God is so good! The last week or so since I left Kansas has been absolutely amazing! I cannot believe this is my life now. After four days of World Race Launch in Hollywood, Florida, my squad flew out of Miami last Friday and after a minor hiccup getting through customs all 44 of us arrived safely in San Salvador.
(My team with some of our contacts: Jacky, Jenny, and Vanessa)
My team thought we were going to be in La Libertad this month with Team Tharros, but it turns out they were only expecting one team, so one of us would need to go to San Vicente instead. Team Abide 15:5 volunteered and WOW has the Lord blessed us here. We are living above a church with Pastor Oscar, his wife Jacky, her parents and Papa Julio. They are such a welcoming, loving family and we have already fallen in love with them! There are several other teenagers involved in the church that hang out with us everyday and help translate, cook us meals and make us laugh. There's always people coming and going, including a group of about 20 Canadians. We are far from roughing it. We have beds, a shower, WIFI, and even a washer and dryer! The only thing that I don't like is the lizards that crawl around the walls downstairs, but I'm getting over it. My favorite food here is papusas–tortillas stuffed with beans and cheese. The church runs a little store out of it's kitchen sometimes so we basically have 24/7 access to soda and snacks and a freezer full of chocolate dipped bananas.
(Angelito, Oscar and Jacky's nephew–Papa calls him the Mini Michelin Man)
Our ministry this month will include lots of different things, from organizing youth camps, to visiting schools, leading worship, cleaning the church, and spending time talking to people in the local community.
I feel like we've already been here for weeks. The first few days have been filled with laughter, dance parties, worship and soaking up the sun. Monday is our free day so today we met up with four of the other teams at the beach in La Libertad. I even got to try to surf!
Miss you all!
XOXO,
Bethany
