Day 8: Bye bye Santa Ana, hello Aguilares!

On Sunday, we had the oppertunity to go visit two churches. The church we were at in the morning was the same church we had been working with the whole week. I'm pretty sure everyone from the team would agree with me if I said, "The worship there is so amazing!" Everyone from the church looks like a big family which is surprising because the church itself has only been running for one year. We made so many awesome friendships with the kids there, so when it came time to say goodbye, it was pretty tough.



In the afternoon, we went to another church. The church's pastor is actually two YFC El Salvador team members' mom. The pastor's passion for reaching out to youth and children is so great! You can really see it by the amount of children that show up to church.

- Gabby 

Day 7: Family time!

Hellooo everybody!

First of all, I would just like to apologize for all the updates we've missed. We've been pretty busy and tired, but we're back to let you all know what's been going on down here in El Salvador!

This past Saturday we had the whole day off which meant relaxation at last! We finally got to sleep in, and we headed downstairs for some breakfast by the pool. It was such beautiful weather with a nice breeze and cute little birds singing (this sound super cheesy, but its true).

After breakfast, my whole day was already made. My grandmother and uncle from my dad's side came to visit me!! I hadn't seen them or had the opportunity to sit down and have a nice chat with them in almost two years! It was so exciting to be able to see them both and catch up. Not only that, but they brought me some pan dulce (sweet bread). Basically every Salvadorian's dream. They both left after a while, which I'm not gonna lie, made me pretty upset. But there's nothing a little shopping can't fix, am I right?

We did some shopping around the mall near our hotel. It was nice to have some time to just relax and have a girly day and go shopping together. Plus, we all actually got something! We had some lunch and drove back to the hotel. That afternoon, some other family members from my mother's side came over, along with some members from my grandmother's church. We held a church service for them at the hotel, gave them some snacks and coffee, of course, you can't forget that! Mr. Day spoke for all of us, and the whole congregation was so happy! Everyone was telling my how happy and grateful they were to have been invited to some visit me and also hear what we're doing here in El Salvador, and Mr. Day's talk as well.

After the church service, we went to a restaurant that's just full of typical Salvadorian food and it was absolutely deeeeeeelicious! We finally got to eat our precious pupusas! After our delicious dinner, we went back to the hotel, but some of us went back out to finally get our Vanessa!!!

We are so excited to have her join us once again, it didn't feel the some without our Vanessa.

Overall, this day was amazing! I had been looking forward to it all week and it definitely went above my expectations and for that, I have to the the man upstairs. So thank you, God!

- Gabriela

Day 6: Guitars and testimonies

Hey guys! 

Friday was a very relaxing day, we went to the church in Santa Ana again and held a youth service. The service was in the evening so all day we got to just hang out at the church with everyone in the team and the people at the church as well. At one point Sonyk, from the El Salvador team, got out Miguel's guitar and we looked up chords and played for a long time. 

It was a really fun day and we had a great turn out at the service and I gave my testimony. I really think it touched a lot of kids and over all the night was really great. Some kids even gave their lives to Christ and they were really happy to have us at their church. -Sara

Day 5: Finding Strength in God

Hello everybody!

Today we went to two different schools in Santa Ana. The first school was full of younger children, from grades 1 to 6. I went to watch most people’s talks. It was really cool to see how everybody interacted with the students, and to see how much fun the kids were having. The morning classes were a bit of a break for me to see what everybody else’s talks were about. 

In the afternoon, we went back to the school from yesterday. I talked to two different classes. I thought I did kinda bad, but everyone said I did good with speaking to the students and it makes me happy. The team's wonderful comments and feedback is really supportive and inspires me to keep going and push through my anxiety. Not only do the teams comments help, but I also have the man upstairs, God, to help me out. It says in Philippians 4:13 "I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me."

Overall, I think today went really well. Thank you all for your prayers and support to the YFC El Salvador mission. 

- Jessica Saunders

Day 4: Time for school!

Hola, hola, hola!

Today was a super amazing day! It was our first day of presenting our talks to the schools. From all the comments that I've heard and also personal experience, our talks went extremely well! Way better than expected for our first day. In comparison to last year, I think we’re all doing so much better. There is so much communication going on between us and the students and they love interacting with us. I think it builds a better relationship with them, which is pretty cool, getting to know them. 

In the evening, we had a special service at church, Casa de Bendicion. Mr.Day spoke for the people and I had to translate which didn’t work out as well, but an effort was made! All in all, today went great. We got to know so many people, and even invited the children to come out to our special service this Friday for more games, prizes and surprises.

A huge thanks to everyone back home praying for our mission. We are all so blessed to be used by God to spread his word to the ones who need to hear it. Hope you’re all well, God bless.

- Gabriela Alvarado 

Day 3: Sports, sports, sports.

Hey guys!

So today was a very long day so I’m going to keep this short. Today was a great day in a place called Santa Ana. We also visited the same community as yesterday but today was so much more organized and we got to just hang out with the kids for a while since we were there all day.  For me, that’s my favourite part, just sitting there and trying to speak Spanish to them. Also before we started the games, Gabriela, Natalia and I got to walk down the streets with a big banner and got kids to come with us, it was really cool.

The highlight of my day was getting a bunch of people to pray for a kid that broke his ankle yesterday at our camp. We were walking and saw him in his wheel chair with his cast on his ankle so we went to talk to him. I decided we should pray for him so his family invited us into his home and we all prayed together, it was very powerful and I was happy to be the one who lead it. Mr. Day also just told us that his parents are planning on coming to our Friday’s service and Miguel mentioned how the organization works with places like the church in Santa Ana and by doing things like praying for the boy it is reaching out to the parents as well, which benefits the church, therefore doing the mission.

Also, after the youth camp today we ask if anyone would like to do a salvation prayer to accept Christ into their life and 4 of the kids did it and were excited about it, which got all of our heads and hopes up high and was a good feeling for the team. We went to a beautiful restaurant that we visited last year and went to the top of the building and saw the view with all of the lights, it was so beautiful. So all in all I am just so excited for tomorrow to continue in the beautiful community. God bless.

-Sara Schoenherr

Day 2: First day in Santa Ana

Hello everyone!

Today was our first real day of hard work and to top it all off, it was in the scorching sun of Santa Ana! We headed over to this small community this morning at 8 AM. We got to the church that we will be attending this coming week, Casa de Bendicion. It is such a beautiful place, with a whole bunch of flowers, they are just so gorgeous!

After meeting up with the pastor, youth pastor and some of the kids, we headed over to a field where we would be setting up our "Olympic games".  Once we got to this field, there were already so many kids there, ready to play with us. They played a short soccer game and once it was over, we headed to Pollo Campero for some lunch. Gabby Whelan said it was some amazing chicken!

Once we got back from our lunch break, we set up our Olympic games. I will admit, it was a bit unorganized and confusing, but we managed to make it work out. Either way, the kids had an awesome time and that's all that really mattered to us.

The heat got to some of us, and it was a bit annoying. We were all sweating buckets in our jeans (not happening ever again, no more jeans for us!) and pressing our cold water bottles to our foreheads to keep cold for a few seconds. The heat hit some of us pretty hard, and also some lack of sleep which made us pretty cranky and just plain lazy. At the end of the day, we made it all work our for the children and worked together to somewhat get back on track.

Throughout the day, some of us made some adorable, little friends. We met some of the cutest and sweetest little boys and girls, that we immediately fell in love with them. They are all just so precious, we wanna take 'em back home with us! We just kept asking for more and more abrazos y besitos (hugs and kisses). 

Even though it was kind of a rough day, and some of us got a bit irritated, we still work it out as a whole and manage to focus on our mission, which is to serve our Father.

Thank you all back home for your prayers and wonderful messages. We hope you're all doing well and that you are enjoying your summer. God bless you all!

- Gabriela and the team.