Wednesday

 The day began with a visit to the grocery! Before sharing the teams words and photos about the beach, I wanted you to see the incredible amounts of food and supplies your donations purchased!!! Like the story of the boy with the loaves and fishes, it is always amazing when God reminds us of how he can multiply blessings to care for His family!

It was a beautiful, sunny day in El Salvador today. The beach was gorgeous..black sand, tons of palm trees, and gigantic waves but the most gorgeous part was all the boys faces at CISNA (the boys orphanage). Their faces were more beautiful that any beach scene one could ever imagine. We spent an entire day swimming in the ocean, playing on the beach, hanging out on the lawn of the beach house, grilling hamburgers, etc. It was an unbelievable day. I prayed this morning that these boys for a moment could escape their situation, enjoy God's amazing creation, and just accept all the love (God's love) that this team has to offer them. I do believe all those things were accomplished today by the grace of our Heavenly Father. ~ Shannon 

 "As I sit here and think about enough words to make a decent paragraph about my feelings this week, my heart breaks. Words can not begin to express what I have felt this week. These kids are breaking my heart. They are filling my heart with several emotions. As I walk into the orphanages, I see faces I remember and faces that are brand new. When God called me to come here a second time, I knew what to expect. I knew what the conditions would be like. I can say I was extremely overjoyed and had no doubt God would move in the lives of this team and the kids we would encounter. All I can say is thank you Lord for giving me this opportunity to make a difference, and I pray every night that God will bless the kids and make them aware of the hope they have. I pray He will let them know that we will never stop loving them and that they are on our minds each and every day"...........Chelsie Brown 

"The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handwork....there is no speech nor language where His voice is not heard. Today, His voice spoke loudly. His glory revealed itself as blues and whites and silvers and oranges brushed across the sky. The precision of the rise and fall of rolling ocean combined with the crafted crashing of the waves showed us His handiwork. Today, no speech differences or language barriers quenched His great voice. But, in all its beauty and majesty, His voice today made my heartache. As the boys splashed in the ocean and played in the sand, it all seemed familiar, too familiar. Any vacation in my family could include me sitting on the beach as the boys splashed and played, jumped and surfed. But had these boys? Who had sat and watched them? Who had and sat and taken pictures of them? Who would pack up their sand toys and wrap a towel around their chilled bodies as they headed back up? Today that was me."............Rachel Yates

Thank you for continuing to pray for the team and the sweet orphans of El Salvador!