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!