Give Prints is a for-profit company which donates 50% of its profits to various non-profits. Recently, when Give Prints founder, Cristina Robeck wanted to make an even greater impact, she decided to share talent not just profits. She assembled a team, called Give Media, which consisted of two photographers, two videographers, a media consultant, and a writer. They traveled to El Salvador to artistically capture ENLACE’s work and support the ENLACE Communications Department. We are grateful for the team’s passion, dedication, willingness to share their knowledge, and the way God spoke into their lives during their time in El Salvador.
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Broadway Christian Church, from Columbia, Missouri, continued “Caminando Juntos” (walking together) with the Tabernaculo Biblico Salem Church in El Espino. The team shared friendship and laughter with the church and community as they built a new home and visited families with special needs. The team also had the opportunity to help with the home garden project in a neighboring community. These churches share a special relationship that continues to deepen each time Broadway visits.
Sixty-year-old Maria de Jesus Granados (called Chunguita) and her 54 year-old sister Daysi lived in a house they inherited from their father. In 2005 the old house was all but destroyed by the heavy rains accompanying Hurricane Mitch. Both sisters suffer from rheumatism but Daysi’s hands and legs have become deformed making it difficult for her to carry out daily tasks. Members from the local church often provide food and money for the sisters. In this way, between illness and poverty, they lived day after day by the mercy of God.
In 2008, community leaders in El Ranchador decided the bridge that provides the only access to the community desperately needed to be replaced. They struggled, however, to get the project off the ground until leaders from the Arca de Dios Church joined them. Together, the church and community worked to fundraise and design the project. At one point, divisions within the Community Association threatened the project and leaders called Pastor Francisco to help mediate a resolution. On May 8, members of El Ranchador, the Community Association, the mayor, and ENLACE staff celebrated the bridge which not only provides safe passage, but also represents a bridge of restored relationships.
Joshua Manuel Fieldson, 24, first came to El Salvador in 2008 with his church, SeaCoast Grace Church in California. Year after year, Joshua returned to serve, motivated by his love for the Salvadoran people and the work of ENLACE.
ENLACE Missionary-Volunteer Melissa Mefford was recently featured on Willow Creek Community Church's Compassion and Justice blog:
A group of high school students from Willow Creek Community Church, South Barrington, IL, came to El Salvador to spend their Spring Break serving with Zurisadai Church in San Jacinto. They helped build a storm drain to prevent dangerous flooding during the rainy season and painted a recently constructed water tank. The team also enjoyed eating mango everyday, playing with kids, and visiting the homes that returning members helped to build last year. The team continued building the relationships from last year and formed new friendships as well.
Another group of students from Willow Creek Community Church came to El Salvador for Spring Break. The team from the Crystal Lake campus spent the week with The Arca de Dios Church in El Ranchador helping begin construction for a new medical clinic. The team ministered to children in the community by visiting a Compassion International site and challenging students from the public school in a soccer game. They served with joy as they took part in the ongoing transformation of El Ranchador.
The centerpiece of ENLACE’s mission is to help and support local churches in El Salvador as they engage effectively in service with their impoverished communities. Building and renewing relationships between each other and God, therefore, is at the heart of what we do. ENLACE’s Church Partnership Program broadens that relationship building as it joins U.S. and Salvadoran churches in long-term partnerships that equip the local church to fulfill God’s plan of wholeness for its community. Along with helping a poor church reach out to its neighbors, U.S. partners that send teams to El Salvador experience first-hand the transformation that is taking place. They often return home with a renewed sense of who they are in Christ and who they are to their immediate and global neighbors.
On a hot February afternoon, the community of Pajigua celebrated the realization of a dream four years in the making. As part of a project to improve the local public school’s infrastructure, the Getsemaní Church, the school and the Community Association worked together to build two new rooms for preschool students. Before the church became involved in the project, the school had been tirelessly working to expand and renovate but to no avail. The church uniting with the community, however, proved to be the necessary impetus to achieve success. At the inauguration, the community, students, Community Associations from two other hamlets, and a team from Crossway Christian Church gathered to thank God for the new addition. Joy and excitement filled the air because the classrooms guarantee a new and better future not just for the children who will soon attend school in these rooms, but for a whole community that will also enjoy deeper, more meaningful relationships.
On February 22, Zurisadai Church in San Jacinto hosted a grand celebration. Church and community members, workers, and ENLACE staff, joined 29 families to thank God for the blessing of new homes which were constructed during the final months of 2011. The celebration united the church and community as they continue to build relationships and transform San Jacinto.
