Walking With El Salvador

Yellow and white paper flags lined the little street that leads uphill to the chapel at Divina Providencia. Each flag featured a hand-colored, cut out figure of Monseñor Oscar Romero. I chuckled to myself, thinking of of the Flat Martins we have colored with children for Reformation Day, and of course, Flat Stanley from the beloved children's book. I think Saint Romero might also chuckle at the idea of children coloring Flat Oscars and taking him on adventures with them, or pasting him onto a fluttery flag next to the noni trees at Divina Providencia. Flat Martin Luther hanging out in my office Yellow and white paper chains decorated the chapel fence. The doorway was arched with white and yellow flowers. We peered inside: not too many people yet. The altar was beautifully surrounded by hundreds of yellow and white roses. This is the altar where 45 years ago today, Oscar Romero stood saying mass and where he fell - murdered by an assassin's bullet. Many years and many masses of ...

During the third week of January, students began the 2025 academic year. After the kids were settled in school, the Los Héroes Women's Project got things organized and started producing this year's batch of   Days for Girls kits.    It didn't take long for school directors and community leaders to start sending invitations to Pastor Sonia, the Los Héroes Women's Project coordinator, to come and lead education sessions and distribute the menstruation kits to girls who need them. If girls don't have access to hygiene products, they cannot attend classes. Teachers and directors recognize this need. School staff are interested in learning about the kits themselves so they can promote their use. Over the past 9 years, it has been most common for teachers and community leaders to gather groups of women and girls, not men and boys, to participate in the menstruation education classes. Guys were never specifically excluded, but they were not typically included in the target...

Twenty-five years ago, our nurse practitioner did pelvic exams and pap smears for women in our Salvadoran sister community. She brought glass slides, used hairspray as fixative and somehow got those test results back to the women. She diagnosed many infections. We brought medications for that. It was a bold move for one of our first activities as sister churches together.  Girls in a remote community learning about their bodies, 2024 Helping women and girls to learn about their bodies, to listen to their bodies, to have agency over their bodies, and to have access to what they need to care for their bodies: this has been a  twenty-five year ministry of our churches working together. Twenty-five years of making  steady steps and bold moves  together. In many families, frank talks about sex, reproductive health and menstruation are open and honest. In other families, these conversations include misinformation or don't happen at all. Through the years of doing Missions ...

I received a quick email message a few moments ago from a new friend from St. John's Lutheran Church who traveled to El Salvador for the first time earlier this month. She asked, "How did the partnership begin?"  "Can I call you?' I texted. But then I gave it a little thought. Have I actually written down the origin story of our sister church* partnership? I searched my blog, and I did not find a story. It seems perhaps is it one of those twisty-turny tales that lives in the oral tradition of the few of us who are old enough to be originals. It might be easier to call, but I think it is time to write. I messaged my friend to watch for a link. Where to begin... The year was 1995. I had recently joined the church staff at St. John's ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) in Brookfield, Wisconsin as the Parish Education Coordinator for babies through adults. One of my responsibilities was to plan the programming and train the staff for Sunday School. I le...