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.)
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