Picture this:
Two young children (toddlers) and their mother, out in
the coffee bean fields in rural El Salvador. In the stifling heat they pick beans all day,
separating the good ones from the bad ones, the red ones from the green ones.
They fill a large sack, working for as long as possible. Their mother carries
the sack down the mountain, perhaps slipping and sliding in the mud if there
has been any rain (very likely this time of year). The bag is unbelievably
heavy- 200 lbs. She could easily hurt her back, but she carries it
nevertheless. She carries it, because at the bottom of the mountain, she gets
paid for the weight of the beans. $1 per 25 lbs. $8 for a 200 lb. bag of coffee
beans. These beans then get shipped to
the United States, where Starbucks uses less than a handful of beans and
charges $4 a cup. Somewhere someone is making a lot of money. And it’s not with
the woman and her children on the mountainside of El Salvador.
This is real life.
Those children grow up and eat more food. They need clothing
and shoes. They don’t have an education because they can’t go to school- they
have to help their mother every day. The young girl, once she is old enough to
stay home by herself, will take care of the house. She will clean, cook, get
water, and go to the market when needed. The young boy will continue to help
his mom. He will continue to help until one evening, he’s playing outside with
some of the neighborhood boys, and some older teenagers come over to him,
asking him if he wants to join their group to make some easy money. The boy
sees how his mother suffers everyday and desperately wants to help. He agrees
to join the gang, and all of a sudden his life is spinning out of control in
the world of violence, guns, and drugs. He wants to return to his former life,
but he can’t because he fears he will be killed or be put in jail. He’s ten
years old.
This is real life.
These and other stories were told to us tonight after
dinner by Juan de Dios Peña, the Bishop of the Evangelical Methodist Church of
El Salvador. We’ve been so lucky to get to spend time with him today, soaking
up his knowledge about the country and learning about his vision for the Church
here. The Methodist Church has been in El Salvador for 16 years, and there are
currently 12 churches in this country that is the size of Massachusetts and is
home to 7 million people. The church is very hopeful, and is fully committed to
helping the impoverished in the community.
La Iglesia Evangélica Metodista de El Salvador has some
incredibly influential ministries that we learned about today. The first is
building houses for people who do not have running water or electricity. We drove
through some muddy, unpaved roads with plants lining the paths so high you
could barely make out the walls and roofs of the tiny houses. According to
Juan, 14,000 people live in this community, many without electricity, and most
houses with 6-8 people in them (and we’re talking like maybe 800sq feet of
house. Maybe.) The church is working to build cement houses that will withstand
the small earthquakes, and that are equipped with both electricity and running
water. The houses are built by El Salvadorians, with help from mission teams
(see the pictures on the El Salvador tab), and financial help from the U.S.
Each house costs $4800 to build, and although there are some fundraising
efforts here, most of the funds come from churches in the United States.
Aside from building houses, the church is doing
significant work with children and youth. There are children’s schools- places
where kids can learn information, but also get practical knowledge about how to
make crafts. The kids then can sell these crafts and help support their
families. The youth groups attempt to provide a place for teenagers to encounter
God and get off the streets. It gives them an opportunity to see that there can
be more to life than gangs and violence (as easy as that life is to adopt).
The church also provides medical services at clinics. We
will be helping out with these clinics during our time here. They charge people
$3 to see the doctor, but then all the medicine is free. In a hospital, people
can see a doctor for free, but medicine could cost up to $20-$30. The doctors
are paid significantly less, but they are helping people who otherwise would go
untreated.
Needless to say, La Iglesia Evangélica Metodista de El
Salvador, under the great leadership of Juan de Dios, is doing some amazing
work here, and I am SO excited to be involved in it. I’m already finding Juan
to be an excellent example of servanthood- his house necessitates a life of
hospitality and simplicity. His side of the house is simple, a few rooms shared
by at least 9 people. The other side of the house is for missionaries. There
are three rooms, each with about ten beds (bunked), and this is where we have
been staying the past couple of days. On Saturdays, he invites the local
children over to the house to watch the television, and they have a big
sleepover using all the bunk-beds. The family is incredibly welcoming, and not
just to foreigners.
This is their life.
And I’m excited to be living it for
the next 6 weeks.
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