Meeka Meeka!!!

Today was the first full day we had in El Salvador and full it was! It started bright and early at 6am for breakfast and we literally did not stop moving all day. The first place we went to was a school that has students ranging in age up to 16 and around 850 students total between morning and afternoon classes.  It ran in a morning and afternoon shift that were very similar but had a completely different sets of students. We split our group into three and had one group assisting Humberto in the classroom, another helping with PE class and a third sorting clothing and helping to organize the sports outreach office and share testimonies and stories of how God has worked in their lives. I was blessed to be a part of the group that had the opportunity to share  testimonies in the classrooms. It was incredible and I was most definitely stretched by it. Because El Salvador is a Spanish speaking country sharing testimonies in English is not super effective, luckily we have some group members that are fluent which made translating much easier and it was neat to learn as a team how to adjust our stories and testimonies to fit the age we were working with. The kids would smile and stare at us in silence or ask silly questions but it was evident that they were so joyful we were there. 
   Speaking of the kids  I think I can safely speak for all of my team members when I say I was shocked at the amount of energy that those kids have. Wow. Anyone of them could audition for the energizer bunny and easily become the new mascot! Their endless smiles and constant laughter was  delightful and made for a truly spectacular day. The kids favorite game to play, aside from football of course, was meeka. I can't tell you exactly what meeka means but I'm guessing it means "tag, you're it!" Whether you were in conversation or not, if you were an able bodied individual you had to be constantly on the look out because there was a very good chance a child would run up to you, pinch your stomach and shout "meeka!" It was often followed by a taunting that  begged for retaliation and a great game of chase. There was never any rhyme or reason to it and you could easily have three kids pinch you in a matter of seconds but that was the fun of it. No one ever won and no won ever lost but those kids just kept running until we were near panting. I didn't see a single kid pant but I saw every team member exhausted at some point!  Recess was the truest form of a controlled chaos I have ever seen in my life. When the bell rang to dismiss the kids, the seemingly small and quiet courtyard teemed with life and the basketball court would easily be holding two different games of football, countless games of meeka, kids riding piggyback and many different passing conversations that meandered through the games. Somehow despite the overwhelming amount of things going on, everything worked smoothly and collisions were scarce. At one point this morning I looked at my watch and my jaw dropped when I discovered it was only 10am. My mind was truly boggled as to how much we had already fit into our day!
     After the morning session we grabbed a quick lunch at subway and then headed back to the school for afternoon classes with a completely new set of students. At this point everyone in our group was tired and nap ready but the afternoon classes had a whole new set of children to love on and so we boarded our van with tired but overfilling hearts ready to love more people. Monday afternoons in the school are always civil day and a presentation was put on where we were given  the opportunity to sing our national anthem and the song How great is our God. We of course slipped in our very own Hannah original complete with beat boxing to accompany the wonderful gospel tunes of her catchy little tune. After the assembly normal structure of English class, P.E. And more testimonies began again. It was a truly a wonderful day at the school and we all look forward to going back again tomorrow!

   Around 5pm we left the school and headed back to the Thomas-Rodriguez community to pass out water filters. It was incredible. Humberto shared the gospel and talked about the living water of Christ and then demonstrated how to use the water filters. The pure joy and happiness on the peoples faces when they saw the dirty water get purified into crystal clear drinking water was an incredible sight.  They have so little but they are always smiling and always cheerful. To be able to show them how to use the filters, a tool that will change their life, was incredible. While the adults were being shown how to use the filters, the children were teaching me and some other group members some songs in Spanish,  and we attempted to sing father Abraham to them in Spanish. It was a slight struggle but it was wonderful to spend time with the children and they found our attempts to be quite amusing.
       I have been in this country for not even two full days and already I have been humbled by the true joy that these people have with so little. It is evident that God is at work in this beautiful country and I am humbled and blessed to play a role in this ministry. Thank you so much for your prayers, love and support!
~ Natasha