Bienvenidos A El Salvador!

Hola Familia y Amigos!
It has officially been 3 days in El Salvador and I could not be having a better time! Other being humid, the country is beautiful.  The city of San Salvador is in between volcanoes and mountains that are extremely green! Sometimes we joke about being on a movie set for like Lost or Jurassic Park.  It is technically winter here in El Salvador and so it is their "cold" months, but other than thunder in lighting storms, there is nothing "cold" about the weather :) We had 17 people in a 12 passenger van today and we got lost in the middle of the city for an hour and by the end you would have thought we all just hopped out of the shower! However, these are the times that our teams bonds the most.
My team is absolutely fabulous here in El Salvador. It is a group of people who love the Lord so much and we already have formed a very tight knit community. Our leaders, Kristen and Joe, spent a full year here two years ago and so they are very helpful in making us feel comfortable and navigating our journey.  Together as a team we laugh endlessly and we are really beginning to truly understand one another in our strengths and weaknesses.  In our spare time so far we have gotten to explore the city, go to the international World Cup for Judo (the teams are staying at our hotel and we even got to meet some Americans who are qualifying for the Olympics!!!!) and we got to see Harry Potter with Spanish subtitles. Salvadorians students enjoy many of the same things American college students do: shopping malls, movies, TV shows ( they love talking to us about the Hills and the Big Bang Theory and Friends!), and of course coffee shops (El Salvador is actually known for its coffee and we just met the World's Best Barista who was internationally named at the world barista competition about two weeks ago)
Yesterday was our first day on an El Salvadorian campus and as we arrived we were greeted of not only a team of believers that are a part of Cruzado Estudiantil (their version of Campus Crusade) but also one of the directors of Evangelista Universidad who is in charge of student affairs.  It is such a blessing on that campus to have a leader who allows us to come on their campus for these six weeks of the summer. Most universities are opposed to Campus Crusade's presence and so we count it as a blessing! We were told that although most students know about God, 85% of them do not have a relationship with Him. It is extremely sad but the students are friendly and are more than willing to talk.
On Friday, I had a 20 minute conversation with 4 freshman girls who did not speak any English.  I was surprised that I was able to communicate, but God is really blessing our team with the language. Many students do speak English or some English, but we also wish to speak in Spanish as a form of respect for their culture as well. These four girls were extremely nice and wanted to meet up with us again next week to continue our friendship, so please be praying that we will be able to instigate spiritual conversations with not only them, but all of the students we meet on campus. This upcoming Tuesday, we are also throwing a fiesta on campus for students as an outreach to develop new relationships, so if you could be praying for the fiesta's success and ability to reach new students and catch their interest, that would be awesome!
Tomorrow we got to a traditional El Salvadorian church that is all in Spanish, but it will be cool (or chivo in Espanol) to see how God is moving in the churches here in San Salvador as well.  You can see a spark of love for Christ here in this nation and it is so exciting to witness. I am fully convinced that God has amazing things planned for this country and I feel so blessed to be a part of it and be able to watch the country's love for the Lord grow. 
Some of the biggest challenges facing the nation is extreme poverty and a wide rich/poor gap that does not seem to have any bridge at all. The country is also extremely dangerous.  It is filled with drug lords and gangsters which makes mobility and freedom to evangelize very difficult. If you could pray for our team's safety that would also be very great.  We never go anywhere in groups smaller than 3 and have a guy present at almost all times, except for at the campus or the hotel, and we always need to be on guard.  Prayers for our safety would be greatly appreciated!
My verse of the past few days has been Romans 8-9 and 12
In Spanish it reads, "Que afirma entonces? La palabra esta cerca de ti; la tienes en la boca y en el corazon. Esta es la palabra de fe que predicamos; que si confiesas con tu boca que Jesus es el Senor, y crees en tu corazon que Dios lo levanto de entre los muertos, seras salvo.....No hay diferencia entre judios y gentiles, pues el mismo Senor es Senor de todos y bendice abundantemente a cuantos lo invocan."

Gracias!!!
Amy