Category: Blog

by Michelle Negron Bueno

Graphic by Priscilla McKinney

Most everyone has heard of or seen the devastation that hit Joplin, Missouri on May 22 when an F5 tornado tore through on a Sunday night, taking with it a third of the town. Two of my sisters, Elizabeth Baldwin and Priscilla McKinney, live just minutes from there in Galena, Kansas. Priscilla, who is also an ENLACE board member, has a business in Joplin proper. Everyone in their families are safe and the business building was not damaged. 

The hardest news for them has been the loss of life. For those of us listening for news from the television or radio, the numbers were astounding as they climbed from the teens to past a hundred and beyond. But for everyone near Joplin the numbers represented faces of friends and family members. For Elizabeth and Priscilla and their home church, Riverton Friends Church, it meant a volunteer and friend named Dee Ann as well as many neighbors and clients who lost a loved one.

Last Sunday, May 29, Ron, our kids and I were able to travel down to Joplin from our furlough home in Kansas City. We had the chance to attend Riverton’s Sunday morning service where people were gathering to mark what had happened just one week ago. As I looked around, I saw many people who have been a part of ministering to El Salvador and my family over the years. Some had opened their homes to us, some had sent funds and medical supplies to El Salvador, some had offered a listening ear and pastoral care as we walked through the traumas of our own natural disasters.

On this morning, Pastor Wes Davis gave a sermon that cared for those reeling from their own disaster. The sermon mourned the loss of friends and neighbors but also gave the congregation hope and encouragement as they waded into the months and years of grief and recovery that will come. (Once his wonderful sermon is available online, we’ll post a link.)

Rebuilding efforts will be the stuff of daily life for those in and surrounding Joplin for the next year and beyond. Rebuilding homes, businesses, routines is something with which we in El Salvador and at ENLACE are all too familiar. We are extending our hands toward you in prayer and support, friends and family in Joplin, just as you have done for us in hard times past.

We encourage U.S. churches who share our mission of alleviating spiritual and physical poverty through the work of local churches to explore, invest, experience, and engage in what God is doing in El Salvador. Since 1993 ENLACE has been equipping church and community leaders to identify, design, and manage sustainable poverty-alleviating projects throughout the country. Over the years many  foreign and local churches and institutions that have identified with ENLACE’s vision have worked alongside rural communities in El Salvador to bring hope and transformation.

Replica of the type of improved adobe homes Willow is helping the churches in Santa Ana build for families in needWillow Creek Community Church in South Barrington Illinois is one of our new church partners. This church has committed to walking with churches in the the Santa Ana region of El Salvador as they reach out to transform their communities. Willow Creek first became involved when they sent a vision team comprised of church leaders to explore the work that was already going on in El Salvador. After committing to invest in ongoing training and community projects, they experienced El Salvador by sending down work teams to build relationships with the people of San Jacinto while physically helping them to build up their community.

Recently, Willow Creek has gone a step further to engage its entire congregation through a year-long Celebration of Hope, during which the whole church has the opportunity to better understand, pray, give, and get involved with the transformation they are supporting in El Salvador and around the world. Through the sharing of stories like those of Alex and Anna who received new homes through church and community projects in El Salvador, and through peppering their lobby with photographs of hope and change, Willow Creek is opening their congregation’s eyes to the tranformation that is possible when the church reaches beyond its four walls. 

A replica of a risk mitigation wall in Santa Ana sits in Willow Creek’s lobby, showing their congregation one way they are helping local churches in El Salvador provide hope for their communitiesMark Haugen, the Latin America Operations Director for Willow Creek’s Compassion and Justice Ministries, was quoting Bill Hybles, the senior pastor of their church, when he said that “God, in a unique way, prepared the local church to be His community that is to bring hope, healing, and restoration.¨ Willow Creek’s effective engagement encourages us at ENLACE because we know that the communities where we work are being covered in prayer, and that God’s church–in which we all serve different functions for the same body–is healthy, united, and bringing hope to the world.

If you are an individual who has experienced ENLACE and would like to engage the rest of your church by hosting an event or leading a campaign, email us at partner@enlaceonline.org to find out how!



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 collaboration between friends in the community and the local church has greatly impacted her life.

On April 27 we received the sad news that Pastor David Wilkerson, prophet, evangelist and above all servant of God, was killed in a car accident and his wife, Gwen, left in a coma. All of us at ENLACE were profoundly moved as we reflected on the earthly departure of a Godly man and began praying in earnest for his wife. In the week that followed, Gwen began to recover quickly and preparations were made for Rev. Wilkerson’s funeral and memorial services.

On May 14 this past week, thousands gathered at Times Square Church in New York City, overflowing into the streets, to attend the memorial service in honor of Rev. Wilkerson. An untold number of people watched the service live online. News organizations covered the event in detail, and it can be viewed online at Time Square Church’s website. The service featured Rev. Wilkerson’s own words and was a moving tribute to a man who abandoned his life to God’s call. The service reminded us what our work in El Salvador is all about: serving others through the love of Christ.

Since the beginning of ENLACE’s ministry, Rev. Wilkerson has been a Godly influence and support. Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s director, recalled something Rev. Wilkerson said to him in the early days of his work in El Salvador. In characteristically bold fashion Rev. Wilkerson said, “If God’s in it, it will prosper.” Rev. Wilkerson, who firmly believed that by listening to and understanding the heart of God and His plan for the world a person’s life can be completely transformed, taught Ron and all of us at ENLACE to have this kind of faith.

Rev. Wilkerson in El Salvador, speaking at the 2007 pastors and leaders conference, “Renewing your Passion for Christ”This is the legacy that Rev. Wilkerson has left us, a legacy that challenges both believer and nonbeliever to seek God. Rev. Wilkerson did this through his life as an evangelist and through Teen Challenge and World Challenge, ministries that have helped millions around the world to break their captivity to drugs, poverty, and a life without Christ. It has been through the support of World Challenge that the lives of thousands in El Salvador, local pastors as well as entire communities, have been transformed.

Even though we at ENLACE know the echoes of David Wilkerson’s life reverberate through the lives he touched and the ministries he supported long into the future, we will miss his presence in this world. Most of all, however, we know that Rev. Wilkerson would have wanted us to see his death as a reminder of our own mortality and ultimate dependence on Jesus Christ as the only answer for us and a world in need.

Mercedes Portillo is a leader in his community who has been cultivating vegetables for years. When the Home Gardens Project began in Abelines, he learned techniques to yield better and healthier produce. The improvements to his garden have helped his large family to have a more nutritious diet, and have eased their financial burden with extra income from the sale of surplus vegetables.

The entire week before much of the world celebrates Easter, the people of El Salvador are celebrating the Semana Santa, or Holy Week, to remember Jesus’s suffering, death, and victorious resurrection. For Latin Americans, this vacation week encompasses some of our deepest and most extensive traditions, while providing us with a break from the normal rush of daily life and giving us time for ourselves and our families.

A traditional “carpet” made of colored sawdust. Photo La Prensa GráficaJust as U.S. families often celebrate Easter with special church services, Easter egg hunts, chocolate bunnies, and pastel colors, Salvadorans participate in traditional celebrations as well. Throughout the week, we enjoy typical Semana Santa foods, such as dried fish with eggs, candies made of mango and desert plums in honey and brown sugar, and a sweet bread called “Torreja.” In rural areas, some churches celebrate with special services and others with processions in the streets. In a country where the majority of the population is Catholic, this week is filled with solemn celebrations, fervor, and processions that can be seen throughout El Salvador. One of the most beautiful traditions are the carpets laid down to decorate the city. The carpets are made of sawdust and salt, along with brightly dyed flowers that make up colorful and unique works of art which cover the streets.

It is undoubtedly a week that is long-awaited, and we are excited to spend time with our families as we reflect on the hope and life that comes with the Easter story. Whether we are dying easter eggs in Colorado Springs, attending a sunrise service in California, watching the processionals in San Salvador, or joyfully praising God in a small concrete church in rural El Salvador, Christians all over the world this week are giving thanks for the resurrection and celebrating life everlasting!

Happy Easter!


When the Home Gardens Project first began in El Espino, Dina Velasquez had no desire to cultivate her own garden. She was going through an emotional crisis and believed that any attempt to garden would be unsuccessful, but she reluctantly agreed to participate after much encouragement from her friends.  Now, Dina has a flourishing garden which has helped to ease her stress, and she enjoys serving as one of the project’s biggest advocates.

Azucena and her family are new to the area of La Loma, and she is excited to have the opportunity to grow tomatoes at her home.  She and her two children are now able to eat the vegetables, as well as sell the surplus to help with home expenses.  Next harvest, Azucena looks forward to expanding her garden by cultivating even more plants.

This year, ENLACE finds itself in an exciting period of growth. We are now ready to begin the journey toward our 2020 vision, starting with our transformational vision for 2015. Check out our Spring Newsletter to find out more about our recent celebrations and our plans for the future!  

Panamericana Highway that crosses in front of the Christian and Public schools and the New Jerusalem ChurchThe traffic accidents that occur on the highways in El Salvador cause an alarming number of injuries and deaths. In the past 10 years, five children near the New Jerusalem Church in Comecayo lost their lives while walking along the highway or trying to cross the road. The tragedy of these losses moved the church and the community to consider it a high priority to construct a pedestrian bridge across the busy road to protect the lives of more than 10,000 people that must walk through this area daily.

Seeing the need and grieved over senless deaths, the church asked ENLACE to help them create a strategy that addressed the problem. ENLACE provided technical assistance and church training, which resulted in forming a Pedestrian Safety Committee made up of church and community members who oversaw the project and lobbied the mayor’s office to help complete it. After a design and plan were created, the Nueva Jerusalén Church and the community provided construction materials, water, storage and tools, as well as skilled and unskilled labor. In December 2011, the mayor’s offce provided the cables and the bridge was finally complete.

Felix Orellana, ENLACE regional Church Coach, believes that along with providing safety, the bridge has created a possibility for greater unity, which lubricates the momentum of change in the community of Comecayo.

“The church and the community have definitely created new bonds of friendship which have brought greater motivation, strength, and unity to serve.”

 

The new bridge in Comecayo can be seen from many locations in the community. It stands as a memorial to those who lost their lives and a memorial to the commitment of the church to reaching out to their neighbors.