Campaign in Aguilares

Two big buses, two vans and two cars headed for Aguilares yesterday afternoon. The first stop was at an elementary school where about 700 students were attending the afternoon session. (There is a morning session with another 700 students.) Our groups of US/Salvadoran college students shared a lesson, testimonies and the gospel with students in their classrooms. Afterwards, almost everyone came to the basketball court/soccer field for PE. There were all kinds of activities going on: teams of gringos and Salvadorans playing soccer and/or basketball, ping pong with the boys vs. the girls, spontaneous cheerleading lessons for some of the girls and other games for the younger kids. The PE teacher was very grateful that his kids had the opportunity to interact with our group. We felt the same--there's so much we can learn from these kids who are happy without all of the "things" we Americans believe are so important.

When we left the school, we headed for a small park (a big field and yes, there were recently cows in that field) to set up the movie and inflatable. Groups of students went out to the neighbor to invite families to the movie and share the gospel one-on-one. As always, kids seem to appear out of nowhere when you set up an inflatable--there was a line the whole time. The crowd for the movie, drama and gospel presentation was really big. Jeff indicated that this was the first campaign in that neighborhood.

We returned to VidaNueva for dinner after packing up. Stephen and I drove (Jeff and Paula's car) and enjoyed impromptu Spanish lessons from our friend, Kevin, and his dad, all the way down and back. They are so patient with us!