Christmas in Guayabo

Last week we had our celebration in Guayabo, sorry I had forgot to post about it until now, but it was such a blessing. Words can not describe what a blessing it was to be able to bless these children and really make their Christmas. It was filled with so many blessings from the Lord. First, Lesley E. from Stonebrook (my home church) sent 32 sweatshirts for the children at the center, this was such a blessing to these children who don't really have more than one outfit and most of the time don't have a sweatshirt. so we were able to bless the children of the center so they won't be cold. I know that getting a sweatshirt may not seem like much but to these children it means so much because they have so little. They loved the sweatshirts, so a huge thank you goes out to Lesley! Here are some of the children with their new sweatshirts! :)





We also had some fun with games and pinatas. They children love pinatas! However, I learned that they can be dangerous, especially once the pinata falls/breaks and the candy falls out because it's literally a free for all. We had lots of fun and all the children had a chance to hit the pinata. I think the funniest part was with the second pinata, I was in control of moving the pinata up and down when the children were going to hit it, but toward the end I pulled a bit too hard and I broke the rope that was holding the pinata and the pinata crashed to the floor, it was quite hilarious (you had to be there to really get it) so after I had to get the pinata because it didn't break open but that was a task in its self but I got it and was able to rip it open so all the children could get the candy. It was great fun and a grand adventure.


Jorge and Mimi teaching the children the Hokey Pokey :)
Fun with the pinata! :)
Josi playing a game with the kids before pinata time.
The children taking there shot at hitting the pinata.

We were also able to give the children in addition to the sweatshirts a gift that had things in it that ranged from toys to notebooks to candy. This was a complete blessing from the Lord, because the day before the celebration we didn't think that we would be able to give toys to the children because we didn't have enough. However, God came through in a big way, Jorge called Silvia and asked if we still needed gifts for the celebration and she said yes and Jorge was able to get more than enough boxed gifts(this operation Christmas Child gift boxes) so that we could give to the children. It was such a blessing to give them to the children and the smiles on their faces were priceless! We were able to give these children a great Christmas were most of them would not have gotten anything. I can say what a blessing it was to be able to bless these children all for the glory of God! I am SO thankful that I was able to be a part of the celebration and able to be a blessing in the lives of these children.
Here are a few pics of the children:

Christmas

So our Christmas here in El Salvador turned out to be pretty cool. I have to admit that El Salvadoreans really know how to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Like I mentioned before, one Christmas Eve we went over to a friends house at like 11pm and then before midnight set off fireworks and then at exactly midnight the sky was lit up with tons of fireworks (think fourth of July fireworks multipied by 10) it was really cool, because who doesn't like fireworks ;)After we gave everyone a hug and said Merry Christmas and went inside to eat dinner. They had made a huge dinner with turkey and ham, rice, bread and other stuff so it was great. We didn't get back to the house till like 2am and I didn't go to sleep till like 2:30am and that is considered early for a Christmas celebration, mone of my friends here was up till 6:30am. As a result of staying up so late everyone sleeps in on Christmas day.We just chilled and hung out on Christmas day until we went to Church in the late afternoon. Overall, it was a good Christmas.A fellow missionary wrote this on her Facebook wall and I think it sums up what I have felt this Christmas: "This Christmas has been my first away from home - what I've learned, the true joy of Christmas (Jesus' incarnation) dwells in the heart of a believer no matter what the temperature, the traditions, or the people you share it with. Thank you Father for the ultimate gift."

It's Christmas?

Today is Christmas Eve, but I have to admit to you that it doesn't feel like Christmas time at all. I think part of it is that one I'm not with my family and second there is no snow and it's like 80 degrees outside. They celebrate a little bit different here in El Salvador. Tonight is the big time when they celebrate. They celebrate at midnight tonight (yes, it is going to be a very long night, but have no fear I just drank some coffee so I should be able to stay up). We are going over to someones house and we will celebrate with them and eat with them and then everyone around the country will set off tons of fireworks. I really don't know what to expect on how long this will go on but I will have to wait and see. Tomorrow they really don't do much because they are up so late, so we will sleep in and then late afternoon we will go to Church.

Today has been a bit difficult for me to be honest actually this whole week has been a bit difficult because I am really homesick and wish that I could be with my family during Christmas. Don't get me wrong I totally believe that God wants me here in El Salvador and even during this time I just miss my family, because it's my first Christmas away from home. This morning we went to La Libertad to visit some of Victor's family, we didn't stay very long just ate lunch and then headed back to San Salvador, but I did get to see the ocean. Normally, most people can't tell when I am sad and such because I just don't show it and I can be very hard to read but apprently today was different because I keep being asked "are you sad?, do you miss your family?". I'm excited to experience Christmas in a new culture and with different ways of celebrating but at the same time I am missing my family and friends back home.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas where ever you are and I pray that it is a time filled with blessing and rejoicing in the day when our Savior was born.

Winter Snow has become one of my favorite Christmas Songs, hope you enjoy!

God has always got our back

I have a great God story that happened tonight and it shows me once again that God is ALWAYS watching over us! Tonight I went with Jorge, Sarah and Sofi to Las Bambas in Santa Tecla, which was having it's grand opening tonight and Jorge's dad was singing at the place. Las Bambas is located on the street called El paseo del Carmen and it has become a hotspot in Santa Tecla, there is great places to eat and live music and such. There were a ton of people there and they have the street closed off so everyone is just walking around. It has a really neat atmosphere and it has people of all ages.

Now back to the awesome story about our God. So we arrived and we parked the car and such and walked like 5 blocks to Las Bambas. Once we arrived we talked for a while and then we ordered food which was actually pretty good and it was just a great time spent with great friends!! :) Then since it was getting late and Sofi was getting a bit cold, we said goodbye to Jorge's dad and then headed back to the car. Once we got the car, that's when we got a little worried, Jorge couldn't find the keys and then at that moment I remembered that the last time I saw them was when we put them on the trunk in order to close it and put Sofi in here carrier thing and that's when we started to worry a bit ( Sarah and I were saying if somebody did take them why didn't they steal the car, so we weren't sure if we had really left them there.) So we continued to look through all of the diaper bag and everything and then the security guard who was patroling the super busy street came up to us and was like you left your keys on your trunk and I picked them up to keep them safe and he handed us the keys to the car! Wow, was all that I could say, God was for sure watching out for us, because if that security guard hadn't taken the keys the car most likely would have been stolen! It was such a blessing that God placed that security guard there that night, because I truly mean that this place had lots of people walking around and anyone could have easily taken the keys. Thank you Lord!

Another thing that was cool to see was that when we offered him money for protecting the keys/cars he decline and said that he was here to serve us (for those of you who don't know in situations like this you almost always offer money and nobody ever turns down money). So tonight, I am just super thankful that God watched over us tonight!

What a day

Today is one of those days where all I can do is laugh at how the day has unfolded. It started off one of those days where I couldn't sleep at all, but suprisingly I was actually awake, Thank you Lord! Then we were off to church and it was such a great time and we sang one of my favorite songs in Spanish "Desde mi interior" (The song "From the inside out" in English). I don't know what it is about that song but God speaks to me so much through this song. Then a bunch of us went out to lunch at a Chinese resterant and it was a great time and I enjoyed it so much! After that is when the excitment happened...once we got back to the house I needed to get something out of my room, so I went to go into my room and the door wouldn't open, we tried and tried but it wouldn't open. So lucky Carlos Cordova was at the house for a meeting with Victor and he came over and was trying to open the door and finally he got a knife and was using the knife to try and open it, finally he got it open. However, that was not the end of this, he wanted to see what was wrong with the door handle that caused it to not open, so he went into my room and shut the door (that was not a good idea) and then we couldn't get him out because the door wouldn't open again! We all started to just laugh, because honestly it was hilarious, but then we had to figure out how to get Carlos out and take not my room here is really small so there isn't a lot of room to move around. It took a long time and practically breaking down my door but we finally got the door to open back up. It was quite the adventure but I can tell you that I won't be closing my door anytime soon because I am scared that I will get locked in my room and although that though is quite funny I wouldn't like to be locked in my own room with no way out. To say the least it has been a crazy day and the day in not even over! I do just thank the Lord that he knows how to make me laugh, espcially in a situation and day that could have easily became super stressful, so I am super thankful for that and sometimes you just have to laugh at the things that happen in life and this was one of them.


On a completely opposite note that really doesn't have a lot to do with the rest of this post but alas I want to let you guys know about it. On Friday night we had our Christmas dinner for La Red. It was great, only a few people made it but it was still great and I enjoyed being with some people who are my age. It was also awesome because I got to see Sophie (Sarah and Jorge's little girl) and she is adorable!! I also have to say that I love that Sarah is back in ES because she is awesome and it's nice to have another person from the US so if cultural differences or things that I don't understand in Spanish she has that experience.