Christ Lutheran Church Continues Association With Santa Cruz al Salvador
By Edita McQuary
Christ Lutheran Church in Aptos has been a member of the 20+-year-old ecumenical non-profit organization Santa Cruz al Salvador since 2012. Each year CLC has sent representatives in the annual delegation visiting the rural communities they support in El Salvador. Their motto is “Building relationships for better lives.”
Although El Salvador is primarily a Roman Catholic country, since the end of the civil war and the signing of the peace accords on January 16, 1992 there has been an influx of Protestant mission workers. One of these organizations is Santa Cruz al Salvador which consists of St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, Trinity Presbyterian Church (both in Santa Cruz); St. Andrew Presbyterian Church and Christ Lutheran Church (both in Aptos); Lutheran Community Church (Watsonville); Advent Lutheran Church (Morgan Hill); and Church of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (Salinas).
On Sunday, March 19, 2017 Christ Lutheran Church held a Salvadoran pupusa dinner along with a video presentation and talk about the January 2017 SCaS delegation’s annual visit to El Salvador. Church councilmember Karen Covello of Santa Cruz along with 11 people flew to San Salvador to visit the people in the campos of Guillermo Ungo and El Pilar.
Leaders of the delegation were Lucas Grams from Watsonville and Pastor Karla Norton from Corralitos. Other delegation members were Wendy Hess, Watsonville; Kent Madsen, Dr. George Bunch, Lisa Johnson, Jennifer Yeaney, Cheri Thompson, Santa Cruz; Marian Langdon and Stephanie Maack, Aptos. Lucas’ mother, Carolyn Smith, traveled from Astoria, Oregon to accompany the delegation.
While there has been a Lutheran Church presence in El Salvador for quite a while, the mission of Santa Cruz al Salvador has been to convert the Salvadoran people but to be in friendship and community with the very poorest people in the campos. They follow Jesus’ words, “‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40.
For more than 20 years, SCaS has had a program of supporting “prayer” children with education expenses from elementary school through college. They have provided medication and fluoride treatment. They now promote clean water in the campos by helping locals construct wells and install composting toilets.
On the way they went to the capital, San Salvador, visiting historical sites and meeting with government officials and community leaders. Damian Alegria of the liberal FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front the party in power since June 1, 2014) spoke about improvements that the government has made and what still needs to be done.
The government now pays for school tuition as well as medical care. Therefore, SCaS has been able to turn their attention to helping in other areas building one well and ten composting toilets in El Pilar (Now known as Las Orquideas), and in Bendicion de Dios. Because of these improvements both communities are now eligible for the government to extend electricity to their communities.
Another goal is for SCaS is to build a compost toilet for every home in the community.
Karen Covello said, “This has changed my life. What I saw and felt affected me greatly. I felt a joy and peace and that God was telling me I was doing what He wanted me to do.”
She continued by saying that even though the war ended in 1992, many people still have fresh memories of what their families and friends suffered and died for. El Salvador is still a very poor country that has all the problems that come with extreme poverty. The $75-100 annual donation SCaS members pay to support a “prayer” child goes to buy an extra pair of shoes for the children, to provide medicine, and fluoride for their teeth.
Jan Sollom-Brotherton, wife of CLC’s pastor Dale Sollom-Brotherton, recalled that they had been to El Salvador with the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) delegation several times during the war. She said, “After the revolution, the campesinos were triple indebted. Although they were allowed to buy land, they had to borrow to pay for it, to buy the grain and for the tools to work the land. It is amazing to see the improvement in the lives of these peoples, in part because of what organizations such as Santa Cruz al Salvador have done.”
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For more information about Santa Cruz al Salvador and upcoming fundraisers, visit www.santacruzalsalvador.org.