Monday July 19

Someone mentioned they were having a hard time seeing people in the photos. If you click on the photos the will appear larger.

Hola from El Salvador, it’s Shelby, Amber, and Kylie! The girls started off the day by singing Happy Birthday to Ali and video- taping it, followed up by breakfast that Joe, Bill, and Logan cooked for us. After a great breakfast Lauren gave an awesome Devo that really opened up our hearts and minds and prepared us for the day that we had ahead of us.
Shortly after Lauren’s Devo, Joe informed us that we were in for a surprise. We had the opportunity to visit a girl orphanage. The girls were from ages 4 to 16. When we first arrived the children were jumping and clapping for joy, just to see us. They had no idea that we had even brought VBS, crafts, candy, etc. There were two women that were in charge of the whole operation. They told us their stories and how it all came together. Neither one of the women were from El Salvador, they were from Costa Rica and Spain. They gave up their lives and brought their own families to El Salvador, just to start the orphanage. They told us that all the girls had been sexually abused; one 14 year old girl even had her own one year old daughter that stayed at the orphanage with her. Despite all the things that they had suffered through in their lives, they were so happy and so joyful. Even though we had come to El Salvador to help them, they helped us in many ways. To start off things, Larry told them the Bible story about David and Golieth and Lauren led the group in song. Then, we had crafts with them and they made bracelets and Shelby and Ali painted the kids faces. When all the fun was over, they led us into the church and a few of the girls did a dance for us. As we were climbing in the van, getting ready to leave they all started climbing in the van. As we drove away they waved and ran towards the van. I know it broke all of our hearts.
After we visited the orphanage, we went back to the church and had our famous lunch, PB&Js. When we were finished most of us went to the parsonage and dug a ditch to drain the water away from the house. The man that was house sitting this house, until the pastor’s assistant moved in was named Cornelia. The house was made of concrete walls and dirt floor, there were many rooms but only one was occupied. He had a bed with no mattress and he used cardboard for blankets. He also had a hammock and a table with a few clothes laying on it. It was so amazing to see that someone who lived like this had bought presents for Amber, Lauren, and Pamela, earlier in the week. Even though we came to his house to help him, he was giving gifts to us. Everyone we have met here so far is so giving and so kind hearted, even though they live like this, they still have so much to give.
After we finished working, we came back to the church and had a very good taco salad. Larry gave a great Devo that really made us rethink our salvation and then we finished with a few praise songs. Then we got into a few small groups to talk about our trip so far and we finished the day off with birthday cake for Ali.

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