Wesley team works at children’s home

By Jessica Jenkins
Wesley Foundation
May 18, a day after finishing final exams, I was one of 15 college students from the Wesley Foundation of Austin who left on a two-week mission trip to the Shalom Children’s Home just outside San Salvador, El Salvador.
As it turns out, Hurricane Adrian was also en route to El Salvador! Fortunately for us, the storm had weakened by the time it hit land.
We had traveled to El Salvador to do some construction and to be with the kids who live at the home. In one respect, the storm was almost a blessing in disguise. School was canceled for two days, giving us more time to form relationships and help show God’s love for each child right from the beginning—even with my broken Spanish!
While we were there, we worked on some living quarters and helped clean out, paint and reorganize the home’s storage area. However, the work projects could not compare to the time we spent hanging out with the kids. Activities with the kids varied from a massive water balloon fight to Bible studies where we could really get to know each individual personally.
The worship services were simply amazing and helped me realize that God has an amazing way of being understood in more than words. The songs in Spanish were my absolute favorites. I recognized some of the ones we sing at the Wesley Foundation.
I know I am forgetting many things from the mission trip, but the main thing I will take away was the model of true, unconditional love. The kids knew nothing about us, and we came in with only ourselves—and they showed us more love than we could have ever given them.