So this is day numero cinco for team Happy Feet and I in El Salvador. We just finished worshipping at the awesome Primer Templo Christiano church in San Vicente!
Its crazy awesome to be here in Apastepeque El Salvador (which is about 15 mins outside of San Vicente) doing our Father’s work. It also has a volcano nearby…that I plan to climb and conquer! haha. Everything is so different here…even the cows look different haha. There are so many new things to see and experience! I’m so stoked for experiencing it all. There is, however, one thing that isn’t different here – the gospel and the passion of God’s followers to share it. I’ve been to two different church services here and man are these people crazy about Jesus and living a life pleasing to Him! There are plenty of people here that still need to hear of Jesus’s love here. It seems that religious views are pretty drastic here – either you are a Christian, a catholic, or nothing at all. There doesn’t seem too much middle ground so far. Like if you love Jesus here, you really really love Him. These people seem so ready for Jesus to move here. All the Christians that I have met have the faith that healing (of any type) can happen, and that God is the ultimate provider. Which is awesome. These people are definitally an encouragement in my personal faith in Christ.
I have already checked off a lot of firsts off my list. I am continually staring at the scenery and all the new sights, sounds, and smells that this country has to offer. Another thing that I am getting used to is the interesting forms of transportation that we have. One of the most interesting was riding in a 12 passenger van with 22 people for almost two hours… yeah, it was tight. I reckon that’s one of those “only on the world race” things haha. The house we are staying at is amazing. My team and one other team are staying together in this beautiful yellow house.
It was just finished being renovated so it is all clean and new. One of my favorite parts about it is that in the corridor where you get to all of the rooms, kitchen, shower, and bathroom is open air. Like I could stand outside and look up at the stars simply by stepping out of my room. There are 3 bedrooms here, the girls on my team in one, the girls from the other team in another, and the last has all of the boys. There isn’t any furniture here but we hardly even notice. We have out sleeping pads and sleeping bags and are perfectly content. We have been spared the hardship of a squatty potty this month, and are blessed with a western toilet. We have a full shower and a big refrigerator too! All of our meals are cooked by our ministry contacts Victor and Sara. They both go to the university in San Vicente…which happens to be the only university in El Salvador. I love getting to taste the local foods cooked by our amazing hosts. One favorite I have here is something called a papusa. It’s kinda like a tortilla that has cheese, beans, and rice in the middle of it. They also have some sauce that reminds me of V8 that you put on it – which is really good. You can get 3 of them PLUS a drink for like $1.25 – epic 🙂 Another favorite food is a chocobanana! It's a frozen banana dipped in chocolate and has candy sprinkles! So good on the extra hot days 😉
We’ve had two active days of ministry so far and it has been awesome. We are traveling to local communities and praying for them and for random people that happen to invite us into their home. After we establish our teams as missionaries in the area that will be helping in the communities then we will start performing dramas for them, and maybe even help repair some housing. It surprises me how willing these people are to talk to the crazy gringos that only want to talk about Jesus haha. It has been difficult for me with the language barrier though. I want so badly to be able to fluently communicate with these amazing and unique people. All of the sudden I wished I had paid more attention in Spanish class in high school…oops haha 😉
We also got to go see the beach at La Libertad and spend a whole day down there. It was my first time swimming in the Pacific Ocean. The sand was grey/black which was pretty weird because I’ve never seen that before. I got a cool bracelet there as a souvenir that was made by some local women. My team has been awesome so far! We are starting to share testimonies, and getting to know each other more now. We have what is called “feedback” every night to help each other out. During feedback we tell each other what we saw that was good that day, and sometimes something that we saw that we think that person could improve upon. It’s pretty cool to have that type of communication between my teammates and I. I’m about to run out of time so I’ll wrap up this first blog from the field. I wanted to add a huge THANK YOU!!!! To everyone that has supported me in any way. I would not be here living out this calling from God without all of your help, so thank you 🙂 You have no idea how much it means to me to have that kind of support! I am praying for all of you guys!
If you haven’t supported me yet, and want to it’s simple. You can offer me financial help at any time by clicking on the “support me” tab on the left side of the page, you can pray for my team and I as we begin the ministry here, or you can simply share the link to my blog on your fb wall or in emails to people. I want tons of people to follow along on this journey, and be touched by the stories that God is going to tell you.
