El Salvador Report - Day 1

Today was a travel day for the Brown family. Although this was not Rebecca's first time traveling by air, it was her first international flight. And she was very excited. She was smiling from ear to ear when the immigration agent in El Salvador issued her visa and stamped her passport.

Even though this was a travel day, it was also a work day for the distribution team. We met this evening for training on some of the skits and interaction activities we will use when ministering in the schools this week. The picture to the left shows Tammy and Liz training the team on a choices skit. In this skit, a student is called on to come up and choose between what Liz has in her right hand or in her left hand. But first, the student must call on a friend to help her with this decision. When the student leaves the room, Liz reveals that she has candy in her hands, but has actually been sucking on one of the candies. She spits that candy out into the wrapper and then closes her hand. The student comes back in and the friend must help her to make the right decision. This is a great object lesson on good choices and having a trusted friend to help in those choices. It is also a great introduction into a personal testimony about how the presenter may have made bad choices because of relying on bad friends. With Jesus as our friend, we can always make good choices.

Wayne and Roberta worked with Liz on a big strong student versus smaller student challenge. In this skit, the big strong student has to stand on one leg, while the smaller student stands on both legs, spread apart, and firmly planted on the ground. Liz then uses a little bit of pressure, equally applied to both the big and the small student. Without fail, the bigger student will fall over. The object of this lesson is to show students that we need a strong foundation in our life. It leads into testimonies where the presenter can express how Jesus has given them a strong foundation to fight against the pressures of life.

We will visit two schools each morning and two schools each afternoon this week. I hope to be able to post a blog entry each evening that catalogs our work and shows how Rebecca is playing a role in bring the gospel to the children and youth of San Salvador, El Salvador.