San Jose El Naranjo/First Assembliles of God, OC July 2009

Mission team, from First Assemblies of God Church in Orange County, California, touring San Jose El Naranjo

Alfredo, Director of Operations for ENLACE, takes a precarious stand on soon to be demolished bridge…

Due to successful church leadership and community organizing in SJEN, the government has decided to construct a new steel bridge and tear down the old, benefiting 3000 people

Corn is fundamental to the Salvadoran diet and is produced on practically every small farm in the country. Most community members in SJEN are subsistance farmers 

                                                                         

 

It is not the case in every rural community, but in SJEN and surrounding towns it is very common to see pigs tied up along the side of the road, taking mud baths in the middle of the road and mingeling with the dogs and chickens in people’s front yards

 

Currently a basketball court turned soccer court, but iglesia jerusalen, local church and Enlace partner, has plans to bring basketball back to their town

                        

 

Walter, ENLACE employee, leading group through SJEN

 

Visiting a recent house recipient, where we see a clear contrast between new and old

 

 

New bridge will be built after construction of sidewalk, road and method for diverting rain water from main street is completed. Team from California is here to assist with these preliminary projects. This is where the sidewalk is being built, which leads from mainstreet to the river

 

Digging, where sand, rocks and cement will later be added

Walter at work

By the end of the week, everyone had become well-acquainted with the shovel

A lot of dirt to dig and a lot to wheel away

Melissa, member of mission's team from California and a super hard worker

In the rainy season, the Salvadoran landscape is pained with butterflies - adding splashes of color to the lush greenery as well as the rocky muddy

Lifting and dropping a bucket of hard cement proves effective for pounding and leveling sand

The human conveyor belt is a ritual at work sites

 

 

 

 

 

Hundreds of heavy stones passed through the human conveyor belt to where they are then set and hammered, bringing us another step closer to a finished sidewalk

After sidewalk is filled with stones, the cement will be poured and leveled

Pastor Marcos, of Iglesia Jerusalen, local SJEN church and Enlace partner, hammers it out alongside community volunteers, Enlace staff and brothers and sisters from North America

Pastor Marcos working along side the Mason

Cristina, little helper from the community

Building a sidewalk and a road that connected to main street meant working in the center of town, where there is a lot of foot traffic

The other work site, where the road is being built

Half of the US team worked on the sidewalk and the other half worked on the road just a block away. Pastor Randy, who led the mission team from California, is seen here on the left, shoveling cement alongside a member of his team

 

Once cement is mixed it is shoveled into buckets to be poured over the rocks, not an easy job since the cement is extremely heavy

 

One of several church and community leaders volunteering to help build the road

Hauling buckets of cement under the blaring sun, in high humidity and getting filthy never felt so good, just ask Jake, a member of the missions team from California

 

A work in progress

Children and Adults habitually drink contaminated water from hoses used at work sites

 

Dinner? or money for dinner?

 

Leveling and brushing cement, the final stage of construction for both the road and the sidewalk

Hard labor is fun, but so is taking a break

Pastor Marcos of Iglesia Jerusalen, local SJEN church and Enlace partner for 12 years

 

The camera could hardly capture what looked like a hundred butterflies swarming in one place