You know when you are gathering 70 Latin Americans together for surfing and meeting it is going to be lots of energy and fun. This is exactly what happened for our first America's Conference organised by Cal Fisher and so well hosted by our El Salvadorian mission led by Salvador Castallanos.
We worshiped with passion, strategised with passion, surfed with passion, talked with passion, and it didn't matter if the program started or ended late. It is with a sense of family reunion that we meet and whether joking with the Peruvians, exchanging waves with the Panama boys, listening to the new Ecuador contacts, eating with the Brazilian's or laughing with them all - it is a global family.
The conference site was incredible, right on the ocean with a long right-hand point break Sunzal as the back drop. At high tide we got splashed in our seats. There was the first big swell of the winter that hit with sets double overhead and Punta Roca is well deserving of the J-Bay similarity claim. Sergio and Cesar even dragged out a guy out who broke his femur in a collision.
Amazing stories of God at work in women's surf camps in Barbados by Melanie, Costa Rican chaplaincy by Coky, Venezuelan surf games by Luis, surf hostel outreach by George in Panama, Jesus Aloha contest in Peru and so it goes on and on.
I am in awe of how creative and courageous our guys are. I am also convicted at how apathetic and compromised my 'Christianity' feels like back at home. Such a difficult thing to rise up above one's culture. Our final day also engaged us with a local orphanage with over 100 kids. They so love the CS local guys and it is great to see how surfers have been engaged to serve the widows and orphans.
We finally split paths, Aaron headed off to Punta Mango and I left with Cal, Coral and Aldo to Guatemala ready to fly to Costa Rica.
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