Hillside Christian Church supports Compassion International and through the church’s sponsor signup drive about a year and a half ago, we became a sponsor.  Our group was composed of Hillside people and, other than the vague look of villainy we all have, seemed like decent people.  Brenda (front, right) called me baby most of the time but I didn’t mind.  Her husband Jim (bald head) is a stewardship pastor at the church.  To Jim’s right is Carmen, who lives in Colorado Springs.  She represents CI on some of these trips.  She’s fluent in Spanish which is handy in a Spanish-speaking country.  To Jim’s left wearing a red shirt is Mark.  Mark manages all of these sponsor trips and has been on a number of them himself.  Instead of flying home with the rest of us he flew on to Belize to rendezvous with another group.  Wally (to Mark’s left, hat and beard) and Richelle (white chick in front of Wally) attend the Lubbock campus.  Wally has a droll sense of humor I enjoyed.  Behind Brenda is Kimberly who works for the church in child Sunday school area.

After a tour of the Compassion center facilities and a home visit, we retuned to the center for a little vacation bible school.  I was asked by our group leader to read a bible passage written in Spanish.  I was prepared to give it a go but apparently it got bumped and never came up so I handed out suckers and blew bubbles instead.  We also made animals with silly putty.  I think the lesson must have been on Noah’s ark because the bible passage I didn’t read had to do with God promising not send another flood.  That explains the emphasis on making silly putty animals.  I tried my hand at it but the bubbles and suckers went over better.  A little boy absconded with my bubbles but I had more.  Later when we were about to leave and after the group picture with the center staff, the staff people handed out little gifts to our group: paper flowers in a nice bamboo holder for the ladies and a pen in the same bamboo holder for the gentlemen.  My little friend who I gave the bubbles to talked the staff people into letting him give me my gift.  From the rock star welcome we received on arrival, the warmth and friendliness of the people all through the day through the parting gifts, well, I’ll just say it warmed the heart of this old sinner.

Our guardians, guides and interpreters for the week were the four young people you see in the picture.  I was impressed with their diligence and dedication in seeing that our group worked through our itinerary safely.  El Salvador is a dangerous place and more so for Norte Americanos.  These four whippersnappers were ever vigilant lest we wander off and run amuck.  They were also good company.  Throw in our bus driver Nelson and it would be hard to imagine a more pleasant and capable group to spend the week with.