El Salvador, how do I sum up El Salvador? So many awesome experiences this month it’s hard to write a blog about it all!
The YWAM (Youth with a mission) community is fantastic! We have lived at the San Salvador base all month and we have really gotten to know the YWAM’ers well and built great friendships. I’m truly going to miss this place and all the amazing people!
^we also did some painting around the YWAM base^
This month we worked alongside YWAM in a slum area of San Salvador that is controlled by the 18th street gang which is one of the large gangs in the city. In this area, we held a feeding program twice a week serving kids a hot meal. Also, YWAM holds adult Bible studies in this area. During these Bible studies we watched the kids and played games with them and just loved them. We also helped with a VBS for the children which was super fun. Not only did we do outreach in this slum area of San Salvador we also did some street ministry. Every week we went to a park area outside a local hospital and served cookies and coffee to people there who were waiting for family members or just chilling on a nice day. With coffee and cookies usually a conversation would start and people would be so open with their lives, about their struggles and hurts they were experiencing and so on. We always ended our interactions with prayer for them and their families. On several occasions people would start to cry just simply because someone cared enough to talk with them and show them the love of Christ. In the evenings once a week we went to the streets and did prostitute ministry, which simply looked like talking with prostitutes and transvestites about their lives and offering a hope in Christ and offering to pray for them. Many of these people are in a dark place in their lives so it was such a blessing that we got to shine a light for them.
^the feeding program^
This month as been a month of breaking down the comfort zones. I’m not someone who usually just walks up to total strangers and strikes a conversation but this month totally wrecked that for me! I have really enjoyed reaching out to people and praying for them it’s amazing what the power of prayer can do. San Salvador taught me to reach out to people of all walks of life and to not be scared of the unknown or what people might say or think. Everyone is in need of Christs love so why hold that back?!
What was Christmas like in El Salvador you ask? Well in El Salvador everyone celebrates on Christmas eve by eating a big dinner at 10pm then shooting off fireworks all night until midnight! The whole city was doing it, and it almost sounded like we were in the middle of a war! My team did a secret Santa gift exchange as well and we got each other things that we needed like toothpaste and chocolate, you know the necessities 😉 I hope everyone had a great Christmas and a blessed new year! Thanks for all the support and prayers!
