Day Four - Sports Outreach (Part 1)

It is just past midnight as everyone is finally climbing into bed after the beautifully exhausting day we had! We were up bright at early at 5:00am in order to head to Santisima to help set up everything for the Sports Tournament. The entire four-sport tournament took place on a dirt field that sits near the tops of the hill that contains the Santisima community. The girls started inflating some of the soccer/basket/volley-balls we brought with us while the guys got digging into the dirt/gravel in order to install bamboo posts for the nets.

After everything was set up, we headed to Mama's for a quick breakfast before heading back to Santisima for the tournament. Here is a peek into what our meal-time looks like:

Back at the tournament, Tyler led with the opening remarks, which included a debut of our team doing the Christian Spanish Hakka. (Still trying to get videos edited and uploaded. Stay tuned.)
Once the games began, the team jumped right in to the games which included, soccer, basketball drills, volleyball, and something the Salvadorans call Football Tennis. Basically, the court looks like a tennis court, but instead of using hands/rackets and tennis balls, you use a soccer ball, and can use anything BUT your hands or arms. For the Salvadorians who are pretty much amazingly talented when it comes to all things football (or Soccer, by our terms), it was a really cool came to watch. Once the Americans joined the game though... well, we made for a few laughs at least. Those who weren't playing games were out mingling with everyone. We've all had to find very creative ways of communicating since most of us know very little Spanish (and poor Kate and Luca can only be in so many places at once), and they know very little English. I am pretty sure that after all of this practice, our team could form some kind of National Charades team and be unstoppable!

It was a very busy, very eventful day, and everyone was worn out by the end of the day's games, but we were able to enjoy an evening of fellowship with the people of Santisima. We prayed with a good friend of Tyler's that he and Adrienne met during last year's trip, and took members of the church out to dinner at Carnitas. Our table ended up filling the length of the restaurant, and having to turn into a L-Shape to fit everyone!

Now it is off to bed because it will be another early morning as we start day two of the tournament!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers!