Day 9

Yep - a slow photo op day. That's my leg/foot - the bug bites are about gone - so that's a good thing. Center photo is the rest of the group listening to the sermon from a translator and the 3rd is my room. Hey a bed is a bed so just the cozy computer corner.

What a great SONday! Breakfast is provided in our hotel package so we had eggs, toast and fruit. Then our team traveled together by van to CCI – a huge Baptist church that meets in a Holiday Inn conference center. We estimate nearly 1,000 attended! The worship music was great and the message was really good too. This church provided us with headsets that gave us an English translator. The message was so good that Carol and I asked if it was available on a tape or CD. Unfortunately it was not – but we took a lot of notes. Although it seems amazing to receive such a blessing – in verse by verse format here – doesn't it confirm that God's Word is True, alive and written for everyone? On young man on the team, Adam (18), said hearing the different language at the same time of the interpretation made him think of the tower of Babel. Pretty much everyone agreed that although we were far from home – God made sure we were “fed” well today.

Buses, buses everywhere! Seems today was a political protest against the FMLN party. THe socialist party is not happy with the administration that ran under their ticket. Seem the president has his own agenda now and that is not setting well with the people. (hmmmm-that sounds somewhat familiar...)It was a sea of red shirts, flags and banners unloading off buses all the way to the area where we planned to go for lunch. Our Sunday dinner in El Salvador was from a Chinese menu! I had an egg roll and Carol had some sort of creamy chicken soup. She said it was good.

I had a surprise SKYPE call from my home church, Cornerstone! What a treat to see all my friends and some of my family. I miss them all - but I KNOW this is where I am suppose to be and hopefully Carol is as confident in her decision to come with me....she says she gets why I love serving here. Thanks again to everyone for your support - especially our husbands. It really is a sacrifice for them to do with out us for 2 weeks!

Our afternoon project was dividing up the donated supplies for the individual projects we will be doing. Each of us store a day's projects in our room and are responsible for getting it to the van on our day. After that task was done, Mark, Adam, and Mike escorted Carol and me to the nearby store (think mini Wal-mart) for some groceries. I needed my branflakes, milk and ice cream.

We took taxis to a nearby mall. We ate a "Tony Roma's". The food was excellent but the best treat was hearing the full story of Bridges of Hope and the testimony of Janet Michel (the founder and our leader). God has really worked in her life and we better understand WHY she is called to do this work in Central America.

It is late of course and Carol and I just had a surprise blessing in the laundry room. We met a really sweet young woman in the laundry room that is visiting El Salvador from California. She shared the story of a miracle their family had received this past year. Its a long and beautiful story we can share with you when we see you. We have exchanged emails to hopefully keep in touch. We love the creative way God has been putting people in our pathway!

Prayer Requests:Monday I give the devotion for the team. Pray for me as I present what God has laid on my heart. I think it will be my acronym for HOPE (He's Our Perfect Example) and perhaps a message on trusting God. This is a visual that we didn't get to use with the Children's ministry last week so thought we might as well not let that go to waste. We meet the group "Los Discipulos" Monday afternoon. We will spend a couple of hours with the x-gang members - listening to their stories and building a relationship with them. This is so key to our projects. These boys need acceptance and to see the love of Jesus in us. We are looking forward to meeting them. Carol and I feel they may need to know a couple of loving grandmas. Pray they receive the love and acceptance from our team that they deserve as new Believers in Christ.

In the afternoon we will be going to Bloom Children's Hospital to pass out toys and pray with kids and their families. This can be pretty emotional. It is so difficult to see the sick kids. This is the first trip for Katie, Kyle, Mike, Mark, Adam and Carol. Pray for their (and my) emotional and spiritual strength as we work through a week of heart wrenching projects.

Until next time........