We finally made it to El Salvador! We arrived on Wednesday afternoon, but this is the first time I’ve had wifi to post about it.
We are now living in a little beach town on the coast of El Salvador. We live in a cute little church about five minutes from the beach. We sleep on the second story, which is really just a raised deck. (Which we call the tree-house) We thought we were going to be living in the orphanage, but we actually just visit the orphanage a couple times a week. We were kind of disappointed at first, but we are settling in very well, and are finding ways to do ministry in areas that stretch us.
We absolutely love our contact, Andrea. She is very welcoming, and funny. She already feels like an older sister to all of us.
So far we have been weeding the church’s garden, washing the walls of the classroom, etc. Just finding ways to bless our contact.
This country is so beautiful! Green leafy plants everywhere! Palm trees, coconuts, etc. It is very hot and humid though. We are sweaty. A lot. But like I said we do live on the beach. So, after ministry we go to the beach and cool off. My team mates and I found out what a rip tide is, first hand. It is around like five in the afternoon here, and it makes the waves HUGE! And super strong. A couple of us are wanting to learn how to surf soon. Not on a rip tide of course. But some time!
The language barrier is hard too. No one on my team speaks Spanish anywhere near fluently. So talking to the locals is a little bit of a struggle. We know how to say hello (obviously) and good morning, good afternoon, and good night. And we are always asking our contact how to say this or that.
We go to the orphanage on Fridays to do discipleship. And we help out with the church on Saturdays. (They do church on Saturdays, cause most people here have to work Sundays, because that’s a big tourist day)
It is also rainy season here. Which is part of the reason its so humid. But it only rains at night. I haven’t seen it rain yet cause I’m always asleep. Which makes me sad, cause I love rain.
I naturally like to keep busy, so this month will be a challenge for me. We don’t have a ton of ministry to do, and at first I was really upset. I wanted to be busy, so the time would fly by, and I would feel that I was here for a reason. So I had a purpose. But I think I was relying on my family and friends and keeping busy to get away from the hard stuff in life. God definitely knows how to stretch me.
One thing I have learned is to be careful when you as God for something. Make sure you can handle it. Because He will give it to you. I asked God to make me need Him. And now I do. And it’s hard. Really hard. But it’s really good too. He is working things in me that I didn’t even know I needed to work on.
This year will definitely be a crazy year!
