Category: Blog

Lucia with her niece, Maria Isidora, in front of their old house.After a lifetime of hard work and service to others, last month Maria Lucia received a blessing that she had never dreamed she would have: a place to call home. Before, Maria was one of the 35 percent of Salvadorans who live in extreme poverty and do not have a safe home. She spent years moving from house to house, struggling to pay rent for herself and other dependents. Now, she and her family represent one of the 25 families in El Ranchador who are benefitting from a housing initiative led by the New Jerusalem Church in Comecayo.

Maria Lucia has two children of her own and cares for her niece, Maria Isidora, who was abandoned by her parents after discovering that childhood polio had caused permanent paralysis in her legs. Maria and her family are originally from the area of La Libertad, but after her husband was killed and there was a series of threats to her then 17-year-old son many years ago, she moved her family to Comecayo for a new beginning. In Comecayo, they eventually had to settle in the community of El Ranchador, a place sadly notorious for high rates of poverty and delinquency. After a few years, Maria remarried and her children now live independently, but the family’s salary of $5 per day from farming and selling tamales still was not enough to afford adequate housing and provide sufficient care for Maria Isidora.

Needless to say, Maria Lucia was ecstatic when she was chosen by the community’s housing committee to receive a home.

Maria Lucia in her place called “Home”.Despite economic hardships, Maria has remained an active member of the New Jerusalem Church for 21 years and has served other members of her community along with her life-time commitment to her niece. At a recent event at the church, Maria, through tears of joy, expressed her gratitude to God, the New Jerusalem Church, and to ENLACE for her new house, which is now in its final stages of construction. Maria is looking forward to having a home which will provide a place of refuge for her family and a better quality of life for her niece.

Thanks to the housing initiative in El Ranchador, Maria Lucia and 25 other families have finally found a place to call home. There are countless hardworking families like Maria who are still waiting patiently, serving selflessly, and praying for a home, for clean water, or for change in their community. You can support ongoing community initiatives like this one and become an answer to the prayers of people just like Maria Lucia. Join the Friend of ENLACE program and donate monthly $25, $50 or $100. 

Click here to donate NOW!

Community and church members provide skilled labor to the project.ENLACE aims to encourage, equip and accompany churches through the process of becoming effective agents of change in their communities. The Principe de Paz church in San Martin is one of many churches paving the way to transformed communities in El Salvador.

María Gladis Valladares has lived on 24th Street in the neighborhood of San María for more than 14 years. Over the years Maria and her neighbors have experienced countless difficulties due to the horrific condition of their street. The youngest and oldest community members are most effected and rarely attempt to walk during or after a rain storm because of the great torrents of water that cut through the dirt street. Many areas of the street do not have proper drainage and the storms leave behind stagnant water that breeds insects and causes foul odors. The street has been detoriating in its condition for many years and community members have been actively looking for ways to fix the road for more than a decade.

Santiago Alfaro, pastor of Principe de Paz in Santa Maria, has become well-known to his neighbors. When Don Santiago, as the community respectfully calls him, announced that his church would collaborate with the Community Association, the mayor’s office and ENLACE donors to finally fix 24th street, the community was thrilled. As Maria explains,Pastor Santiago (right) and a community leader work together to on 24th street.

“It is Don Santiago who has been working hard in all of this. We all want to see the street repaired and our community improved. That is why I decided to volunteer with the Community Association. This is a great opportunity to bring improvement to our community.”

Gerson Ramirez, ENLACE’s church coach in the region, explains the importance of the church making positive connections with its community. “For years the community and the church said this initiative was impossible because they didn’t have any help from the mayor’s office. But when they decided to work together to manage the initiative and went back to the mayor’s office as an entire community, they found open doors and a quick answer. They consider it a miracle from God.”

Maria Valladares and other community members are excited now that the first stage of the process is nearly complete. This stage consists of more than 500 meters of cement drainage as well as the construction of septic tank. Nearly 60 percent of this first stage was financed by the local government entities. The remainder was supplied by the local church and ENLACE. Maria, Pastor Santiago and the entire community are eagerly awaiting the completion of such an important initiative that will significantly improve the quality of life on 24th Street. 

Click here for photos of this wonderful story!

Help the Principe de Paz Church continue to pave the way towards community transformation by becoming a friend of ENLACE and donate $25, $50 or $100 per month!

Then sings my soul, my savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art.

Rosa Lilian Arana and her family are all smiles after moving into their new home.On a hot and humid September afternoon the lyrics from this familiar hymn filled the walls of God’s Ark Church in Planes del Ranchador, El Salvador. More than a hundred people packed themselves into the small church to celebrate the completion of 25 new homes. Every recipient family was present and expressed thankfulness to God and to their their neighbors. This theme of grateful acknowledgement flowed throughout the service and especially in Pastor Rafael Gonzalez’s moving sermon.

Two leaders from God’s Ark spearheaded the housing initiative. They worked hand-in-hand with community leaders to identify the families in need of a secure home.

“We wanted to do something for our community and this initiative was an opportunity to help some of the neediest people in our area, but also build relationships with people. We’re not meeting their needs just so they’ll come to church, but the impact has been so great that many of the housing recipients and their families are now coming to our home-groups. They are also becoming involved in other initiatives in the community like home gardens and the Health Committee. A seed has been planted.”  –Mario Ernesto Mejía, Small Group Leader in El Ranchador

Many of the previous homes were made of used plastic and metal with mud and bamboo. The local church leaders and community members helped to coordinate the construction of houses and provided transportation, storage, materials, and more than $9,000 of volunteer labor. From May to August of 2010, the church and community successfully completed 25 secure homes benefitting 91 people.

Francisco Mendoza, pastor of God’s Ark Church.According to Pastor Francisco Mendoza, the housing initiative has helped his church fulfill its continuing vision of service.

“My vision of ministry has always been to help people in need with whatever resources are available to us. The gospel is integral. It is about meeting people’s spiritual needs, but also their physical needs and this housing initiative has helped us take this approach with our community… We must remove the gospel from four walls of the church in order to take it to those in need.”

“God listened to our prayers!” said Noemí Morán with tears running down her face. “We didn’t have the money to build a house, and many times we didn’t have money to pay our rent. But now everyday I wake up and say ‘Thank you Lord for this roof over my head that you have provided.’ I have confidence that no one will take me from my new home until that long awaited day when God calls me to go, but to go be with Him!¨

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: “My God, how great Thou art!”

Click here to see more photos of the homes built in El Ranchador.

ENLACE “equips churches to transform communities.” The concept of community transformation is often vague and difficult to grasp. However, the story of one life transformed is much more tangible. With this in mind we want to share with you Alex’s story. 

Through the restoration of relationships and effective service in its community, the New Jerusalem Church in Comecayo will impact the lives of tens of thousands of people over the next few years. Alex is just one of the thousands of lives being transformed by the work of the local church. 

Click here to donate now!

By Kim Frederick

Meeting with Pastor Miguel and the water board in Las Delicias.Getting a chance to talk with Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s founder and Executive Director, and hear his passion for the local church is exciting to say the least. Meeting with the pastors and church leaders who are working with ENLACE and realizing the vision of community transformation is also incredibly inspiring. However, to visit communities and meet the pastors with Ron Bueno as a guide and translator is downright invigorating, and the excitement becomes contagious. I had the opportunity to be a part of such an experience during a recent vision trip involving various church leaders from Colorado.

The team met with several local pastors, pastors who have stepped away from an attitude of separatism and have embraced an attitude of service and community transformation. One pastor, Miguel Duran, admitted that his church used to keep to itself and shunned involvement with community efforts. His church had even been accused of being a “parasite of the community” before it listened to God’s call to love and serve its neighbors. Amazingly, Pastor Miguel is now a prominent leader in his community and the head of the water board which is overseeing a project that will one day provide clean water to thousands of people in his area.

Visiting a tilapia farm in the community of El EspinoWe also met with a friend of Miguel Duran, Pastor Felix, who was once a critic of the pastors who chose to reach out to their communities, but is now also effectively partnering with his community in development efforts. Through Ron’s vibrant translating, Pastor Felix told us that he had been a pastor for years before he finally understood that the gospel was not just something to be contained or kept in the church. It is alive, he said, and we have to live it out. He beamed as he showed us some of the tomatoes that were a product of his community’s home garden initiatives.

Restoring relationships is a phrase often used by ENLACE staff when explaining ENLACE’s approach to community transformation. Before, I thought this was just a creative way of saying that ENLACE trains church leaders to collaborate with others in efforts of community development. It was not until sitting in on community meetings with members from various churches and different walks of life, hearing testimonies and stories of reconciled neighbors and of lives saved through selfless serving, that idealist phrases such as “restoring relationships” and “community transformation” became tangible realities to me. The experience of these realties is what would prompt Mark Orphan, the Missions and Outreach Pastor of the Timberline Church, to say with confidence, “Of all the missions organizations I’ve worked with, I’ve never seen one more strategic in their approach and well-suited for a transforming partnership with US churches.”

It is exciting to meet so many churches that are heeding a call to service and reaching out sacrificially, despite their own poverty and needs. Through meetings with these incredible individuals and visits to Pastor Felix showing off the tomatoes of his home gardentheir communities, leaders from the Timberline and Parker Christian Center churches were able to better understand what it means to be a link which “equips churches to transform their communities.” I think it would be difficult to come here, see the work being done through the churches, and not catch the vision. For me, it is like a hardball to the chest that leaves me with a tremendous desire to be a part of the excitement, and an immeasurable thankfulness that, in some small way, I am.

If your church is interested in becoming a partner with ENLACE, and would like to learn more by coming to El Salvador for a vision trip, please contact partner@enlaceonline.org for more information.


ENLACE “equips churches to transform communities.” The concept of community transformation is often vague and difficult to grasp. However, the story of one life transformed is much more tangible. With this in mind we want to share with you Douglas’ story. 

Through the restoration of relationships and effective service in its community, the New Jerusalem Church in Comecayo will impact the lives of tens of thousands of people over the next few years. Douglas is just one example of a life transformed.

ENLACE needs your help in order to work with 250 churches that are transforming the spiritual and material lives of 500,000 people in El Salvador by 2020. 

Click here to donate now!

by Michelle Zuniga

The Crossing with Good Samaritan church members.

Less than three weeks into my year-long journey as a volunteer for ENLACE, I had the privilege to witness the impact people can have when they are willing to cross over borders as well as cultural and language differences in order to serve sacrificially. Over the past several years The Crossing, a church from Costa Mesa, CA, has been living up to its name by crossing over barriers to make an impact in the lives of thousands of people in El Salvador through ENLACE.

As soon as the team arrived in Las Delicias and spotted Pastor Miguel and his family, they jumped out of the vans eager to greet them. Not even weariness from the red-eye flight from Los Angeles could hold the team back from smothering the community members with long-awaited embraces. The joy in everyone’s face was testament to the strong relationship between the two churches, picking up right where they left off last year.

This partnership with the region has been marked by the creation of strong friendships between individuals in The Crossing Church and the local church aptly named The Good Samaritan. When asked what compels Dawn Ralph, the leader of this year’s team, to come back year after year she responded, “It’s really the family we have here.”

The team chose to break into four groups of service: women’s ministry, dental services, latrine construction and youth work. I particularly enjoyed participating in the youth activities which were geared toward listening to the youth and learning together about healthy friendships. This theme is especially important, as the neighboring city of San Martin is well-known for being an area with heavy gang activity. The choice of befriending or joining a gang is an ever-present option for most youth in this area and is all the more reason for the the local church to collaborate with visiting teams like The Crossing, to reach out and provide a better way.

The Crossing team praying for Pastor Miguel and his family.Both the Good Samaritan church and the Crossing showed me the power of the church; change is possible for everyone despite harsh circumstances. They showed me that restored relationships are crucial to bring forth transformation, reconciliation, and development, all of which only Jesus can sustain. This is part of the reason ENLACE hosts mission teams; they serve, empower, and witness firsthand the transformation that is already taking place by the thousands of community members ENLACE walks alongside. Las Delicias is just one of many communities throughout El Salvador that has shown us so much about friendship, whether it was praying together at a Bible study, having someone pull you out of a latrine, holding the hand of someone getting her tooth pulled, or enjoying some great sopa de gallina with Pastor Miguel’s family. I can’t wait to help other teams that come to visit communities in El Salvador, teams committed to crossing barriers to make friends. 

Pastor Rafael with the Willow Creek team outside the christian school in Comecayo.

Over the past year, several leaders from Willow Creek Community Church have visited El Salvador to see how they can partner with ENLACE in the work of equipping churches to transform communities. As it turns out, ENLACE’s model is a perfect fit for Willow Creek. Last year, they decided to partner with ENLACE and invest in the region of Santa Ana over the next five years, a commitment that will likely impact a large number of the region’s 700,000 people in the coming years.

In July they sent their first short-term mission team in order to encourage and assist the New Jerusalem Church in Comecayo in their community transformation efforts. The team worked on one of the church’s most significant initiatives to date: a 300-meter sidewalk that will serve to protect thousands of people in the area. In addition, the team visited Students getting out of school while Willow Creak team is working to build a side walk.15 needy families identified by the church and community and brought them basic food supplies and prayed with them. Pastor Wally Marshall also led a small seminar with the church helping them refine their cell-group efforts that have helped to grow the congregation to more than 1,000 members with dozens of sister churches in the region.

Team member Earl Casas wrote a blog during his trip and had this to say about the week,

I’ve seen poverty and violence while here. I’ve seen situations where it seems there should be no hope but I’ve also seen faith in action here. I’ve seen a force, stronger than the crippling grip the gangs can maintain, penetrating the darkness and pushing back the fear, loneliness, and hopelessness of the poor and destitute. I have seen the Church in action. As we left our new friends we were comforted to know that the work here continues through these compassionate brothers and sisters in Christ who are simply trying to live out their faith as God directs and in so doing they are changing their world.

By partnering with the region of Santa Ana, the Willow Creek Community Church will most certainly be part of the burgeoning transformation in the lives of tens of thousands of Salvadorans in the coming years. However, Earl Casas and the Willow Creek team learned a concept familiar to missionaries and donors; It is often through the act of giving that one receives the greatest blessing.

We came to be a blessing but instead were blessed. We came to bring hope but instead received it. We came to bring resources but left with much more than we gave. We came to teach and encourage but instead we learned and were inspired.

Contact us to find out how your church or organization can partner with ENLACE to make a direct and lasting impact in the lives of thousands of people in El Salvador.

Click here to donate or become a Friend of ENLACE and to help ENLACE work with 100 churches by 2015.

Click here to see the riveting story of Pastor Rafael Gonzalez, pastor of the New Jerusalem church in Comecayo.

Kim digging away inside the latrine hole.Reflections from ENLACE volunteer, Kim Frederick, on a week spent digging a hole in the rain.

Rain poured down in Las Animas last week as a team from the New Life Assemblies of God Church in Exeter, California chipped away at the hard ground in an effort to dig two latrines for families in need. As I so conveniently learned in graduate school, latrines play a major role in the health of a community by reducing fly propagation, water contamination, and the spread of disease. In fact, access to sanitation facilities, clean water, and preventive health education have been proven to reduce infant mortality rates by 50%… If only they could have explained to us, in grad school, what it is like to be deep inside the earth after the ladder is taken away, alone with only a shovel and a thought that someday where you are standing will be filled with human waste.

Click here to read her blog post at www.kimfrederick.com

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

A donation of $100 will be leant nearly 30 times in the next 15 years totaling more than $1,500 of credit for ambitious entrepreneurs in  El Salvador.

$100 = $1,500

DONATE NOW!