Urban Ministry

Meditations on the Advent Season…Peace / Reflexiones sobre la Época Navideña..Paz

A New Dawn, Advent, Holidays, Kids at Risk, Urban Ministry -

How can we find peace in a world that is so broken? How can we breathe deep and close our eyes and be at rest in a world where children are caught in war zones, and women are sold as slaves? How can we find respite for our souls when diseases wipe out whole villages, and addictions claim lives? Where is the peace that is promised us in the candlelight? How can a weary world lift its heads to hear the angels sing? So much is wrong, so much is battered and seems beyond repair. This tension between the two Advents of Christ is almost unbearable. The weight of the world pushes down on our shoulders, and the dark blocks our sight. Into such a world was born our Christ. […]

Numbers – Cifras

A New Dawn, Free the Girls, Gangs, Human Trafficking, Immigration, Urban Ministry -

I opened the newspaper, and the numbers screamed out at me. A lot of talk about El Salvador is reduced to its numbers. Number one murder rate in the world…Leading the world in the number of child homicides every day…Number one rate of femicide…Record numbers of undocumented child refugees fleeing El Salvador for the U.S…High numbers of daily deportations. Headline after headline points to the number of the dead, the number of criminals, the number of students dropping out of school because of the violence, the number of new shelters being set up around the country as families are forced out of their homes by the killings on their doorsteps. The numbers climb until they swirl around like some vast, dark cloud of despair. The numbers can crush us. When […]

Connections

A New Dawn, Thinking About God, Urban Ministry -

Relationships not only connect us, they change us. When I look back at my life, everything significant is connected to a relationship. The death of a friend that pushed me on a different track, the ending of a relationship, the beginning of a new one. Parents, grandparents, classmates, teachers, mentors. My marriage, my children. Bosses and pastors. All of these relationships have changed who I am to varying degrees. Some hold more significant spaces in my life, but all have made an impact. It should come as no surprise that God chose to reach out to humanity in relationships. Knowing Him as a personal God has drastically altered my life. It is the most defining relationship us humans can have. If we are so designed and defined…through relationship with Him, then […]

Two Years

A New Dawn, Fundraising, Gangs, Justice, Kids at Risk, Urban Ministry -

Two years. That is the amount of time that Rodrigo* has been living on the streets. As a 13 year old, he  was forced to leave everything familiar. His family, his school, his friends, and his neighborhood. He had to leave because staying meant death. The truth is, El Salvador has the highest child homicide rate in the world. Teenage boys are most at risk. Rodrigo’s life was threatened. Join us or die.  That is the message falling on too many young ears around El Salvador today. Be a criminal, or die at the hands of one. Kill, rob, extort or be a victim yourself. Rodrigo fled and found a new home. A 13 year old sleeping on a bed of gritty pavement, eating out of the garbage, looking for something […]

It’s Complicated

A New Dawn, Human Trafficking, Justice, Kids at Risk, Thinking About God, Urban Ministry -

Está yuca. That’s a Salvadoran slang phrase that basically means that it’s complicated. It’s messed up,  and it’s tough to sort out. We use that phrase a lot around our office, and that’s because almost every one of our clients comes to us with layers of complication. Poverty, violence, systems that are practically rigged against them. Here is a glimpse… There is the boy coming to New Dawn because gangs threatened his life back in his hometown. He had to flee and he fled to the streets of San Salvador. Life on the streets is hard…abuse and addiction soon become the cycle that he can’t escape. There is the man who was traumatized as a child, and eventually turned to alcohol. Over time, he lost his wife, his job, his […]

Walking Together to Freedom

A New Dawn, Fundraising, Justice, Kids at Risk, Urban Ministry -

This morning was my first day back in the office after 6 months on sabbatical. As I pulled up to the center early this morning, the first thing I noticed were the children sleeping on the streets. They were there waiting for the doors to open at New Dawn. For these kids, New Dawn is the only safe place in a sea of addiction, violence, and abuse. Some of these kids have been raped, beat up, prostituted, and made to feel like nothing. They have been rejected and abused. On the streets they have found loneliness and fear. It is no easy task to introduce them to something new. New ways, new patterns, and new life are hard to come by on the streets. Our hope is that stepping into New […]

Angela’s Story

A New Dawn, Human Trafficking, Kids at Risk, Urban Ministry -

“When I am at the center, I have the urge to sniff glue but if I give in to it, they won’t let me come in. When I visit the center, I can eat and shower before I go back out to the street; I couldn’t do that before. That is why I like to come. We do activities and they treat me really well.”  Angela*, age 15 Angela is 15 years old and living on the streets of San Salvador. Her story is like the story of many of El Salvador’s street kids. Her father died when she was less than a year old and she has no memories of him. She struggled with her mother to survive, sleeping in public bathrooms, doorways, and anywhere they could find shelter until […]

A New Dawn

Fundraising, Kids at Risk, Urban Ministry -

The most vulnerable person in the world is a child living alone. Each night there are approximately 300 children who sleep alone on the streets of El Salvador. There is currently no good plan or method for reaching them. As they struggle to survive they become easy prey for drug dealers, pimps, gang recruiters, and traffickers. They begin sniffing glue when they are as young as five because it dulls the hunger pains. They have been neglected, abused, and abandoned. Some have run away because even home is worse, but on the streets they do not find safety. For these children, the struggle to survive has become one long, dark night and they wonder if they will ever see the light. We see them around the corner washing windows, selling […]

God’s People Giving Generously

Justice, Kids at Risk, The Lighthouse Project, Urban Ministry -

Since moving to El Salvador, our home church has been Centro Cristiano Internacional. CCI is a large church located in San Salvador and some of our friends invited us to attend there when we first arrived. Over the last few years, CCI has opened their hearts to make the work of MTES part of their ministry and service to the community. Volunteers from CCI help feed the homeless each week, assist in the Lighthouse Project, and help us with medical campaigns. They have prayed for us and encouraged us in countless ways. They have made the courageous decision to look outside of their doors and into the darkest parts of their city, and they have loved and served those that they have encountered. Most recently, they generously sponsored a donation […]

Creating Community

Justice, The Lighthouse Project, Urban Ministry -

It’s a rainy morning in San Salvador. The rain runs over the gutters, and up through the manholes in the streets. It is pouring and cold. For those who sleep on the streets, it has been a long night. For those who sleep in small, rented rooms it has also been a long night interrupted by leaky roofs and drafty breezes. Our clients begin to walk into our center around 8:00am. It’s warmer inside and they gather around a table for their morning’s work. They are making cards…rolling strips of paper into flowers, animals, and Christmas designs. They work to glue the tiny strips of paper, and to match colors. They are being paid for their work, and they are also enjoying a sense of community. Light laughter and constant […]

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