Hello all,

Greetings from Sunny El Salvador. I heard it was snowing in Ohio - Lo siento! Bobby and I had our very first youth night here at HIS. We held it Saturday evening. This is something very special that they have never had or allowed here at Shalom, so we are very thankful that they have allowed us to start up this program. It will be held every Saturday night and it is for all the teens over 14. Anyway, like I said, we had our first one this past Saturday. There were 17 kids there and 2 Hermanos (house parents). We set it up pretty much like a typical youth group meeting in the states. We have been given permission to hold the youth group in the team room. The team room is the big room/apartment where teams sleep when they come. It has a big central living room, 2 side bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a kitchen. So, it is perfect for having youth group in. Of course, we will have to hold it somewhere else when the teams are here, but we will work it out. Anyway, we started out by just having some games that the kids could play when they came in and just having some hang out time. We had board games and a small video game (pacman) as well as music playing and snacks. Then, we played a group game (which they weren't really excited about)and then Bobby led a devotion. Since it was Easter weekend he centered the devotion around the movie "The Passion of the Christ," which we watched also. After the movie we talked about the impact of the film and Bobby actually had some of the kids nail sins written on pieces of paper onto a 9 ft cross that he made. We thought that, generally speaking, things went well. However, after all the kids left that evening and we were cleaning up, we noticed that a video that we have of Christian music was missing. We looked and looked for it everywhere, wanting to believe that one of the kids would not have taken it. But, after looking for a while, we never found it. So, Bobby went down to the teenage boys house and asked them if they knew what happened to our video and, sure enough, after a little looking, it was discovered that one of the boys had it in his CD case. He said he didn't know how it got in there and it must have been an accident. We would like to believe him, but we know that he is probably lying. Since we have been here Bobby has had a knife and several tools stolen from him. We have never had to deal with teenagers who lie and steal from us on a repeated basis, so this is tough for us. Especially when they do it immediately following a devotion that we worked so hard to put together for them! However, we also know that if the kids were "perfect" then we wouldn't be needed here. This evening I was spending some one-on-one time with one of the girls just talking about life in general and she told me she had a big problem. When I asked her what it was she told me that she was thinking about what we talked about on Saturday and that the needs to change her life. She said that she prayed to God to come into her heart and to change her heart, but she says that she always wants and does "bad things." So, she is thinking that it is just better for her to give nothing to God since she messes up all the time. We talked about how none of us is perfect, and that God loves us just the same. I don't want her to give up because she can't obtain perfection, because she never will. I hope that I was able to encourage her and show her that God loves her no matter what.

The kids here need a lot of prayer, so if you all could please just pray for them and pray for us also that we will be able to reach out to them, we would greatly appreciate it. We also ask that you could just pray for this ministry. Like any organization, there are many things here that need to change. The founders of the organization, The Benner's, have said that the ministry is suffering financially, and as a result, they fired a cook, and 2 house parents last week. This week they have informed us that they will be firing 2 of the construction guys. My heart just breaks for these people who are being fired. I know that most of them make less than $200 a month, so it doesn't seem like firing them would save a whole lot of money, but I don't know. It is also difficult for me because I see many other ways that money could be saved within this ministry instead of firing people, but, once again, who am I to say. Work is very hard to come by in this country, and most of the people who work here come from hours away and they have families to support. In addition, the 2 construction workers are the nicest, humblest, Christian men that I think I have ever meant. They work hard all day, and they spend their lunch time reading their Bibles and playing the guitar singing Christian songs. They are really good people, and they deserve to be treated well and fairly. They are among the few people who really walk the walk. I kept looking at them all day today, feeling guilty for knowing that in just a few short days they would be jobless in a country that has so few jobs and no social service system. I know that my opinion or thoughts regarding the matter are of little importance or influence, and I have to just trust that the organization is making the best decision. The whole thing is out of my hands and all I can do is pray about it and learn from it.

Thanks to everyone for all of your love and prayers.

Te quiero mucho,
Britney