable for the giant spiders that hang from all the trees (I’m serious right now!). It was a very hot day, and we were all super excited to spend the morning with all of the children and youth. When we first arrived at the church, which is in a very isolated community, the children all came running to our bus as we pulled up, lots of them calling us “Gringos” or “Chelitos”, which is basically El Salvadoran slang for Americans or white people. After introducing ourselves, our entire team split up into several different stations of activities for the children to participate in. 

There was a station for distributing and explaining our Salvation bracelets, which has five different coloured beads which all have a significant meaning in our walk with Christ. First is the black bead, which represents the sin in our lives. Then comes the red bead, which represents the blood that Christ shed in order to save us from our sins. Next is the white bead, which represents us becoming pure through Christ. After that is a green bead, which represents our growing relationship and love with God and with Christ. Lastly is a yellow/gold bead which represents our eternity and life in heaven. Another station was for showing the kids pictures of Canada and also listening to Mr.Day’s talk. Another station was for playing guitar and listening to songs of worship (of course you could sing along too J). The fourth station was games, and we played a few really intense rounds of link tag. 

After visiting this community, we went to Pollo Campero for lunch. We then drove about an hour through pouring rain to get to our next community church, and played the same games and stations with the children and youth there. We also handed out a massive load of candy. We listened to a short service before that. We had lots of fun laughing, singing, dancing, and playing with the children and youth there. Overall, it was a very fun and exciting day. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!

In Christ,
Kirsten and the Team