El Salvador

Hi Gang,

First off thanks for all the prayers for my safety as Missionary Steve Reed and I traveled in and through San Salvador, El Salvador last Monday through Thursday.

Twenty years ago Steve and I founded a financial outreach to the poorest of the poor Christians in El Salvador that has had $2250.00 sent down via money orders every three months to be distributed to mostly elderly couples and five different churches.  The man who delivers the meager amounts ranging from $30.00 to $50.00 per family is named Victor Hernandez and he is now eighty-one years young.    He and another faithful pastor do so much to help the helpless that I am humbled by their service.  Our trip was simply to verify the ongoing system is working.  Aside from working on a backup plan to deliver the funds, we couldn’t have been more pleased with the how it all is working.  I’ll have more to say in my next e-mail/blog.

The last thing I wanted to share with you today is the stature of the conditions in El Salvador.  Though vastly developed since my last trip there in ’95 the slums and the poor remain in abundance throughout the countryside. El Salvador encompasses a land mass about equal to Petaluma to Gilroy north to south, and from Livermore to San Francisco, east to west.  In other words a small country.

Shockingly, since our last visit, we have found a people under siege by gang violence so great that there are an average of seventeen murders every day in San Salvador.  The corruption of course impacts the poor the most, and the violence leaves none of the people we serve immune from the potential for violence at any time.  It is a fearful place for many to live.  One report told us that hooded vigilantes have begun to fight back in one of the areas.

This is the reason for the change. Many young men fled the country to the United States because of the violence associated with the revolution back in 1989. Almost all of them ended up in Los Angeles, where they banded together to form two main Salvadoran gangs, the “MS”  and the “18′s”.  As these men were arrested for gangland violence in Los Angeles they were sent to state prison were they did anywhere from 3-5 years in our prison system.  Upon their release they were immediately deported back to their homeland.  They took all their acquired gang skills and began to use them now in their own country and as a result have turned the country upside down.

The “MS” and the “18′s” have a stranglehold on many of the townships in and around San Salvador, henceforth my need for prayers for safety last week.  All this to say our work there is as important as ever.  Later this week I will get back to you with an opportunity for you to build into the lives of our Christian brothers and sisters in El Salvador.

thanks for taking the time to read this.

dan

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 14th, 2010 at 9:51 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.