We are one third through our journey!

Greetings to parents and friends at home! We apologize for not posting sooner, but time has been quite valuable, as well as sleep! We arrived without any delays or complications and had a smooth experience through the airport and customs.

(above) Our first day at Injuve after the community day with Power of One training. Our leaders did a phenomenal job jumping right into culture and building relationships with those who attended.

(above) Our second day was spent in Santisima de Trinidad, a community in San Salvador that we continue to have close ties to each year working with Pastor Martinez' church - Aposento Alto. The Community Team focused on a Family Community Day event that the church had planned beginning with a "fun run" and ending with a soccer tournament of course! Again, our team did a great job of showing God's love and jumping into conversation despite any language barriers. The Prison Team has done an incredible job as well through some tough emotional days as they boldly share God's word in some of the harshest enivronments of those feeling unloved. We ended the day with a team dinner at Aposento Alto among friends.

(above) Our third day, Sunday, was our first day with some down-time to rest while still being in community with our friends here. The Prison Team went to church at Omar's church - CEFAD. The Community Team went to Pastor Martinez' church - Aposento Alto. Being at two churches, we heard similar messages which was really neat to share with each other later in the afternoon on our hike. We gathered some Salvadoran friends and loaded up two pick-up trucks and a mini bus to head to our hiking spot, La Puerta del Diablo. It was a gorgeous day (with humidity of course) and we had a wonderful time in conversation over lunch first eating Papusas and being in fellowship with our friends along for the day. At the top of our hiking spot, we had time for Omar and Chris, two of our translators and community connectors, to share their testimonies. Others not with our group gathered behind us and listened on their own. How cool to see God working in having others hear His grace and love even when we don't plan it.

Some team updates for parents:
- Jesse's finger is good and being taken care of daily by nurse Sandy.
- Brandon Mejia's ankle is doing well and doesn't seem to prohibit his participation

We thank you for your continued prayers over our team each day. We will update again when able!