Friday, August 19, 2016

Trip to El Salvador

After 10 days of intense work in El Salvador I'm finally back in Costa Rica. But I want to start at the beginning, August 5th.
On August the 5th a co-worker and I flew to El Salvador on a 10 day promotion tour. We left about 5:30am and landed about 7am in El Salvador. We were welcomed by some MOVIDA friends who drove us from the airport to Santa Ana. On Saturday we already had the first visits to do. We visited a youth service and a small group. Also I got asked to preach in a church on Sunday. Those who know me, know that this is not my strength and that I don't like to do that what so ever. But accepted the challenge and I prepared a message.
Just before I had to preach my co-worker asked me how I'm doing and normally I would answer, that I'm nervous and that I'm not feeling well. But this time I told her, that surprisingly I was feeling really good, even though it was my first time preaching in a church. This statement made her nervous. I eventually preached about missions and our responsibilities and this based on the story of Zacchaeus. According to the feedbacks I got I believe that my message went well.
During the week then we were working towards the event on the upcoming weekend. This week is the main reason why we went to El Salvador in the first place. MOVIDA organises several events through out the year called CIMA Day. This event gives the youth the opportunity to experience one day of CIMA. This way they can understand a bit what they can expect in January but also those that can't go in January can learn more through the Seminars and Workshops about the mission of God.
On Saturday, August the 13th we had our event and I had two main rolls during this day. First I represented the Experience-Program, which we are offering in January after the conference. My goal was to promote the mission trips and motivate the youth to consider this opportunity. My second roll was to lead a seminar. The theme of it was "How can I get involved with missions". I had about 15 participants and also here I believe it was a good turn out. The whole weekend was from our end a success. We received many good feedbacks and even invites to come back next year.
Well now some general information. If you read my first post about Costa Rica you might remember that I talked about the food and how the Costa Ricans eat a lot of Rice and Beans. Well the El Salvadorans have their Pupusas (check link and picture). In El Salvador they eat this dish several times a day. If I would have to choose now between the rice and beans or the pupusas, then I chose the pupusas.
The next information is, that during the preparations for the event I had a small accident. I got asked to cut the tickets for the event, which were 300 tickets. I was doing this with one of those paper cutter, now this one didn't have a protection and due to the amount that I was cutting I got into a routine which led that I forgot my finger. This ended in me cutting off the tip of my finger. Now it might sound really bad but I don't think it was that bad. I did have to go and get two stitches but the finger is healing really well.
Again I want to remind you, that once in awhile I'm doing Facebook live. So check out my Facebook Page and watch the videos from El Salvador (Link is on the top right on my blog).

Well this were the information about El Salvador. It was a really beautiful experience and I made some new friends. The people there are really welcoming and open and they gave everything to make us feel at home. Also you can find pictures on my Instagram (Link on the top right corner of my blog) about this trip.

Thanks so much for your interest and your support.