El Salvador Mission – June 21-30, 2010

Christian Surfers Daytona Beach and the Beachside Church

Our bus from Beachside->Orlando->Ft. Lauderdale->Guatemala City Spirit Airlines connections worked perfectly, and we loaded our two smallish vans with nineteen people, all their luggage, mission supplies, and one surfboard (mine, since everyone else balked at the $150 round trip charge) , and we headed off through Guatemala towards El Salvador. We stopped to eat at a roadside cafe in Guatemala where World Cup Soccer was captivating the patrons, and then stopped at the El Salvador border to have our papers checked and crossed the river into El Salvador. The ride was about 6 hours, but the vans were air conditioned, and the roads better than in Costa Rica.

The rain began softly at first, and after dark became a monsoon, and we slowed to a crawl for flooding and rockslides. At 8:10 we arrived here at Salvador Castellano's family compound, which is beautiful, on a steep hillside, and overlooks the Pacific. During lightning flashes we could see the surf breaking and began to anticipate our early morning go out. We are segregated by gender and age, and I'm rooming with Michael Main, Bobby O'Brien, and Jed Smith.

After surfing at daybreak, we will begin helping the locals who have been flooded out of their homes by the incessant rain, which is expected to continue for the next three days. Our days at the orphanage will wait until the more pressing needs of disaster relief are met.

El Salvador Mission – June 21-30, 2010

Today began at 6 with a ride into El Tunco so the guys who didn't bring their boards could rent boards from a local shop. Salvador took us on a brief tour of the destruction downtown and some of the projects we would tackle later in the day.

We paddled out at the main point, Sunzal, a right breaking wave that comes off a point. The paddle out is about a half mile, and Pastor Jessie of Sovereign Grace Church and I took off on the first wave together. The water is brown from all the runoff, and getting through the shorebreak was tricky because of all the logs, trees, sheet metal, garbage, sewage, etc. that has washed down from the town and its destroyed housing. We had a great session in the 4'-6' surf, and talked with several other surfers about why we are here.

Blanca (the family housekeeper) served breakfast for everyone when we returned to Salvador's compound, and then we geared up for our day's work. The two main projects were shoveling the mud out of flooded houses, helping them clean their salvageable furniture, distributing care packages of food and clothing, and also building a wall beside the church to help channel future street flooding away from the building and into the river. We mixed mortar with shovels and water pulled from the river, since the water system is still down. The heat and humidity are oppressive and exacerbated by the stench of the sewage, because toilets aren't flushing in town. Lots of bottled water was consumed.

We had a late lunch in a 2nd story palapa where we ate a sampler of four tacos, fish, shrimp, chicken, and beef. They were muy delicioso! Salvador had to go into San Salvador for a 3pm business meeting, so we hiked back up the hill to Cerromar, the neighborhood where his compound is built. The gated

community has armed guards 24/7 so we feel safe here. Besides being the National Director of Christian Surfers El Salvador, Salvador is media consultant and sometimes air personality for Univision, the Spanish language TV channel. He’s won two Emmys for his coverage of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

During a debriefing in the pool, we talked about the shared sense of frustration about not being able to do more to help. El Tunco is poor during good times, but is struggling especially hard now after the flooding took away so much. But we are here, doing what we can, and probably stimulating the local economy a little with our sustenance needs.

Tonight we will dine in the compound and have our second devotional by Jed Smith - Philippians 2:1-11. We're all given wrist bands each morning with the applicable reference on them, and a teaser, like today's "nothing = something". Can't wait!

El Salvador Mission – June 21-30, 2010

Began the day with a surf session at El Sunzal, and the waves have improved in size and shape. The half-mile paddle is long, but the uncrowded lineup is well worth it, especially way outside where the largest waves break. Jed was our videographer, and there may soon be some video on YouTube or Facebook.

At Salvador's, we had a breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, a hot dog, and a roll with honey. Muy delicioso! The coffee is reported to be strong and excellent, but with my heart, not an option. :-(

Then off to Remar orphanage. Ok, so I want to bring home a dozen or so of the children....but we are going back tomorrow, and will play more games, futbol, take pictures, hold them and carry them around on our shoulders. In addition to the normal population of orphans and foster children, there are 90 families there displaced by the recent flooding here. We provided food, clothing, and toys.

When we returned to the compound from Remar, we had a late lunch made in a burger place in La Libertad, including papas fritas! Several of the men/boys lapsed into siesta/comas after the meal. I took a shower in my clothes to get them presentable again.

Dinner will be served later, and then we'll have another devotional led by Jed Smith. My wristband today says, "One...John 17:21, Matthew 18:19, and then Two or Three". More mystery....can't wait!

El Salvador Mission – June 21-30, 2010

The familiar routine is sunrise wake up, surf session, breakfast, and off to our first service project. The surf was big, breakfast delicious, and the day gray with the threat of more rain on the already saturated land.

We drove to San Diego and a little church in a flooded swamp that feeds about 90-100 people daily, mostly children. On the way, we shopped for groceries in La Libertad and brought the ingredients for chicken soup from scratch. Several of us took advantage of the opportunity to buy coffee to bring home.

The walled compound there is about 70% covered with 6-8" of standing water, since the water table is so high and the property is one of the lowest in the town. To get from the gate to the "church" you walk on stones placed in the water to keep your shoes dry. The kitchen is a raised concrete platform, with wood fired "stoves", consisting of a metal grate supported by a few bricks. One team began the food preparation while the other began playing games with the children, including a rendition of the Noah's Ark story. It was great fun, and although the church has only half of a roof, there was no rain there today and we managed to play all the games, serve lunch to over 100, and return for some quiet time of reflection about the enormity of the problems here.

This evening, we drove into El Tunco for the Friday night meeting of Christian Surfers El Salvador, where one team played games with the smaller children, and the other team joined the Bible study with the older kids. It was a powerful evening, followed by dinner served in the restaurant that makes itself available for the weekly meetings. We ate some of the most delicious BBQ chicken I've had in a long time.

We're in for the night now, and trust that this message finds you well and safe in a comfortable, safe place. Not everyone is so fortunate.

El Salvador Mission – June 21-30, 2010

Saturday morning we were on the beach by 7am to do a beach cleanup in El Tunco. Perfect 8' waves were breaking at La Bocana while we walked the beach. Ah, deprivation is good for the soul. We filled many large rice bags with an amazing assortment of flip flops, plastic bottles, paper, clothing, barbed wire, foam trays; basically the contents of all the houses that were flooded, added to the normal amount of beach trash. My most interesting find was a capped plastic bottle that I emptied; containing about a half-dozen large scorpions soaking in alcohol. Hum.....must have been delicious, but I didn't try it.

We ate breakfast back at Salvador's, and then went to the Christian Surfer's property here in El Tunco. We moved several tons of river rocks from one side of the property to the other, dug up weeds, collected trash, and generally spruced up what is going to become the site of construction later this summer by other CS teams that are coming here. Several of us sang "Working on the Railroad" and "Sixteen Tons" as we worked the "bucket brigade" handing the 10-30 pound rocks from one side to the other. It was hot, sweaty, tiring work, and I loved every minute of it.

Jesse, Basil, and I caught a ride with Maria Jose to El Sonte up the coast to try out a surf break there, in advance of the rest of the team arriving for the evening CS meeting and worship. The break is a point formed by a river mouth, that was spewing chocolaty brown water into the surf, with strong currents pulling you east towards the rocks across the bay. Jesse paddled out and managed to catch two closeout waves, while I took advantage of my experience (age) and opted to watch from a beachside palapa. Basil (age 15) went out on a boogie board and managed to get swept into the rocks, although fortunately, was not injured. The three of us spent the next two hours under a 2nd story palapa in the rain, being served nachos and smoothies, and watching the river continue to rise.

Eventually the entire team came up, and we set up on a small property there with a sound system, drop lights for lighting, and before long, nearly 100 people came to sing, praise God, and enjoy being (sort of) out of the rain. It was my turn to teach the lesson, and Salvador translated it for me. The wrist-bands I made for everyone to wear all day said "Jesus - liar, insane, or God" and cited Jhn. 1:1-6, and Mat. 16:13-20. Jesus didn't leave any wiggle room in His teaching about himself, and each of us must choose which one of those things we believe about Him. We have several seekers in our group, and this has been an amazing time of listening to them share their doubts and respond to their questions. The singing was in Spanish and English simultaneously, and very moving. It was clearly the most happing place in El Sonte that evening.

El Salvador Mission – June 21-30, 2010

Yesterday morning we ate early and boarded the two vans for San Salvador, where Salvador's home church, CCI, meets in the large ballroom of a Holiday Inn. There was wonderful music, which we sang in Spanglish, and the message was delivered to us by a Kansan who translated into our wireless headsets. His voice was like the announcer on the 18th green of the Masters, and began to put me to sleep, but the preacher (with Latin preacher hair and all) was quite animated, and preached a powerful message about being open to God's promptings.

After church we stopped at a pharmacia to replenish our immodium supplies before going to a Pizza Hut at a large upscale mall. It was the largest PH I've ever seen, with seating for about 250, and packed

because of the World Cup game on the monitors. We ate way too much, and the lemonade managed to "revenge" those who weren't already afflicted. Misery loves company.....

We then visited an artisan's market, where there was some serious shopping going on. I managed to find a decorating gift for my lovely wife, who I've missed very much, and a small practical item for my son. No spoiler here.....

After the market, we drove to the large volcano overlooking San Salvador and hiked to the top. It was so amazing, with the wind blowing the clouds through the crater, giving us occasional glimpses of the crater floor and the city below outside. It's a rain forest, so the plant life was gorgeous. The last major eruption there was in 1917. My Pathfinder watch said we were at about 5,700'.

The the group divided mostly by age (I was the exception) and we young ones went zip-lining, while the seniors went back to Salvador's home to relax. The experience was way more exciting than the one we did last year in Costa Rica, with longer, faster runs down the mountain. Everyone survived, and we have lots of pictures and video to eventually share when we have more bandwidth. I was so grateful for my rain jacket.

As I write this, we're in our second day of heavy downpour from TS Alex, so there is probably flooding in El Tunco and San Alphonso again. We're holed up until 10am when a small group is going to Remar orphanage to work with the children, while the rest of us begin preparation to make repairs to the roof of home nearby. Most of us haven't surfed since Friday, so we are getting a little itchy for a paddle-out. We'll see.

Last evening our pre-devotional dinner was delivered fried chicken, fries, and cole slaw. Delicious!