Dear friends,
I hope
this letter finds you well and enjoying the longer and lovely days of summer.
Here, the Salvadoran rainy season is in full swing. I missed the first showers
this year while traveling on Mission Interpretation Assignment throughout the
United States, but have gotten to experience several awe-inspiring
thunderstorms, and even an earthquake, since I have been back in San Salvador
for this month of July. It is amazing to me how after three years in El
Salvador I have come to equate these wild and unsettling natural phenomena with
a sense of being en casa, at home.
I have been incredibly blessed in my travels this
year to enjoy the warm hospitality of strangers-become-friends, and to be
welcomed with such enthusiasm in Presbyterian congregations around the US. In sharing the stories of our partners in El Salvador, I am
reminded of how unlikely it seems that we could receive a message of
inspiration and hope in the example of communities in a country with a recent
history so wrought with conflict, violence and political and social crisis. But
our Crucified and Risen Lord certainly has a way of lifting up the least of these.
As you well know, the harsh, daily
reality for many Salvadoran families is one of hunger and undernourishment
Numerous families are not able to consistently provide enough healthy and
nutritious food for their children to grow and thrive in all the ways God
intends. Having suffered a nearly 15-year civil war, devastating earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions and hurricanes, international relief aid has been poured
into El Salvador for decades. And while relief aid has contributed to the
saving of many lives, it has also contributed to a culture of hand-outs and
short-term projects that have not allowed or encouraged communities to truly
develop sustainably and on their own terms. 
Our
work with the Joining Hands Network, however, strives to do just that. By
emphasizing accompaniment, empowerment and sustainable development, we are
seeing communities be transformed from the inside out. So, when leaders from a
local community approached our Network soliciting a donation of animals for a
hen and chicken project, rather than simply offer to buy the animals for them, we
invited them to visit and learn from the experience of some of our Joining
Hands partners in another community. In
the village of El Tigre, Ahuachapán they met with women who have organized
themselves into cooperatives to work together to create
After
this eye-opening experience listening to and learning from peers – strangers
who have now become sisters in this struggle against hunger – women from the
first community formed groups and began to make a plan to incubate eggs in
order to raise enough chickens and hens to carry out a similar
initiative to benefit their community. Joining Hands has come alongside them to
support with training, to help secure a small, homemade, 60-egg incubator, and
to accompany them as they grow this program and invite more local women to join
in.
Not
only are these women addressing the issues of hunger and undernourishment but
their efforts are strengthening the social fabric of their community as well.
The local pastor has shared with us that as a result of family feuds and neighborhood
grudges, previously there were women in the community who barley exchanged
words and would not look each other in the eyes. Now, those same women are
working side-by-side to transform their community, and through it all, they
themselves are being transformed. What a testament to God’s reconciling love
and power to make all things new!
I
continue to marvel at and give thanks for the many ways that God is moving in
our midst in El Salvador. Thanks to your generous and continued support, the
Joining Hands ministry is able to spread the message of God’s unfailing
justice, grace and love, and God’s desire for fullness of life for all of God’s
people. I am grateful for your prayers that help sustain me in my work, and
invite your ongoing partnership in God’s mission with the people of El Salvador.
¡Muchas gracias!
