Category: Blog

A New Home for Olga Medrano: “We will come out of this poverty”  

Olga Melani Medrano has lived in conditions of extreme poverty for years while raising her seven children, and the rainy season always came with much stress because their home was leaking and the walls falling apart. However, her conditions are improving now that she and her children have a secure roof over their heads. Olga is very grateful; she knows that her resources would never have been enough to build a new home on her own. The work of the local church has greatly impacted her life.

CREDATEC Helps Local Pastor Seize Opportunity for Growth

Carlos Cruz is both talented and a visionary. A year ago he became the pastor of his local church. Before that he had studied to be a mechanic at the Industrial Technical Institute (ITI) and continues his work with a local co-op of microbuses. Additionally, to supplement his family’s income, he and his wife also raise pigs, chickens, and hens in a small pen behind their house.

Home Gardens in Anemona, San Martin

Anemona is a shanty town located just outside the capital of San Salvador in the municipality of San Martin. Its residents, who have migrated there over the last 25 years (originally due to the civil war in the 1980s and now due to the search for jobs in the capital), are extremely poor and experience gang violence on a daily basis. The makeshift-turned-permanent dwellings (often made of tin, plastic and cardboard) are crammed between the Panamerican highway and old railroad tracks. Nevertheless, a local church and its pastor, Marta Vaquerano, are growing hope in a community more familiar with desperation than tomatoes.

Click here to read the complete blog or click here to see the picture gallery of their home gardens.

Connecting Churches, Changing Lives: ENLACE’s Church Partnership Program

In 2011, ENLACE formally launched its Church Partnership Program and we already have 14 US churches that are committed to transforming entire regions of El Salvador. 

Happy New Year from your friends at ENLACE!

November 10th, Nueva Jerusalem Church and the Comecayo community celebrated the long awaited and newly finished pedestrian bridge (or pasarela in Spanish). The bridge allows people to safely cross the Pan-American highway at the intersection of two schools and the church. Given the heavy traffic and high speeds, several accidents and deaths resulted from people trying to cross the street. The collaboration of the local church, local governement, and the schools created new relationships, unity, and transformation in Comecayo.

Click here to see the complete Picture Gallery about the event

Click Here to GivFood Today!
(click on “projects and programs” and select GivFood)

$250 helps feed a family for a lifetime
$50 helps feed one person for a lifetime

“I’ve always wanted people to succeed, and my desire is to provide the support to make that happen. You have to first educate people so they recognize the resources they have…and ENLACE does this very well.”

Everth López got to know ENLACE as a graduate agricultural techinical intern from the National School of Agriculture (ENA) in El Salvador. During that time, he worked to help families in rural areas with  agricultural strategies that created better nutrition and maximized local resources. Once Everth graduated, it was clear to ENLACE that he would be a wonderful addition to the team of Technical Advisors that work with communities on a daily basis.

“At first, people in the communties didn’t seem very interested…but as they learned how to plant and harvest vegetables, they became more and more excited and involved.”

Everth has continued his studies and is pursuing a degree in Agribusiness at the José Simeón Cañas University. In the future he would also like to pursue a Masters of Tropical Agriculture in order to be more prepared to help the communities in which he works.

Everth gives weekly workshops in the region of Región de Santa Ana and San José El Naranjo for the participants in the Home Garden Projects. Then he visits everyone’s gardens (presently there are 17 in this area) helping them to solve problems and continue to increase yield which helps both the family’s nutrition and also provides extra money through the sale of produce.

“When I teach people about how to make organic fertilizer, the price and its uses, the participants get excited and decide what they are going to plant…That makes me very happy. It’s satisfying to know that there is an impact on their lives, and they become motivated about what they can do.”

With a growing number of churches in need of creating sustainable and transforming projects like home gardens, the presence of Everth López, his testimony and his motivation all become important elements to ENLACE’s success.

The Global Leadership Summit, hosted by the Willow Creek Association, is a two-day leadership conference held throughout the year in countries all over the world. Its mission is ”to transform Christian leaders around the world with an injection of vision, skill development, and inspiration for the sake of the local church.” The summit has grown to over 75 countries, over 30 languages, and serves more than 100,000 leaders. This year, ENLACE coordianted with the Willow Creek Association to help host the event in El Salvador, one of 18 summits in Central America and Mexico. All of the ENLACE staff attended as well as several of the pastors with whom we partner. Each participant was challenged, inspired, and motivated to become effective leaders in the place God has them.

Click here to see the Picture Gallery about this event.

“I learned to serve God simply, to use the little resources that exist and to love the work”.

Jhony Alfaro was 26 years old when he left El Salvador to respond to God’s call to serve in Mosquitia, one of the most remote areas of Honduras and known as the Central American Amazon. Jhony learned the customs of the people there, their language, and their way of life. In a region influenced by witchcraft and suffering a high rate of alcoholism, Johny worked to show his neighbors a different path, a path that led to God’s unconditional love and care. Jhony considers this missions experience as an invaluable tool in carrying out his present role as Church Coach with ENLACE.

“My experience as a missionary is similar to my job with ENLACE in that we are working by being present in poor communities, to get involved…with them and to empathize with their lives. Our job is not only to go and share a lesson, but to relate with people and listen to their needs. This is also something that a missionary does. I believe that this is mission work done locally without leaving borders”.

Jhony’s profound sensibility for the needs of others was born from his own need for God. During his adolescence, outside influences led him to become involved in drugs and alcohol. However, recognizing God’s mercy in his life has helped him to discover his true purpose. In addition his missionary work in Honduras, he has also worked with youth-oriented ministries.

Jhony returned to El Salvador in February 2011 after eight years in Mosquitia. He returned with his wife, Azucena, whom he married in Honduras, and their young daughter. Willing to continue preparing himself to serve more effectively, he is currently in the process of finishing his degree in theology that was put on hold when he left for Honduras. Upon returning, he also applied to the work as a Church Coach with ENLACE.

On November 7, 2009, the National Service of Territorial Studies in El Salvador registered over 13 inches of rain in only three hours. 13 inches of rain is about as much rain as the entire state of Missouri receives in six months. It caused the ground to become saturated with water, provoking landslides, flooding rivers, and leaving several areas without any form of communication. One such community was Anemona in San Martin where 176 families lived in a highly vulnerable area surrounded by soft dirt and and deep ravines.

In the damage report by the Ministry of Public Acts, the area was declared uninhabitable. This news wasn’t surprising to residents since their homes, belongings, land, crops, and even four lives had been lost to the disaster. However, none of them had another safe place where they could start over.

As a community, the people of Anemona decided to rebuild their homes on an abandoned property owned by the government using twisted sheets of metal, old sticks, and anything they could rescue from that terrible night. Without a stable source of income, and without land to cultivate, these families have done what they can through street vending and the collection and sale of recyclables, as they themselves describe, “just to pass the days.”

“They are a community poor in material resources due to life circumstances and catastrophes which have left them powerless. They have lost their material resources and housing which has turned them into a vulnerable community. But to me, they are a community of great wealth because despite their limitations they are optimistic, with much faith and courage, and they do not give up. They do what they set out to do, and it’s really interesting that they plan things as a community; they’re not just families fighting for themselves.”

-Gerson Ramirez, ENLACE Church Coach

There, in the middle of the hopelessness of many families is the Palabra de Poder, Tiempos Finales Church. Its pastor, Marta Alicia Vaquerano, has become an inspirational leader in this small, poor community. She had been praying for clarity about how to better face the community’s challenges and needs when she heard of ENLACE at a Pastoral Network meeting in San Martín. Pastor Marta considers her encounter with ENLACE to be an answer to prayers, and now she is one of ENLACE’s church partners in the region of San Martín.

“The first thing we did as a church was during the time when everyone suffered from Tropical Storm Ida. We went out and helped to pick up debris to rebuild the houses. We have also worked on the drainage ditches for the road in Anemona, and we are working with the home gardens. The community has many needs. As a church, we try to help the community by bringing them low-cost foods, clothing and footwear. Also, the home gardens are going to be a huge blessing.”

-Pastor Marta Vaquerano

The community and its congregation have been working hand in hand. Through planning with the mayor’s office, they now have a system of potable water. They also have electricity, and they are working hard to legalize their land. With ENLACE they have improved access to the homes on the main road with almost 500 feet of drainage ditches to alleviate the problems caused by a lack of drainage for rainwater. Before the ditches were built, residents on the road would suffer from flooding during the rainy season. Their plans also include laying stone and paving a main road.

Still, the common denominator of the people in Anemona continues to be the lack of formal employment. To mitigate the effects of this problem, they are now working with ENLACE technical advisor and engineer, Alejandro Pérez, to create home gardens. Eighteen families are participating in the cultivation of tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, squash, cucumber and jamaica. Although it is the first time they have attempted to grow vegetables, the participants’ enthusiasm demonstrates their desire to find a way to move ahead with their families.

“Despite their financial limitations, they are already so motivated and unified that they have raised funds to buy some investments and distribute them among everyone in order to have more success. They are thankful for the support that ENLACE is giving. Other organizations have marginalized them and labeled them as rough and violent. With us, they feel different because we see them in a different light.”

Alejandro Perez, ENLACE Agronomist

Amazing things are happening through home gardens in El Salvador. 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, but we need your help to make it happen!

Your $250 donation given to the home garden program provides one family with materials (such as seed and seedlings) and ongoing training (such as how to create seed banks and make organic fertilizer). ENLACE agronomists provide weekly help and expertise. A local church hosts seminars and workshops and serves as a constant, encouraging presence in the community. Once gardeners participate and experience the joys and relief that come with the ability to meet their family’s nutritional and economic needs, they become empowered. As they expand their own crops, they teach their children and other family members and neighbors their new skills. In these and many other ways, home gardens are long-term and integrated solutions to material and spiritual poverty. 

$250 helps feed a family for a lifetime
$50 helps feed one person for a lifetime

Just in time for Christmas shopping, we are excited to announce that ENLACE is a featured charity at an innovative new site called Give Prints. More than a dozen talented photographers contribute to the site’s gallery of artistic photos which can be ordered as prints or on T-shirts. Give Prints donates 50% of each item purcheased to any charity featured on the site.

“The heart of Give Prints is to help people send love to others through the purchasing of prints. It was born out of a photographer’s desire to help fellow photographers publicize their work while helping worthy organizations that are already reaching out to people all over the world.”

-Cristina Robeck

Owner / Founder GivePrints.com

In October, 2011 Pastor Miguel Angel Durán became the President and Representative of his denomination in El Salvador. The Asamblea de Iglesias Cristianas (Assembly of Christian Churches) was founded in New York in 1939 as a evangelical missionary movement led by Hispanics to work with Hispanics. They are present in 26 countries around the world, and have 62 churches in El Salvador alone.

“I feel privileged…to have the opportunity to be an example for my companions and be some sort of inspiration for them. I have been given the opportunity to climb–not because I deserve it–but because of his mercy and grace…[This new role] obligates me to seek God more.”

His promotion comes as no surprise to us at ENLACE. Pastor Miguel has worked with us since the very beginning and played a fundamental role in strengthening our methodology. He has also used his experiences as a testimony to inspire and help train other churches in the region of San Martin through his work with Samaritan’s Purse, Compassion International, ENLACE’s Pastoral Council, and the ENLACE El Salvador Board of Directors.

Many of our partners and friends have had the opportunity to know and listen to Pastor Miguel, and we have been witnesses of his hard work in the church and community. Above all, we have recognized his humility, patience, and spirit of service and love for his neighbor.

During the inauguration ceremony that announced and celebrated Pastor Miguel’s new role, fellow pastor Santos made clear how much Pastor Miguel had impacted him and how he will have great influence in the Church in El Salvador in the future. 

[Miguel Duran] is my friend, and I have seen him as someone from whom I learn a lot through his attitude of love for his neighbor. When they told me that he was going to be our representative, it gave me a lot of joy…We think that in the future of the Assemblies of Christian Churches we’re going to have many churches working in the integral mission. With our experiences, we are going to help them embody the integral vision.”

Santos Carpio, Pastor of Tabernaculo Biblico Salem, El Espino

ENLACE has been working with El Buen Samaritano Church since 1994. Together with the local health committee, the church directed many health projects when health care was not accessible for everyone. Pastor Miguel inspired his leaders to become active agents of change in their community and worked on improving roads, building homes, projects with the public school, and health and cleanup campaigns. One of the greatest challenges has been building a water system that will benefit more than 10,000 local residents. Pastor Miguel and the area’s churches continue to provide a strong witness of God’s love in these and other projects.

“The work that has been done with the church, the community, and the accompaniment of ENLACE has given them the tools to take on this new challenge…It’s a huge challenge that provides benefits and opportunities. If Pastor Miguel is guide by the Lord and His timing, they are going to be used as a blessing not only for his church and community but for many people in El Salvador. Pastors Santos Carpio and Felix Amaya are only a sneak peek at what can happen.”

Gerson Ramirez, ENLACE Church Coach for the region of San Martin.

We are proud and thankful to God for the ways he has used our ENLACE team to provide support and open opportunities which strengthen the integral mission and vision of His church. If you want to learn more about Pastor Miguel, read about his journey of perseverance here (http://www.enlaceonline.org/blog/2010/10/19/we-are-gods-answer-one-pastors-journey-of-perseverance.html). We invite you to help dozens of pastors like Pastor Miguel to continue this transformational work!