Last Sunday I had a chance to visit the community of Cordero de Dios (Lamb of God) Lutheran Church in Soyapongo (a suburb of San Salvador). Pastora Norma Costillo has built a small parish in this neighborhood which is being torn apart by gang on gang violence -- 7 neighbors were murdered blocks from the church the night before I arrived. Our El Salvador team is working on a ways to strengthen our relationship with Pr. Norma and her congregation. We're trying to set up a SKYPE call with their parish one Sunday morning before our liturgy this winter. Watch for information.
I was in El Salvador for a week long meeting of la Junta Directiva de la Fundacion SHARE - the Board of Directors of the SHARE Foundation. It was an intense week of meetings, trips to the countryside to review SHARE’s projects among El Salvadoran school children, women’s groups, and “hometown associations.” We had educational lectures from economists, climate change experts, rural community organizers, a diplomat from the Dominican Republic, and representatives of women’s empowerment organizations. We visited the new Ambassador at the US Embassy. We took an afternoon to consider regular board of directors business and spent about 25 hours in very charged and difficult conversations around a new strategic plan for the organization.
SHARE started 30 years ago here at the Chapel with the strong support of our community and of our pastor, Gus Schultz. It has been rooted in the El Salvadoran people’s struggle to emerge from the violence of the civil war and to create a new society together. It has been a bridge with people in the north who have wanted to accompany the people in this struggle. The new strategic plan is an attempt to anticipate the next three decades of SHARE’s work and to position it for a stronger role in the changes that will be happening in this small central American country. It is a blessing that the Chapel continues to be involved in this way. La lucha sigue! Pr. Jeff
