The Most Violent Country Has another Story
by Lindsay Steele
Mission Network News
by Lindsay Steele
Mission Network News
...With a warzone just outside the home, families barely take a step outside, and parents won’t let kids leave the house unaccompanied, as gang leaders target young people to recruit. Children as young as seven or eight may be recruited. But the central age to begin gang work is 14 to 16 years old.
But that’s not the whole story of El Salvador; it’s just part of it.
“Men and women are standing in the gap. [They] are doing what is right and have dedicated themselves not to let their community, their family, their country, go down in the path of violence,” Lassegue says.
“There is one institution in the midst of all of this that is still respected in the country by both the good guys and the bad guys. And those people who have decided to stand in the gap, and that institution, is the church.”
Pastors and their families have remained in violent communities to continue their ministry work, to continue sharing that there can still be good, and to continue being a shield for children to survive and develop.
This is where Compassion steps in.
“We walk alongside of those pastors. We hold their hand of support, of prayer, and providing for them and their church members so that they can minister adequately to those children and young people in their communities.”
Compassion reinforces the ministry work the church does, and their sponsorship program introduces kids to Jesus and prevents them from joining gangs and violence.
Recently, the Compassion Director for El Salvador spoke with a man after a church service. Both his daughters were in the Compassion-sponsorship program, and he was sharing his appreciation for what was being done. Through the sponsorship, his daughters were able to stay out of any violence or ricochet of violence. That man was a gang leader and said if he’d had a program like this, he wouldn’t be where he was today...
But that’s not the whole story of El Salvador; it’s just part of it.
“Men and women are standing in the gap. [They] are doing what is right and have dedicated themselves not to let their community, their family, their country, go down in the path of violence,” Lassegue says.
“There is one institution in the midst of all of this that is still respected in the country by both the good guys and the bad guys. And those people who have decided to stand in the gap, and that institution, is the church.”
Pastors and their families have remained in violent communities to continue their ministry work, to continue sharing that there can still be good, and to continue being a shield for children to survive and develop.
This is where Compassion steps in.
“We walk alongside of those pastors. We hold their hand of support, of prayer, and providing for them and their church members so that they can minister adequately to those children and young people in their communities.”
Compassion reinforces the ministry work the church does, and their sponsorship program introduces kids to Jesus and prevents them from joining gangs and violence.
Recently, the Compassion Director for El Salvador spoke with a man after a church service. Both his daughters were in the Compassion-sponsorship program, and he was sharing his appreciation for what was being done. Through the sponsorship, his daughters were able to stay out of any violence or ricochet of violence. That man was a gang leader and said if he’d had a program like this, he wouldn’t be where he was today...
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