In the July issue of The Pentecostal Evangel John Bueno, the executive director of the Assemblies of God World Missions, shares four scriptural aspects of reaching out to the poor: God and the poor, the Church and the poor, and the gospel and the poor. With each aspect, he shows how scripture addresses the responsibility of Christians to minister to and defend the poor who live among us.

ENLACE’s approach is an intuitive, fluid, and dynamic process. It is a process that is adapted to every church and community’s unique history, vision, resources and opportunities. The process is fluid and dynamic because each stage builds from and contributes to one another. It is a general framework more than a rigid methodology.

Many of you have been following the amazing development of the potable water project in Las Delicias. This summer, the church and community concluded a crucial step in the project with the completion of all of the infrastructure at the well site. Multiple groups came from the US to collaborate in the project and were of immense encouragement to the Church and community. Take a minute to view some of the photo galleries from a few of the teams.

Through my experience over the years of working with churches in El Salvador, I have identified five general reasons why churches do not engage in or drop out of community transformation which are as follows:

We are excited to announce that we have recently hired three new staff members for our church and community program and are now working in five new churches.

On June 16, a group of 19 people from the Union Church of San Salvador worked alongside the Church and Community members of El Cambio, El Tinteral. The leaders in El Cambio continue their risk prevention work by building drainage canals and retaining walls to prevent future landslides and erosion in the area. So far, more than 30 walls have been built, most of them using ruined tires to construct the walls. This method maximizes local resources by incorporating otherwise useless items to construct a sturdy retaining wall to prevent erosion (which is prevelant in their area). A large portion of El Cambio was a settlement community for displaced families after the 2001 earthquakes. Many of these families have gone from living in plastic shelters to now having sturdy block homes, potable water, sanitation facilities, improved access roads and improved stoves in many homes. Over the years, the church and community has increased its capacity to manage such projects. It is easily understandable that the community would now want to protect their community against future disaster.

A group from Faith Christian Fellowship (FCF) in Clarksburg, West Virginia arrived for the third year in a row to work alongside the Good Samaritan Church in Las Delicias. This year the group was able to do more than make friends while sharing manual labor efforts with church and community members. Pastor John Eklund, outreach minister of FCF, conducted a training seminar for over thirty pastors and leaders in the area on starting and implementing a Celebration Recovery (Christ-centered addiction recovery) program in the area. It turns out that a local pastor has started the program in San Salvador and will be helping the churches in the Las Delicias area walk through the process. In addition, Charlotte Snead, a M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Pre-schoolers) coordinator, spent time with the women's ministry of the Good Samaritan Church having a wonderful time of encouragement and sharing.

The church and community leaders of the community of Las Delicias invited (or maybe "challenged" would be a better word) the ENLACE staff to a pupusa* eating contest on May 26. It was an amazing time for all the ENLACE staff to celebrate the amazing progress of the water project and then eat until stuffed. We estimate that more than 900 pupusas were eaten that Saturday afternoon. An employee of ENLACE's sister org CREDATEC, Israel Melendez, ate 17 pupusas winning the event. While Evelyn Rosales (also from ENLACE) ate 16 coming in first for the female category. Her 9 yr old daughter, Rebecca ate 9 pupusas. Click here to see a photo gallery of the event.

May 2-4 ENLACE hosted a three-day workshop with all employees. The workshop, entitled " The Church in Mission: Transforming Your Community," included a focus on the Biblical basis of the mission of the church, the church's part in God's plan for reaching the world and the details of ENLACE's projects and programs. These days were invlauable for the ENLACE staff to grow together, dream and plan for what lies ahead in the upcoming years.

The churches and community of Abelines celebrated the completion of the expansion of their clinic facilities recently. Representatives from five different churches as well as the mayor's office and local police force were present to give their blessings to a building which is almost five times as big as the original one room clinic. The church and community take much pride in these facilities as it is an initiative which they have all been behind over the past five years. The new facilities include an expanded space for seeing patients on a regular basis, two lodging rooms for visiting medical teams or others to stay, as well as a large common area for community meetings and health committee training seminars.

The mission of the church is to be a restored body that transforms its community. The church is a group of people called and made new by the grace of God through Jesus Christ to love and serve one another and the world (Ephesians 2:8-10). This mission has two equally important and integrated elements: (1) the church should be a body of vibrant, authentic people relating to one anther in love, compassion and justice (Ephesians 4, Ephesians 3:4, 1 Cor. 12, Ro. 12:5). And (2) the church should serve its neighbors to create long-lasting change in the relationships, institutions and overall conditions of their communities, especially focusing upon those of greatest need (Mark 12:31-33, Luke 10:27, Matt 22:39;Ro 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8).

Over the years, I have heard Ron Bueno, ENLACE’s Executive Director, explain to our staff, local church partners and donors why he believes that the church is the answer to poverty in El Salvador. I asked him recently to write down his answers to the most frequently asked questions regarding ENLACE’s commitment to equip local churches to transform their communities. I've asked Ron to address the following questions:

Tina Anderson is director of communications for River West Church in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Tina is praying about returning to El Salvador to work with ENLACE 's communication's department.

A group from ACTHOW (A Call To Help Orphans and Widows) visited the community of Abelines this March. At the newly expanded medical clinic, the team saw over 350 patients with three general doctors and one eye doctor. The event was planned and organized in coordination with the local health committee.  ENLACE has been working with the health committee to develop health initiatives in the area over the last seven years. Other initiatives in the area include a potable water system, pedestrian bridges, sanitation facilities, improved stoves and road repair.

In February, a group from The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa, California made their 5th visit to the community of Las Delicias, continuing its partnership with The Good Samaritan Church that started over four years ago. The primary project has been to help fund and work alongside the community in building a new water system. This year, the group had the privilege of working on a third main water tank that will have the capacity to benefit over 15,000 people. During the going away service, more than 80 people attended. Less than half of this turnout were church members. Pastors of other local church partners also attended along with water board and community association members. And to the community's great delight, a group of 7 lay leaders from the local catholic church came to share in the fun and help cook pupusas (a typical Salvadoran food).