Joslynn Williams’ (One of Our Ninja Coaches) Mission Trip to El Salvador

In November of 2023 one of our coaches, Joslynn Williams, went on a one week mission trip to El Salvador, a country in central America, with a team of 15 people from The Shepherd’s Church. The team all showed the love of Christ through helping churches and villages in multiple ways.

One way they served the community was helping a local church put on a 3 day Vacation Bible School (VBS). Throughout the VBS kids enjoyed listening to a teaching, singing songs, playing games, doing crafts, and hearing about the message of Jesus.

The team also shared the love of Jesus through outreaches. At one outreach the team showed the kids the love and joy of Jesus, while performing a play. During another outreach the team did a medical outreach and set up a pharmacy for people to have health checkups and tests. For example, getting their blood pressure. Whatever mission they had for the day, the team faithfully showed up and served the people of El Salvador through the love of Jesus.

Stories from Joslynn

At the missions house we were staying at, there was a young man who would help cook and clean for the lead missionary. He was so sweet and hardworking, and even though he couldn’t speak much English, his presences was warm and welcoming. He would arrive at the missions house bright and early most days to help us prepare before we left on our trips. One of those trips was to his home. Little did I know, but he had to travel over an hour by public transportation from his outdoor, dirty, small home without running water and AC to get to the air conditioned, comfortable missions house with indoor plumbing and electrics. The most surprising thing is, he told us (through a translator) that he preferred his home and that he was so grateful that he was able to live there and grew up there. He said he wouldn’t trade it for anything. His gratitude, hard work, and kind heart really impacted me, even though he couldn’t speak a word of English.

In one of the mountain villages we went to, we saw so many different animals! There were hens with their baby chicks, goats, cows, cats, and so many stray dogs. Our team not only got to help the people in that village but we also got to become friends with the animals. We even named one Chitlin and it followed us around the whole day. Also, that day, one of the moms in the village called our translator over and asked him to translate a long speech on how grateful she was for the faithfulness of the local missionaries and how thankful she was that we had all come to see them and minister to them. Through her tears, she expressed how much it had impacted her and her family. I was very touched by her kind words!

Parting Words

After getting back home around Thanksgiving, one of the key takeaways Joslynn learned from the people of El Salvador is gratitude. The people there had very few things such as food, money, and clothes; things that we sometimes take for granted. However, the people were all joyful, happy, and generous with the little that they did have. As Joslynn says, “It’s not what you have that defines joy, it’s Christ working in you.”