Day 2 of building – by Julie Engel

My morning started off with an amazing first build. My team and I arrived at the build site around 9am; we saw the locals and the shelter construction workers were almost finished the house so we quickly joined in and did as much as we could to help. My mom; Shannon, Julia, and I interviewed the homeowners and quickly connected with the wife, her husband, as well as their four-year-old son. We were able to share our stories as well as listen to theirs. The husband has family that lives only minutes away from their home and shared with us that he has 6 brothers that he is very close with. The family asked us to come and visit their new home next time we are in El Salvador because they were so excited they could share a piece their life with us.

We finished the first house and got to see the amazing smiles of the families as they put up their house number and saw the new home God blessed them with. After, we finished the second house around 2pm. During that build I found myself very connected with the family and very excited to learn about their lives and what this home means to them.

When we got to the build site, I noticed a little 4-year-old boy named Antonio. He was hiding behind his mother, Dema, and was very shy. I picked up his toy truck and ran it down his back while saying, “Vroom”, he laughed and quickly opened up to me. He brought me all of his toys one at a time to play with him, and every time I would walk away to see what needed to be done to help build, he would act all sad and ask me to stay with him.

Dema invited us into her home to make tortillas with her mother. It was a very cool experience to be able to make and eat our own tortillas, no matter how awful and square they looked. I felt so connected to their family and was very happy to find out they are believers of God and see that he is the reason they can get their new home. I got to pray over their family which was the perfect way to end the afternoon with them. At the end of the building some of the locals showed us a spot where we could see an amazing view of El Salvador and got some cool team pictures. It was overwhelming to see how beautiful this country is and how blessed we are to be able to experience Gods creation.

by Julie Engel