TNESA, Episode VIII: Is This the Amazing Race?

Saturday, July 21, 2012

And thus our El Salvador adventure is finally, mercifully over.  Don't get me wrong.  It was an amazing trip, but the trip home left something to be deeply, deeply desired.  LOL.  After an interesting night's sleep to say the least, I woke up to my alarm ringing at 4:30 am to get ready to start the day.  The most interesting part of the morning had to be me walking to use the public bathroom and brush my teeth since ours was occupied (We actually shared a bathroom with the Nelsons).  When I got back, I see Luke Owen and Randy trying to knock on the door and attempting to slide an iPhone under the door with music blaring in order to "wake me up."  After letting them in the room, we all packed our bags and headed out to the truck and vans to pack up our luggage.  Just to start the morning off right, both Jacob's van and Milton's van required push starts to get moving (I always find that American dude power is better than horsepower any day of the week).  Then we loaded up and "hit them mountains" for the trek to the aeropuerto.

After a short nap, we arrived at the airport and said goodbye to Walter, Milton, and Jacob and somberly headed inside to check our bags and check in for flight.  When we reached the counter, we discovered that our flight was delayed by an hour and a half!  This would mean that we would miss our flight out of Dallas to get back home so therefore we had to change flights accordingly.  We were supposed to return to Kansas City at 4:30, but now we were dismayed to find that we wouldn't leave Dallas until around 7:00.  :(  Epic boo/hiss.  After getting inside, we all grabbed some breakfast, and headed to our terminal.  Customs check-in was interesting as I was relatively certain that I was going to jail!  While stretching to put my backpack on, i accidental whacked a guard in the stomach (hard) with my arm.  Luckily for me, he just laughed it off and sent me through.  **Big Sigh of relief**  I did lose my bottle of sand and ocean water that I had been planning to bring back for Bethany though.  Apparently, it's illegal to transport that from a foreign country back to the US.  Soon enough our flight took off and we were treated to a nice little croissantwich and the movie, John Carter.  While John Carter wasn't great, I preferred it to Journey 2 from our first flight.

After touching down in Dallas, we immediately found ourselves heading through customs with relative ease.  And by that, I mean that myself and the Cochrans were in line behind the only two non-English speaking US residents and the only non-Spanish speaking customs agent.  This is one of those things where you just stand back and go "Really?  Really?".  After making it through, we picked up our bags and finished up our customs experience before dropping them off again.  With a lot of time to kill now, Team Thomas, Rachel, Sandy and myself headed to T.G.I. Friday's for a great meal.  Especially when you think about all of the fast food we had eaten this past week!  On our way to meet up with the others, Sandy and I mysteriously saw part of our team heading to another terminal but didn't think anything of it.  After eating, we headed towards our gate.  Upon our arrival, we were informed that the team members we saw had boarded another flight that would put them back in KC around 6.  Not going to lie here; we were all a little ticked at that one.  I calmed down with a nice chat with Bethany though and followed it up with a double dip ice cream cone (Possibly the best $6.57 spent on the trip).  Finally, 7:00 came and we were heading home!  Yays!  I will say this, it was really funny to see the early flyers back at baggage claim in KC trying to explain themselves and make sure that no one was still mad.  Since over half of them had been in ES two weeks at this point, I don't think anyone blamed them that much.  People were just mad that they didn't think of it first (For the record, I did think about it, but didn't want to leave the rest of the team and be that guy).

When I think back about this trip, it was definitely a much different experience than in January.  While I didn't have my wife (sad thing), I definitely enjoyed our form of ministry more.  Receiving the opportunity to share the Gospel in public school and a foreign military base is the kind of thing that doesn't happen every single day!  Also, just seeing and working on the new orphanage knowing that our sweat and blood (yep, we all cut ourselves open at some point) went into the building gives a person a great feeling.  While it was really hard to be away from Bethany, the trip was worth it.  Looking back at my prayer requests from earlier, I see how God truly answered most of those requests and it's just a testimony to His power and how much He loves us (For those wondering, the high school drama only came into effect on our last night there).  I don't know when I'll get to go back to El Salvador, but will definitely take the opportunity when it is presented again.  :)

 Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

TNESA, Episode VII: "Bacon" at the Beach

Friday, July 20, 2012

Today was our last full day in El Salvador.  We started our morning early by checking out of Hotel Campo Real and going out to breakfast.  Sadly, several of us weren't feeling quite up to snuff, including myself.  After some Powerade and crackers from the gas station down the street, I was feeling more like myself.  After eating our breakfast, we loaded up in the vans to head to La Libertad.  Only one event of interest transpired on the way there though.  Apparently, Walter (or someone else) didn't tie a good knot and he ended up losing a bag out of the back of his pickup while we were heading down the road.  Poor Mike Stoker's bag got ripped up pretty bad by the fall onto the road at the 70 mph+ speeds that Walter tends to like to drive.  After stopping to pick up the bag, the knots were retied much better and tighter and we headed on our way to La Libertad.

We knew that we were heading to a beach resort for our last night in El Salvador but first we were going to stop and see the sister orphanage to the one we work at in San Miguel.  After walking in the gates, we could see that the difference between the two orphanages was like night and day.  The La Libertad orphanage has grown very well and is kept up very nicely.  They even have a school that both the orphans who live there and students from the outside attend!  I was amazed by the fact that they have the capacity and land space to grow their own crops and food.  They also have a chicken farm on sight, as well as the biggest pigs that I've ever seen.  Pigzilla was so nice and plump that I'm pretty sure he would have gotten like 8 blue ribbons at the State Fair.  In addition to that, they have a hair salon and a "thrift store" where they sell the abundance of clothes that are donated to the orphanage.  I would be remiss if I didn't mention the kids.  We surprisingly saw several of the kids that we have seen at the San Miguel orphanage, as well as making new friends.  My new friend was a 7 year old girl named Catalina who ended up falling asleep in my arms after about 2 minutes.  So sweet.  (Say it with me, AWWWWWWW!!!)  As cool as this orphanage was, it made me glad that we have our partnership with the San Miguel one.  There is certainly less time, effort, and money going to San Miguel so therefore they are so appreciative of what we do for them.  Yay for the nice, warm happy feeling.

After leaving the orphanage, we then headed to the Amani resort.  Upon our arrival, there was a fierce battle between people for the the six air conditioned rooms.  As myself and several others had already decided that we were going to take the opportunity to sleep outside on hammocks, we sat back and just watched the mildly angry discussion occur.  Once everything was finally settled out through Joe picking a number and the six closest got AC (I'm glad we're 5 1/2 here.), we then went inside and through our bags in the room, changed clothes and went to order our lunch.  While our lunch was being prepped, we had the opportunity to go spend some time in the ocean.  While the beach wasn't all that great, the water definitely was.  :)  After working up an appetite, I came back to my fantastic lunch of shrimp (heads and all), rice, and fresh veggies.  Yum!

After lunch, some of us took the opportunity to head to the market to check things out.  While part of it was more of what we've seen before (soccer jerseys and machetes), we got the opportunity to see the fish market where they sell fresh fish right off the boats.  They're practically still flopping around!  After this, we headed to get some ice cream.  While I considered the El Salvadorian specialty of a Dona Waffle (ice cream and a doughnut on a waffle cone), I chose to keep it simple and just went with a normal scoop on a waffle.  

After returning to Amani, we all headed down to the ocean again to play until the waves were raging so furiously that it was time to stop.  Sadly, I said goodbye to my favorite pair of sunglasses as they were lost in the surf, never to be seen again (Actually, they've probably floated over to Australia or something).  After some relaxing pool time, everyone cleaned up and got ready for dinner.  I had a fantastic steak dinner which filled me up.  Following our meal, I had a short time to call Bethany and chat for about 20 minutes (Thanks to Brian Fox and his international phone).  It was great to hear her and it made me even more excited to see her in a little under 20 hours (ed. note: or so I thought).  

After that it was time for our meeting and worship time as a team.  It was a very close meeting because it actually started to rain for the first time all week which prompted us all to huddle together under a roof for some shelter.  For tonight's meeting, we would all take turns saying what we wanted to change after this trip.  My revelation was that I didn't want to stop living a missional life just because I had stepped off the mission field.  I want to be able to transition what I've been doing in El Salvador back to my home base in Missouri.  After the meeting was over, some of us remained behind to just sing and worship while Randy and Luke took turns playing the guitar.  It was a really fun evening that would be topped off while sleeping on our hammocks.  The brave souls for the evening consisted of myself, Randy, Luke, Rachel, and Katie.  I was comfortable and slept soundly until about 2:00 am, when I woke up with my back spasming.  Sadly, it finally got so bad that I had to go inside to the extra room where we were keeping our belongings and crawl in a bed to do about an hour of exercises before finally falling asleep and then waking up to the sound of my alarm around 4:30.  Early, early morning is here.

(Ed. note:  This journal entry was obviously written the next day since it entailed the events of the previous night.)

TNESA, Episode VI: "What's That Lassie? Timmy's Stuck in the Well?!"

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Today was certainly a strange feeling day as it's our final day of ministry in El Salvador.  Tomorrow, we'll head up to La Libertad for a nice little vacation before flying home on Saturday.  However fun news to report from today first.  My group was assigned to start our morning at the construction site before heading to the orphanage in the afternoon.  A funny story from the morning though.  Milton was our driver for the day and instead of taking us to Biggest for a disappointing breakfast (like he was supposed to), he chose to take us to Pollo Campero instead for the most important meal of the day.  I just have to say that the Pancake Fresa was absolutely awesome.  Also, I loved seeing some tennis on the television in the restaurant as all I've seen all week has been soccer/futbol as far as sports go.  It did make me a little homesick though and ready to play some fuzzy, yellow ball myself.  ;)  After ending our breakfast, we loaded up in the van and headed towards San Miguel to the construction site for a morning of work.

Today's work at the construction site was definitely tiring, but a little work does great things for the spirit (if not the body, *expertly flexing* LOL.).  We started the day making more volcanos and mixing up concrete.  We got to see the concrete going to use today as our team assisted in building walls.  As I'm not really good with a trowel, I decided to keep myself to the physcial labor portion of the day.  This resulted in two ridiculous workouts.  First, Randy, Antonio (who runs the orphanage) and Jonathan (works for the orphanage as part of a drug rehab program) made three trips to town to buy cinder blocks.  When they came back we had to form an assembly line to unload these blocks.  450 blocks later we were finally done with that task and I clearly felt the burn.  After this, Harrison and I started working on knocking extra dirt off the side of a small cliff to use for filling in the base around the building.  Harrison swinging the pick axe and me stabbing the earth with a large steel rod seemed to knock a lot of dirt loose for use by the workers.  All week, I'd been hearing about the well that is being dug out down the mountain.  I wanted to check it out for myself though before leaving today.  After trekking down the path with Randy (for me a whole lot harder than coming up due to my clumsiness), we arrived at the well to watch the workers dig.  One worker was down inside the well 75 yards deep digging and his amigo was up top.  The digger would fill a five gallon bucket half full and then the amigo would pull the bucket up using a rope.  Honestly, watching this task made me clearly appreciate how easy we have it in America with machinery to do these jobs for us and I was grateful that I wasn't the one spending my entire day stuck in a well.

After a hard morning of work, we returned to the orphange for one last lunch provided by Milena and the girls consisting of chicken and rice.  After this, we kind of just relaxed for the afternoon and played with the girls some more.  What was hilarious was sitting back and watching all of the members of our team who dozed off and fell asleep while sitting around.  I think that people are starting to wear out and get tired on this trip.  Later that afternoon, we took the girls to the park (El Parque) to play on the playground.  While standing around talking with some of the guys while watching the girls (and after my first ever successful journey across the monkey bars), some of the kids started going to play in the large bounce houses near the playground.  When they got there, they were told that it wasn't free.  Brian Fox selflessly ripped out his wallet and paid for the girls to get their bounce on.  :)  I noticed that the man running the bounce house had responded in clear English ($5 for 5 minutes) when Brian asked how much, so took the opportunity to strike up a conversation with Oskar "the Carney".  After talking with Oskar, I decided to take the opportunity to share the Gospel with him using an extra bracelet from our time in the schools.  I felt that he was receptive to the words that I was saying and that he had heard all of this before, but I don't know if it stuck or not.  I will definitely be praying for him though.  After giving him my bracelet and bidding him adieu, I rejoined our group and watching them play basketball with the kids.  At supper time, we would head to Pizza Hut with the girls for a nice dinner.  Before we would eat, we were treated to a great dance from them as a thank you for everything.  Before we knew it, the night was over and we were saying goodbye to our friends.  This was a ton harder this time to say goodbye as I don't know when I'll be back again.  :'(  Still I'm glad that I got the opportunity to come and visit!

Back at the hotel, we met for our final team meeting at Campo Real to discuss what we had learned this week and what God had done in our lives.  I'm still trying to process everything for the week but know it's going to take a while to figure everything out.  Also, Joe left us with a final question that we will need to answer tomorrow night at the beach, "I Have to Go Home, but I Don't Have to Go Back."  Deep and philosophical, huh?  It's been a great week and I can't wait for tomorrow to see what happens next.  :)

TNESA, Episode V: Are Clowns Allergic to Asbestos?

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

This was a very exciting and fun day in El Salvador.  It was a short day at the orphanage and construction site due to our trip to "El Parque de Aquatico" (That's Water Park for the unenlightened).  Our team split up first thing in the morning.  Those who wanted to go to the orphanage spent half a day there and those that wanted to go and work on the construction site for a half day there.  Though my spirit was willing to get my construction on, my back was giving me some issues.  Rather than push it (and risk the wrath of Tyler, my physical therapist), I decided it was smarter to spend the morning at the orphanage.  It was nice as today was a pretty chill day.  I spent the morning playing with kids and helping a bit with VBS which was over the Gospel colors similar to what was presented in church on Sunday and the schools on Monday.  After the lesson, several of us headed into the church sanctuary at the orphanage to get gifts ready for the kiddos.  Here we discovered Jacob's great hidden talent as a piano player and he even played up some original tunes that he wrote.  After a while, we had an impromptu jam session with Randy, Abby Stoker, and myself taking turns on the drums jamming along.  Just a quick side note, I pretty much stink at drums possibly due to my inherent lack of rhythm. 

Self revelation time, I'm a bit of a fidget bug and always need to have something in my hands.  This week, I've been messing around with a little trinket that Ana Rosa gave me; 4 jingle bells and a neon yellow pipe cleaner (Go Oregon!).  While tossing it up into the air and fielding fly balls, I managed to get my toy stuck in the rafters of the building.  The Amandas and I brainstormed for a bit (Fave suggestion: tossing a small child up there), but I quickly resigned myself to not seeing my toy again.  I walked outside and immediately saw a 20 foot piece of PVC pipe and a broom.  This prompted my good idea meter to go from red to green.  I put the two pieces together and went inside and started cleaning the tops of the rafters until my toy (and nice bits of Asbestos) fell down.  Happily I continued playing with my toy.  Soon after the girls joined us for gift time.  It's always an awesome feeling to see the gratefulness that the girls show for the gifts that they receive.  I even got a nice big hug from Ana Rosa for the PJs that Bethany had sent her.  :)  We were then treated to a great lunch of steak and rice before heading to "El Parque de Aquatico."

Our trip to the water park is always fun and this time was no exception.  An interesting side note was that the (rickety and dangerous) water slide that was open six months earlier was now closed down.  LOL.  After swimming and playing with the kids for a while, we then took them to the Zoo.  Now the highlights of this zoo include deer, porcupines, and crocodiles.  However, my favorite part had to be the empty boa constrictor cage with an opening in the door big enough for a snake to crawl through.  Somewhere right now, a middle aged woman just crawled into her bed and touched a massive snake with her feet, screamed loudly and woke up an entire city.  After a full day at the water park, we took the kids back  to the orphanage and headed back to Usulutan. 

Interesting story, on the way to Usulutan, Luke Owen and I began discussing how fast food was not contributing to the El Salvadorian experience for us.  So we took it upon ourselves to try to convince Joe and others to help us find a "hole in the wall" place to eat to get that true, authentic experience.  Somewhat surprisingly, no one wanted to take us up on this offer.  We did find people back at Campo Real who wanted to eat in the hotel restaurant with us.  This was honestly one of the best meals that we've eaten out on the entire trip and we had an extremely fun group consisting of myself, Luke, the Cochrans, the Thomas, Sandy, Rachel, Raven, and Amanda.  I think that I may have laughed more during this meal than I have in a while too!  After dinner, we met up with our amigos and had a good meeting.  It's interesting to see how some of the first timers are beginning to get shook up at what they've been seeing here.  Especially as we only have one night left here at Campo Real, people are starting to get real during the meetings.  Great day!

(Ed. note.:  I don't know how, but I forgot to write about the hilarious morning at Mister Donut.  It started typically, but I soon took notice of the Spanish soap opera on television while sitting with Sandy, Christina, and Amanda.  Soon, we were "bridging the cultural gaps" and "reading the emotions that break all language barriers."  By this I mean that we were putting hilarious words in people's mouths and creating our own plot.  And it all went swimmingly until they changed the channel to Good Morning El Salvador and our vision was attacked by a clown singing CeeLo Green's Forget You.)

TNESA, Episode IV: Concrete, Keys, and Kittens, OH MY!

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Today was an awesome day with some new experiences and some old experiences, but it was great all around.  First things first, our group split into two with half going to San Miguel to the Orphanage and half heading to the construction site for a little manual labor.  My group headed to San Miguel for the morning shift at the orphanage.  On the way, we made our much anticipated stop at Mister Donut for breakfast.  After having our best breakfast of the week thus far, we loaded  in the van to go to the orphanage.  However, we had a slight issue before we could make it there.  Jacob's van had died and prompted a quick push start/work out for the men in attendance (Yay for CrossFit El Salvador) to get it running.  After a short, little jaunt down the parking lot, we had the old Mazda purring like a kitten (maybe an ugly sounding kitten, but a kitten nonetheless!). 

On my previous trip to El Salvador, our first minutes walking up to the orphanage had results in lots of hugs and chants and calling of the Americanos.  This time was a little tamer by comparison but still fun.  It was awesome to see the kids that I had seen in January and see how much some of them had grown.  I was especially surprised by little Tanya and Fannie.  As part of the morning shift, our team would be helping Sharilyne and Sandy with a Vacation Bible School program.  Sharilyne led the kids in making their own tambourines complete with the verse Psalms 33:1 which says Sing Joyfully to the Lord, your righteous; It is fitting for the upright to praise him.  However, some of the kids chose to create their own design.  The most interesting of which had to be the girl I was sitting with who decided to copy the design of my State Street Volunteer t-shirt.  Somewhere in El Salvador, there's the only State Street branded tambourine in the world.  My company should be proud of that kind of influence.  :)  Sandy (and Jacob) then led the kids in an impromptu bible study and discussion.  After that, we just spent time with the kids, played different kinds of games, and just gave them some much deserved attention.  I spent quite a while tossing a tennis ball back and forth outside with some of the kids.  Around noon, the members of our team that had been at the construction site showed up for lunch...dirty and tired.  We had an always great lunch provided by Milena and the girls consisting of chicken, rice, and homemade tortillas.  Afterwards, we said goodbye to the kids for the day and headed to the construction site for the afternoon.

My first impression of the construction site was that it was on the world's bumpiest road which very nearly gave me a stomach ache on the way up there.  The second impression was much better as we piled out of the van and saw the beautiful plot that was being used.  However, there was much work to follow.  This day was mostly spent mixing up concrete.  In America, this job consists of watching a truck do the mixing and hard stuff for you while you sit and have a cold soda.  In El Salvador, this job consists of getting 6 buckets of gravel, 4 buckets of sand, and 2 bags of mix.  Then you mix these elements together, kneading it like dough until you form a volcano shape.  Then it's time for the 5 buckets of water.  After the water sits, then you begin to knead everything together with a shovel until it's ready.  This was often a very long and exhausting process (not really easy on the back either).  There was a sense of reward that came with it though.  Before we knew it, our afternoon was spent and it was time to head back to Usulutan and Hotel Campo Real.

Our group went out to eat at Wendy's tonight.  While this would not normally be a special experience as there's one on every block here, tonight was a special night.  Our new friend Jose' gave his life over to Christ on this night and accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  Last week, Jose' had served as a bus driver for the large youth trip that certain members of our team had been a part of and he was invited to join in our fun for this week.  Randy, Walter, and Joe spent the evening talking with Jose' and in Randy's words, you could see him being pulled back and forth deciding what he was feeling and thinking.  It's just awesome to see something like this happen to really show how God is using us down here in people's lives and I hope to see more of it on this trip.

After dinner, we returned to the hotel and I had a great evening.  As we didn't have a meeting, I was able to spend some much needed hang out time with my roomies, their wives, and a couple of others.  Also, I was able to Skype Bethany for a while which was great because we've both been really missing the other although it seems that she's been doing a good job staying busy (I know I have been).  However, the story from this night that has to be told is the story of the key!  Jason "lost" the key earlier in the week when Luke gave it to him.  However, Jason's been swearing up and down that he didn't know what happened to it.  As I stepped outside to try and call Bethany, Luke decided maybe he should check his shorts from the day.  Now, this is all second-hand information, but from the info I've gleaned, Luke found the key in his pocket, tossed it at Jason and ran out of the room.  As I was outside, I saw this part.  Jason then ran after Luke and chucked the key at him from across the parking lot while yelling "Two Days, Two Days!"  As Jason had been the one forced to ask the guards to let us in each day, he was understandably a little high strung by this time.  Just a hilarious end to a great day in El Salvador

#17, The Beast, Flirt to Convert (You had to be there...)

TNESA, Episode III: Gangs Really Need to Get Back to Work.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Today was honestly my favorite day thus far of my trips to El Salvador as we received the opportunity to head into the public school system.  I know, who's excited to go school, right?  To start off the morning, a handful of team members headed to a school early for an assembly with the purpose of sharing the Gospel.  I wasn't on this trip but would receive an opportunity later on in the day.  I instead started my morning at Biggest with some awesome Jesus time for breakfast consisting of a little 'Luke' and Not A Fan.  Following this though, we headed back to Pastor Rene's church to start our morning.  From there, we walked to the first public school.  There, we broke up into groups and proceeded into classrooms to share the Gospel.  "Team Winner" consisted of Steven, Amanda, Raven, Harrison, Rachel, Jacob (as translator of course) and myself.  The presentation for each class consisted of a dude and dudette giving their testimony in each classroom, followed by Steven effectively presenting the Gospel using a color bracelet as a visual aid, completed with the encouraging line of "Now Get Back to Work."  Clearly something he's practiced in his classrooms a time or two.  Our younger team members hit it out of the park despite their initial nervousness in sharing publicly.  In addition, we also presented each student with a gift of the same color bracelet Steven used in his presentation, as well as a sucker (Who doesn't love candy, right?) and each classroom received one of our Mission Balls.  After our team as a whole spoke to each classroom in the school, we then put on an assembly consisting of a skit from Pastor Rene's church, Mike Stoker's saxophone history lesson and performance and one final Gospel presentation. 

As one of the last ones to leave, instead of making the hike to the next school on foot, I climbed into the back of Walter's truck and got my ride on.  As Walter's red pickup rumbled down the road complete with approximately 8 Americanos in the back, we passed the rest of our team on their way up the hill and obviously waved, pointed, and laughed in glee (Yeah, I know, we're terrible human beings on the mission field.  LOL.).  This is when things got interesting.  As the rest of our team was walking, some locals took notice of them.  Milton, in a rare occurrence, became stern and demanding in telling the team to hurry up and not walk slow.  Once at the school, Milton explained that the locals were members of one of the most dangerous gangs in El Salvador and wanted to know what "the gringos" were doing.  The weirdest part of this whole deal was that they were totally cool with the fact that we were missionaries and wanted us to continue our work because they saw it as a good thing.  While there was no hostility by the gangs shown towards us, Milton was still watching out for us.  It makes you think what would happen to us if we were just randomly walking around without anyone who spoke the language.  At the second school, we then did more of the same as the first.  Arrive, Testimony, Gifts, Gospel, "Get Back to Work".

After this school it was then lunch time and our team headed to Pizza Hut for some good old American cuisine.  I took this opportunity to spend some time with some new friends in Luke Owen, the Tildens, Stokers, Matt and Amanda Thomas, and Raven.  Now, I must divulge some wisdom gleaned from this dinner.  While in the U.S. of A, a salad bar normally is all you can eat, El Salvadorian salad bars are not that way.  This is the story of how Matt Thomas spent $30 on salad at a Pizza Hut.  Poor Fella.  After lunch, we returned to the first morning school to again put on the assembly for the afternoon students.  Another great response and show by our peeps.

That evening, we received the opportunity to head to Alegria for dinner and fun. This was a beautiful drive through the mountainous region of El Salvador. I was especially psyched as this was a part of the country I hadn't previously seen. On the way to eat, we stopped at the Lagoon for a bit of fun, climbing, and sight-seeing. The Lagoon is actually a previously active volcano that is now dormant with a sulfur lake in the middle of it. Once you ignore the strong scent, it is truly an amazing sight to behold. Just to point out the importance of soccer/futbol in Latin culture, there was literally a field in the middle of the area with people playing soccer. After walking to the far side of the pond and climbing up massive rock structures, it was time to Gomanos. In the town of Alegria, we finally got to our destination of Cristina's Pupaseria for dinner. The owner set up tables in the street for us so we ate outside in perhaps the most interesting environment ever. :) The pupusas were awesome, probably not as good as the church the previous evening, but still great. Following dinner, we headed back to Usulutan and met as a group before bed. Tomorrow will be our first day at the orphanage which will be an awesome experience to see the orphans again as well as get our first sight of the new site where we will be working. Peace out!

TNESA, Episode II: Incredible Highs and "Biggest" Disappointments

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Day Uno of ministry in El Salvador is in the books now and what a full day it was.  To start it all off, we rolled out of our beds around 6:30 this morning and put on our Sunday finest to head out to local churches.  They (whoever they is) always say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Therefore, we headed to the local burger chain, Biggest for desayuno before doing anything else.  Now, I had never been to Biggest before and wanted to keep an open mind, but those members of our team that had didn't necessarily enjoy it.  Take note of the strong irony that Milton, a local, despises it.  Once inside, I could see and taste why.  It was easy to compare to our beloved Mister Donut in San Miguel, but the food wasn't up to par with what we were comparing it to.  However, I did partake in my very first pupusas of the trip and they weren't half bad.  :)

Following breakfast, our team split up for the morning.  Half of our team, including myself, went to Pastor Rene's church in Usulutan and the other half went to another local church.  For myself, this was an interesting experience as my role for the morning was to assist Sharilyne, Amanda, and Team Thomas in the running of Sunday School for the youth of the church.  I'm not what you would call great with kids.  In fact, they frighten me at times.  It's probably some combination of the big eyes, small bodies, and inherent cuteness that I find fearsome.  The morning started with a meal that was hosted by the church for the youth that we helped serve.  It consisted of rice and beans, fried plantains, hearty rolls, and hot chocolate.  The kids were happily with a full belly and then joined us for Sunday School while Joe delivered the message to the big people.  We led the kids in some Americano worship songs followed by the normal leaders leading some Spanish tunes.  After a rousing game of Pato, Pato, Ganso (Duck, Duck, Goose for the unenlightened), we sat down to the lesson.  One quick note from the game, I'm sure it's relatively hilarious to see myself and Matt Thomas as two grown men chasing each other the circle with furious intensity.  Sharilyne led a lesson designed to use colors to show off the message of the Gospel and put together an additional craft which I was able to help.  After church was over, the congregation surprised us with a cold Coca-Cola as a thank you.  This was impressive just b/c it showed their appreciation for us in a way that could have been small to us, but was probably a lot of money to them.

Following this, I had one of my most interesting experiences in El Salvador thus far as we were invited onto an El Salvadorian military base.  Not going to lie, It's rather intimidating to see armed guards walking down the streets with assault rifles and ski masks one.  If you say you're not thinking terrorists, you're lying.  Joe, with Walter's help, shared the Gospel with the aide of one of our Mission Balls (a soccer ball with important verses about the Gospel printed in Spanish).  After that, it was time for a little futbol, Team Americano vs. the El Salvadorians.  If you're curious how it went, we got stomped until the El Salvadorians felt sorry for us and gave us three of their guys to even the odds.  LOL.  However, you should have heard the cheers from all around when Randy (aka Felipe, Randall, the Great Randito) scored the lone American goal of the game!  GOOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL!

That evening, we drove to San Miguel to take part in another church service.  It was basically more of the same from earlier.  After the service, we were presented with pupasas, slaw, and Pepsi as a thank you.  Best ones of the trip thus far.  On the way home, we stopped at the San Miguel mall and walked around for a bit and got a dessert.  Once home, we had our team meeting for the night and prepared for bed.  Interesting note for the day, Jason seems to have lost the key.  We're hoping it turns up before we leave.  (ed. note, the key turned up and Jason was absolved of all guilt.  I'll share that in a couple of days.)

The New El Salvador Adventures, Episode I: Fly Like An Eagle

In an attempt to better chronicle my time in El Salvador this time, I decided to journal each and every day about my experiences there.  Hopefully this shall be el beneficio for those amigas y amigos y ninos y ninas that were not present there with me.  There will be a new entry each day this week that chronicles the corresponding day from the previous week.  And thus, it begins!!!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

 Our El Salvadorian adventure began bright and dirty early on Saturday morning.  While it's no 4:00 am or whatever like last time, 8:30 was still a bit early for a flight that didn't leave until 11:10 am.  Only mildly excessive in our eyes (Sorry Joe, LOL.)  I will say that it was nice to spend some extended time together like that prior to our flight leaving.  Once we touched down in Dallas, TX, it was definitely munch time so we all went our separate ways and ate.  I personally joined a group of nueve for an excursion to to Blue Mesa Taco Bar.  After that we headed to our terminal where we were greeted by the pleasing sight of 20+ atomic green t-shirts.  At this moment, we all decided that we owed our leaders a big thank you that we weren't made to sport matching t-shirts while traveling as that does nothing but make you stick out.  Once in the air, we were pleased to find a nice in flight meal (ed note, i.e. eatable) consisting of turkey sandwich, Fritos, and a Twix bar.  Also, free in-flight movie is always good even if the comic highlight of Journey 2 is Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson popping his pecs in dramatic fashion.  Yay for questionable movie greenlighting!

We touched down in El Salvador a little after 6:00, hightailed it off the plane, and right into a lengthy customs line.  I know it's surprising, but we all managed to survive the customs line without succumbing to boredom.  Following the purchase of our visas and our bag pickups, we headed to the last part of our customs experience, the dreaded game of Red light, Green light.  This random procedure decided whether you get flagged for additional screening.  Basically you push a button, green light you're good, red light you're bad and your bag gets checked.  We all survived and headed outside to meet up with our old friends/translators Milton and Walter, as well as a new amigo (probably should use Spanish), Jacob.  Once loaded up, we "hit them mountains" and headed to Usulutan.

Once we headed into town, we stopped at one of the most popular eating establishments in town, Wendy's (Yes, you heard/read that right, Americanos)!  We were psyched to see the other members of our team who had spent the previous week in El Salvador waiting for us there.  After partaking in an awesome Frosty Float with orange soda, we headed to our home away from home, Hotel Campo Real.  Myself and my roomies, Jason, Luke, and Steven, checked into our "luxury" hotel suite.  We then met as a team and discussed our expectations, thoughts, dreams, motivations, etc. for the week together before hitting the proverbial hay for the night.  Big day of ministry starts tomorrow with church in the morning.  That's iglesia for my Spanish speaking friends.  :)

Leaving for El Salvador

As I'm leaving for El Salvador in, oh, 15 minutes, there's no time like the present to chronicle my thoughts and prayers getting ready to leave.

- As the team that's already down there has already been used by God immensely, I pray that He would use us as well to communicate the Gospel and the love of Christ effectively.

- I pray that the girls at the orphanage would just soak up all of the love and attention that they get to receive during this week.

- I pray that our team would communicate well and work together effectively.  Save the high school drama for your mama!

- I pray that we would grow closer as a group on this trip as far as our "White bible study" goes.  LOL.

- Of course, safe travel and transportation from sight to sight.

- That wife would not be lonely here at home and would find opportunites to distract herself easy to come by.

- We would solely put our faith in God while down there and not be afraid of the unknown.

- And of course, that God would be glorified by our time down there; It's not for us, It's all for him.

Phil 4:6-7  Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

#NotAFan

All*Star Fallout

It is now July 11^th and the All*Star Game has left KC so things around the Metro will regain some normalcy now.  However, I thought it important to wrap up my post from last week prior to the game with one post game blog just to comment on some of the events from the week, fan and local reaction to the city, and the rapid emergence of “BillyMania” or “Butler-sanity” or the “Country Breakfast Platter with Bacon.”  (I can go all day here, somebody stop me, please.)

Fanfest officially opened to the public on July 6th continued on through the 10th  However, there were plenty of events at Kauffman Stadium to keep people busy.  On Sunday the 8^th, the Futures Game and Celebrity Softball Game was played out before 40,000 strong at the K.  Also, point of interest, this was the first time that this event had been sold out in any city.  Point of interest #2, As George Brett was the manager of the USA in the Futures Game, he took the opportunity to leave Royals prospect Wil Myers on the field throughout the entire game which further endeared the legend to local fans (as if that’s more possible).  The USA ended up winning the game over the World Team of Futures 17 to 5.   Point of interest #3, in the Celebrity Softball Game, two of Kansas City’s most visible sports figures, embattled Chiefs QB Matt Cassel and KU basketball head coach Bill Self, endured the surprisingly loud booing from the fans in attendance. 

The Annual State Farm (shout out to the Boy's employer) Home Run Derby was held on Monday, July 9, at the “K”.  While normally, the only story out of the Derby is who hit the most home runs and who hit the farthest, this date would mark the appearance of the most unlikely of heroes of this All*Star Week.  As the defending winner of the Home Run Derby, NY Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano received the “honor” of being the captain of the American League Team and therefore was able to choose his fellow participants in this event.  When interviewed in June regarding this team, Cano stated that he would obviously want to pick a local athlete (i.e. Royal) to represent the AL in the Derby.  However, when the time came, Cano chose Prince Fielder, Jose Bautista, and Mark Trumbo.  All were good choices, however not exactly who the crowd was wanting to root for.  That would be the hometown hero, Billy Butler.  As Cano, the defending winner of the Derby last season in Arizona, stepped up to the plate to take pitches from his father, a small plan flew overhead.  The plane, which was chartered by 810 WHB featured KC's new favorite slogan, "Congrats Billy!  You Blew It Cano."  The chorus of boos rained down over Cano only to be stopped by the cheers whenever he fouled off a ball or came up short on a possible home run.  On two occasions, the proceeding were stopped by Yankee teammates of Cano having a short powwow with either Cano or his father.  Cano would finally record his 10th out and was eliminated from the Home Run Derby with 0 home runs.  Ironically, the three players that Cano handpicked would go on to be the final three in the Derby as Bautista and Trumbo participated in a 5 swing playoff for the right to face Fielder in the finals.  Bautista would advance but was clearly worn out going on to hit 7 home runs in the final to Fielder's 12.

Tuesday, July 10th would bring the final crown jewel event of the weekend, the 2012 MLB All*Star Game.  Luke Bryan opened up the proceedings with the National Anthem in front of the 40,000 plus fans in attendance.  The National League representatives got off to a quick start in the 1st inning by putting five runs on the board against Detroit pitcher, Justin Verlander.  This opened up a deficit that the American League could never hope to recover from as they did not put up any runs during the course of the game.  Melky Cabrera of the Giants, a former Royal, put the icing on the proverbial cake with a 2 run homer in the 4th inning to essentially seal the win and the MVP award (along with a nice crystal bat and new Camaro) for his trouble.  Also of note was the continued booing of Robinson Cano as well as the relentless cheering for Billy Butler.

Overall, the All*Star Game was a great experience for our fair midwestern city.  Local fans definitely proved that they will turn out in droves for baseball if they have something to cheer!  The only negative news about this time in Kansas City is the Robinson Cano issue.  While traveling between destinations could be a minor hassle, ultimately Kansas City worked hard to ensure that difficulties were kept to a minimum.  Bud Selig himself called this one of the best All*Star Game experiences that he has ever seen.  Great work Kansas City!

Stars & Strikes: 8th Annual Base Ball

All*Star week got off to an unofficial kickoff on July 5^th with the 8^th Annual Base Ball which was held at the All*Star FanFest at the KC Convention Center.  For those who don’t know, the Base Ball is put on each year here in KC in a joint venture between Major League Baseball, the Royals, and the local Boys & Girls Club as part of MLB’s RBI (Revitalizing Baseball in Inner Cities) program.  In the mission statement directly from BGCA.org, RBI is a Major League Baseball initiative whose mission is to increase urban and inner city youth interest and participation in baseball and softball by re-introducing, reviving, and rebuilding America’s pastime in underserved communities.  This year, with the All*Star Game in town, the venue was appropriately chosen as the host site for this fundraiser.  

I took the opportunity to volunteer for this event and much to my initial dismay, was placed at the registration table.  Little did I know that this was where I probably would have had the most fun considering that I could be my naturally charming/dorky self (Clearly synonyms, right?).  On the front lines, I was able to see first hand the 600 plus human beings rolling into Bartle Hall.  What was interesting to me was to see the diversity of places that people had come from to take part in this event.  People from Las Vegas, Denver, California, Arizona, as well as many locals from the region were among those I checked in.  As this was a fundraiser, each entry ticket was $150 to get in the door to experience the event.  In addition to that, there were great silent auction items such as sports memorabilia from the Chiefs, Sporting KC, and of course the Royals, as well as great vacations and trips that could be bid on.

After my job was finished, I took the opportunity to take in the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of the Fanfest and enjoyed every minute of it.  Great ballpark style food was provided via buffet tables.  The salty taste of the pretzels and peanuts, the meaty flavor of the hot dogs with choice of toppings, the create your own salad bar, the pulled pork (of course, we are in KC).  Aramark did a great job on the food preparation for the event.  Following the filling of my stomach,  I checked out the rest of the event.  After taking some mean home run swings in the batting cages and honing my fastball in the pitching booth, I decided to take in some of the historical exhibitions.  Baseball truly does have a great lineage as an international game as you can see plainly when looking at a roster for a Major League team.  Also, seeing a visual history of the minorities who have meant something to the game was inspiring  (BTW, everyone who is a baseball fan owes it to themselves to check out the Negro Leagues Museum at 18th and Vine; it's a great museum hosted by wonderful people who truly love the sport).  Following that, I topped off my night at FanFest by stepping into the "Locker Room" and listening to some live music in the "Diamond."  Overall, I would say that this was a great event in Kansas City that brought out some passionate fans for both baseball and charity to start the weekend off right.

All*Star Summer

This is an exciting summer to be a sports fan in Kansas City with the All*Star Game heading to town in just a few short days.  What’s really exciting is that the Royals are flirting with .500 so at least our city maintains a small amount of relevance in eyes of MLB faithful who will be descending upon our fair little Midwestern city.  This is really a great opportunity for Kansas City both from a national and local standpoint.  Not to mention being a potential economic boon for the city.  Seeing as how I’ve never honestly been through a sporting event like this in my lifetime, I thought it might be interesting to chronicle some of my thoughts on this. 

As baseball has no Super Bowl which is awarded to a different city each year, the All*Star Game has taken on that role.  Cities submit proposals years in advance to gain the notoriety that comes with hosting.  Kansas City has previously hosted 2 editions of the Midsummer Classic; one in the old Municipal Stadium and again at what is now known as Kauffman Stadium in 1973 when the ballpark opened.  Both editions were won by the National League. 

After the 2007 season ended, Kauffman began renovations on the stadium to bring it up to par with some of the best in MLB with the intention of hosting the Game again.  The $270 million renovation would be completed in 2009.  The iconic fountains would remain but the large dot-matrix style video board and adjoining Jumbotron was replaced with a top of the line HD screen which at the time was the largest in the world.  It has since been eclipsed by the screen at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas and a HD screen at Charlotte (NC) Motor Speedway.  In addition, new amenities such as Rivals Sports Bar, .390 Bar & Grill, and Sheridan's were opened around the stadium, the Hall Of Fame was expanded from a hallway at the old K to a full interactive building, and the previously vacant outfield has become a true midway experience complete with carousel, video games, mini golf, and the "Little K."

The All*Star Game is truly a national event and people will be here from all over the United States.  The fever has reached a peak all around the city as banners are hanging all over the Plaza and downtown area commemorating the game.  The FanFest is currently going on at Bartle Hall bringing in fans from all over and also bringing great awareness to the Boys and Girls Club of America.  The Power and Light District will be hopping on Monday evening during the Home Run Derby with free concerts by Luke Bryan, Little Big Town and many more.  Oh wait, we can’t forget about the big event of July 10, the All*Star Game.  Between taxi fees, restaurant bills, and hotel rooms to be booked, this may truly be an event that will serve to bring great economic ramifications to the city.  I think those are all of my thoughts save for one last one.  Go Royals and make us proud in the All*Star Game and Home Run Derby Billy Butler!