Walking With El Salvador

The pandemic brought lots of changes to the way we could do ministry together, locally and globally. In 2020, we put on the Mission of Healing North Family Wellness Fair just before COVID locked down the world. In 2021, we did a year-long, remote, community education event.  In 2022, we jumped into a new era of community health education in El Salvador and created a training event called "Formación de Formadores" (we used "Teach the Teachers" in English).  2022 Teach the Teachers Event Curriculum Development As I mentioned in the previous installment of the Teach the Teachers story, the Salvadoran Lutheran Church Health Ministries Coordinator, Pastor Conchi, suggested we develop curriculum for the Mission of Healing North Teach the Teachers workshop with a focus on each of 4 human body systems:  Digestive, Circulatory, Respiratory and Reproductive. We started by planning the general information charla for each system. We created big colorful posters and simple ...

Breathe in. Breathe out.  We can breathe intentionally. Mostly we breathe automatically. But if we cannot breathe, we cannot live. During this long pandemic ordeal, breathing has taken center stage as a human reflex that should not be taken for granted. Infections of the respiratory system can be common, like a cold. They can be deadly, like tuberculosis or pneumonia. Respiratory infections can be caused by a virus such as H1N1 (swine flu) or bacteria such as pertussis (whooping cough). Some respiratory infections can be prevented or made less severe by using vaccines. Pertussis, flu and now, SARS CoV 2 (or COVID-19) are preventable or made less severe through the use of vaccines. Prevention of respiratory infections, learning the warning signs of dangerous infections, and understanding how to properly use medications which treat these infections are very, very important educational themes in EVERY Mission of Healing which we do.  This is our focus for July.  These are a ...

A few disappointing realities of a global pandemic for our little coordination team of companion church ministries:   Traveling internationally is complicated. Delegations cannot safely travel together in vehicles. Eating together in a group is unthinkable. A team of 60 volunteers and 500 participants cannot possibly gather safely together for a big event at a school or community site, even if outdoors. When we packed up after last year's Mission of Healing in El Salvador, the novel Corona Virus was just beginning its journey around the planet.  We could not have imagined then that the virus now known as COVID-19 would wreak such havoc.  We could not have imagined that quarantines, lock-downs, masks, sanitizing, home-schooling, working from home or not being able to work, and not hugging one another would be our way of life for a year, or maybe longer. Volunteer team members gather for opening prayer at one of the Mission of Healing Family Wellness Fairs in February ...

Don't drink the water.  Don't brush your teeth with the water.  Don't open your mouth in the shower. Perhaps you have been in El Salvador and received these cautions.  Perhaps you have learned that Salvadorans suffer the effects from living in a region in which nearly 100% of the surface water is contaminated with human and animal feces and agro and industrial chemicals.  Perhaps you have experienced a day or more in El Salvador during which the municipal system did not function, and you had no access to water.  Added to the environmental and systemic issues, the interests of private companies which sell water in plastic bottles or use water to make bottled beverages (Coca-Cola) have made it nearly impossible for El Salvador to make progress in cleaning up its water mess. The fight to pass a holistic water protection bill continues, as do the negative effects contaminated water have on the health of the Salvadoran people.  In the midst of the struggle, ...

It began before we had cell phones.  It began before we had digital cameras.  It began when we spoke by pulling bilingual dictionaries out of our pockets.  It began when the community women hauled water in jugs on top of their heads.  It began when homes were lit by small flickers of candle light.  It began before we hardly knew each other. For four days in August, in the year 2000, a suburban Milwaukee area church, an urban Milwaukee church and a little church in El Salvador put together the first Mission of Healing.  The photo memories of the experience reflect a lot of young, smiling, sweaty faces.  Eighteen years later, children are now parents; parents are now grandparents.  As I study some of the smiling faces, sadness tugs at my heart - there with joyful smiles are the images of young lives and a few older ones cut short by illness or violence. One of the albums for this project The photo memories live in two, old-school photo alb...

Medical Care...it's a complicated and messy topic whether you are in El Salvador or the United States or probably just about any place in the world.  The disparity between what is available between one country and the next seems unfair.  The disparity between what is available to people with resources or insurance and people without resources or insurance seems unfair.  The sense of unfairness and awareness of disparities along with genuine desires to do good in the world drive people from the United States to organize mission groups to care for people in El Salvador. The topic of this story:  Medical Brigades. If you are a regular reader of my random stories, you know that healthcare in El Salvador is a topic about which I frequently write.  Search "medical" or any other healthcare type words, and dozens of stories will pop up.  I am not a professional in a medical field, but I have a 17-year history of walking with the Salvadoran people in the areas o...

"My grandma told me not to eat watermelon when I have my period.  Is that right?" How do girls learn about their bodies and their natural reproductive processes?  What do girls do when the advice they receive from their mothers or their grandmothers is confusing to them?  How do girls acquire the supplies they need when they do not have money or live far away from the nearest store?  How can girls and young women continue their education, go to work, play sports or simply leave their homes if they do not have the supplies they need during each monthly period? If you are a guy, and you are thinking this story is not for you, you are wrong.  You exist because your mom grew you in her uterus.  Even if you don't have sisters, a wife, a girlfriend, daughters,  female friends, female co-workers, or female clients, you do have a mom.  Keep reading. During the Mission of Healing Family Wellness Fair (see this and  this ) which is put on an...

We decided to eat lunch before hiking up the big hill to the lookout over the lake .  We sat in the shade on benches made from long bamboo "logs."  We munched on sandwiches, bags of chips and sweet fruit drinks.  A week ago Ruben had been feeling very weak, but his diet of  mora  (wild spinach) soup had clearly renewed his energy.  Sonia knows a great deal about plants, and as we talked about the different types of trees and shrubs on the steep hills which stretch up from the lakeshore, Ruben joined the conversation.  Ruben, like Sonia, knows every plant by multiple names and is wise in the gathering and making of natural medicines. Lilian is shy, but recognizing the gifts of Ruben as a healer, she mentioned a problem she has been having with her ears.  Ruben asked her some questions, determining she had both pain and decreased hearing, and then he gave her three treatment options: 1)  Crush fresh wild basil in a little cotton cloth so th...

  Flor de jamaica - Rosa de jamaica - Te de jamaica - Frozen de jamaica... Jamaica  (pronounced huh-my-kuh) means "hibiscus," However it is written on the menu, I order it.  Hot. Cold. Frozen.  You can order it by the pitcher at Pizza Hut and Pollo Campero.  At fancy restaurants it is served in big goblets, and with its deep red color you might mistake it for a glass of robust burgundy. You can buy jamaica  at the Super - crushed in tea bags or as whole dried flowers in big plastic bags.  You can often find the dried flowers in small markets and artisan shops.  I almost always have a pitcher of it in my fridge. Nutritionally speaking, hibiscus tea contains important vitamins and minerals (A, B1, C, E and iron).  Salvadoran grandmothers will tell you it is good for your kidneys, digestion, your liver and helps to lower your blood pressure.  These are important health benefits, but I drink it because I like it.  I recently ...

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the Feria de Bienestar Familiar - Family Wellness Fair that we organized earlier this month.  You might like to check out  The Chicken Dance  ,  Las Charlas  and More Charla s before you read this story.  For the panoramic look at Missions of Healing over the years, put "Mission of Healing" in the search window and you will find a wide variety of healing stories from over the years. The Mesa Final  at the Family Wellness Fair was my responsibility.  As my Spanish has improved over the years, I moved from running the children's activities, to assisting in the pharmacy, to translating for doctors and nurses, and finally to teaching.  A few years ago, we added La Mesa Final  as a control - a place where each participant in the Mission of Healing would stop and show me all of his or her medications so I could be sure the participant knew how and when to take them.  I drew many calendars wi...