Thursday we went to a resort in El Salvador and got to take a ton of kids from the St. Vincent DePaul Orphanage.  We swam with them and had a blast playing chicken and “Marco polo.” We also got to take the kids to the beach and for a lot of them it was their first time seeing the ocean!  Afterwards we all went to eat some authentic Salvadoran food at the resort. It was delicious!  - Elle Farley … Today the whole group went to the beach to visit with boys and girls from an orphanage. At the beach all of us played games like chicken fight, marco polo, and sharks and minis wit ..read more

Wednesday we went to Walmart to buy things for the family because we had finished the house the day before and we just needed to get some essentials like clothes, food and toys for the family. These simple things that we get to enjoy every day, others simply don’t have. Picking out clothes for all the people in the family just made me so happy!  They don’t often get new thing’s, especially clothes, so it made me happy to think that these kids who were around my age had new clothes that they could feel good in. After this we met up with the rest of the groups and we had so many cart ..read more

Today was my favorite day so far. After getting up and ready we went straight to the building site. My group was assigned to help start building the community center; we were tasked with moving 2,000 concrete blocks about 30 meters. Also we were to dig five holes each six feet deep.  When the truck of blocks arrived we made an assembly line from it to the new site. Once we got a rhythm  the blocks were almost floating from one side to the other. We were not all needed so I occasionally switched out to dig. Digging was truly my favorite part. For me I think it was because I loved to ..read more

Sunday the team had a lot of fun in a local village. Here’s first hand experiences from a couple of our team members … Being in el salvador has opened my perspective on how these people actually live a day to day life. Today, we were able to host a festival where kids from neighboring villages came to have their face painted, play sports, listen to music, sit in on a storytelling, and enjoy food. Personally, I loved this part of the day as kids always have a soft spot in my heart. I was able to bond with kids over the few words of spanish I know, and even play soccer with a group of boys! See ..read more

The team arrived Saturday & got settled in with Sus Hijos before heading to The States Diner for lunch.  Last night the team worked together to pack sandwiches, chips, drinks & T-shirts for the homeless. Then, a portion of the group headed out into San Salvador to feed those in need. Here are a couple of accounts from two of out team members.… Feeding the homeless always starts out with joy ridden expressions and laughter from speaking bad Spanish. But as soon as you start to realize the impact of poverty on people in the city, you are moved to take it more serious.  In ..read more

  Today we started off at the potential future mission house for Sus Hijos. We were able to tour the property and pray for guidance as decisions are made for the future.  Then we rode a couple hours to the beach to meet up with our friends from San Martin for a beach/pool day. It was full of water guns, laughing, and of course dancing!  The ocean was a bit rough, but we jumped some waves together and hung out in the pool for a few hours. There were smiles all around! “Mightier than the waves of the sea is His love for you” -Psalm 93:4  Before the San Martin ..read more

Our team today began the morning with a quick tour of States Bakes, another part of the Sus Hijos organization. This bakery provides training and job opportunities for several young people who otherwise might not find employment. They bake and produce breads for 8 businesses and the restaurants operated by Sus Hijos.  Next up was a trip south of San Salvador to Santa Ana and the Ciudad de los Niños y Adolesciencias (CNA) orphanage for children. We were able to spend some one and one time with the children there playing games, and giving them shoes, treats, and clothes.    This ..read more

 The team had some technical difficulties with yesterday’s post, but please check back for it later this afternoon or evening!  ..read more

Today was the most challenging day but it was also so rewarding. We started off the day by loading all the walls and supplies to build the house, which went pretty quickly this year. On the way to the site we got to stop at a gas station which made some team members  super excited  because the snacks here are so flavorful and tasty!  Once we got to the location we had to travel up and down muddy hills and rocks to get to where we needed to build the house which had its fair share of falls and struggles. Building the house(s) is always challenging but it feels so good ..read more

 Today started early with everyone getting on the bus at 8:00am. We went to our first orphanage and started off with our skit. Afterwards, we all went outside and played soccer, basketball, and water balloons.  While everyone was playing games a missionary named Rocky led an older group, warning them about the danger of drugs. We wrapped up by making arts and crafts and giving the kids their gifts. The kids faces lit up when the saw the gifts! We finished at that orphanage by buying a table of art that they made. This helped support their art program.  Next we all w ..read more