If At First You Don't Succeed...Push Harder

Children of various ages live at the orphanage, and, as so often happens, the children tend to stick together by age. The older children, especially, the girls, do a great job of helping out the younger children, but when it's time to play, it seems like the little ones want to play with people their own size.

Jhonny, the orphange director, refers to this group of youngest children as "los pequenitos." These children might be small, but they have tons of energy and more than enough creativity. Sometimes that combination is a good thing; sometimes it's not; and sometimes, well, sometimes it's a little difficult to pass judgment on the goodness or badness of what these little ones are up to.

Saturday was one of those days. There's a bit of construction going on at the site of the current orphanage. And, as with any construction site, there are plenty of tools around. The little ones really aren't allowed to go near the construction site, but Cameron, one of our SHIP volunteers, spotted a construction tool that seemed like it had some possibilites for fun.

The wheelbarrow.

That's right, folks. What could be more fun to play with than a wheelbarrow? If you're a little one, you can go for rides, and there's very little that's more fun than being pushed around in a wheelbarrow at break-neck speeds. Okay, so perhaps the wheelbarrow doesn't have the potential to break the sound barrier, but if you're six years old, a wheelbarrow ride seems pretty fast. And pretty fun.

The little ones enjoyed their rides for a while, but they had something better in mind. Their plan didn't get off to a very good start.


In fact, it looked like they would lose Cameron completely. Oh, and the kid with the tail? That's totally not his tail. But it is pretty funny.


As you can see from this next picture, they didn't lose Cameron. These little kids worked hard to keep him safe, and they wanted to give it another try. However, it seems like Alberto's faith in this endeavor might be flagging. He's the cutie in the purple shirt. Notice the look of despair on his little face. He looks like he might give up.

But then Alberto (and the rest of the little ones) are off!

These two watched the whole thing. And laughed.

But, even though it seemed like the little ones wouldn't get Cameron going, they finally did. And they had fun doing it.

Cameron will be here for two months, living at the orphanage and working at the construction site. He's been so great with the kids and has given more piggy-back rides in the last two days than any of us have given in our whole lives. The kids just love him, and we're so blessed to have him working here. Please keep him in your prayers.

Summer 2009: Stepping out on Faith

This summer brings big changes to SHIP's El Salvador project, and all of those big changes are pretty exciting. Most importantly, construction on the new orphanage has begun, and, thankfully, people have shown a lot of interest in coming to live and work at the existing orphanage. Over the next few months, we will have around seven long-term volunteers coming at various times throughout the summer. Some are coming to teach the four children who are unable to go to school, and some are coming to do construction work at the new orphanage site. We are thankful for each one of them.

I'm writing this entry in El Salvador where I've come with the first group of long-term volunteers. Today we were able to go out to the new site and see what has been going on over the last couple of weeks. The property, once a quiet jungle area, has become a bustling construction zone. Workers have cleared land that will eventually house the children of the orphanage, children who, before coming to the orphanage, had been neglected, abused, abandoned. Now they have a family and a roof over their heads. But. these children who have suffered so much deserve more. They deserve a field to play football (soccer); they deserve an area where they can study peacefully for school; they deserve rooms that are large enough to house them, where they won't have to sleep in beds that are pushed together to accommodate more kids than there is really room for.

And, because we believe that these children deserve more, we stepped out on faith. We don't have enough money to build the orphanage, but an orphanage must be built. The pictures you will see will show you our faith in action. We hope you enjoy seeing it. We hope you'll come here with us sometime! For those of you who have been here before, you will not believe how much work has been done in such a short period of time. For those of you who haven't been here yet, just imagine these pictures looking a little more like a jungle, and then you'll truly appreciate what a difference two weeks have made.

We're heading into the property! The entrance is still a little "jungley," but it makes for a beautiful entrance.



This is an overview of where the orphanage buildings will be.



And, this is the area where the dormitory buildings will be. Imagine the kids having this much room to live in!



The whole property has become a construction zone.








After looking at the new property and all the work going on there, we headed to the orphanage to see the children. These children are so precious, and seeing them is a gift, no matter how many times we've come before. This time we got to bring them a gift--a trumpet so they can learn to play. They all had fun giving it a try, even those who were a bit reluctant at first. Take a look!





And some of us took some time to get talk to the older girls.



This summer is bringing a lot of changes. We think they're going to be good. We have faith that they will!

Welcome To Our Blog!

Hello, All!

We're Shelter the Homeless International Projects, but people usually just call us "SHIP."  We are a non-profit organization based in Bryan, Texas, and we work to provide shelter to those in need.  

Our main project is an orphanage that we work with in El Salvador. About four years ago, we visited El Salvador and fell in love with the children living in this orphanage, and we just keep going back, taking food, supplies, and groups of people who want to work with children and who don't mind doing some hard manual labor.  

We're in the process of building a new orphanage in El Salvador because the current facilities are inadequate--too small for the number of children living there, a bit unsafe, and lacking the room for children to play and do their homework.  The orphanage we're currently building will have larger rooms for sleeping, a learning center, a football (soccer) field, and a garden for the children to learn about growing fruits and vegetables.

That's a little bit about us.  We'd like to use this blog to keep people updated about what we're working on and how our kids in El Salvador are doing.  So, check back with us for stories and pictures of our trips.  And, if you'd like more information about SHIP, feel free to check out our website here.  Thanks for stopping by, and God bless you!