We Arrived!

After leaving from York Alliance at 1 AM, we make it to BWI, check in and are through security with a half hour to spare. We hit the bathrooms and filled water bottles. Some of us tried to catch a little sleep before they call us to board.

Then we are off. First time flyers thrill watching the clouds sink beneath our wings. We arrive in Miami with plenty of time to grab breakfast and chill for a little in the airport. Breakfasts consist of smoothies, eggs and steak, coffee, muffins, donuts, and chicken fingers with ketchup.

Our plane is delayed for an hour and then we board and sit for another hour. The pilot comes on the intercom and lets us know that the hold-up is because his seat belt is broken.

Eventually we take to the skies again, this time leaving the U.S. Behind us. A couple hours later, we are flying over El Salvador. I look out the window at the ground below. I don't know what to expect, but mostly it looks like farm country back home.

We land in San Salvador, get our passports stamped, get our luggage (all arrived! Praise God!), and go through customs.

When we exited the airport, we were greeted with palm trees, heat, humidity, and a walkway lined with Salvadorans with welcome signs and hopeful looks. I know they aren't for us, but it was cool to walk down past them all just the same. They look at us curiously. Gringos stand out here. We reunite with the rest of the team who came down the day prior - Mike, Ethan, Caleb, and Nate. It was good to have the team complete again.

A green pickup pulls up to collect us and all our bags. I am pretty sure we won't all fit, but somehow it happens. We set off down the highway, most of the team members perched on the back of the pickup around the luggage and a few (myself included) piling into the pickup cab. Juan gets a kick out of how friendly and nice the other drivers are. Apparently, having a pickup bed full of gringos works wonders in busy traffic.

We drive past walls, fences, gates and barbed wire. Roadside vendors are perched wherever they can find a spot. Armed guards patrol the parking lot at the Wendy's we stop at for supper.

We arrive at the apartment and unpack our bags. The apartment has cinder block walls painted lime green, and the kitchen has a wire grate in back of it completely open to the outdoors. I must admit, I love how this “casa” is both inside and outside at the same time. Everybody spills into the rooms and unpacks and sets things up. The apartment is tiny. There's two bunk beds in each of the three bedrooms and just enough walkway between them to get to the beds. We each have our personal fans blowing on us. They help some, but I'll admit it's hard for me to imagine living in this heat and humidity 24/7 all year long.

A radio is booming from one of the neighbors; a woman selling tamales below, cries “Tamales, Tamales” plaintively; a dog barks every time a door slams; a car alarm goes off, stops and then goes off again.

I want to pray Elisha's prayer for spiritual eyes. “Open [my] eyes, LORD, so that [I] may see” (2 Kings 6:17, NIV, Biblegateway.com). I see the barbed wire and razor wire and the gates and the locks and the guards and soldiers, but I want to see the spiritual surroundings here. At the end of today, the words stuck in my head are safety and security. I feel surrounded by God. He is my wall, my razor wire, my armed guard. And he isn't about keeping people out. I'm looking forward to meeting and connecting with the people here. Tomorrow!

Thank you for your prayers and support!