Day 1: Amazing first day

Hey friends,

Well, we had our first whole day here in El Salvador and it was action packed. Because of the time change,

I woke up at 5:30 AM. We had breakfast and Salvadorian coffee. You all would love it. 

We spent the morning in the church that many of our friends here attend. I was so happy and delighted because after a whole year of waiting, I finally saw my best friend here, Sofia. I really love her. She was waiting for me with a 'Welcome Back' balloon. She is so cute! 

We went for lunch in the food court near the church. Everyone stared at me and others. The most beautiful Starbucks in El Salvador is in this mall so I had to get something. It had been two days after all. 

After lunch we went back to the hotel to discuss and prepare for what we will be doing for the next two weeks while we are here. We will be holding mini kids/youth camps with 'Olympic' games as well as many team building activities. I am quite excited for the Olympics. After figuring out exactly what the plans were, a few of us drove to Walmart and bought supplies for all the activities that we will need for the two weeks in the schools and in the churches. I was in the front seat of Tato's car and I felt so free. It's the first time in two years that I was in a car without the whole team. 

Some of Gabriela's family came to visit her at the hotel and we all had a nice time talking with them. Since it was late and we hadn't eaten yet, we went for dinner at Tony Roma's. Since it's the rainy season here in El Salvador, there was a huge thunder storm. Usually they happen at night so they don't really bother us. 

It's pretty late, technically it's midnight right now. 

We have to be out the door by 8 AM tomorrow... Going to be a busy and long day. Looking forward to visiting a very poor area in Santa Ana and seeing all the kids.

- Natalia 

Like Natalia mentioned, some of my family come over to our hotel to visit me. I was so happy and super excited to be able to see my amazing relatives. Each time they come to see us, they are so loving and sweet to the rest of the team, which makes me happy. It's great to know how much they like the people I've come to El Salvador with to serve our Heavenly Father. 

I don't always have the opportunity to come visit my whole family, which is quite a lot of people, which is why I am so thankful for our leader, Allan Day. He always gives me the opportunity to meet up with them and at least spend a few minutes together, which is not a lot but still means the world to me. Being able to serve God and the people of my country is amazing, but also being able to see my family is a huge bonus. I am so extremely blessed and thankful, and I owe it all to God. 

Overall, this was a perfect day. 

- Gabriela

Safe and sound

Quick post to let you all know that we have arrived in El Salvador, safe and sound! 

The team has managed to get here safely and perfectly fine. We've settled down at our hotel and got some time to relax and catch up on our sleep and also meet up with the YFC El Salvador team for some last minute planning and going through our schedules for our 2 weeks of hard work. We'll be visiting some churches tomorrow and start our mission. 

Thank you all so much for your prayers, they are greatly appreciated. 

Blessings! :) 

Day 12, 13 & 14: Exhaustion

Bonjour!

Okay, so first, I'd like to apologize for not keeping you guys up to date but man, everyone has just been so exhausted coming back to the hotel late at night for the past days. We have been in heat so much and it just doesn't help the exhaustion but we are still VERY thankful for every place that we have had the opportunity to visit :) and the opportunity to pinch so many cute cheeks.

Day 12: Wednesday August 22, 2012
It was really really awesome to go back to the private bilingual Christian church on Wednesday morning and we just felt quite blessed and privileged to have the opportunity to be there again and lead their devotional. Like Tuesday morning, we had some people share personal testimonies. This time, we got to hear Natalia, Tuti (one of the fellow workers of YFC El Salvador) and Carla share their testimonies, struggles that they've gone through and how God helped them get through it. After the devotional, we got to spend time getting to know the students during recess and Joel (another fellow workers) got to show off his electric guitar skills. Allan and Karen got to give a girl some coins since she collects coins :) Afterward, we went to have some brunch and we also got to walk around the mall for a bit. In the afternoon, we went to a cute little tiny school close to Aguilares with only about 6 classrooms in total. The heat was extreme and the classrooms did not help at all but we had a great time sharing with the students. During the talks, most of them were really shy and quiet but when they got out for recess, they were a lot more relaxed and open with us. As for the night, some went out to eat and some stayed back at the hotel. It was a relaxing night for me, at least.

Day 13: Thursday August 23, 2012
Before going to the town that we had planned for that day, the team was a little nervous about the groups of students that we were gonna see. Sometimes, there is some miscommunication between us and the El Salvador team because of the language. So, to our understanding, we were gonna be facing students/teens that were being watched by the police because they have already been in trouble and the mayor just had this program for them, in order to keep them out of trouble. When we got there, the students were totally relaxed, kind and participated in everything we asked them to. We later found out that it's just a program to keep teens out of trouble but doesn't necessarily mean they were in trouble. We were able to see 4 groups of like 15-20 of them. Allan and Vanessa were the ones talking that day. Afterward, we went to have dinner at this yummy restaurant. The waiters were so kind. In the afternoon, we headed off to a tiny school in San Diegito, which is a school that we visited last year. Many of the kids remembered some of us and they were so cute. The talks went really well and the heat was terrible but since it was such a tiny school, it gave us the opportunity to connect with the kids better. At night, we just hung out at the hotel and made some piñatas for our big day today! :D Also, Thursday was our official last day of doing talks at schools.

Day 14: Friday August 24, 2012
All rightie! I apologize that it's just a sum up of what we've been doing but yeah, exhaustion has defeated us all and yeah, we just wanna appreciate the time that we have left. Okay, so today, we got to sleep in :D then we got to meet Natasha's sponsor child, the sister and the grandma :D which was quite exciting!!! Then we went to the mall for a while and every one did their own thing. At the mall, we met up for lunch and most people weren't hungry since we had just had breakfast like a few hours before. Then we went off to a place called Puerta del Diablo which is a place were you can climb hills and see the beautiful country of El Salvador and it's gorgeous hills, greenery, mountains and volcanoes. But unfortunately, it was waaaay too cloudy when we got up there :( but either way, there were some souvenir stuff hehe. Then we drove back, picked up Natasha at the hotel and picked up Miguel, our awesome driver. At night, we were off to a church again, because there was a kid's service and we had piñatas for them! I didn't get to see the kids hitting them and getting the candy but I did get to see a boy named Nelson, who I met last year. I spent a lot of time talking to his mom and it was just a blessing that they were there :D Everyone at that church is always so welcoming and they love us so much. It's a huge blessing! By the time we finished, it was already about 8-9 PM and we didn't get back to San Salvador until about 10 PM. We went off to a late dinner and then came back to the hotel, EXHAUSTED. But it was a blessed day and the Lord just continues to unite us and bless us and work in and through us :)

Tomorrow (August 25, 2012), basically today as I type this, we will be going to the beach the whole day. I can't wait for this huge blessing to relax and spend a lot of time with the team and God :D

In Christ,
Laura and the Team!

Day 11: God has a purpose for every thing

Hola a todos! (Hello every one!)

As you can tell, we were able to get the blog up to date tonight :D yay! Since the internet has been awesomely good today and it hasn't died out on us or anything and it has been pretty fast, despite the fact that it's raining quite hard right now. Actually, I am scared the power might go out and the internet will stop working but I really hope not.

Anyway! It has stopped raining a little and the internet is still working yay! :D Okay, so today, we had to opportunity to go back to a private Christian school named En-Hacore. As always, the principal, teachers and students are so welcoming. We were asked to lead a service in the morning and we gladly accepted it :)

David started off by introducing our team and Allan opening up for us. We also had Carla (an ex-student of the school and also a volunteer for YFC El Salvador) do the open prayer. Vanessa, Joel and Amanda (holding the mike ;D) led us into some worship time which was really awesome. Then we had to great opportunity of hearing Sara's testimony and everything that God has taught her through difficult times. Afterward, the brave Natasha read some verses in SPANISH. Yes, I said it, in SPANISH. And she did quite a good job! Kirsten also shared her captivating testimony of how the Lord has always been there to protect and be with her through difficult times. Winston and I (Laura) had some time of prayer, in which we asked the students if they had some prayer request and a few students were willing enough to share with us their worries about their family members and health. And last but not least, Abby (one of our fellow YFC El Salvador workers) shared her testimony about how God restored her health :) It was really great to have one of the members of the El Salvador team speak because it's not just about us speaking but as well as their team sharing their lives with the youth.

After we finished, we got to spend some time getting to know some students since they had recess and then we went off to brunch. Something really exciting happened after we ordered our food during brunch. I saw a childhood friend walk by the restaurant, so I ran after her and was able to say hi! It's always quite funny and cool to see the reactions people have whenever I am back in the country and they don't know.

Since we still had a lot of time ahead after brunch, we headed off to the market for people to be able to buy some souvenirs! We spent quite some time there getting bracelets, shirts, etc, many gifts for our friends and family members :)

In the afternoon, we headed back to the same school we went on Monday and we had some talks again. The 3 groups split off into different classrooms and from what I heard, everything went quite well with everyone. I think it's always nerve racking to go into a classroom and speak to a bunch of students that only know Spanish but thanks to God, anything is possible and we just have to be willing to be led by His Spirit.

We finished quite early today again and spent some time making piñatas at the hotel. Well... some of us went off to sleep as soon as we got to the hotel hehehehe... myself included. And we had some dinner at the hotel, quite relaxed and just hanging out with the El Salvador team. And that was our day! :) please continue to pray that we be filled with strength, love, patience and just everything that we need to be equipped with for our last days. Thank you for keeping up with us! :D

In Christ,
Laura and the Team

Day 10: Trusting God

Today was a pretty relaxing day. We had our morning off, so everyone got to get some rest and catch up on their sleep, even though some of us got woken up by people trying to do dance dares while we were sleeping. We got our laundry back, so we sorted out or clothes. We went out for lunch at Pollo Campero which was delicious. In the afternoon, we went to a public school to do our talks again.

It was a little nerve wrecking for some of us, having to go back up in front of a whole class and speak but we trusted in God, that he would help us and it all went great! I even volunteered to do some translating for Sara – something I never thought I’d have the nerve to do. That was a big step for me, and this whole trip has just helped me overcome my fear of public speaking. After we were done at that school, we went to a mall to do some shopping which was pretty fun. Dinner came after shopping not gonna lie; it was pretty funny, yet extremely embarrassing at the same time. It was a great day for all of us, so I thank God for giving us another amazing day full of funny stories and memories we can look back at. The trip is slowly coming to an end, and it’s pretty sad but I’m just so thankful that I’ve been able to spend this time with such amazing people who have become close friends. They are all blessings in my life.

- Gabriela and the Team

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

Day 8: Piñata Fun for Everyone!

Hi everyone!

It’s nice to have the opportunity to update you all on what the team did on Saturday.

After an amazing day of waves and sun, we headed back to work on Saturday.

During the morning, we had the opportunity to do something a little different. God works in ways sometimes we cannot even imagine. During our visits to the Goldtree Liebes school, one of the staff members came and talked to us about going to work with a nearby community (in Panchimalco) also teaching how to make piñatas and talking about God and our work here. So we had the chance to do this Saturday morning, it was different because of the ages of the people we were working with this time, they were all 20-years-old and up, but they were all happy to be there with us, learning how to make the piñatas and learning more about what we had to share with them. It was such a blessing. They all had a great time hearing our stories about Canada and had many questions of their own. It was a great start to the day.

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to go back to one of the orphanages the team had visited last year. The heat was giving us a bit of a hard time at that point of the day, but we were static to be able to spend some time with the kids and sharing not only God’s love with them, but also sharing how much we all also love them.

We set up different stations so that they could enjoy many different things, we were making piñatas with them, salvation bracelets, sharing some music with them and also just having some girl time with some of them, doing their nails and their hair, etc. Mostly, we were just glad to be there and enjoy their smiles, their energy and just to be the ears that listened to their amazing survival stories, they all have gone through very difficult times, and yet, they still manage to be so loving and kind. It was very difficult to have to leave the orphanage, it never feels like we have enough time, because we are just having so much fun, time goes by really fast. On the way back, many of us were feeling very emotional and reflective, after having spent some time with all of those amazing kids.

I ask that you keep them in your prayers, as well as the rest of the amazing people that we have met throughout this journey thus far, God has a purpose for them and no matter what difficult things they go through, with him by their side, they will be more than triumphant.

With love,
Karen and team.