We have now spent two days in our first country in Central America!!
I am beyond excited to be here and I love everything I’m getting to experience. On Sunday, we attended a church service; the sermon focused on three main points: 1. AVOID trying to control situations and people that only God can and focus on what God is calling YOU to do 2. AVOID living in the past and don’t allow past decisions to dictate the way you live your life today 3. If we don’t change our way of thinking we will never change in the way we live.
After the church service we went out into the homes to install water filters and share the gospel. My role during our first visit was attending the baby to allow the mom to receive teaching about the filter and the gospel. I got to learn more about their culture through engaging in conversation with her afterwards! Central Americans here are very hospitable people and are very humble with what they have! We then finished our night by walking through the city and visited the famous arch! 🙂
Monday was a busy but fun day! I woke up around 7:00am and went down for breakfast. Then we all got ready to go to a feeding with the Azusa team at a place called Tent City. We took big vans to get there, and our team got the one with the best AC (shhhhh, don’t tell Azusa!).
On our way there we listened to worship music and made some origami frogs and butterflies for the kids, which they loved!! When we got there, it was hot, with not a lot of shaded places, and lots of kids. It was a blast. We got to play some Tag with the kids, play with the origami frogs, toss with a stuffed animal they had, and do the “go bananas” song too!!
After that, we drove to Jollibee’s (a fast food chicken place people loveeeee to eat at here) for a much needed lunch break and spontaneous team bonding time. We all ordered, but found out that sadly they were both out of fries and the peach mango pies we all love! 🙁 But somehow, my dad was able to get us Large size ones (I guess they had them versus the regular size?) and we were all over the moon with excitement!
When we wrapped up at Jollibee’s, we’re then headed to another adventurous spot – a waterfall called Daranak Falls. It was very cool! The water was cool and blue, except the waterfall part was not flowing a lot, it still was a cool experience. We all got to cool off in it for a few hours and just play which was a lot of fun. When we were finished swimming, we all had to be dry in the vans, so some of us had to change into dry clothes, which took a hot minute. But, it was definitely worth being dry on the long car ride back to the base. The nice ladies who make the food back at the base also packed us lunches (PB&J’s, juice pouches, and apples which were very tasty and perfect after a long swim!).
When we arrived back, we all got a little cleaned up, and then headed to the Adoni House (a home at the base for young, 12 – 16 years, pregnant girls) to play games, do karaoke, and we even got to make Turon (a filipino banana roll dessert, which is super tasty)!! The girls were so kind and had the best laughs and smiles, I loved getting to know them and hang out.
Afterward, we went upstairs to dinner, which was a taco salad bar! I liked it, and we brought up the Turon we made so everyone was able to enjoy it too. Then, Brooks (our host for the trip) told us he had what is called Balut (a fertilized duck egg that has been incubated for 14ish days and then boiled) and that the brave people who ate it would get a pin saying they did. I was grossed out and chose against eating it, however, Lauren, my dad, Khaycee, and Keilah were brave enough to eat the baby duck. We got the whole thing on video, so don’t worry if you need to ask one of us for that! 😉 But everyone on our team who tried it, was able to swallow it and get the pin!! It was nasty, and Lauren almost puked, but she pulled through in the end, ewww!
Once the birdies were in their tummy’s, we all went up to the boys home to play sports with some kids and the pastors from the area which was cool. We all had a lot of fun, the kids are really good at all of them!!
Well, that’s all for now! It was quite a day, and can’t wait to see what tomorrow has for our team!! Thank you for keeping us in your prayers, it is greatly appreciated. We love and miss you all!!
After months of training, ministry and emotional preparation, our East Africa team is off to the airport to serve with an anti-trafficking organization for two weeks! We are so excited to send them off with hearts that are ready to serve as they jump into a new ministry and new culture. Join us in praying for them, for their health and safety and for their hearts to be fully submitted to the Lord as they love on the girls in East Africa.
Happy Lords Day! Today we started out with an early morning devotional led by Erin and it was a blessing. We then had a team breakfast. We had such yummy Central American food. Everyone here is so kind and welcoming. From the staff down to the locals. They love hearing us practice our Spanish no matter how little it is. Erin woke up early and went on a run while admiring all of Gods beautiful creation and told us all about it. We went to church as a team where we were met with some of the kindest people ever! We sang Spanish hymns that some of us haven’t heard in a while. The message was such a blessing. After church we headed over to lunch at an amazing restaurant with so much greenery and nature. We were joined by the pastors family and more Just One staff members and scholars! The food was delicious! After lunch we got a tour of the communities that Just One serves works with which included visiting Just One’s facility. We visited their library and coffee shop too. They are such a light and blessing to these communities and are making a big impact in the name of the Lord. It’s amazing how everyone uses their talents to help the organization grow and flourish. After the tour we went back to church to visit Awana, a kids ministry event they do on Sundays. We got to know the kids and play games with them. It was so much fun to see them learn about Christ and the gospel while having a blast. We are so excited to lead this event next week. We ended the night with a yummy dinner at a retro themed cafe before debriefing as a team about the blessings we got today. We are so excited for tomorrow and the work we will be doing. Xoxo – The Ellie’s
Pretty chill day today, it’s our rest day so we didn’t have to do any work. I woke up in a puddle of sweat this morning and the sheets stuck to me. Best sleep I’ve had here by far, we were all able to sleep in for a little bit. I didn’t head downstairs till 9 and had to gobble up breakfast really fast before we left for church.
We walked into church and were instantly greeted by lots of friendly people. Church was very good, the service went for 2 and a half hours because they were praying away different mission teams they are sending out. It was a very powerful message and great atmosphere.
After church we came back to the compound and me and my brother took our laundry to the place down the road bc we missed laundry two days ago. We only have one outfit so i’ll have to recycle the one i wore today for tmrw (gross).
We ate lunch and decided we wanted to spend the day at the mall. So we took some tricycles and a bus to the mall an hour away. I got a seat by the window so i had to duck my head the entire bus ride, ouchie. We got to the mall and split up buying things. This one lady was trying to scam me and my brother for two bracelet but Graham wasn’t having it and talked her down from 4000 pesos to 2600 pesos. We all splooged and shopped probably for two hours. I’m not a big shopper so that dusted me.
We took the bus back and were all very very hungry. We stopped at Jollibees and I was being a big back and got a burger, chicken sandwich, large fries, large orange juice, and a mango pie. My burger was dripping oil and i squeezed it and oil would ooze out for a solid 30 seconds. I didn’t care I was too hungry, gobbled that down, it was buss and was still hungry but we had to leave. It’s okay I’m munching on triscuits right as I write.
We got back, watched some neighborhood basketball for a little. I’m too tired to shower so I just jumped in the pool, that did the job whatever and now it’s bed time.
bye bye
Also, Khaycee got to see her cousin at the mall! Pretty amazing!
The rest of Thursday was so fun, we got to help out baking treats for the students at Canvas. We made banana bread and got to play board games with the students and made so amazing friends!! After that we went back to our house and went to bed early because of the long day we had ahead of us.
Friday was action packed!! Helping set up for their end of the year celebration, it was in an old church which was AT LEAST 500 years old. It was such a good time to celebrate all the students who were graduating, they even had the staff sing a parody of a song about what has happened so far this year!! After the graduation they had everyone hangout together after, we all played some card games and got to make even deeper connections with the students there. We then made it back to our House, watched some Hamilton and ate some snacks debriefing together how our time was.
After our long night, most of us slept in while others went over to one of the staffs house to get a haircut. Sal and Dom had one of the staff cut their hair while Vic and Sophia watched their kid for them. We did get a bit lost finding their house but they came and picked us up where we were haha, they fed us some English breakfast (crumpets with jam) and we all loved it!! The rest of the day the team got together and walked around the city center buying different things for souvenirs and daily needs. We all stayed up together making burgers and watching movies till we trickled into bed for church the next morning!!
Our 1st service on Sunday was so powerful and it was such a need for our team. Everything from the worship to the message was just what our team needed to fill us for our upcoming week. We then had an English Sunday Roast which is very popular here during Sundays, and we all loved it!!
We are winding down and getting ready for our 2nd service later tonight, thank you for your consistent prayers!!
While at the airport, we encountered other teams coming from different parts of the US to serve in this Central American country. It’s wonderful to see the outpouring of love for this beautiful country. We arrived at our hotel which is kind of a giant compound and we got settled in. We met the Just One staff and their family then had our first authentic local meal. We are all looking forward to attend church tomorrow, getting a community tour and seeing the Just One facility.
Day 5!!! We started by waking up to the construction, as always, 7 a.m. sharp! Breakfast totally made up for it though. We had tocino, eggs, and fresh watermelon, which was actually sooo good!!! My team also got to try kutsinta for the first time! It was fun seeing everyone’s reactions since it’s a childhood dessert of mine! We also stopped at the gas station before leaving. I had everyone try this snack that I love called Sweet Corn! Turns out they loved it as well 😀
We were supposed to leave around 8:45 but ended up leaving later since we forgot to prep the champorado. So while we waited, Laura taught me origami! We made frogs, flowers, hearts, swans, butterflies, and fortune tellers, and we kept practicing it during our long drive to M, which is Pastor Brooks’ hometown!
On the way there, we were also learning some Tagalog phrases and words. It took a bit to get the hang of, but we put together a pretty solid list of things to say when talking to people here. We even started learning this song called “Mahal na Mahal Kita, Panginoon,” which translates to “I love you more than anything, O Lord.”
When we got to the neighborhood where we did our feeding in M, we handed out sweet treats, toys, and champorado. We also got to play with a bunch of local kids, which honestly made me so happy. They were such a fun group!!! They were absolutely full of energy. It was fun to see them enjoying themselves and just loving on them! They were so happy, especially after passing out some of the origami papers we made! They loved it and kept asking us to make more!
Oh! Also, since we practiced a little on the way there, it was the first time we were able to use some of the phrases with the kids like “anong pangalan mo,” which means “what is your name?”
After we finished up, Pastor Brooks let us stop by a local cafe in his hometown. We got drinks and red velvet cake while enjoying the most amazing view. It was so nice to bond with everyone!
Once we got back from that long drive, we had a lot of free time. We ate lunch and went to the pool to relax… and after that, Lauren, Alec, and I took tricycles to the local Starbucks!! Once we got there, it was so crazy how nice it was… it was so big that it felt like I was at a fancy restaurant!
After that, we ate dinner, had a few more minutes of downtime, and lastly went to our sports ministry 🙂 Lauren, Alec, Keilah, and I all helped out with volleyball! It was so fun to see the kids try new drills and be open to learning new things. We played volleyball for nearly 3 hours, just teaching the kids and playing with them afterward. That was such a blessing to be a part of 🙂
Lastly, I wanted to share how during our free time, I was able to have a deep talk with Laura about how grateful we are to be here. Our trip has definitely come with a lot of challenges, but I see how God is working through all of us in ways I never expected. And I’m truly so grateful to be here with so many great people that inspire me. I truly look up to all of them 🙂
Thank you so much for keeping up with our team and continuing to pray for us! Can’t wait to share more when we’re back home!!!
Our Central America C team has also arrived safe and sound in their destination for the next two weeks. They are eager to serve and ready to go! Please pray that the team would remain physically healthy and that they would gain some energy after a long travel day! They will update again soon!
After some overnight flights, our Central America B team has safely arrived in Central America and met up with their fieldworkers. They’ll be spending the first week in one country, before traveling to the next for week 2. They’re excited to jump right in and get serving! Pray for renewed energy and for the team to be able to connect and bond with the other teams they are serving with this week. The team will send their own update soon!
