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 ...

This is a story about women telling hard truths, women coming together to support each other, women working to improve the lives of women and girls in their communities.  Recently, an invitation from the leaders of Gender and Family Ministry of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church was sent out through a communication group of which I am a member. It caught my attention: The Salvadoran Lutheran Church, working with the Office of the Woman of the Lutheran World Federation, has initiated a consultation process about the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women CEDAW  ...  The purpose of the gathering is to bring together women leaders from their communities for a consultation on community contexts regarding gender policies and all forms of discrimination against women. Pastor Cecilia giving out vacunas contra la violencia during the Missions of Healing (2011 & 2012) I thought about Pastor Cecilia giving out "vaccinations against violence" to ...

The Rose Garden at the UCA - with memorial posters for  the six Jesuit priests and two women who were murdered on November 16, 1989. (photo taken in 2022) Segundo Montes, S.J. was a physicist, philosopher, sociologist, theologian, humanitarian, teacher and Jesuit priest. His writings are extensive, and he is well remembered for his humanitarian work with internally displaced people and refugees during the 1980's civil war in El Salvador. It was during that time, that he founded the Human Rights Institute at the UCA (Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas). He, like several of his colleagues at the UCA , was originally from Spain. He followed his heart and his calling and became Salvadoran, teaching sociology and defending human rights.  On November 16, 1989, Segundo Montes was murdered, along with Ignacio Ellacuría, Ignacio Martín-Baró, Juan Ramón Moreno, Joaquín López y López, and Amando López,  together with Elba Ramos and her 16 year-old daughter Celina Ramos, ...

On the last day of January 2022, a small group of travelers sat near an open window in Resurrection Lutheran Church, surrounded by a sprinkling of Salvadoran Lutheran Church pastors and synod staff.  The Salvadorans were back together after a weeklong closure of the church offices due to an outbreak of COVID-19 among office personnel. The travelers were joining their Salvadoran friends after a 2-year hiatus from travel. Feelings of love and joy in being together warmed the air.  Smiles were made with eyes, above the masks. Fist bumps and waves felt like hugs, sort of. Photo credit: Bob Adams On the first day of February, the travelers and the Salvadorans would begin a two-week Mission of Healing health education event, but on this last day of January, there was time for preparation, reflection and centering.   The Salvadoran pastors take turns leading the Monday devotional, and Pastor Francisco Aguilar was the preacher for this day.  He was about 3 minutes into ...

El Salvador has a trash problem.  This is not a new situation. This is not a new story. If you walk around El Salvador, you spend a fair amount of time walking over stuff like this. I have been thinking about trash, storm drains, rain. I cleaned out the storm drains near my church in the US this weekend - always needed after a windy day. Our alley sometimes floods, and it's better to be proactive than to mop up water in the church kitchen.  Storm drains along paved roads in El Salvador are no joke. They are gigantic openings where curbs should be and are never covered by grates.  In a rainstorm, a small cow could literally be swept down into one of those things. Naturally, as a convenient hole that goes to who-knows-where, people see the storm drain abyss as an excellent place in which to sweep street trash, especially along the busy thoroughfares in San Salvador. (Someone told me once that this is actually illegal, but I still see people do it.) In small communities tras...

On March 24, 1996, an organized group of homeless families marched up the hill to plant a cross, to plant a church, to plant their roots as a new community.  This action was taken just four years after the end of a 12-year civil war. The negotiated Peace Accords, signed in 1992, called on the newly formed government to facilitate Land Reform.  Community organizers, like those in the Lutheran Church, worked with refugees and homeless families, to help them find places to live. Just enough light before sunrise to put up the sign: Aniversario 25   "We came walking from Tonacatepeque. We entered by the way where the school is now, we climbed up this hill, and that cross of iron that is up there, we planted it here on this little corner, on this mound of rock. We imbedded it in concrete.  And it stood there for 12 years, because the church was a little church for 12 years, and it was made of laminate, because as long as the people lived in little houses made of laminate, ...