Day Three- The Rest of the Team Finally Arrives!

Wow, what a great first day with the ENTIRE team together!!!! It was wonderful!
The early team woke up at 4:00 to head to the beach for a morning run with Kevin and Gabriel, two of our friends from Santisima. After our run, we were able to each spend some time in prayer in the midst of one of the most beautiful places in God’s creation.

Then we practiced our Hakka, in formation, in the sand… in front of our Salvadoran friends. We are pretty sure they thought we were crazy, but it was fun nonetheless! Then it was time to pick the rest of the team up from the airport. We were just leaving the beach to drive the 10 minutes or so to the airport, fully expecting to make it there way before the team was able to get through immigration, customs, baggage claim and get outside when we received a call from Marito saying the time was ready and waiting for us! They made it through everything in record time with no problems at all! James sweet-talked his way through immigration (either that or the immigration agent was intimidated by him) and after that, they just started waving the rest of the team through. All of the bags made it, nothing was missing or stolen, and all-in-all, it was a great travel day for them!

The drive from the airport to Via Olympica (our home-base this week) gave the team the chance to absorb the culture for the first time. We arrived at home, unloaded bags, took a tour of the facility, and then headed to Mama’s house for lunch. (So long as Mama remains our cook, it will never be said that our teams suffer from malnutrition, starvation, or poor quality food… Mama is the most incredible cook and we are so spoiled to be able to have her cook for us every day.) While at Mama’s for lunch, Tyler surprised her with some news… but we’ll wait to tell that story until we can upload the video.

After lunch, we took a quick drive through the Santismas community to show the rest of the team where we will be ministering this weekend, and to introduce them to some of the teens we have come to know and love, then it was back to the house to allow the team to recharge with a nap before the weekend began. After everyone was refreshed, we finally learned the parts of Libertad (a Spanish song that the team committed to learn and sing for the church) that were still a bit shaky, complete with a competition between teams of 3 to see who could sing it best. Bishop, Wes and Jordan killed that competition with their own rendition of the song that had us in tears because we laughed so hard. (We'll be uploading that video as soon as we can!) After that, the early team taught the newly arrived members our new Hakka, complete with the formation and movements.

Then at 5:30, we left to meet the church community for a surprise welcome party they planned for us. Members of the ministry team welcomed us and showered us with love and gratitude for coming. We spent time getting to know them, eating Pupusas (a Salvadorian staple… tortillas stuffed with beans and cheese), and talking about the plans for the weekend. Finally, we surprised them by singing Libertad for them, and showing them our Hakka. They loved both, and had us teach them the Hakka so they could join us when we do it to begin the sports outreach that will begin bright and early tomorrow.

Today was an amazing first day. The team has done an incredible job of steeping into an entirely new environment and where they can barely communicate verbally, but have still managed to begin forming relationships and falling in love with the country and her people. As we begin the sports outreach tomorrow, please pray that our words, thoughts and actions be conformed to His divine will, that we accomplish the plan and purpose we have been called to fulfill in this trip, that hearts be changed and souls won for the Kingdom.

Dios te Bendiga!