As beautiful as the ocean was, the pool was my favorite.  We had a great time swimming and relaxing in our hammocks.  Katie and Ali met their future husband, Kenny, a surfer from California. We also watch Shelby get re-affirmed. We got to choose from steak, chicken, and fish for lunch… Much better than PB&J! A ton of pictures were taken of the scenery and our amazing group! The pastor and his wife came along for the ride as well, which was a great bonding experience.

After a great day at the resort we got back on the bus and went to one of the largest malls in San Miguel to look for souvenirs and get pizza. Everyone seemed to find something and really enjoyed the pizza where we also celebrated Joe and Kylie’s birthdays.  We arrived back to the church and shared our God sightings. Joe led us in a great devotion. Now comes the hard part…time to pack. It’s going to be hard to leave, but we’re ready to get back to our family! I know we all had an awesome time!!!

Sadly this is our last blog for this trip. We hope you have enjoyed keeping up with our adventures in El Salvador.

           Well, we have come to the end of our last work day here in Chinameca. I am glad to say that we were able to finish all the projects we started. I hope you all have enjoyed the blogs and that they will help encourage you to join a future team.  As many of you know by now each evening we have a devo. and share our God sightings for the day. Every trip that I have been a part of, Father has sent me an angel and He has been faithful once again. Today I was alone walking back from the clinic with a ladder and a bucket of painting supplies when a man in his seventies came running up to me. I was a little confused at first but, soon realized that he wanted to help carry my load. He took the bucket and walked with me back to the church without a word being said except “gracias”. It doesn’t matter because my ears would not have understood but, my heart did. I don’t know his name but I know who he is. He is Humble, willing to serve the servant. He is Thankful, whether  you are helping him or his neighbor he will thank you. He is Love, living the simple life that the Lord has given him in peace, happy for the blessings and being an angel for a “loco gringo” who never ceases to be amazed by Gods’ grace.

Thank you to all the youth that are on this trip, you make me young again. Thank you to all you first time adults for sharing and putting up with me. And my loving friends who have held me up in weakness and loved me even when I’m wrong, thank you. To my family at home who knows me and loves me anyways I thank God for you. First and foremost I thank my Jesus for loving me.

Little Buddy, Papas’ coming home.

                                                                     wayne

HEYY my Fabulous family and friends!! I have been waiting all week to write you! Wow WOW WEE WOW! (That’s a Katie Tiger phrase) I just thought I was blessed…God has revealed so many new blessings to me this week and it’s just Day 6 and it’s not over! First of all, the devil did not want me (or Jimmy) on this trip at all! As most of you know, the day before we left Jimmy and I were in a bad wreck on I40 and ONLY by the Grace of God walked away from it, a true miracle. I am overwhelmed by His great Love that has been revealed to me through the people of Chinameca as well as our group from the Glade. We have had small groups every night after our God Sightings and Devotion and that has probably been one of the most powerful things of the whole trip. CHAINS BROKEN! BARRIERS KNOCKED DOWN! LIVES TRANSFORMED! HALLELUJAH!!! I learned so much through my recent internship for Evangelism that just ended July 9th and it has set me up and prepared me for topics and questions that have come up here. I praise God for that opportunity and how it prepared me for such situations. I am so proud of our youth and all of you should be too. Not only because of their willingness to come on this trip when they could be laying out at home or hanging with friends, etc, but because of how they have opened up their hearts and minds and touched God’s people in another country, even with a language barrier God is shining through them all. I praise God for their boldness and their obedience!! Obedience has truly been the word that God has placed on my heart this entire trip. Every night in small group, somehow or another, the word obedience comes out in my response.
I was walking back to the church from the work site on Tuesday and I heard a guitar and singing somewhere inside the yard of the church. After leading music acapella the first night I ran to them and started singing! They spoke pretty good English and I clicked with them immediately! They loved the good ole hymns as well as contemporary songs, so we got along perfect! After singing “How Great Thou Art” one of the guys, Arnoldo, looked at me and said, “That reminds me of my grandmother.” I explained to him that it reminded me of mine as well because they both played the piano and sang and how my Papa loves all of the Hymns. Arnoldo said, “Yes, but my grandmother died.” I replied, “I understand both of mine have too, but great memories!” Talk about connecting and a moment for us that he nor I will ever forget. They were sweet enough to stay for dinner and play/help lead music with me that night! A true blessing! That is just one story out that has impacted my life and proved to me how big God is and that He is really EVERYWHERE!
Last night we were asked to dance and Joe and I danced to “Now Behold the Lamb” by Kirk Franklin and the girls and I did our “He Wants it All” by Forever Jones dance again. Talk about being proud! Man these girls are becoming true witnesses and leaders for Christ, and that is what it is all about! Katie, Ali, Mary, and I were the only girls that stayed at the church today and we worked on painting the rebar and mixing concrete, while the other girls painted at the clinic and the guys were back and forth between the two. We had a great day and definitely made today a fun adventure! After a brief rain and lunch we had VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL!! ) YAY! In music we sang, “I’ve got the Joy Joy down in my heart”, and I remembered it in Spanish from the kids teaching it to me last time I was down here! Then, we sang “This is the Day” and they really knew that song!! One of the girls ran to me that had remembered me from five years ago and I most definitely remembered her too! Very special moment especially to see how she is grown physically as well as her involvement in the church and the joy she showed singing and praising God. Of course, we enjoyed the ice cream shop this afternoon and had a great dinner! It’s time for devotion. I have got to run, but remember LALA LOVES YOU and thank you so much for your continuous prayers, encouragement and support!! See you all soon!!
FABULOUSLY BLESSED-Lauren LaFevers

Jimmy ,

Well, today was more than a blessing. Like the ladies said we visited the school and invited the kids to vbs where we expect more  than we can imagine… a short time before leaving the school I spent a little time doing back flips, at first I was a little iffy about doing the back flips, but the kids were asking… with hand gestures for me to do another, and I realized that I should enjoy that gift that GOD has given me while I’m able to practice it even if it’s just doing a back flip. The people here are unbelievable examples of God’s love that he has for us. This past January I was able to attend a Christian camp called journey and the fact of being around people that have the same goals in Christ for a period of time and showed LOVE the way they do was priceless and emotional once I left…..   only do I fill. I know that once I leave El Salvador it will have a major effect and change in my life. Closing I just want to say LOVE WHILE YOU CAN!

God is Good, All the Time! (your part This is Lyndon sharing a few thoughts. God is moving in a great way and people are opening up and sharing. Steven started off today with a great devotion about how truly BIG God is. As we soak in all of the beautiful people and landscape here, we realize that our knowledge of God and creation is not a grain of sand on God’s beach. We split into two teams today and as one group finished the work grading the soil around the new parsonage to divert the water, the rest of us painted some primer on the metal here for the new construction at the church and some of the guys helped place the heavy ceiling trusses (about 40’ wide) into place. Of course, this turned into an opportunity for the guys to flex their muscles and do a few pull-ups and other demonstrations of manhood. Jimmy was really called upon a LOT being the strapping young ox in the group. I took a few minutes to run with Bill Johnson (Joe’s dad) to the school for us to seek permission for the group to visit tomorrow and so I could take a picture of Bill with their principal since Bill is the principal at Bethpage Elementary. It struck me funny to see a half grown cow lying among the boys playing soccer on the playground. When I inquired if this was their mascot, they said, “No, there is just a teacher that wanted a cow, but didn’t have a place to keep it so he asked if he could keep it on the school grounds.” Apparently they said, “yes”. HA. This afternoon, we enjoyed a tour of the local coffee factory where they produce all grades of coffee beans, including the premium beans that go to Starbucks. You can believe that excited a few in this crowd. They’ve placed orders to bring home. A trip to the local ice cream shop and Rudy’s store was also refreshing and then the evening was capped with some beautiful singing acoustically between our folks and some local youth at the church with a guitar….very inspiring. Speaking of singing, I have to share how unifying it was to sit in their church services and recognize that they were singing “Revive Us Again”, “There’s Within My Heart a Melody”, “Shout to the Lord”, “At the Cross” , “Count Your Many Blessings” and many more that we do at home. So incredible for us all to be singing them in our own languages and just lifting praise to God! God bless and keep you all until we return. Please know that we have you all at Gladeville in our prayers.

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.

Good Evening Everyone!!! This is Katie Tiger. I do not know where to even begin to put into a couple of words these past two days just within a few sentences. El Salvador has already exceeded my expectations. I will first begin with the obvious, El Salvador is a beautiful country if you could not see by the pictures. The people of El Salvador are some of the most genuine and humble people I have yet to come across in my twenty years of life. Joe was telling us tonight, to soak every moment in while we are here because before we know it we will be boarding Delta airlines Sunday morning in the blink our eyes! Today we started off with some delicious buttery pancakes with some fresh cut watermelon and pineapple all thanks to Mr. Bill and Joe and all of the other helping hands! It was followed by a visit to the local market which was a wonderful culture experience. Today’s church services were beautiful! A group of our girls from our group preformed a moving dance shortly after Mr. Wayne gave his testimony. Both I must say brought tears to my eyes and touched my heart! God is revealing himself to all of us in different ways every hour. I want to share a moment today that I feel God revealed to me. A little does truly go a long way and God quickly reminded me why I am here. I met this young boy about the age of fourteen whom I shared a few words with such as, hello, how are you, nice to meet you…very few words were spoken. This conversation was the last thing on mind my mind and I was too worried at the time to even remember this young boys name due to my mind being worried about my devotion I’ll be giving on Wednesday. However a couple of hours after the young boy left and evening service at church ended, I heard someone call “Katie” and I turned around it was Jimmy telling me this little boy wanted to give me a letter. I walked over to him in church and he gave me this letter he wrote just saying hello. It touched me in a way I will never forget! This showed me to pay more attention to the little things in life because they are the things that really do mean the most and this revealed to me that God wants me to focus on what I am here for which is the people and the other things will fall into place just fine. Oh by the way my picture is above with orange princess crown! Well hope you all have enjoyed reading, keep reading! Off to catch some ZzZZzz’s, Night! xox