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.
Visualizing Partnership: Video from CrossWay Christian Church
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.
Thy Kingdom Come: The Gateway Church’s First Visit to El Salvador
A team from The Gateway Church in Des Moines, Iowa, traveled to El Salvador for the first time to spend the week of March 3-10 with Pastor Marta Vaquerano, her church Palabra de Poder and the community of Anemona. Their task was to help build tilapia tanks, but from the very beginning the team was just as focused on building relationships and connecting with the community. While making ty advances toward finishing tilapia ponds, the group also held a children’s program and brought food and encouragement to the poorest families in Anemona. Both the team and the community eagerly await Gateway’s next trip.
Early Friday morning, March 16, our dear friend and long-time ENLACE advocate, Bill Manwarren, died at his home surrounded by his wife, Marilyn, their children, family and friends. We are all saddened at his death and will miss him dearly. Ron Bueno, ENLACE's Executive Director, was able to visit Bill in the last days of his life, given the opportunity to talk with him about his life and memories.
Crossway Christian Church Brings Blessing: First of Three Mission Teams
Between February 25 and March 3, 14 members of Crossway Christian Church (New Hampshire, USA) joined Getsemaní Church, located in the village of Pajigua in eastern El Salvador, to bring two families new homes and an entire community renewed hope. The group helped build the homes and also participated in the inauguration of the public school’s two new classrooms, which will allow 150 new students to attend school every year. They brought encouragement and food through home visits to single mothers and elderly women. They formed a strong bond with the community. Two more teams from Crossway will return this year to continue supporting the work of the local church in the region.
Serving with Love and Sacrifice: Meadowbrook Team February 2012
Last week, 20 members from Meadowbrook Community Church in Champaign, IL came to El Salvador, many returning for the seventh time. They worked on two different projects with the Principe de Paz Church in Santa Maria. Eleven team members worked at a health clinic caring for over 600 patients. The remaining nine team members helped dig the foundation for a retaining wall that will prevent erosion and landslides. Throughout the week they worked extremely hard side-by-side with local church and community members to serve the residents of Santa Maria.
The Unlikely Momentum of the Poor, Local Church: ENLACE Featured in La Prensa Grafica
In a January issue of El Salvador's La Prensa Grafica, a daily newspapers with the second-largest circulation of 98,000 during the week and 116,000 on the weekend, ENLACE was featured in it's religion section. The article interviewed Ron Bueno, ENLACE's Executive Director, and highlighted the work that ENLACE has been doing since its beginning in 1993.
On December 1-3, 110 pastors and church leaders joined the ENLACE staff for the Annual Pastors and Leaders Retreat. Leaders with diverse backgrounds and experiences traveled from all over the country to participate. The theme of this year’s retreat was “Renewing Our Communities” and the retreat afforded these pastors, who work tirelessly throughout the year, a chance to be rejuvenated. Pastors took the time to better understand God’s vision for their communities, to form friendships with other churches, and to recommit, with renewed strength of vision, to transforming their communities through serving their neighbors. When all was said and done, they celebrated the culmination of God’s great work in 2011.