On February 22, Zurisadai Church in San Jacinto hosted a grand celebration. Church and community members, workers, and ENLACE staff, joined 29 families to thank God for the blessing of new homes which were constructed during the final months of 2011. The celebration united the church and community as they continue to build relationships and transform San Jacinto.
A team from The Gateway Church in Des Moines, Iowa, traveled to El Salvador for the first time to spend the week of March 3-10 with Pastor Marta Vaquerano, her church Palabra de Poder and the community of Anemona. Their task was to help build tilapia tanks, but from the very beginning the team was just as focused on building relationships and connecting with the community. While making ty advances toward finishing tilapia ponds, the group also held a children’s program and brought food and encouragement to the poorest families in Anemona. Both the team and the community eagerly await Gateway’s next trip.
Early Friday morning, March 16, our dear friend and long-time ENLACE advocate, Bill Manwarren, died at his home surrounded by his wife, Marilyn, their children, family and friends. We are all saddened at his death and will miss him dearly. Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, was able to visit Bill in the last days of his life, given the opportunity to talk with him about his life and memories.
On March 21, over 500 people gathered to mark his passing. Ron was one of those who shared at the funeral. The following words are from Ron’s eulogy.
Bill and Ron visiting homes in Abelines“Bill and I were the most unlikely of friends. He was a good bit taller than me at 6’5 and almost 40 years older. Bill and Marilyn were my parents’ friends and because of a gentle push from my mom, they, along with their business partners Hal and Juanita Adams, became some of ENLACE’s first donors. They funded the start of the credit program with $1,750 in the early 90’s which to date has lent millions of dollars to thousands of people. Over the years, Bill helped raise nearly $2 million for more than 70 projects that included water systems, houses, home gardens transforming the lives of 112,000 people in El Salvador.
Bill was a salesman most of his life and had worked hard to provide a good life for his family. He was by no means wealthy. He didn’t have millions saved up for retirement or a trust fund. Even so, for the last 20 years he was completely committed to ENLACE and raised millions for the cause of the poor. His total commitment to the ministry of ENLACE was nothing short of being an evangelist and advocate for “the least of these” in our world by empowering small churches to reach out and eradicate poverty in El Salvador.
He would talk to everyone that would listen about ENLACE. He always carried brochures or annual reports with him. Bill was known as “Mr. ENLACE” at his church because he would coordinate all the fundraising events and celebrations. He would carry around a clipboard to make sure that he had talked to everyone on his list about the upcoming ENLACE event or project. He would talk to his neighbors, his tax attorney and even bank tellers.
Bill and I spent a lot of time following up on these conversations, but it was during his trips to El Salvador that we became great friends. We would spend long days in the car visiting remote, rural communities. And when we arrived at the community, Bill wanted to see everything and meet everyone that would benefit from the project. We forged rivers in the car and on foot; we walked miles in the mountains to get to a single mother who would receive a new home. We visited projects in the pouring rain and in the blazing sun. One donor requested to spread his ashes at the site where new homes would be built. So we spread those together, trying to distribute them properly but the wind took them and spread them on us.
When Bill arrived at the house or farm that we were visiting, he always let the family and/or pastors know that he had not given the money and would tell them the name of the people who had donated the money. He would make sure to tell them that God had seen them and loved them. And he would always finish by saying, “To God be the glory!”
But it was during the long car rides that we talked about our families, our struggles, and our dreams. It was during our dinners, talks over coffee, which were very frequent, that we forged a meaningful and special friendship.
Bill, thank you so much for believing in ENLACE and in me. The pastors and ENLACE staff in El Salvador love you and will miss you. The thousands of people that benefited from your hard work of connecting people to ENLACE will always remember you. My wife, Michelle, and kids will always appreciate your fatherly kindness and care.
I will miss you dearly my good friend until we can have coffee again in the next part of our journey together. I thank God for your commitment to him, to the mission of the church, and for your friendship. Your legacy will endure in the church leaders, ENLACE staff, the thousands that you touched, and in our family.”
Crossway Christian Church in AbelinesBetween February 25 and March 3, 14 members of Crossway Christian Church (New Hampshire, USA) joined Getsemaní Church, located in the village of Pajigua in eastern El Salvador, to bring two families new homes and an entire community renewed hope. The group helped build the homes and also participated in the inauguration of the public school’s two new classrooms, which will allow 150 new students to attend school every year. They brought encouragement and food through home visits to single mothers and elderly women. They formed a strong bond with the community. Two more teams from Crossway will return this year to continue supporting the work of the local church in the region.
Last week, 20 members from Meadowbrook Community Church in Champaign, IL came to El Salvador, many returning for the seventh time. They worked on two different projects with the Principe de Paz Church in Santa Maria. Eleven team members worked at a health clinic caring for over 600 patients. The remaining nine team members helped dig the foundation for a retaining wall that will prevent erosion and landslides. Throughout the week they worked extremely hard side-by-side with local church and community members to serve the residents of Santa Maria.
In a January issue of El Salvador’s La Prensa Grafica, a daily newspapers with the second-largest circulation of 98,000 during the week and 116,000 on the weekend, ENLACE was featured in it’s religion section. The article interviewed Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, and highlighted the work that ENLACE has been doing since its beginning in 1993.
According to Ron, the religion section is normally reserved for moral opinions and religious ideology, so he was very excited to see that the church was championed and shown to be actively addressing and resolving needs of those in poverty. “The impact that our local church partners are having on the ground, in the daily lives of thousands of people across El Salvador, is utterly profound,” said Ron, “and it makes sense that a national newspaper would take notice.”
The article also highlighted why ENLACE believes the church is the answer to so many of the problems in El Salvador and encouraged other churches to get involved in meeting the needs of their communities.
We hope that the article will encourage more churches to serve their communities and continue to fuel the MOMENTUM that is building in the humble villages and churches all over El Salvador.
On December 1-3, 110 pastors and church leaders joined the ENLACE staff for the Annual Pastors and Leaders Retreat. Leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences traveled from all over the country to participate. The theme of this year’s retreat was “Renewing Our Communities” and the retreat afforded these pastors, who work tirelessly throughout the year, a chance to be rejuvenated. Pastors took the time to better understand God’s vision for their communities, to form friendships with other churches, and to recommit, with renewed strength of vision, to transforming their communities through serving their neighbors. When all was said and done, they celebrated the culmination of God’s great work in 2011.
2011 has been a year of exciting growth and impact. We’re working with 52 churches which have implemented 72 life-changing projects impacting more than 60,000 people! It is obvious that God is at work through the local church in El Salvador.
2011 will be remembered as a year of radical growth and change for ENLACE. And while we are ending the year strong, there are more than 100 churches on a waiting list. The opportunity to permanently change the face of poverty in El Salvador is at our fingertips.
Church and Community Program: It costs about $5,000 for ENLACE to accompany one church for a whole year. We need to raise at least $30,000 to take on six more churches that are ready to transform their communities.
Home Gardens: In 2011 more than 1,200 people increased their income and nutritional intake through home gardens. For 2012 we have more than 3,000 people ready and waiting to start their gardens.
On February 22, Zurisadai Church in San Jacinto hosted a grand celebration. Church and community members, workers, and ENLACE staff, joined 29 families to thank God for the blessing of new homes which were constructed during the final months of 2011. The celebration united the church and community as they continue to build relationships and transform San Jacinto.
