As the week comes to a close, we were blessed to wake up in beautiful San Martin at the Potter’s Field orphanage. When we arrived last night there was an obvious difference between CIPI and Potter's Field. Potter's Field is a Christian orphanage that houses 17 boys and provides church services for the community on Sundays and Wednesday evenings. They also host an after-school program. The environment for the orphan boys is that they are a "giant family" to the staff.
The rainforest surrounds the property, which is full of classrooms, gardens, a beautiful soccer field, and a church in the middle.
This morning we woke up to a traditional and delicious Salvadorian breakfast that consisted of plantains, rice and beans, fresh bread, fruit, and scrambled eggs. We now have high expectations for breakfast when we get home (wink wink). After our breakfast we joined the older orphan boys in a game of soccer, including their coach, Alejandro, who played on the El Salvador's national team and is now the pastor of the church. We were surprised to see how talented the boys were at soccer but we embraced the challenge and made fools of ourselves in the process. Because the field was wet and muddy we were slipping around all over the place and covered in mud by the end of the game!
Once the game ended Micah and I (Kendall) were given the opportunity to share our testimonies with the boys. It was an awesome chance to tell the boys that we were in El Salvador to share God’s love with them and to bless them and to be changed from our experience here. Throughout our entire time at the orphanage, the boys blessed us with their infectious and contagious smiles that will forever be ingrained in our hearts.
Later we headed to a community outreach in a poor village where Calvary Chapel has recently planted a church. It was located an hour and a half away from San Martin in the middle of poverty and farmland. Some of the children walked for over 30 minutes to be with us today. We were disappointed that we had given away all of the donated shoes because it was clear that shoes were desperately needed. We noticed that many shoes were broken and falling apart on the kids' feet. We even heard a heart breaking story of two sisters who share one pair of shoes. One waits at home until the other returns, stuck at home shoeless. Needless to say, there is tremendous need here and we hope to return one day with hundreds of shoes.
We led a small church service for the kids where I (Jacque) was able to share my testimony along with Jenni and Stephanie. I also had the opportunity to sing a song with Carin, Becca, and Sam. Mike and Aidan gave a short message on the importance of following Jesus. Throughout the service, the other men on the team continued serving in the construction project just alongside the church. We also hosted a soccer game for the older kids, did arts and crafts and ended with a pinata (filled with candies and sillly bands). Tomorrow is our R & R day. We will be visiting the volcano crater and doing some souvenir shopping. Hasta luego!
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