Poverty » El Salvador

Hardworking and Blessed

Nestor Reynoza — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:00:32 +0000

Cindy is a little bit shy but always smiling. Her mother, Ana, is a fervent Christian who wants the best for Cindy and Antonio, her two children.

Ana enrolled Cindy at the Generación para Cristo (Generation for Christ) Student Center, knowing her daughter’s life would be blessed, but she never imagined the reach that blessing would have.

The Majucla community, where this story takes place, is a poor urban community on the outskirts of San Salvador city, El Salvador. In the words of Pastor Rodolfo whose church runs this center,

“This community is a place where people live either because they are poor and cannot afford to live some other place in the city, or live in rural areas and decide to move to the city to look for job opportunities.”

Though most of the area is urban with paved roads, street lights, and houses built with bricks, many homes lack other basic services such as water and electricity, because they cannot afford them. Most of the residents do not own the houses either, but they work hard to pay the $40 or $50 in rent every month.

Most of the people living in Majucla are hardworking people, from women selling tortillas in the streets or vegetables in the local street market to hardworking men working in construction or as bus or taxi drivers.

But Majucla has a stigma.

Its walls tell a story, with graffiti that claims a territory. To think of the name of the community is to think about gangs. To grow up in a place like this is to carry the stigma that most likely a boy will become part of the gang and the girl will become the wife of a gang member.

That means most teens in this community have one of three futures: the jail, the hospital, or the cemetery. The root of this shadowy environment lies in one key element: broken families. This was true for Cindy, but not anymore.

When Cindy is asked about the best thing she has received from sponsorship, it takes her a while to answer. After a few seconds in silence, her eyes become watery and a knot in her throat makes it difficult for her to speak.

She sobs for a few seconds and says,

“I prayed a lot that my dad would stop drinking and would become a Christian. I never gave up.”

The beauty of Cindy’s relationship with her sponsors was the support of their prayers. Cindy had the confidence to ask her sponsors to pray for her family which was on the edge of disintegration. The support they gave to Cindy showed up through the letters they sent.

While other young teenagers in the community were joining gangs (where they could find a “family” for protection, a “family” to give them nice clothes, a roof and food in exchange for lifelong loyalty), Cindy was at church, praying for her father. One day Cindy wrote to her sponsors,

“I want to thank you for your prayers, because now my dad does not drink anymore. Now he leads a small praying group, and he is a servant at church.”

Through the years, Cindy has received special opportunities, including math workshops, computer courses and learning to work in a bakery. Because she could make bread at a young age, Cindy could provide some income for her family.

Cindy and some of her classmates receive a percentage of the bakery’s sales. Other teenagers and mothers in the Child Survival Program help sell the bread in the community, so the workshop is self-sustaining and a source of jobs for the people in the community.

All this has contributed to Cindy’s development and to her family’s wellbeing, but it was in the hardest hours that Cindy’s sponsorship was a blessing for her and her family. Soon after her father became a Christian, the family struggled again.

Wendy, Cindy’s tutor tells us,

“It was hard, because you might think that since the father just became a Christian, things would go well, but it was not the case.”

Ana shares,

“The church has been of great support. Not just materially, they have been of great support emotionally.”

Since Cindy’s father did not have a steady job, it was the the Child Sponsorship Program that supported Cindy with basic things such as school uniforms and shoes, and also the family with staples during those times.

Cindy’s father spent almost two years without a steady job. Part of those scarce times he spent in bed, ill. The money from the bakery workshop and the aid from Cindy’s sponsor and the church helped the family stay afloat.

Things finally got better for the family. Antonio got a job, and now the family can cover their basic needs.

It is Sunday afternoon, and the whole family is dressed up and ready to go to church. Cindy’s father is one of the volunteers at church. They now look like the family God planned them to be.

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One Step Forward: Virtual Communication

Web Team — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 08:28:45 +0000

Effective staff communication helps create a more unified, cohesive environment in which our ministry workers can thrive.

The implementation of virtual conferences and online training modules in El Salvador has allowed our staff to move one step forward in how they communicate with one another.

You can also view the One Step Forward: Virtual Communication video on YouTube.

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Waiting … and Waiting for a Sponsor

Amber Van Schooneveld — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:55:19 +0000

Growing up, my husband and I were never exactly the first ones picked to be on the kickball team. We weren’t second or third either.

We’d languish in the line of kids with knobbly knees as it grew sparser and sparser and our humiliation grew deeper and deeper. We always knew we would be one of the leftover kids — it was a given — kicking at the dirt, pretending not to notice while the cool kids tried to decide between which of the less athletically endowed kids would mess up their game the least.

But you just hoped you wouldn’t have to bare the infamy of being the last one standing in that line alone. Often my husband, shortest kid in his grade that he was, was the very last picked.

As much as I hated that kickball line, I know that God used it to shape us into whom He wanted us to be. For both my husband and me, being the last picked made us compassionate for the underdog and empathetic toward those who don’t seem to get all the breaks.

On a recent sponsor trip to El Salvador, Jocelyn Erhardt, a sponsor with Compassion Cananda, shared another story of how God used the last one picked to show His mercy.

Rabbi is our sponsored child who is registered into Compassion’s program in El Salvador. Previously, Rabbi and the other kids who were registered with him had waited eagerly to find out who their sponsors would be.

Each child who got a sponsor would be so excited and proudly show their pictures and letters to the other kids. Rabbi kept waiting for that to be him. And he kept waiting and waiting as the line of kids who needed to be sponsored dwindled.

Rabbi asked his mom over and over, “Why isn’t anyone sponsoring me?”

Like many other kids before him, perhaps he wondered if there was something wrong with him since no one seemed to want him.

But his mom, Blanco, had faith and continually assured Rabbi, “God has someone extra special to sponsor you, and we need to wait for God’s perfect timing.”

In the meantime, Blanco privately prayed for her little son, that he would get a sponsor and that his sponsor would be a pastor.

After all that waiting, Rabbi was the very last child picked, the last one waiting in that line wondering why no one would pick him.

But although Rabbi was the last picked, his sponsor made the choice to come and visit him — the only child in his center who had ever had his sponsor come to visit! And, guess what?

His sponsor – my husband, Jason – is a pastor of 20 years, just as Rabbi’s mom had prayed for.

On our visit to El Salvador, Blanco poured out through tears how God had used our sponsorship to teach her and Rabbi about His profound faithfulness and how much He cares for them — a profound lesson to learn as a boy growing up amid poverty.

Just another way that God, even through the little adversities of life, continues to show His mercies that are new every morning to us and through us.

Now is your time to sponsor a child who has been waiting for a sponsor for six months or longer.

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Letter Writing: An Investment of Time and Love

Nestor Reynoza — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 07:59:13 +0000

It is almost 2 o’clock in the afternoon in the city of Santa Ana, El Salvador. Mario walks across the church parking lot and heads toward the back of the main building.

Mario is satisfied with his day. He attended school from 7 a.m. to 11:45 a.m., then he ran home and helped his mother deliver tortillas to hungry customers. After changing his clothes, Mario walked toward the Elim Church in Santa Ana under a warm summer sun, surrounded by the sounds of horns and of diesel engines of public buses.

Thirteen-year-old Mario attends the Little Friends of the King Child Development Center in Santa Ana, one of the country’s two main cities after the capital city of San Salvador.

As Mario arrives at the development center, he hugs and kisses Mercedes, center director, and Glenda, his tutor.

Glenda is a tutor for children ages 12 to 14. She knows Mario better than anyone else at the development center.

“Mario is a very sweet boy.”

Mercedes adds,

“He is very smart as well. He does very well at school.”

Today is a special day for Mario and the rest of the children at the center. Today they will write letters to their sponsors. Mario has a special relationship with his sponsor.

What It Takes to Put a Letter in the Mailbox

Children are required to write three letters a year, and for that, Compassion El Salvador’s Sponsor and Donor Services team has separated the country’s 178 child development centers into four groups, each with a designated schedule for turning in letters. Mario’s development center is in group four, with letters due in September, January and May.

Silvia is a tutor for little ones between ages 6 and 8. She has been working at the development center for four years.

“A letter is communication between the children and sponsor. They can get to know each other. They share their feelings and the interests they have in common.”

Silvia shares that the process for writing a letter takes time and love.

“It is somewhat difficult, especially with the little ones. First the children make a drawing, and then we have to organize their ideas and [ask] questions to know what they want to tell the sponsor and how can they put it on paper.

“It is important, especially, because this is the first impression that the sponsor will have about the child, through writing. I have to write personally with each of them to correct errors in writing and to see that the letter will look nice.”

Silvia receives help from the sponsorship coordinator, Ana, who does a final check of the letters before delivering them to the country office, where contract workers translate the letters into English.

Ana says that letters are a way for children to have a friend who will pray for them and care for them.

“I have seen many things, from funny situations like one child who told the sponsor that she lost her tooth and did not realize the tooth was gone until she saw the hole, to a girl who shared with the sponsor how sad she was because her parents were divorcing.”

A Special Friendship

Glenda sits with Mario as he starts to outline his letter on a blank page. Once he finishes and arranges the stories he wants to tell, he starts to draw on the back of the stationery used for children’s letters. Then he rewrites the letter on the front side of the paper. While Mario works, Glenda answers questions asked by other children.

Glenda shares,

“If I had to tell a story about why letters are important, I would tell Mario´s story. He and his sponsor have developed a very strong and close relationship.

“Through letters, the sponsor told Mario that her daughter passed away, and Mario has been a support for her through the letters.

“Both Mario and his sponsor have developed an interest for each other. She also follows up on his ability of drawing and painting.

“If I could send a message to sponsors, [I would tell them] please write letters, ask about pets, about family, about anything, just write. Your letters make such a big impact on the children, and you cannot imagine how happy they are to receive a letter.”

Mario receives many benefits at the development center. He receives health checkups and support for school, including reinforcement in math. What helps Mario the most in his studies is not just a teacher who helps him on Saturdays, but the fact that his sponsor prays for him and his math class.

“I want you to pray for me and for math class, because I do not want to be frustrated in math class anymore,” reads one of Mario’s letters.

Mario continues to draw for the rest of the afternoon. He expresses his love for his sponsor through his letters and drawings. He finishes the letter and heads home.

After having beans and tortillas for dinner, Mario goes to sleep, knowing that perhaps at that same moment, hundreds of miles from his home, his sponsor is praying for him and his math class.

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Ministry Highlight: El Salvador

Web Team — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:42:41 +0000

Our ministry in El Salvador started in 1977 with the Child Sponsorship Program. In 2009, we implemented both the Child Survival and Leadership Development programs.

In July 2008, the ministry in El Salvador obtained facilities that will enable us to deliver new ministries and more effective services to our Implementing Church Partners.

Country Director

Guillermo Enmanuel Munoz Campos joined our ministry in El Salvador as a Partnership Facilitator Supervisor in 1998 and was promoted to Country Director in 2004. Prior to Compassion, Guillermo was a project planner for a company that worked with hydraulic networks and sewage systems. He was also an analyst for an organization that administered retirement funds.

In 1979, Guillermo earned an associates degree in plastic engineering from the Technological Institute of San Salvador, and in 1986 he obtained a degree in industrial engineering from the Polytechnic University. He also holds a diploma in “Total Quality Applied to Education” from the Catholic University of Honduras.

Guillermo experienced poverty first-hand in the early years of his childhood. His father passed away when he was just 6 months old and once Guillermo grew old enough to help out, he had to work in the family business.

When he got a little older, Guillermo worked in a local movie theatre and on cotton plantations. The limitations and challenges he had faced as a young boy only strengthened his resolve to help others be released from poverty. He was taught to give his burdens to God and that poverty can be overcome.

When Guillermo meets with church leaders, children and youth, he is able to share from his own experience as he expresses his passion for the poor.

Implementing Church Partners

Implementing Church Partners are local churches in El Salvador with whom we work to deliver child development programs and ministry in the field.

Spiritual Climate
Approximately 35 percent of our population is evangelical Christian and the church in El Salvador is growing. However, many Christians are migrating to other places because of crime.
Unique Challenges
One challenge in El Salvador is the high level of gang activity and crime in many of the urban areas where the Compassion-assisted child development centers are located. Also, there is a lack of community resources such as clean water, electricity, government assistance for education, and parks and playgrounds.

Another challenge we face is high staff turnover at the child development centers. This is often because tutors at the centers look for better opportunities elsewhere.

Contributions
Our Implementing Church Partners provide classrooms, electricity and, in some cases, clean water through a pipe system or wells. Parents often cook meals and prepare snacks for the children.
Church-to-Church
Twelve Implementing Church Partners have partnered with churches in the United States with whom they communicate via email. The churches are reporting that some of the benefits thus far are spiritual support, prayer and the ability to share experiences with each other.
Partner Development Activities
Our ministry in El Salvador develops partners through training on topics such as the program field manuals, curriculum and child advocacy.

In addition, we have staff retreats, Christmas celebrations, an annual meeting for pastors, business fairs for Implementing Church Partners, project-cluster meetings, and the annual Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit for church leaders and pastors. We also provide resource books for Implementing Church Partner pastors and committee members.

Child Survival Program

Caregiver Literacy
Literacy lessons are given three times a month in the mothers’ homes. Some of the topics covered are math, identifying signs, and learning how to write their names.
Income-Generating Skills
Income-generating skills such as sewing, tailoring, baking and how to make pickled vegetables and jelly are offered once a week.
Health Care
Child Survival Program staff establish a relationship with the community health clinic to ensure that mothers get pre- and post-natal checkups on time. Mothers usually deliver their babies at these community health clinics as well.

Some clinics will go to implementing church partners to give health screenings to mothers and children free of charge. If they do not provide health screenings, our ministry in El Salvador will pay for checkups given by a medical doctor as well as for medicine and lab tests if needed.

Nutritional Support
Once a month, each caregiver receives a food basket with nutritional supplies such as Incaparina, a low-cost protein food made of cottonseed, corn and sorghum flours that is used to prevent protein deficiencies.

Malnourished children receive food that is even higher in protein and fat. We also provide education on nutrition as well as workshops on how to make nutritious food for children.
Involvement of Fathers
Child Survival Program implementers make an effort to invite the fathers to all activities in which their children and wives/partners participate, including workshops, early stimulation sessions and home visits.

In addition, every month fathers are invited to Parents’ School where implementers tell them about all the activities their children and wives/partners are engaged in and where they can learn about various topics.

The Child Survival Program is a year old. In our first year, 10 couples who had been living together are now married and the program has sponsored a couples retreat.
Transition Out of the Child Survival Program
Children who are 2 1/2 years old or older will begin to participate in some of the Child Sponsorship Program activities for 3 to 5 year olds. Their parents can continue to attend Parents’ School and some mothers help with snack preparation for children in the Child Sponsorship Program.
Areas of Expansion for the Child Survival Program
We plan to expand into the central and east areas of El Salvador. These areas have a high level of health problems, limited access to community health centers, and lack clean water, hygiene, early education and job opportunities.

There are also high incidences of teenage pregnancy and many single mothers.

Child Development Through Sponsorship

Your sponsorship of a child in El Salvador provides a variety of benefits.

In El Salvador, 1st- to 9th-grade children go to school five hours per day, either in the morning or the afternoon. High school students attend school 6 to 9 hours per day. Because of this, the younger children are able to come to the child development centers more frequently than the older children:

Meeting Times
- 3 to 5 year olds: 3 hours a day, 3 days a week
- 6 to 8 year olds: 3 hours a day, 3 days a week
- 9 to 11 year olds: 3 hours a day, 3 days a week
- 12 to 14 year olds: 2 hours a day, 2 days a week
- 15 to 18 year olds: 4 hours a day, 1 day a week
Nutritional Support
Each child receives a nutritious meal every time he or she goes to the child development center. A typical meal consists of a carbohydrate such as bread or tortillas, and protein such as soy, meat or chicken.

This can include sandwiches, soup, rice pudding, pupusas (tortilla filled with cheese and beans), or enchiladas (tortillas with fried beans, tomato, hard-boiled eggs and cheese).

Since the food crisis in 2007, our child development centers have switched from serving snacks to full meals. Centers provide these meals because not all of the children receive a meal at school.

For those who are underweight and/or malnourished, additional nutritional supplements rich in vitamins and protein are provided.
Vaccinations
Vaccinations are mandatory in El Salvador and are provided at public clinics at no charge.
Extracurricular Activities or Community Service
We offer extracurricular activities such as camps, drama, football, painting and museum visits. Community service opportunities include cleanup campaigns, reforestation activities and childcare.
Vocational Activities
Adolescents need to learn an income-generating skill that is practical, easy to learn and will earn money quickly.

That is why vocational activities such as computer training, tailoring, dress making, beauty, baking, poultry production, fish farming, silk screening, rabbit farming, and bean, corn and vegetable farming are all available for our students. They also receive spiritual teaching and, in some centers, they learn English.
Job Placement for Adolescents
Some Child Sponsorship Program graduates return to their child development centers to work as tutors, accountants, or in other roles.
Parent Involvement
We have Parents’ School once a month in which parents can learn about a variety of topics. Parents are also welcome to attend camps and workshop activities at the child development centers. They help regularly with food preparation for the children as well.
Areas of Expansion for the Child Sponsorship Program
We would like to expand in the northern and eastern regions of El Salvador because these are poorer areas that have very few child development centers.

Leadership Development Program

Universities Attended
LDP students attend private universities.
Location of Universities
Universities are located primarily in the capital city of San Salvador.
Working Students
Students work part-time or full-time while attending university. Because of this, it takes them longer to graduate. If a Leadership Development Program student studies full-time, he or she can graduate in six years. In El Salvador it takes approximately five years to earn a degree and then an additional year is spent on a thesis.

Service Opportunities
Leadership Development Program students can disciple others at their church, tutor children at their child development center, or participate in cleanup campaigns and reforestation activities in their communities.
Leadership Development Program Meetings
The larger Leadership Development Program group meets every two months to carry out curriculum activities.
Specialty Curriculum
We cover topics such as dating, courtship and marriage, the biblical view of sexuality, time management, study techniques and Bible study.
Mentors
We ask ministry staff in El Salvador to become mentors, so at least 60 percent of the Leadership Development Program students have a mentor.

Complementary Interventions

Our core Child Sponsorship Program, while comprehensive, does not address all obstacles to a child’s healthy development. Compassion’s Complementary Interventions program was created to work with our holistic child development model to provide additional services, such as our AIDS Initiative, Bibles for all children, disaster relief and safe-water projects.

Here are some of the Complementary Interventions we offer in El Salvador:

Disaster/Crisis
Response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, etc.
Health and Nutrition
Supplemental nutrition for malnourished children, HIV education, food for children during the food crisis

Infrastructure
Water tanks, latrines, computers, bakery
Education
National certified curriculum and Bible for all child development centers
Other
Entrepreneurial funds for children and parents, soccer school for adolescents

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How Far Would You Go to Fetch Safe Drinking Water?

Web Team — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 07:55:49 +0000

I live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa. Last month I received an automated call from the city saying that two water samples had tested positive for E. coli but that no other tests had duplicated these results. According to the city, our water is tested 90 times each month to ensure that it is safe to drink.

In my average-size home I can turn on the tap at one of seven sources (not including the dishwasher, clothes washer or toilets) and water flows — both hot and cold.

Water is a non-issue for me. It is abundant, clean, and available without my even giving it thought. But that’s not the case for our sponsored children.

In October 2009, I traveled to El Salvador to meet one of my sponsored children, Bernardo.

As part of the trip I spent two days in Santa Maria Ostuma, El Salvador, home of the Compassion-assisted Columna y Baluarte de la Verdad child development center.

A group of us visited the home of Isabel, a woman in the community who has two children registered at the center.

We joined Isabel and her youngest child, Jasmine, as they walked down to the river to collect water. Little did we know what we were getting into!

The walk from Isabel’s home to the river took about 30 minutes. The view of the river was stunning, and most of the walk was down a very steep slope.

Upon reaching the river, I found a wash house where people gather to bathe. This is also where a pavilion is set up to wash clothes.

We learned that this water, like most water in the developing world, is contaminated and a cause of illness to the families who rely on it.

We filled our five-gallon water jugs from the river and, with each jug now weighing about 40 pounds, began trudging back up the hill to Isabel’s home.

Isabel placed her jug on her head and slowly but steadily walked up the steep path. The men in our sponsor group slung their jugs to their shoulders, while the women worked in pairs to lug the heavy jugs up the hill (which, with each step, seemed more like a mountain).

Finally, one of the women in our group tried carrying her water jug on her head. As I struggled up the hill, it seemed insane to place such a heavy jug on my head – especially without a pad like the local women use. But after my friend found this method easier, I decided to follow her example. Indeed, the jug was hard and heavy, but this was definitely easier than anything else I had tried.

I was able to slowly, steadily, step-by-step, make it the rest of the way to the top of the hill. When we finally reached Isabel’s house I had a real feeling of accomplishment, having contributed to the effort of bringing water to this family’s home. We all had a new understanding of walking in the footsteps of the poor, and a new appreciation of their daily task of fetching water.

So much time and energy is spent each day by Isabel and her children just doing what they must to survive. Gathering water and obtaining food is the main task of each day. There is little time or energy, let alone financial resources, to spend on school work or economic tasks such as developing a business.

If, instead of spending hours each day gathering water, these families were able to get water in only a fraction of that time, and if that water were clean rather than a cause of illness, just think of the difference it would make in their lives!

How much different would our lives be if we had to spend two to four hours each day just getting water to cook and do dishes?

Now, when I turn on my tap and reach for a cup of clean and safe water, I think of how fortunate I am. And I long for every Compassion-supported family to have this same blessing.

In the past I have contributed money toward “water projects” to help make this happen, but now I have a new understanding of just how important safe water is. Perhaps, in your next letter to your sponsored child, you can ask about his or her family’s water supply.

Do they have water in their home? If they go and fetch water, how far must they go? And is the water clean and safe, or contaminated?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Win Noren and her husband have been Compassion sponsors for 17 years. They sponsor seven children. Win is also a member of our Advocates Network.

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Church 2 Church

Web Team — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 07:57:54 +0000

With our Church 2 Church initiative, churches are trading short-term “love ‘em and leave ‘em” missions for long-term partnerships with each other.

When U.S. pastor Joe Wittwer visited Iglesia Elim in Armenia, El Salvador, he saw the massive needs and wanted to help. He had already formed a close bond with Elim’s husband-and-wife pastoral team, Frank and Paty Ardon.

Despite gang warfare in the neighborhood, the Ardons and their church were partnering with Compassion International to provide weekly care for more than 300 children and their families.

The burgeoning six-day-a-week ministry had forced them to add a separate building on the church grounds. But the mortgage wasn’t cheap. At $500 a month (on a total mortgage of $18,000), the church was struggling to make ends meet.

A group of women helped offset the costs by making tamales and selling them in town for 25 cents apiece, but that netted only about $140 a month. Joe Wittwer’s church, Life Center in Spokane, Washington, wanted to help their new friends in El Salvador, but they weren’t sure how.

In the past, the pattern would have been for Wittwer and his church to swoop in and start paying the monthly mortgage, or just write a check for $18,000 to get rid of the mortgage altogether.

But that kind of “help” often ended up having unintended, negative consequences. The North American partner churches, loaded with money, were cast as the saviors or experts sent to rescue the helpless “junior” partners. While this approach might solve a short-term problem, it rarely produced long-term solutions or fostered healthy relationships.

Now, a “Church to Church” initiative, developed by Compassion International and the Willow Creek Association, is attempting to help churches avoid these past pitfalls by promoting genuine cross-cultural church partnerships.

Read the entire post at LEADERSHIPjournal.net

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Battalions of Evangelism Bring the Gospel to San Marcos, El Salvador

Nestor Reynoza — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 07:51:36 +0000

It is noon on Sunday in El Salvador. The traffic starts to increase slightly as the shadows move to dwell perpendicular under their owners. There are people going in different directions in downtown San Marcos, many of them coming out of the Sunday service at “Tabernaculo Biblico Bautista (Baptist Biblical Tabernacle, or BBT) San Marcos,” a Baptist church that partners with us and now implements a child development center named “Light of Hope.”

The streets of San Marcos look old and dry, like in a little town in the western United States – old streets, old buildings and 95 degrees in the shade.

The last people remaining inside the church say goodbye and go back home. The ushers turn off the ceiling fans and close the windows. They walk down the stairs and gather with the rest of the staff at the other side of the parking lot.

Pastor Daniel welcomes the staff and leads a prayer for lunch. After the prayer, he stops and looks at the food served before him, and a question burns like a fire in his heart.

“What is on the tables of our children right now?”

Pastor Daniel and his staff gather some staples and take off to visit the families they have identified in most need. The heart of the pastor was burning for a reason that Sunday at noon; many of the families they visited had nothing to put on their tables. It was the Holy Spirit who led the staff to visit the children and provide for their needs.

The Birth of Church Outreach in San Marcos

We have a strategic plan for the next five years,” says Pastor Edwin, the church administrator. Right from the beginning the church has aimed at providing the community not only good news of salvation, but also a solution to the rest of their needs.

The church is located on the main street of San Marcos. San Marcos is located about 5 miles south of downtown San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. San Marcos is a place known as a “dormitory city” because most of the people leave town and travel to San Salvador for job opportunities, and come back late at night, just to sleep.

A good percentage of the people work in Maquilas, since near San Marcos is an industrial free zone with factories that offer products from jeans and textiles to food products.

San Marcos also has a violent environment – in part marked by the civil war during the 1980s, and now with the new threat of gangs.

The church started in 2000 as a small prayer group in a neighborhood named Florencia. The people who started to attend the prayer group have seen the church grow and now hold the leadership positions of the different ministries. The group grew and they saw the need to rent a space for 500 people.

The authorities in the International Baptist Mission saw the impact and the work of the church in San Marcos and decided to support further development.

“The idea was to have the full capacity to take the gospel permanently to the people.

“The vision of Pastor Daniel is that the church must work for the community. And it must be done not in words, but with acts,” says Pastor Edwin.

To perform this, the church has divided its ministries in two groups, internal and external. The internal ministries include the ushers and Bible school teachers, as well as mentors for the people who want to learn more from the Bible.

The external ministries, as Pastor Edwin describes them, are “battalions of evangelism.” There are different groups that visit hospitals, jails, and the poor communities in the area of San Marcos. The most successful ministry is called “Bread and Hot Chocolate (B& HC).”

Until 2002, B&HC went out on Wednesday nights and looked for people on the streets with drug or alcohol problems, gave them something to eat and preached the gospel, until the staff realized that many other ministries were doing the very same thing. B&HC was then redirected to the most vulnerable areas in San Marco, places and communities with a lot of economic and spiritual poverty.

Now, the B&HC ministry goes on Wednesday nights with bread, hot chocolate, food, clothes and the gospel to those communities, knocking door by door.

“Because there is no door, sometimes we just go inside the home. We visit the family, bring hot chocolate and bread, eat with them and share the gospel. We also take note of some needs they have and come back with some supplies the next week we visit. We also have a clinic with medical doctors from the congregation. Every now and then, the doctors join the B&HC team and visit the communities as well.

“Apart from that, we have ministries that visit jails, go to the bus terminal, and we also work with shelters that help people with addictions.”

Now the communities recognize the church and even ask them to visit more often.

In 2010 the ministry vision expanded. The church already had a strong program that reached the most vulnerable people in the surrounding communities. The staff decided that they needed strategic alliances if they wanted to expand further.

God showed His hand with the church, by providing institutions such as the Evangelical University to provide medical services. Sponsors through the child development center provide the resources the church needs to give the children additional health support, school supplies, Bibles and meals.

“We want to show the community that for our church, children are the number one priority,” says Associate Pastor Walter.

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What Is Child Sponsorship All About?

Web Team — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 08:16:33 +0000

When I began sponsoring my little boy in El Salvador I had my heart and mind set on helping a child in poverty.

Tony with his sponsored child Cesar (right) and Cesar's brother

I saw the photo in the child packet, of this adorable creation of God and immediately wanted to throw on my superhero cape to save him.

I saw my child, who is an orphan, as a person in need of as much love and support as anyone could ever offer another human being. However, when I arrived at my child’s development center last month, God showed me something completely different.

I joined a room full of children whom I had never met before and was greeted as if I were a long lost relative. I was greeted by children, some of whom have been rejected and abused by the people who are supposed to protect and watch over them. Instead of hate or resentment, these children had warm hugs and smiles to give out.

How many of us after feeling the sting of rejection and abuse could do the same?

As I surveyed the area surrounding the development center, it was hard to see hope or anything remotely positive. I imagine that the average American looking at what I saw would think how sad or how awful it must be to live in a place like this.

But is it any more awful for a child in the U.S. to live in a home where that child is abused and feels neglected and uncared for?

You and I may not have to worry about where our next meal is coming from, but all too often we can go weeks without hearing a kind word or receiving a hug.

So there I was standing among the children, and I realized:

Sponsorship isn’t about us as sponsors trying to save these children; it’s about us working together to save each other.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tony Brizendine is an IT technician supporting our global staff. He visited El Salvador on the anniversary of his fifth year of employment at Compassion.

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God Is Faithful (Milagro, the Miracle)

Nestor Reynoza — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 08:30:26 +0000

Milagro was a 5-month-old baby girl. Her mother, Veronica, was fighting the darkness of a home without electricity with the cheapest alternative she had — a candle. Veronica was taking care of little Milagro just as any other mother anywhere in the world would.

For just a blink of an eye, Milagro was left unattended, and the worst scenario happened. The candle fell on Milagro’s cradle and the blankets caught fire.

Just like her name, it was a miracle that she survived at such a young age. Milagro lost her right arm, and part of her face and body had deep burns. It was a traumatic event for the baby and the mother.

Veronica comes from a very poor, but united family. Because of the very scarce resources she had, she was forced to move from one place to another, always looking for the cheapest alternative to rent a room. She says that it was God that led her to go to a new neighborhood named Plan del Pino, in Ciudad Delgado, a municipality of San Salvador city.

“Everything that happens, if you are a Christian, is to your benefit according to God’s plan.”

Because of her special needs, Milagro never went to school, nor had friends. Fear of rejection and pity for her girl led Veronica to raise her daughter in a bubble. She thought Milagro would never be normal. To Veronica, she was “special.”

At 7 years old, Milagro enrolled in our Child Sponsorship Program. She found many things at the center that she would never have found anywhere else. But above all, she found hope. She also found people who would care for her in unimaginable ways.

“Milagro has a twin sister,” says Maria, Milagro’s tutor since she entered the program. “The grandmother gave the other girl away when they were born,” she adds, hoping that this would clarify the situation of poverty that the family has endured for years.

“When Milagro entered the program, she had a very low self-esteem. She would say that any day she would die, and that the people pity her because she did not have an arm.” She used to wear her hair on the face because she was ashamed of the marks on her cheeks.

The tutor and the center director were committed to improve the family’s situation. The love that the church staff had for Milagro was so obvious that Milagro started to see in Brother Alvaro, the director, the father she never had.

“When you show Milagro you care and give her a caress, she would stick to you like a band-aid,” says Maria.

The church staff that because of the poverty, Milagro’s family moved from one place to another frequently. They also realized that the mother was in need of much help, materially and spiritually.

“I told her I would hire her as my assistant, and her payment would be food,” says Maria.

This was the strategy she chose to keep mother and child interested in the program.

“They would have breakfast and lunch here every day, and she would help me as my assistant, helping here at the program.”

Veronica and Milagro were having three meals a day at the center, thanks to the help Veronica provided at church. The surplus of the food they cooked for the children would go into a bag for Veronica’s family every day. The church did not stop there.

“We went to talk to the principal at a Christian school,” recalls Maria. “The principal got upset when he heard about the attitude of the public school. He also made the commitment to help in all ways possible.”

The only problem was that the Christian school had fees, and Milagro’s family was too poor to pay $9 a month for that private education.

It was then that the provision came.

A sponsorship.

“She got a sponsor from Korea. We cannot even say the name because we do not know how to pronounce it,” Maria says with a smile.

The sponsor sent a gift to help the girl get a prosthetic arm. With the gift, the staff began to make arrangements to get Milagro an arm. To their surprise, they found a technician that made them at a special price and committed to help with adjustments and repairs at no cost.

“We were able to pay for the arm, the enrollment fee, and two months of tuition, as well as for the books and supplies for Milagro,” says Maria. The rest of the monthly $9 fees were covered through the Compassion program, with authorization of the church partner facilitator.

Milagro began to attend first grade. She has learned to write, and now writes her own letters to her sponsor. She is now 9 and will be accepted into the public school, since there is proof now that she is as able to learn as well as any other child.

“We still have to work on her self-esteem. But we see she has improved,” says Maria.

Milagro now has a brighter future and now she prays and wishes to have a picture of her sponsor. Her biggest dream is, however, to one day meet in person that Korean man that God used to impact her life.

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