LACC, El Salvador and Gangs

I have been busy ever since I set my feet on El Salvadorian soil. Bethany, Winny (CoH staff in El Sal), and I have been visiting all of the Latin American Child Care Schools (LACC) that have the Nutrition of Hope program. There are eighteen schools in all and we have a few more to visit this week. Last Saturday we visited a ministry and did a distribution of food for the parents and toys for the children. The schools are all over the country, so we have spent our days driving and in meetings. The meetings have been helpful in building relationship with the school directors, seeing the school buildings and the children in the schools where the Nutrition Program operates. We have seen what gang filled communities can do to a school and seen the need for nutrition in the campo (countryside).

Gangs and the violence they bring have a powerful control over people. The children are harder and the schools aren't kept up the same.  I believe because if your school is too nice then you risk being robbed or threatened for money.  Gangs carry a real evilness. The directors that work in these gang areas have had their lives at risk. They have been threatened by gang leaders asking for money. However, these schools are light into their communities. The teachers and directors have an influence over their students.

Another ministry in El Salvador is called Castillo del Rey. In English it is known as Kings Castle. They work in areas with heavy gang influence. Their goal is to reach the child before they enter the years where they begin to join gangs. At one of the schools we visited the director spoke of a girl who was on the verge of the gang. She had been exposed to more violence than any child should be exposed to. This child went to a Castillo del Rey camp and her heart was softened. She let Christ come in and accepted him as her savior. God is working. God is moving.

I could say a lot more about gangs. I could probably get on a soap box and in my mind sometimes I do get on a soap box. Gangs are rampant throughout Latin America. Some of it has to do with US policy and US drug use. The real War on Drugs happens in the streets of major cities between gangs and the innocent people trying to live their lives. The trafficking of drugs into the US is part of the issue. Frankly, if the US doesn't change their drug policy the violence is going to continue to spill over into our streets. The fact that it is affecting our neighbor’s streets should have already caused us to re-look at our policies. However, the issue goes deeper than that into both spiritual and physical poverty, acceptance, corruption, control, power and so forth. It cannot be simplified. Pray for Latin America. Pray for those whose lives are affected by violence and poverty every day. Pray for LACC and their students and staff members. Pray for ministries like Castillo del Rey.

I was going to share a few verses, but I guess that was what was on my heart this morning. It is easy to get discouraged in this world, but press on because we have a God who overcomes. We have a God who is a light in the darkness and wants us to be people of the day. Let us be dressed in faith, love, and the hope of salvation (1 Thessalonians 5). Let us be people of prayer and people who believe in what our God can do!