El Salvador Mission: July 2015

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Day 5

Hi families! It's hard to believe that a week from today we'll be on our way back to the States. Our time here in El Salvador is just flying by! Today the guys all went to run programming at a male juvenile detention facility with boys generally ranging from ages 12-18. They had a fantastic day, things went very well, and everyone is looking forward to being back in the same facility to run a second day of programming with the same kids.

The girls went to a female juvenile center for runaways, orphans, and children of abuse/neglect. They performed a drama, gave testimonies, painted the girls nails, brought a piñata for the kids, and spent time just talking to them and hearing their stories. It was a powerful day for everyone.

Unfortunately we are unable to take pictures in these facilities, so we don't have pictures for you today

P.S. Starting Friday, we will be running a retreat at a gated (i.e. very safe) retreat center, but they do not have wi-fi access so you will likely not hear from us via the blog between Friday and Sunday. Tomorrow we will getting things ready for the retreat and Thursday is our beach day (no wifi). The team will be able to make calls home, but dont be alarmed when we go several days without a blog update!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Day 4

Greetings again from El Salvador!!

A quick update on our day! All the guys spent the day running a program in one of the prisons! It went great and they are exhausted from working (and playing!) their hearts out!

After breakfast at Omar's home, the girls went with Sonya (Pastor Omar's wife) to a local hospital to visit and pray over an adorable 4 year old boy. Then they met up with some young women that will be going into the prison tomorrow with the ladies to plan the program and practice a drama to perform(!!!!) After that we grabbed some piñatas to bring to the children in the prison tomorrow, then headed to join the boys for dinner!

All is well here! Praise God, Jordan is feeling much better!
Missing all of you! We'll update you again when we can! Keep us in your prayers 😊

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Day 3

Good morning families! Today was another great day! Our day started again at 5:00am with getting our sleeping areas clean and heading to breakfast, this time at Mister Donut, a local breakfast place somewhat similar to a Duncan Donuts. We sang happy birthday to Omar Jr., and headed to church to hear Omar Sr. preach.

Our original itinerary had today slated as a day off after church, but in Salvadoran style, our plans got changed and today we facilitated Day 2 of our school outreach program! It went great! The team is doing as amazing as ever leading their groups in the competitions. The language barrier hasn't been much of an obstacle as the team finds new ways to communicate, and everyone loves them! Lots of hugs, high-fives, and Who-Rahs going on! And since the prison team joined us today, we had extra help making a total of 220 sandwiches!

The champion team of the two-day camp (Abbie M's team!) was treated by to a dinner with us at Pizza Hut (a big deal around here), and we had a great night hanging out, celebrating and building relationships with them!

Weback early enough to take some much needed time for silent reflection, and then headed to bed early to prep for tomorrow's excitement! (The girls actually REQUESTED giving up the only air conditioned room, and giving it to the boys, who gratefully accepted)

That's all for now- we've been so blessed with the ability to update you with each day's activities, we hope we'll continue to get wi-fi access regularly! If not, we promise to post as we can!!!

In the meantime, here are a couple shots from today:

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Day 2

Wow, we got a great nights rest and woke up ready for the day! Tyler, Jordan M, and Adam headed back to the prison for another great day of programs with the isolated sectors, and the rest of the team headed to the Injuve Gym to run Day 1 of the School Outreach (very similar to the Camp Strength many of them attended last summer). It was awesome to see the team step up as leaders and coaches to facilitate the competitions and energize the kids!

After sharing lunch with the group, we jumped in to more competitions, small groups, leadership talks, and just having a blast!

The prison team joined us in the afternoon where Jordan L lead a huge conference of people in Spanish worship songs! It was amazing!

We grabbed an early dinner, then went out to debrief over ice cream!

Missing you all! Prayers for Jordan L as he overcomes some sickness!

Day 1

We landed safely, and after a late night and early morning, the trip is already in full swing!

After breakfast at our amazing chefs house, the "soccer team" (Jordan L, Jordan M, and Adam) left with Tyler to head to the prison. The rest of the team was asked to run a half-day program for 50 students from a local high school. The team did an AMAZING job! We're so proud of them already!

We had a fabulous lunch before heading back to the gym to organize supplies and take it easy for the afternoon- but some unexpected friends showed up in the form of a girls soccer team hoping to spend the afternoon with us. So our team, with amazing upbeat attitudes, sacrificed their precious nap-time and swung into action throwing together a program for the team complete with a talk, reflection, and soccer game!

Things with the prison team went great as well, they spent the day visiting with a sector of isolated inmates, and really enjoyed building relationships with them!

We reunited for an early dinner and frozen drinks, and headed back to the gym to debrief, plan for Day 2, and get to bed early!

We will do our best to continue to keep you posted here, and we're working on getting active cell phones to start calling home!

Keep the prayers coming for our team!!

Here are a few pictures from today's school outreach! We love you all!