We're Coming Home

We leave our hotel at 4 am tomorrow morning. We leave El Salvador at 6:30 am. By returning home, we all leave behind the same shared experience but we each take something different back with us.

Last nite after curfew, we stayed up late in the room watching ‘Castaway’ with Tom Hanks. As you know, Tom’s character Chuck got stuck on a deserted island for over four years. When he finally made it back home, he told a good friend that he put all his trust in the fact that if he could ‘keep breathing’ he would survive. His sole purpose and motivation came from the need to just keep breathing.

I wonder now if that might be how all the children we met this week actually get up every morning to face another day. Not knowing exactly when they might have another chance at a life outside the orphanage or detention center, they pass what must seem like endless amounts of time behind the fences. At first I was admittedly a little cynical that they might actually like us or come to be our genuine friends. I was unsure if we could actually make a connection. But we did. And we shared with all of them the hope we have – not just thru words – but thru our actions as well. And we earned their trust. The most asked question we ever got from them was ‘when are you coming back ?’

So for me, I’m taking home a bunch of pictures, a few t-shirts, and the memories of a blessed experience that melted my somewhat cynical heart. I hope to come back here soon – maybe next year. Until then, I’m gonna try to just keep breathing. Seeya soon.

Craig Boyer

The Soccer Tournament

We had a soccer tournament for the older boys on Saturday....... There were 4 teams of 4 players. Us Americans did OK but were eliminated in the end. We had El Salvador national soccer team jerseys to award the first and second teams. To say they were excited would be an understatement.

Interview - Chad and Nick

Chad at his finest...........

The Girls Side .................

This video shows the girls getting ready to enter the Girls Only part of the CISNA facility. They had a great party for all of them and a shower for the 2 pregnant girls. It was emotional experience. Our girls have been able to spend time with both the girls and the boys here. Us guys have only seen the boys side of the place. Ben and Elizabeth have done a great job finding the stuff they need to minister to everyone in special ways. ......................cb

WRBC SK8-Board Team

While we were eating lunch yesterday, Frijole Russell put on another skateboard exhibition. He jumped 3 students. I thought about letting him try to jump my belly but chickened out..............

The Mudbowl - The Correctional Center's Championship Game

It just so happened that the boys at the facility had been playing a series of soccer games for 3 weeks and we were there for the very last game. As you can see, their field wasn't quite what we are used to in Edmond and the bleachers weren't comfortable either. But they played with emotion and the winners all won new bath towels.

Juvenile Correction Center - Sendero de Libertad

We had a change of plans today - at the last minute the Orphan Helper leaders decided to send us out to the Correctional Facility with a letter asking permission to enter and spend time with the detainees. We drove out there - took about 2 hours - and they let us in. We were expecting it to be bad...... after spending 2 days at the CISNA Center, we were under the impresion that all the older boys were trouble - and probably especially those that had been convicted of a crime. But we were wrong. The boys there were all serving sentences of 3 to 7 years - the average sentence seemed to be about 5 years....... and for the most part they were perfect gentlemen. They were actually too shy to come talk to the girls...... it was kinda cute. But Bailee made them feel comfortable and pretty soon she and Amanda were sharing their faith. Then Trey and some others had a group around them listening also. It was very cool and Ben said he was very proud of everyone.............. more later

cb

The Facility - CISNA

The 2nd and 3rd pics are of the interior of the boys 'houses'. They live in what used to be a detention center with bars on the windows and ceiling. For some reason there seems to be a very serious shortage of toilet paper in this country. In fact, I have yet to see any TP in the entire facility. Very curious.............The 4th pic is of the girl's area. None of the guys have been up there but our girls have stories to share when they get home......... the top floor holds girls convicted of some type of crime.

Random Pics from Stan Clark

Stan took these and this is the first opportunity I've had to upload them. They include a picture of the disaster that occured when another group brought a pinata...... the boys enjoyed it and went bananas.

Stan is with Diego...... another one of our favorites.

There's a picture of me about to cry........ we're in the handicraft room for all the little boys that have been sexually abused. I had been trying to talk to the little guy but he was not interested at all. They say it takes a long time to earn these boy's trust.

One of the picture's is from the roof of the hotel and one is of the basketball court at the orphanage.

Inflatable Pandemonium !!!

I have never uploaded a video to a blog so this is a first.......... hopefully it will work. This should give everyone a better idea of what kind of pandemonium the inflatables caused.

Update

My wife asked me if everyone is doing ok....... Hannah´s tummy was a little sensitive yesterday..... I don´t know how she´s doing today. (UPDATE: she is doing a lot better today !!) I fell off a curb yesterday ( it would be more exciting to say that I had a skateboard accident but no one would believe it) and twisted my ankle pretty good. However, we have nurse Sandy Garrett with us and she is administering medication and bags of ice. No one has any serious health issues that I know of.

Last nite the main power cable to the hotel ´broke´ and about half of us were without power for about 3 hours. The line was laying in the street sparking - it was quite a show. We got the juice back on at about midnite. The Salvadoran version of OG&E did a great job of fixing it in a real hurry - cynical Craigo was amazed.................if we were in Mexico, it would have taken at least a week.

Our Orphan Helper´s bus has brake issues so we are sleeping late today and waiting for the repairs to take place. It seems that in El Salvador, brakes are one of the most important items on a vehicle :-) Our driver Jose has been using them a lot. Every ride is kinda like going to Frontier City.

The weather has been fabulous........ cool in the evening and morning and not too bad during the day.

more later.............................cb

PS !! as a reminder- clicking on the pictures will display them in a lot larger format

The Kids................

The little kid with Chad "Chido" Simpson is Santos........ he is probably the youngest little guy here........he says he is 8 but I am sure it's more like 4.

The boy in the yellow shirt is Salvador - my favorite. If he would fit in my luggage, Lucas and Les would have a new brother. He has parents..... apparently they dropped him off here 15 months ago and he hasn't seen them since. He was crying yesterday when he told me this. I got to hug on him for a while then Lucas and I bought him a coke. But it absolutely kills me........... the sad reality is that EACH little guy here has a similarly horrible story to tell. Our hearts are truly broken for these kids. I have felt a lot of intense emotions while on mission trips over the years but this is different.........this is a new kind of hurt. The depth of despair that we are seeing here has changed all of us.

The boy in the blue shirt is Jorge............ Jorge is trouble. He is one of the older boys here and is pretty hard. We are trying to reach out to all of them but it's really hard with the older ones. Most of them bored, ready to leave and be anywhere but where they are. Hopefully our soccer tournament on Saturday will make some sort of impact. So, if you're gonna pray, then pray for the little guys who are abandoned and sad and for the older guys who will eventually leave this place and do who-knows-what.

The Inflatables were a HUGE Hit !!

Ben had 2 inflatables delivered and the kids went absolutely nuts. We had a hard time with crowd control. Matt Hull and Jonathan Adamson spent 2 hours in the 'cage' trying to keep the rowdy boys from killing each other. It was 4 hours of pandemonium!

Afterwards, after everyone caught their breath, we went to each of the 4 'houses' and made salvation bracelets, shared the salvation story, and ate pizza........ then we went to a 'pupusaria' and ate pupusas........good stuff.

Trey "Frijole" Russell - SkaterDude Extraordinaire - Wows the Kiddos

Trey wowed everyone with his ample skater skills and even had the boys trying some advanced jumps. Only 3 kids had broken bones and one ended up with a concussion......................... ( not really !) They did take turns on his skateboard and a few of the kids have potential, according to "Frijole"

More Tuesday Photos

OK- so i forgot what day it really was !! These are pics from Tuesday

Playing with the Kiddos

We spent the day at the center today........ it was fun playing with the kiddos but a little sad at the same time. We watched a group of kids coloring and later found out that they had been sexually abused. We did our VBS stuff later then the guys and the girls separated to hang with children of the same gender. The girls said they spent most of their time dancing ! The guys and boys spent our time playing baseball, soccer and wrestling around. It was fun and we're all looking forward to going back tomorrow. The overall experience was satisfying but personally for me, I have to admit that my heart was a little broken at time. More photos next post.......

.........cb

We Made It !!

OK - We made it to El Salvador with ZERO problems...... no one got left at the airport in Houston...... amazing. Here are a few photos to prove that we are still alive and enjoying the 100% humidity. The hotel is very cool with gardens and beautiful flowers - smells kinda like Hawaii. The Orphan Helpers guys picked us up at the airport after we breezed thru customs and we rode in their big school bus to the hotel. We're up late trying to get all the crafts ready to go for tomorrow. Breakfast at 6:30 and we leave the hotel at 8am. BTW, we are on Mountain Time here. Click on these photos for a larger view. More pics tomorrow !