Pastor Lou’s Thoughts

What does one say after 30 years of involvement in a country – El Salvador – and with small churches that see only gradual growth?   Allow me here some personal reflections… some “dreams.”

The Spanish poet/philosopher Calderon de la Barca penned the line “Suenos, suenos son – Dreams… are (only) dreams.”  I much preferred and for years on my office wall had a saying from another Latin author, Cardenal Suenas.  “Happy are those who dream dreams, and are willing to pay the price to make them come true.”

Over these last thirty plus years, together with the ministry leaders in El Salvador, we did considerable dreaming, and worked hard.  When we arrived, they told me of their dream – product of a consultation/survey with Christian Reformed World Relief (now Renew) – to have a Christian School.  The furthrest we could get with that was to buy the vacant lot next to the Huizucar church for such an eventual school.  The dream evolved into a Vocational School but is still awaiting the donor!

After the 2001 earthquake that killed nearly a thousand people, many in the vicinity of the Santa Tecla church whose building was demolished, the dream of that small congregation was to be able to rebuild.

You’ll have seen the pictures of that on the Home Page.  We were able to secure donations from churches and an individual to add to the local efforts; the lay minister knew to parlay his long-time relationship with a country-side builder to get that accomplished at low cost.

The future: while the current pastors have years remaining, they have been talking and praying more about leadership for times ahead.  From afar now my prayers join them in that search.  The reality is that in an economy where small churches can not support a pastor, young leaders hesitate to choose that path of service.  Bi-vocational life in ministry is hard, more so in that two-tier economy

Which leads me to say something about the dream I – along with many- have: that justice come to that country.  In this world of haves and have-nots, many live the constant of poverty, of barely ekeing out a living.  The abundant life Jesus came to bring is not just spiritual; when will dreams come true of seeing a different world?  

As the Bible says: “…and the greatest of the three is love.”  In  relation to the above, I cite this line from Cornel West: “Justice is what love looks like in public.”  My dream is that Christians everywhere will come to understand this dynamic and in the name of JesusChrist put “love justice” into practice.