Lost Heart Pieces

It's not that I don't have anything interesting going on, it's just that my mind doesn't want to sit still long enough to blog. (Maybe it's cause of that cookie I ate...) I've taken pictures, but not uploaded them. I've started blogs in my mind nearly a dozen times. I'm full of excuses. And not nearly interesting enough. Haha, the last part was a joke. Now let's see if I have an interesting photo somewhere...
Mmmm, last year, on this day, I left these kiddos behind in El Salvador. I almost cannot believe it's been a year. The girl in the back is a sheer reminder of H1N1. But that was hardly on our minds as we hugged those little girls and boys. I still wish to go back, but that won't be happening for a while. The plans have been set in motions to go to Indonesia this coming February. I sponsor a girl there and have signed up to go on the tour. I received the okay to go from the two most important people, and so I am stepping out in faith. Don't know exactly how I'm going to get there, but am confident that God wouldn't have said to go if He wasn't going to provide. So I am sure that I will leave a piece of my heart in Indonesia with a certain 17 year old girl and then I will have two missing heart pieces. But I am sooo looking forward to meeting her face to face. (Three secret cheers for gladness! Woot-woot-woot!!)

A Visitor

I just thought you'd all like to know that, according to my "Cluster Maps" app, El Salvador has visited my blog. :) :) Hello El Salvador! Next time you visit, leave a comment! I miss you too!

¿Mas Cafe, Por Favor?

I picked up a bad little habit while in El Salvador. I never really had a problem before then. A cup or two once in a while, yes. But not a day after day "I need a cup" problem. I could easily wean myself off after just two days. The headache would more than likely be there, but would be gone by evening. But this is not the case... I feel extra drowsy half-way through the morning without it. The carafe stares at me, just waiting to be filled with water to brew. My head threatens to explode if I don't have a cup. And now, my delicious El Salvadorian coffee is gone and we are stuck with yucky Starbucks coffee. Yes, I said yucky Starbucks. It's just not good. Who will go get me some more cafe de El Salvador? Por favor? In the meantime, I will have to brew some yucky Starbucks...

Pride Comes Before a Fall

The wedding this past weekend was "scrumdittlydumptious", but I'm not here to write about that yet. First I have to finish my narrative about that trip I went on.

I left off at about the first day... Monday, July 13 was our first whole day in El Salvador. We were given a tour of the orphanage grounds and told the story of its origin. Read about the ministry at the orphanage here. Later that morning we had some time to prepare a Bible story and craft to do with the kids that afternoon. Every weekday the orphanage opens their doors to the neighborhood kids, feeds them lunch, gives them opportunity to do homework and play games, and also have a Bible story time. About 50-70 kids come in every day and it was so fun to be able to interact with them, even with my limited Spanish vocabulary. (Hablar un pequito Espanol.) But I did find out right away that when one tries to do something in their own strength, the Lord usually allows it to fail. For example, we (or rather I) came up with this great craft to go along with our Zaccheaus Bible story. My Mom had sent a whole bunch of craft supplies with me, so we had just about everything we needed for a super craft time. I came up with making two pipe cleaner men, one to be Zaccheaus and one to be Jesus and our Zaccheaus was climbing a tree made out of wooden shapes and popsicle sticks glued together. It went together so well when we practiced making them before hand! I was so glad and pleased and had given myself a good pat on the back for coming up with such a grand idea. (It really was very cute.) But once we got into a classroom with 15 kids who didn't speak English and who had no idea how to make pipe cleaner men, it was a whole different story. The glue wouldn't stick, the boys were impatient, the girls tried diligently, I had to remake 20(ish) of the pipecleaner men individually because my English speaking friends didn't even understand me when I showed them how to make it. One boy decided he would make magic wands with his popsicle sticks instead of trees and then he was freezing his classmates. I was ready to quit. When it was all said and done, my class (there were four total) was the only one who had only half or less of their craft done. I'm not sure how the other classes did so well, but we all agreed it was rough.So, the Lord taught me very quickly that I shouldn't be so quick to think I'm real smart. After all, pride really does come before a fall. Glad He taught me that on the first day and didn't wait too long to get it across to me.

And now you will have to wait for more. Josh is up and cranky as ever. He has had a rough couple of days and we need to spend some quality time together before he grows up without me.

My First Taste

*Sigh* If only there were more time in one day. I think my facebook friends all know where I went and what we did by now, but that isn't the same as blogging it. And now it's already been a week since I arrived back home. But, even though it may bore you, I shall dig deep and retell our adventure.

July 12th- Adam and I woke early in the morning. I had packed my bags the day before and our group was meeting at the airport at 4:30 am. We kissed good-bye and I joined the seven other team members at the check-in counter. Our plane headed to Georgia, where we caught our connecting flight and also met the last member of our team, who joined us from San Diego. Our group of nine were headed far from home, somewhere I had never been, somewhere I was excited to be.

El Salvador: the smallest country in Central America, home of the second largest city in Central America. Beautiful mountains, beautiful lakes and beautiful people. As we walked through the airport doors into the open air, the heat and humidity hit you simultaneously, along with the smell of people. The mob of anxiously waiting faces looking for their family or friends. My first real taste of El Salvador. The smile broke across my face. This was going to be an adventure.

We were headed to San Martin, home base for our ten-day stay. There was an orphanage there, which currently houses 21 young boys, from age 14 down to 1 1/2. They are taught the love of Jesus there and get to be friends with many different mission teams that come throughout the year. And though we spent a lot of time there, we were not there only to minister to them. But I am getting ahead of myself...

I'll start with what stuck out to me first. Our drive from the airport to San Martin took two hours and went right through San Salvador. Traffic was... amazing. Everyone drives fast and close to other vehicles. I think they purposely try to make foreigners afraid to drive by themselves. That way, they have to hire a bus service. (wink-wink) One out of every three vehicles is a bus. They are loud, colorful, and packed to capacity. A pick-up truck doubles as a taxi. People load into the backs of those trucks, legs, arms, and rear-ends hanging out everywhere. Booths or stalls are set up right on the side of the road, so vendors can hawk their produce to anyone who drives by. They would have their hammocks strung up in there, so they can take a siesta while they wait for their next customer. The most striking thing we saw though had to be the slums. We drove by several on our way through. There were 3-5 acre lots filled with little shacks. The walls of these homes were primarily made of black plastic sheeting, held up with sticks. They make have a piece of scrap metal for a roof. But there were hundreds. Maybe thousands. Packed tightly together literally like sardines in a can. No sanitation, no privacy. Just survival. My first real glimpse of poverty. Welcome to El Salvador.

Cross your fingers. Maybe I'll write more tomorrow.

Home Again

One of these days I'll get around to posting all about it. Distant country, different faces, varied landscapes, new friends, but the same Jesus. God is amazing. Pray for me, I am adjusting.