El Salvador: Day 9 - "Juvenile Center & Suchitoto"

Saturday, July 27th started with breakfast with Emily Engle, a volunteer who went to Gonzaga in Spokane but has spent the past year here in El Salvador working on issues of violence against women.

After that, we went to CDE.SSPAS ("Centro De Encuentro Juvenil, Servicio Social PASsionistas") where we met with Alex, Fr. Antonio, and Eduardo.  They have incredible passion and work on trying to eliminate the causes of violence and conflict in El Salvador.  Fr. Antonio is one of the main parties working directly with the gangs, but they also work with vulnerable kids, youth and women in a variety of amazing programs.  Here is a picture of me with Father Antonio:

We then drove about an hour (maybe closer to 1.5 hours) to a town in the countryside called Suchitoto.  There we met with an amazing woman, Sister Peggy O'Neill, who has been there since 1986.  We all felt like we were sitting at her feet as she delivered theological "zingers," one after the other.  She had an amazing way of engaging us in her storytelling, and illuminating deep spiritual truths (like the meaning of solidarity, Trinity, and the communion of saints, for instance).  Here is Peggy:

The church and bell tower here were built in 1838, but the Sisters of Charity built a school in this facility in 1914.  After years of being abandoned Peggy has spent the past 7 years "converting"/restoring this place to be the Center of Art for Peace. At first they went out to the kids, and now the kids (and their whole families come here for amazing opportunities to learn all different kinds of art as a pathway to healing and peace.  This country is badly in need of peace and reconciliation and this ministry is an incredibly fruitful and hopeful sign of peace.  Here are some photos of this beautiful (but HOT!) place:

This is the bell tower that they will begin working on next month.  The rest of the grounds are beautiful, peaceful and full of God's grace:

and some more of the town of Suchitoto:

Tomorrow we go back to El Paisnal on our last full day here to worship one last time with our friends.  I will also be helping Pastor Chema baptize one of their/our kids, which will be a complete honor!  I will post pictures from that experience tomorrow night.  We are on the home stretch now, but we are fully present and awaiting whatever we still need to experience before we leave.

Prayerfully,

Pastor Gregg/"Pastor Gregorio"