Category: Blog

Residents of Las Delicias have lived for generations without running water in their homes, but Catalina encourages her neighbors that clean water is finally on the way. No longer able to walk to the river, Catalina washes her clothes and baths with contaminated water that she buys from a truck. If the water runs out, there is none to drink. The completion of Project Milagro will mean that she will not go thirsty due to lack of clean water.

$50 / month for 10 months will provide the milagro of clean water for one household for generations to come!
Donate Today!

Juan Antonio is a new father and a resident of La Loma. He is excited to be able to sell tomatoes from his garden in order to provide for his new son. As a leader, he is happy that the home garden participants are creating a positive example for the community. 

God’s love is contagious, and in the region of Abelines, it’s spreading like wild fire! We are often asked how pastors in El Salvador hear about ENLACE, what promotional materials we use, or how we advertise our services. The answer is that replication is inherent in our work because the churches that serve their communities have a passion for service; and change is contagious.

New churches become interesteNelson Paz, pastor of Gethsemane Church in Pajigua. d in partnering with ENLACE through people like Nelson Paz Membreño who experienced a significant change in his own life and community that motivated him to take a leadership role in promoting the integral mission to others. Nelson was a founding member of the health committee in Abelines, and has also held leadership positions on the water board, the housing committee, and has been the secretary of his community association.

When Nelson recognized that the work in Abelines was causing a significant impact on the community, he eagerly sought to replicate this holistic mission in the church where he grew up, the Gethsemane of Apostles and Prophets Church in Pajigua. According to Julio Figueroa, ENLACE church coach for the region, “Nelson is the ideal person that God had been saving for this moment. He is intelligent and a visionary, and the church was looking for someone like him to lead them.”

As a result of his efforts, ENLACE began partnering with the Gethsemane church in 2008, and has since provided a church coach to train community and church leaders, in addition to supporting church and community projects, such as 44 home gardens and the construction of 90 latrines that benefit 100 families. According to Nelson, “The work of the Church together with its community is the best thing we can do because everything has to begin with friendship, and through friendships we get to know those who don’t know God.”

Since his return to the Gesthemane chNelson with church leader, Rosita and ENLACE staff, Isidro. urch, Nelson has started a degree program in Pastoral Studies at the Bible Institute of San Miguel, and was recently asked to lead the church during a time of pastoral transition. He is excited to see how this opportunity will strengthen his faith and leadership abilities, as well as strengthen the church’s presence in the community. Just as the transformation in Abelines served as a catalyst for change in Pajigua, we are certain that Nelson’s congregation will soon serve as an inspiration to others who are striving to share God’s love and mercy in their own communities.

At ENLACE, we define community transformation as a dynamic and continual process that is rooted in restored relationships and sacrificial service. This February relationships were restored and hundreds of people were served through the combined efforts of two Salvadoran churches and the Meadowbrook Community Church from Champaign, IL. They worked together to repair roads and attend to patients at makeshift health clinics organized by the partnering churches in Las Delicias and Santa Maria. 

Pastor Santiago receiving reading glasses from the makeshift clinic in the Prince of Peace Church in San Martin.Community and church members in the area welcomed the medical team and a road repair crew who, through their service, turned churches into clinics and sorrow into joy.  

The enthusiasm of the group was tangible in their warm greetings and joyful smiles. Aside from parasites and chest colds, the most common complaints from patients were pains and problems with their nerves, surely present due to their abundance of worry and sorrow. Dr. Pierce, who perceived pain that went beyond physical illness, not only prescribed medications, but also shared a special time of prayer with each patient, recognizing that there are some ailments for which the only cure is God’s love and grace. 

Meanwhile, other members of the team helped community members to repair the main road in front of the Good Samaritan Church. Although the task was not easy, the presence of old friends from the community motivated them to work strongly day after day during the week of digging, moving rocks, mixing cement, and building a wall that will prevent erosion of the newly repaired road. 

Meadowbrook members using teamwork to move a concrete post in the way of the retaining wall.

Meadowbrook’s relationship with the Good Samaritan Church has strengthened tremendously over the past six years, and they are now excited to have new friendships in the Prince of Peace Church in Santa Maria, as well. Both the Meadowbrook team and the communities were blessed as they opened the church doors to the tired, the sick, and the poor in hopes of bringing rest, health, and restoration through the ongoing process of community transformation in San Martin.  

Click here to see more photos of the trip

by Kim Frederick

“ENLACE’s greatest challenge concerning our 2015 plan does not involve finances, administration or leadership, nor does it concern human resources. The challenge is spiritual. The biggest challenge for us will be to keep ourselves centered on Christ and to allow Him to change, prepare, and guide us to complete our mission.” Ron Bueno, ENLACE Founder and Director

Certain that our greatest challenge is spiritual, we, as ENLACE staff, are committed to seeking a life radically dependent on God, and to live under His authority and grace. In efforts to remain focused on Him, the ENLACE staff gathers every Monday to pray together and share a time of devotion. Recently, our director, Ron Bueno has been urging us to “return to the basics.” As he pointed out, if ENLACE is going to continue to expand and reach more churches and communities in El Salvador, our greatest challenge is to keep God at the front and center of all our efforts.

Over the 18 years that ENLACE has been serving as a link for churches and communities in El Salvador, we have seen God open doors, change hearts, and bless the lives of those living in more than 50 communities. For several years, we maintained a small number of church partners, but as they are becoming Leader Churches and examples to other churches in their areas, the small spark of change has become a wildfire. In fact, we have now reached a point in which there are so many new Salvadoran churches interested in partnering with ENLACE that we had to form a waiting list of potential partners while we search for more US churches to partner with their efforts. It is amazing to see the hearts of pastors all over the country turn toward an integral mission and a desire to serve those in need!

We have learned much from our experiences over the years, and we continue place a strong emphasis on the following:

• Confidence. We believe that God has entrusted us with a calling and has prepared us for a specific purpose.
• Family Heritage and Tradition. God has left us a pattern of conduct, values, and principles to which we must be faithful and which we must appreciate.
• A Call and Spiritual Gifts. Each one of us has made a vow before Christ to be one of His ambassadors.
• The Character of a Christian Servant. We’re committed to act like people who follow God.

To focus on the above ideas, we know we must embody four key characteristics:

1. Bravery. We must be brave enough to face challenges from God, to go to difficult places, to make tough decisions, and take necessary actions.
2. Power. We must remember that the same power that resurrected Christ lives in us.
3. Love. We must fall deeply in love with God so that we cease to focus only on our own interests, and instead focus on seeing and loving our neighbors.
4. Discipline. We must have the discipline to seek God’s presence and to follow Him with with our words and our minds so that we may recognize our successes and failures in our attempts to be like Him.

We urge you to stay involved with ENLACE and to pray for us this year, as we are challenged with staying focused in the face of growth and change. We, too, will be thinking and praying for your churches and families. Thank you for your ongoing encouragement and support!  

The Infant Nutritional Center is a daycare for malnourished children in Las Delicias and one of the five schools that will benefit from Project Milagro. Ruth de Lemus is a teacher at the Center and is anxiously awaiting the completion of the project.  She knows that clean water will mean less malnurished children at the center.

$50 / month for 10 months will provide the milagro of clean water for one household for generations to come!
Donate Today!

Imagine the wind whistling through your house as it lifts up the tin roof and drops it with a bang. Suddenly the rain begins–first a couple drops that leak through the tin and wake you up, but soon the rain is pouring through the roof. You jump out of bed to protect your children from the rain and cover the dry clothes, but after all your efforts, you see that nothing has helped. The rain keeps falling and everyone is soaked.

This is a typical night dOlga’s previous home  uring the rainy season for families living in rural areas with inadequatehousing. But now, in one of the poorest and most remote areas of eastern El Salvador, the local church and the community of Sirigual are changing the story by providing safe homes for families in need. Many of those in need are single-mom households who struggle daily to provide for their children.

Michelle Zuniga, ENLACE volunteer, shares her experience of meeting the women who are benefitting from new homes in Sirigual. She shares how having a dignified house is not only changing their material lives, but also giving them hope in a better future for the next generation.

“Whenever I go out to the communities, it’s rare I don’t walk away without an impacting quote from one of the residents we visit. They seem to always proclaim thanks and mention the things we take for granted in a memorable way. Yesterday however, there was no quote, just an overwhelming feeling of sincere joy flowing from each individual we encountered. We went to Sirigual to interview three housing recipients. To see the joy and amazement from these three mothers and all of their children led me to experience one of my most memorable community visits. They were amazed that this initiative actually came true. They said that many times development agencies come and say they will do this and that, but it never comes true.

Olga and her children happy to have their new home.“Now they wait in expectation to move into their brand new homes. Going and seeing their prior homes, it is evident why they were chosen to receive new ones. They were in great need–very old, wasted away adobe, garbage bags, and tin roofs that could not longer restrain the water from falling into their home like a river. These women pick coffee and only have work for two months out of the year. After the harvest, there is no reliable work. They have no husband, or father figure for their children, to help with expenses or child-rearing. It’s very sad to see households with many children and no father, yet very encouraging to see strong women such as Miriam, Olga, and Josefa putting their children first when it comes to education, food, and shelter. All of these mothers, when asked to share with us, mentioned the joy that comes from seeing their children living in their new homes.”

Click here to see a picture gallery of the new houses in Sirigual!

 “This house represents security and peace, a gift that could have only come from God,” expressed Pablo Chacon with great joy as he set the roof for his new home located in San jacinto. Neighbors from the local church worked alongside him, glad to be a part of this grand blessing. For Pablo, this new home has not only given safe and secure shelter to him and his family; it has given him new hope.

Pablo with his daugher MelissaFor at least 35 percent of rural Salvadorans a decent home is only a dream. They live in homes made from sheets of torn plastic, rusty aluminum, crumbling walls and dirt floors. A six-month rainy season adds to the problems as rain and humidity seep into cracks and holes causing property damage and chronic illnesses. Such homes are often built on mountainsides and marginal areas prone to danger as excessive rain makes roads impassable and landslides a constant threat.

For Pablo, his wife Rosa, and children, building a home had been impossible. Pablo, a landless farmer, could no longer make enough from farming to rent land. Even- tually he found work at a local bakery, but the pay was never enough to build a home. The best he could do was to maintain their old home, which was composed of scraps of wood and aluminum.

The situation was even more dire for 90-year-old Erlinda Garay and her daughter Catalina. They lived in a dwelling made from pieces of wood and plastic. At their age, they cannot work and rely only on a small sum of money given to them by a relative. When it rained, they would move and cover their meager possessions no matter if it was noon or past midnight.

During the dry season, their uneven, dirt floor was difficult to navigate; Erlinda is almost blind. And when it rained a stream of water turned their floor into a pool of mud. The Zurisadai Church in their community of San Jacinto has worked with the community association to identify cases like Pablo and Erlinda. The church recognized that addressing the need for adequate housing was a great opportunity to serve its neighbors. They helped to identify both Pablo and Erlinda’s families and 23 others in most need. ENLACE technical staff helped the church and community to design a two-bedroom, electricity-ready, improved adobe block home which cost no more than $6,000 to build. Church members worked alongside beneffci- aries (if able) to offset the cost of labor.

Having a decent roof over your head and a clean dry floor under your feet is nothing short of a miracle for families living in poverty. However, knowing that God is at work through your neighbors who reach out in sacrifice and love is the seed of a community-wide transformation of spirit. In this and many other ways, hope is “made flesh” in Santa Ana, El Salvador. 

Pablo’s new home.  Pablo’s wife outside their old home.

 Erlinda’s new home still in construction.Erlinda, her son and daughter outside their old home.

by Michelle Zuñiga

Pastors, leaders and ENLACE staff holding on to miracles.During my first year as an ENLACE volunteer, I had the opportunity to travel to dozens of communities. It was obvious that most of these communities were poor, with high crime rates, and often distant from access to resources. Despite these challenges, pastors and church leaders are involved in daily efforts to bring reconciliation, justice, and help their neighbors in transformational ways. Their hard work is encouraging to say the least, but I sometimes ask myself, “What keeps them going? How can they continue all of this hard work in the face of such adversity?” The short answer is passion. A God-given passion for service seems to be the key element that these pastors and leaders all seem to have in common.

As 2010 drew to a close, more than 140 pastors and church leaders from all over El Salvador came together to commit their lives to serving God and serving their communities with this God-given passion. At one point during a session I could see Pastor Santos from El Espino, Pastor Miguel from Las Delicias, and Pastor Orlando from El Triunfo, all from very different areas of the country. As they heard speakers, each one was attentive, writing notes diligently, and worshipping with all of their hearts. This retreat was a time of camaraderie, spiritual refreshment and renewal of their passion for service. The pastors and leaders recognize that it takes enthusiasm and momentum to motivate their churches to continue serving in the face of adversity.

As we begin a new year I can see that it is with this contagious passion that churches truly become agents of change in their communities. A good example is the Good Samaritan where Pastor Miguel Duran has persisted for many years with a water project that will provide three communities with clean water. At the retreat he shared his experience with this initiative. His experience encouraged other church leaders to face with confidence the obstacles their initiatives may encounter.

Michelle smiling for the camera during the retreatOne of the most powerful moments was near the end of the retreat when everyone stood together, holding hands. We were connected with one another and we prayed as we squeezed our neighbor’s hand. We held on tightly knowing that we were holding onto miracles. As we look ahead to 2011 and beyond we know that for many communities in El Salvador, nothing short of a miracle will do. Money seems scarce, resources are hard to come by, but these pastors and leaders continue to strive to lead like Jesus did, with a God-given passion for service.


Make a year-end gift today and help us reach our December goal of $25,000!

So far, we’ve raised more than $10,000 in December which will provide home gardens for more than 40 families in 2011. But we need your help to reach our December goal and provide gardens for hundreds of families like Modesto Guevara’s family in Abelines who says, 

“We have a big family, but there was so much we couldn’t eat it all ourselves. So we went to town and sold produce there. Now my wife sells here in our neighborhood or people come to our house to buy.” 

Click here to read more about Modesto’s experience with his home garden.

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

Click here to give at www.enlaceonline.org or go to www.GivFood.org