Day Two - Last Minute Details

Today was another wonderful and productive day! We’re so blessed that everything has been running so smoothly! The 6 members of the early team (Tyler, Ryan, Luca, Kelly, Adrienne, and Kate) started the morning with another delicious breakfast at the Market with Pastor Martinez. After breakfast, the team spent a good bit of the morning at Pastor Martinez’s house while he and Tyler worked through the details for the week. After a couple of hours there, the team headed to the beach to start knocking on random doors and see if we could find a beach house to rent. Yes, I am serious. And yes, we ended up picking up/kidnapping an elderly Salvadorian gentleman to help us in our search. We found some beautiful homes with beautiful views… not sure yet which we will be staying in next week, but we’ll keep you updated. For now, enjoy the view from the balcony of the first home we visited…

After leaving the beach, it was time for a quick lunch at Pollo Compero (a fast food chicken restaurant) where we ran into some other Americans. It just happened that they are a missionary group from Lancaster, PA! And they are staying in the community that we normally stay in! What a small world! After lunch, we stopped by Mister Donut to meet up with our truly amazing (in so many ways) cook, Evelyn, affectionately known by all as Mama. We spent time with her planning our meals for the week and introducing her to Kate, Luca and Ryan, the team members she hadn’t met yet.

We spent the rest of the afternoon organizing the supplies and creating a Christian, Spanish version of the Hakka (an Icelandic war chant used by the All-Blacks rugby team), then picked up some of the teens from the Santisimas community and took them to dinner. We were sitting outside when it started pouring in traditional El Salvador monsoon-season-style… and the team got to experience their first (of probably many) soaking wet pick-up truck rides. Then it was time for bed as we planned to wake up at 4:00am on Day Three.

God continues to bless each step of this journey. Doors continue to be opened and He continues to guide our steps. Please continue to keep the team in prayer as the rest of the team arrives in the morning, and will need super-natural energy to hit the ground running once they do! We love you all and everyone back home is in our thoughts and prayers.