Category: Blog

In a recent blog missionary volunteer Kim Frederick wrote about the recurring references to Psalm 23 during one of the dozens of trips she hosted while in El Salvador. In Spanish, the second stanza of the well-loved psalm of David reads “Nada me faltará” which is best translated “I will lack nothing that I need.” These words describe a situation that we’ve experienced at ENLACE many times over the years. We’ve been reminded by Executive Director Ron Bueno that if we don’t have the funds to do a project, then its not the right timing to accomplish it yet. Likewise, if we haven’t found the right person for the job, then it isn’t time to hire. But time and time again, funds have arrived to help implement projects and people have arrived to help right where we needed them to be. 

Kim’s arrival in 2010 to help in the areas of Communications, Public Health and Mission Team Management was another example that ENLACE will not lack anything it needs.  

Michelle Zuniga is a passionate young woman who has truly impacted El Salvador through her service with ENLACE this past year. Michelle built intimate friendships with dozens of ENLACE staff as well as church and community members throughout El Salvador. In addition, she exhibited the true nature of the word ‘enlace’ by acting as a ‘link’ between local churches and dozens of groups from the U.S. As Jeff Costa of the Crossing said, it is evident that “God is with her as she serves side by side with each group that comes down.” This sentiment was reiterated by everyone who had the privelege of working with her. ENLACE’s medical doctor, Dr. Zuleyma Chahin, worked side by side with Michelle many times and says that Michelle worked “with a sense of compassion and God’s love that was reflected in all that she did.”

At ENLACE, we believe that restored relationships are at the root of any lasting change. By coming to her mother’s native land with an open heart to serve, the relationships that Michelle leaves behind will continue to help transform communities for many years to come!

Thank you, Michelle!

Contact us today if you are interested in applying for a long-term volunteer position with ENLACE!

Alejandro and his wife PatyChilean native, Rodolfo Alejandro Pérez Olave, seems to have no shortage of enthusiasm and energy. After marrying a Salvadoran and settling into life in El Salvador many years ago, Alejandro brought his excitement and expertise to ENLACE. Alejandro has been an agronomer with ENLACE since the very beginning in 1993 and has helped thousands of people transform their lives through medium-scale agricultural endeavors and most recently with home gardens. 

Alejandro began his career in agriculture working for the Chilean government with its national reconstruction plan after which he studied the environment and bacteriology in Canada. In 1992 Alejandro traveled to El Salvador as a part of the Organization of American States. It was during this time that he met ENLACE co-founder David Bueno, who was working with farmers in Ahuachapan. Alejandro never looked back, and since then has worked with farmers and community members in a variety of traditional and non-traditional production of vegetables. 

“What I like most about working with home gardens is to see how people learn and progress while also living in such humble circumstances. [Participants] welcome others into their homes with the little they have. They make my work worthwhile.”

Alejandro directing one of his home garden training seminarsAlejandro recalls how he used to work primarily with male farmers. Over the last five years, however, he has worked primarily with churches that help women with home gardens. Since women are the main caretakers of children and the elderly, their gardens support the most vulnerable in each community. According to Alejandro, “ENLACE has nailed it with the home gardens because they have great social and economic impact. Through them, communities can help themselves by eating more healthily, making a little more income and fixing their homes; I have seen their lives change completely.”

Today, Alejandro works with new partner churches in the regions of San Martin, San Rafael Cedros, Santa Ana, and San Jose El Naranjo. He provides ongoing technical support and teaches how to plant, cultivate, prepare the soil, and control pests totally organically.

Just as Alejandro has been a witness of change and transformation in the communities in the past 16 years in El Salvador, he has also been transformed by his work. Alejandro said that ENLACE has become his second family. He has been changed and transformed by God’s love, the people with whom he works, and by the friendships formed with his coworkers in the office. 

Take a moment to read our Summer Newsletter 2011 highlighting ENLACE’s Economic Development Program

Your donation of $100 will be leant nearly 30 times in the next 15 years totaling more than $1500 of credit for ambitious entrepreneurs in El Salvador!

Despite his best efforts to provide for his wife and four children, Pablo never had the opportunity to afford adequate housing for his family. Their makeshift home was repeatedly flooded during the rainy season, bringing them sickness and stress. They did not have much hope of improving their situation alone. When the local church reached out to him and other neighbors with a community housing initiative, he was overwhelmed yet extremely joyful at the prospect of finally having a secure shelter for his wife and children.

ENLACE volunteer Michelle Zuniga translating for Pastor Mauricio during the ending ceremony of Vineyard’s mission tripGod is doing great things in San Jacinto. Things we would have never imagined. In the past, our church wasn’t reaching out and serving in our community. It wasn’t until we started working with ENLACE that we learned how God cares for this community.

Starting to serve your community is like jumping into water. You can’t tell others what it’s like until you’ve jumped in yourself. Until you yourself have tested the water, you don’t know what it’s like. Is it hot or cold? And you can’t invite others to join you unless you yourself get wet. 

Now we are more effective and have gained momentum. Serving our community with you didn’t feel like work but a privilege. We are excited, renewed, and have a new vision of God’s heart for our community. God has much more work in store for us.

Please continue to pray for us because God has a lot more work for us to do. We will send you a picture of when these bricks that you have spent time to build into a house become a finished home.

Thank you for the blessing you have been to us. Thank you for caring for us. God bless you.

By Kim Frederick

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”  (James 1:27)

Beautiful scenary on the ourskirts of town near one of the new homes. Quietly standing in the shade of Marivel’s home as her children lingered around corners, on hammocks, and inside of their dirt floor adobe home, I helped translate as we boldly practiced a pure and faultless religion. When we arrived at their house, a skinny teenage girl shyly opened their scrap metal gate, and two muddy barefoot boys were doing their homework on an old wooden table outside. Marivel’s eyes filled with tears and she gave thanks to God as we explained that we had come to visit and pray with her. She is a widow with eight children. She is a strong believer in God and member of a local church called Arca de Dios, but she and her children rarely go to church anymore due to threats from a local gang. She says that she hopes this “difficult time” will soon come to an end, but she appears tired and worn. Her pastor, Franciso, knows her well and visits often. It is Pastor Fransico who brought us to her home to encourage her and share a bag of basic foods with her family. He knows and visits many people in his community, despite the prevalent gang activity in the area.

This week, a group from Willow Creek Crystal Lake in Chicago came to build relationships with the people in El Ranchador and construct two cement block homes to support current efforts of the local church to serve those in need in their community. The group’s desire to learn from the community and willingness to listen and respond to the community’s needs was admirable.

“The Lord is my sheperd, I shall no want.” Psalm 23.1Throughout the week, everywhere we went, Psalm 23 was written, sung, read or taught. It was laughable each time a reference to the verse seemed to pop out of nowhere. Although the reference (in some translations) to walking “in the valley of the shadow of death,” and it’s popular use at funerals or hospital beds was a little discomforting, it seemed to build a nice theme for my week. Despite the physical labor of moving over 300 cement blocks, mixing cement by hand, and hauling dirt and rocks, being in El Ranchador all week away from desks, computers, phones, clocks, and advertisements was a restful time. The images of “lying down in green pastures” and “leading me beside still waters” provoke powerful feelings while surrounded by mountains and enormous Ceiba trees in a small town filled with mud and metal houses with waste water running through the streets.

Alvaro and two of his four children help build their new home. Despite the numerous gang tags and knowledge that we were being carefully watched, we never felt threatened; we never felt alone. Instead, the truth came alive through our presence there, “Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff–they comfort me.” We ate all of our meals in the community with the pastor and other volunteers from the church, and we were welcomed with overwhelmingly open arms which reminded me that He “prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies,” and “my cup overflows.”

1 Jehovah es mi pastor; nada me faltará. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; 3 he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. 4 Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me. 5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Housing recipient, Douglas and his family in El Ranchador. Before leaving Marivel’s home, the Crystal Lake group gave her a large plastic bag with basic foods like rice, beans, oil, sugar, and cornflour. She asked me to pray for her daughter, Marivel de los Angeles (translated, Marivel from the Angels). She showed me a that her hip bone was protruding awkwardly beneath her skin. It looked broken, and her mother said it was from a golpea, or some kind of blow. We prayed with her and asked that God “restore her soul” through these difficult times. Her certainty that she would one day have the freedom to return to church was a proclamation of the strong hope to which she clings. Thanks to the local church’s work in El Ranchador, Christians and non-Christians alike are receiving mercy and esperanza (hope) through home visits, latrines, home gardens, new houses, and restored relationships. This church’s efforts are just another example of how we, as the body, can reach out to one another, helping others to experience the truth in the last verse of Psalm 23: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.”

Click here to go to Kim Frederick’s blog page

Like tools in a tool box, micro loans and business training are necessary tools in community transformation. And so along with helping churches identify needs in their communities such as infrastructure (roads, homes) and health (home gardens, clinics, improved stoves), the need for economic help in the forms of business training and micro lending is also important. In the following story, we learn how a small loan and business support have had a huge impact on the live of hardworking entrepreneur living in impoverished communities in El Salvador.

Miriam Paz is a young widow with three small children. When a church member visited to help fix the roof of her old home, he saw that her house, on the verge of collapsing, was a danger to her and her children. She could hardly believe it when he returned with others to tell her she was going to receive a new home. She is thankful that the Church and community helped her in her time of need and that her children now have a secure roof over their heads. 

“When I accepted Jesus Christ, my life was filled with God and with a desire to serve. To this day, I still have that desire. Through my studies I can help others, working not for men but for God because God satisfies my inner being.”

David’s postive attitude and enthusiasm to serve has helped him to become a valuable new member of the ENLACE staff.David Gonzalez is currently studying agronomy engineering at the Roberto Quiñonez National School of Agriculture. Soon after starting there, his life changed completely when some of his classmates invited him to a Bible study on campus. After the study, the gratitude he felt toward God gave him a strong desire to help others in need through his life and his profession. He desired to live out the words of Mother Teresa which had always inspired him, “I am a pencil in the hands of God and he writes with me whatever he wants.”

David submitted 21 resumes to various businesses before being accepted for a job, but there was never a moment in which he lost faith in finding a place where his talents and abilities could be used by God. During his search, David discovered ENLACE and was impressed to see the positive impact that the local churches were having in their communities. It was with ENLACE that David finally found work as a technical expert in agronomy. David agrees with ENLACE’s method of working through the local church, saying, “I think the principal help has to come from the church, following the example of Jesus Christ.”

David is currently one of the three ENLACE agronomists who provide technical advice to local farmers in the communities we serve.Since October of last year, David has been in charge of providing technical assistance to the participants of the Home Garden Projects being implemented in the region of Abelines. He organizes, supervises, and trains farmers to better prepare the soil, plant seeds, care for their crops, and harvest the resulting produce in a way that optimizes the efforts of each participant. His work is part of a larger effort to promote home gardens as a source of nutrition and daily sustenance in one of the poorest and most remote regions of the country where the rate of malnutrition and infant mortality has been very high due to low food quality.

David enjoys teaching others how to take care of their plants in order to multiply the fruits and vegetables they bear. Just as the seed that fell into good soil in the Bible grew a hundredfold, David is using his abilities to help those with little resources plant their seeds in a way that their blessings may be multiplied. David, 24 years old, will soon finish his degree in agronomy engineering, and his story–one of a young man willing to be a pencil in the hands of God–is just beginning.