After a full day of travel on Wednesday, October 6th, in which we rode in a 15 (made 9 person due to luggage) passenger van. Our driver had a passenger the entire way from Antigua to El Salvador…however, that passenger changed 3 different times on the road. PICK ‘EM UP!!! (obscure Dumb and Dumber reference…) The 6 hour van ride went well, and we had no troubles getting across the border! Praise God!
After finally finding the church we will be helping in San Salvador, we got to relax a bit before going to the TeenChallenge center. For those of you who don’t know what that is, as I was one of those a couple days ago, TeenChallenege is an organization started in the US,which is now worldwide, that has programs and buildings dedicated to helping men and women, old and young, get out of addictions, especially to drugs and alcohol. The program in San Salvador is only for men right now, though they hope to open a facility for women as well soon. We arrived in time to get oriented and then sit in on a worship time. No musical instruments needed, they clapped the entire 20 minute worship set. Loudly. My hands were a bit sore by the end. We all got up and gave our own testimonies and how we were called to the World Race and answered questions. Seeing their passion was really great!
We were able to go to the house of a pastor in the church who is letting us stay, as well as cooking our meals, what a huge blessing! Stephani and I went into our room, and dropped our stuff. As we were getting ready for bed, we shut the door to the outside hallway and a relatively large spider thought it’d be a fantastic idea to come inside. Granted, I don’t like spiders. Nor does Stephani. So we went to the next best thing and woke Shaun up. He stumbled in, killed it with little emotion, and stumbled back to his bed. It was really a lot more traumatic than it sounds. Ants and small cockroaches are also typical insects here in El Salvador, and this morning I even saw a little gecko. I suppose this will take some getting used to.
Thursday we sat down and figured out what we’ll be doing the next week or so. On our days off we’ll be visiting the Mayan ruins, climbing ANOTHER volcano, and going to the beach. Weekdays will be spent doing a wide variety of things, including leading services at TeenChallenge, street evangelism (gonna have to work on this one), helping at orphanages, church services, and doing whatever needs done.
Today, Friday, we went to a Children’s hospital, and after standing outside on the street holding a sign saying ‘Christo Te Ama’ for an hour or so, we were able to go into the Children’s Cancer Hospital and pray for the kids and their parents. Because of language barriers and the children being relatively sick, we didn’t get to do much more than that. But I know that prayer is powerful and effective, and God does all things to accomplish His good will. Tonight we go back to TeenChallenge to attend another service.
the river and shacks by the TeenChallenge center.Fast Facts:
El Salvador has a great relationship with America, and has spent the last 10 years ‘Americanizing’ San Salvador. This means that there are Wendy’s, BK,McDonalds, KFC, and even a Tony Romas.
It also means that they’re using US Dollars, which is nice for the conversion rate.
I should have paid more attention in Spanish class. Some is coming back, but I’m still having a difficult time adjusting.
Can’t flush toilet paper. It goes in a wastebasket next to the toilet.
Can’t eat fresh fruit without washing the outside with bleach water.
I can get a Coca-Cola anywhere….and I do.
