Christmas will be here before we know it and we are looking foward to celebrating in El Salvador! We will be having Christmas events with all of our YWAM ministries. We are in need of donors who are interested in helping to sponsor Christmas parties and events. Click here for information on how to donate.
Three years ago we came to El Salvador with the dream of impacting those who live on the edges of society…the fatherless, the poor, and those on the streets. We have seen this dream grow into reality and we are excited to share with you the next step for our ministry. Through prayer and circumstances, God has directed us to a permanent location in the city and we are beginning the process of opening a community ministry center! We thank you for your prayers and support as we move forward to secure and renovate this building. Our ministry is focused on reaching kids at risk, homeless children and adults, and individuals working in prostitution… this building will allow us to expand all of those ministries. Up to this point we […]
Human Trafficking. It’s a hot topic right now in the States, and it’s a global problem affecting millions every day who are living as slaves. Many of them are children. It is happening in the U.S., in Asia, in Africa, in Europe…in every corner of the globe people are being bought and sold. It’s happening in Central America too…right here in El Salvador there are victims. Many are being moved through Central America, or have been deceived into believing they have the chance for a better life in the U.S., so they trust the wrong person. As I talk to many around San Salvador, there is little information available on the problem. There is little awareness of what human trafficking actually is and how to recognize it. We ourselves are […]
In El Salvador, many times we count the small successes as big ones. This weekend we are rejoicing in one such success. Three years ago, we were fundraising and in the process of transitioning out of our home in Pittsburgh. Our main goal for moving to El Salvador was to enter into the lives of the people of El Salvador, particularly the fatherless. We had a dream of seeing the fatherless connected with their true Father, and to see them begin a life-long journey of coming to know Him. Beyond that, we also came with the hope of bringing physical and emotional healing and seeing people’s lives change holisticly. The thing we have learned is that small successes come by small steps. Day by day, moment by moment walking through […]
Giving a Mother’s Day gift to a prostitute has a way of making me think long and hard about a lot of things. Like how grateful I am, and how helpless I feel, and how I wish every mother could be home with her child and not selling her body on the street corner. Today is Mother’s Day in El Salvador, so last night we gave Mother’s Day cards and a snack to our friends who work on the streets to support their children. Their reasons vary, but all of them agree that they can’t make that much money, that fast, at a time when they aren’t getting their kids to school or helping them with their homework. I think every working mother can appreciate their struggle. The chances of these women ever […]
We’ve got a new project going on in El Salvador! We recently signed an agreement with the government to open two new computer labs. These labs will be opened in two centers for orphaned, abused, and abandoned children. A year ago, thanks to generous donors, we opened a lab in the CISNA boys’ center. This center has been a huge success as the boys have the opportunity to learn a marketable job skill and interact with healthy adult role models. Due to the success of this project, the government wanted to work with us to help other kids at risk. We are excited to be working with them on this project! One of the computer labs will be in a center for girls, and the other in a center with both boys […]
Jon wanted to share some thoughts on an experience he had last week. In his words… Mid-morning on Friday, I was on my way to the immigration office for our yearly residency renewal, when I received a phone call asking for my help. It was someone from one of our ministry sites calling to tell me that four boys had run away. Three of them had lived on the street before, but one was pressured into going along. It is a bad situation for any boy to be on the street, but the fourth boy caused particular concern. The streets of San Salvador are rough, and this boy had no experience being out there alone. “Jon, please look out for Pedro *”, they asked. Because of our work on the streets, and the familiarity […]
This is a picture of a recent assignment that Tori completed for her first grade class. Each student needed to explain and illustrate basic rights of all children. They chose five that they thought were important to include in their project. Under the title, “Children’s Rights” Tori chose to include: the right to eat, the right to clean water, the right to have a name, the right to health, and the right to learn. These were the rights that she felt were most important for all children everywhere. As a first grader, I don’t think I ever thought about children’s rights around the world. I took it for granted that I had a name, food and water, a doctor’s office to visit,and a school to attend. During the 80s, while […]
“If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime.” We have all heard this proverb. The concepts are simple. If you do for someone what they can do for themselves, you are ultimately hurting them. If you take the time to walk through the process with them, you can change their life. Us Americans are guilty of handing out a lot of fish around the world. It’s done some damage. Americans enter a situation with money, and power, and influence. We see people who are poor and we respond by giving them stuff. This isn’t always bad, and Americans have helped many people around the world. When it becomes bad is when we don’t […]
Serving God and serving others in a foreign land has gotten a lot easier than it used to be. Hundreds of years ago, missionaries would leave their homeland and travel to places unseen to spend the rest of their life. They would pack all of their belongings in a coffin in case they died on the mission field…then their body could be shipped back home in case things didn’t go as planned. Now that’s an encouraging thought! Jon and I had the luxury of visiting our country of service several times before we committed to live here. We had access to all kinds of sociological and cultural studies on the history and the problems facing El Salvador. Don’t get me wrong, we have faced many unexpected bumps in the road but […]
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