Mission: El Salvador

Monday was our first day of waking up extremely early.  Most of us were up a couple hours earlier than we needed to be since the clocks on our phones did not automatically update to El Salvador time.  We had devotions at 6:45 before departing for Iglesia Ezel at 7:30 to do some construction.  The first thing we had to do at the church was move gravel down five flights of stairs via the bucket brigade.  A truck unloaded a large amount of sand on the street and gave us some 90 lb bags of cement mix to carry downstairs, which was six flights down.  The team pitched in on mixing the concrete by shovel in order to finish the playground area for the kids at the church.  At 2 we started VBS with the kids and the team members were in charge of various age groups.  We had two Bible story stations about Nicodemus and Philip the Ethiopian eunuch and a couple craft stations where the kids made mobiles and fans.  There were about 188 kids at Vacation Bible School at Iglesia Ezel, including the teens that were learning to share their testimonies with Tim, Lori, Jenna, and Andrew.  After VBS we came back to the mission house to have some dinner and relax before sharing time and prayer.

Today we started off with devotions again and went to Iglesia bright and early at 8AM.  A few of us went straight to the kid’s playground again to start mixing and spreading  large batches of concrete.  Jordan, Randy, Carlton, and George were on the top floor tiling the walls of the new bathrooms that were built during this past year.  Lori, Jessi, Laura, Kelsey, Kate, Briana, Amanda, and Lisa were painting either the bathroom or the outside walls along the stairwell.  Altogher, the construction lasted about 4 hours and we started preparing the church for  the eyeglass and dental clinic.  We started at about 2PM today and many Salvadorians from around the church area came to receive toothbrushes, floss, toothpaste, and also eyeglasses if they needed them.  The eyeglass clinic took place below the sanctuary where we had two sunday school rooms being used for the observations.  This was something new that our team did this year and we saw good results.  At the end, the gospel was presented and many of the members from Iglesia Ezel prayed with the locals coming in.  As a result, we know of at least 4-6 who made spiritual decisions!  After tallying up the numbers, we estimated there were about 300 that attended.  We cleaned up and headed to the mission home where our wonderful cooking team prepared bbq chicken sandwiches and chips.  Around 6:30, some members from the church picked some of the team up and drove us to a park to have our annual “Gringos vs Salvadorians Basketball Tourney.”  The young USA men took home the crown this year and the Gringo girls played with the church ladies, kids, and some of the men also.  We stayed a couple hours, headed home, and finished up the night with prayer and sharing.  An excellent day and looking forward to what God has on our agenda for tomorrow!  Stay tuned…

God Bless