Incredible Day

Our day started by being picked up at 8:00am.  As we were getting picked up the President of El Salvador was coming and he was getting out of the car as we were pulling out.  It was a neat experience to see the secret service and the bomb sniffing dogs and that stuff.  

 We went to Casa De Mi Padre (My Father’s House) and got a tour of the house.  We got to meet the kids.  The only kids at the orphanage in the morning were the toddlers- Daniel- one of the kids who’s dad was a witch doctor -and a couple of kids who are so far behind that they can’t find a school to take them. 

We spent the morning painting rooms .  It was amazing how much we got in the morning.  The afternoon we spent playing with the kids.  When they got home from school we gave out some of the soccer balls and footballs and the kids loved them.  Everyone really connected with at least one or two kids. 

I could tell you stories about Mirna who has 1/8 brain.  She can’t eat or walk or communicate.   She was told she couldn’t live past 8 months and she’s still going.  Rachel spent a lot of the day caring for her, feeding her taking her out in her stroller.  There’s also Salvador who they believe is autistic but aren’t sure.  We could tell story after story about the kids. 

There are a brother and sister who were given to the orphanage by their mother.  She gave them because their father had sacrificed the other 2 children living in the house because he is a witch doctor.  All of us were really affected by the children.  The loved to be held and hugged and really didn’t like to be put down. 

Our Puppet Show went really well.  The kids seemed to really like it.  We also gave them all little troll dolls and the kids had lots of fun with that. 

After the puppet show we made puppets out of brown bags with the kids and they loved decorating their puppets by coloring and putting stickers on.  It really was an awesome day.

We topped it off by celebrating Sharlene’s Birthday at Pollo Compdraes (a typical El Salvadorian restaurant. 

Everyone worked really hard today and we’re looking for to a great day tomorrow.  we have to go to bed now because we’re getting picked up at 7am tomorrow so we can make sure we get all the painting done before the kids go to school.  Please pray that we will be open to all that God is teaching us. 

Wow, I’m tired

We put in a FULL day today.  Mostly visiting with the missionaries and directors of orphanages and going to church. 

 We started this morning by being picked up at 7:30am.  We went to church at Terra Fuerta.  It was a great experience.  Dayna did a song in Spanish for the whole church for both services and it went really well.  I gave a testimony.  It went well too.  We got home from church at about 1:30 and ate a quick lunch before being picked up to go visit the land that My Father’s House (the main orphanage we’re working with) just bought.  That was probably the best experience of the day for most of us.  I’ll post some pictures of the incredible view from the land.  (if you hold the mouse over a picture it will tell you what the picture is of). The plan that they have is amazing for the way they want to transform orphanage living in El Salvador.  It’s something we all got really excited about.  We can share more about it when  we get home.   The ride to and from the land was CRAZY!!!  We all rode in the back of a pick up that was doing about 70mph on the highway.  It was absolute madness.  Then we went down some cazy dirt roads and hills.  Just madness and totally awesome all at the same time. 

After visiting the land we went and bought supplies for our work tomorrow.  paint, paint brushes etc. 

After that we went to church at Gary’s house (the director of My Father’s house.  That was a neat experiecne meeting with some local missionaries.  While were there the lights went out because it was so windy.  Victoria actually wore a scarf.  It’s really not that cold though, just windy.  It’s about 62 at night.  They tell us it’s a cold front.  After church we went to dinner and went over our program for the orphanage tomorrown and now it’s time for bed.  I’ll post a couple pics tonight, but i’m exhausted already so not too many. 

WE’RE HERE!!!

Well we made it.  It was a great day! We got a call at 3:00am that our flights had completely changed.  We were all frustrated because instead of making one stop in Atlanta and arriving in El Salvador at 1:00pm, they re-routed us to atlanta then to houston, then to san salvador and we would have arrived at 9:00pm.  That really would have been a long day and then we are getting picked up for church at 7am.  Well we got the airport and our check in person was awesome!!! She said there was no reason to re-route us and we would propably make our connecting flights.   God was really good to us!  They didn’t weigh our bags this morning and some of them were definitely overweight so that saved us a lot of hassle.  

The ride from the airport was aweome!  This is a really beautiful country.  Way more mountainous (if that’s a word)  than any of us expected.  Outside our window is a beautiful volcano (inactive). 

I went grocery shopping and Jon went to the orphanage and met with Kurt (the missionary).  It looks like the plans are coming together quite well for the week.  It looks like we might even get to an AIDS orphanage on Wednesday.  We’re all looking forward to a GREAT week.  Continue to pray for us and we miss you all very much!  Gotta go to dinner.    pics to come soon…

WE’RE Packed!

Last night we finished our packing.  We packed donated goods inton 13 full size suitcases and duffel bags including the stuff from Dick’s and the bears and toys and crayons and all kinds of stuff.  I’ve attached some pictures below.

Countdown to El Salvador III

Tomorrow is officially packing day.  I was working on packing my stuff the other night and managed to get everything into one backpack.  I was pretty proud of myself.  We got even more donations from people at our Cranberry and Waterworks Campus’.  Discovery is an awesome and generous church to be a part of.  Thank you to all of you who bought bracelets and DVDs and wreaths and to those of you who donated time and money to make this trip possible. 

 So I went to the House of Chen for lunch yesterday and you know what my fortune cookie said, “You will travel far and wide for both business and pleasure.”  Well I leave Saturday for El Salvador and I’m home for 4 days then leave for a family Disney vacation.  I think I’ll play the numbers the fortune cookie gave me.  (Just Kidding)  It was funny because Toney got the same exact fortune and he’s not going anywhere. 

I hope you all are enjoying the snow, because i love it!  But i guess between El Salvador and Orlando, Florida I won’t be seeing much more of it.  All this snow makes me miss my Colorado Mancation last month. Snowmass, Co

Countdown To El Salvador II

Well the airline hasn’t been too helpful so we’re going to have to be really creative with how we pack.  We need the biggest duffel bags we can find so if any of you out there in cyberspace have huge duffel bags or even better soft-sided golf travel bags or army duffel bags that would be great.  Just let me know. 

 On another note, we’re going to try to post pictures and possibly videos or our daily experiences on this blog so be sure to check it out everyday while we’re gone. 

We’d love to hear from those of you that read this blog too.  Maybe some words of encouragement for the team while we are gone or getting ready to go. 

Countdown To El Salvador

Well i guess the countdown to El Salvdor has officially begun.  We are leaving on February 17.  Everything is coming together real well.  Actually as I started to write this post Dick’s Sporting Goods delivered some donations for us to take down.  Here’s what they delivered unfortunately it wasn’t $4000 worth of merchandise…IT WAS $8000 WORTH OF MERCHANDISE.  The truck pulled up with 3 pallets of stuff to unload into our office.  Here’s what we got:
20 soccer kits
each kit contains
2 soccer balls
1 coaches bag
8 cones
12 pinnies
1 clipboard
1 air pump
1 whistle with lanyard

40 football kits
each kit contains:
2 footballs
1 coaches bag
10 cones
1 clipboard
1 whistle with lanyard
1 pinnie

So in total we got:
40 soccer balls
80 footballs
560 cones
60 coaches bags
60 clipboards
280 pinnies
20 airpumps
60 whistles with lanyards

I’m going to call the airlines today about us taking more luggage.  The kids at the orphanages are going to be thrilled!