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Church Family
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Cultural Dance
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Making Friends at "Sports Day"
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"Sports Day"
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Painting
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Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel
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Worshipping Together
July 22-28, sixteen senior high youth and adults from Watts Street Baptist Church (Durham, NC), spent a week in El Salvador with our sister church, Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel (IBE). The trip was packed from start to finish with powerful, life-changing experiences.
The first day, we visited several historical sites related to Oscar Romero, met with leaders of three of Emmanuel’s ministries with youth (their church youth group, their Peacemakers program at Emmanuel School, and one of their youth centers, Cal Pipil), and participated in a youth vigil that lasted four hours (and we liked it!).
On Sunday, we worshipped with brothers and sisters in Christ at Emmanuel. We enjoyed sharing a few of our youth group songs, presenting a letter of greeting from our pastor, and receiving cards from children at IBE for children at WSBC. To our surprise, a picture was shown on the screen of the communion table at Watts Street, which had been decorated with crosses and other items from El Salvador that very day. The service concluded with the youth from IBE and WSBC blessed and anointed with oil.
That afternoon, we joined the youth from IBE for a bus ride up to a community in San Rafael, where IBE has a youth center. 50-60 children and youth showed up for a “Sports Day”, which included relays, soccer, jump rope, children’s games, snacks, and devotions. It was amazing to see how effortlessly the three groups of youth (WSBC, IBE, and San Rafael) blended together. There were lots of songs, laughs, and of course, “selfies”, on the bus ride home.
On Monday and Tuesday, we started each day at Emmanuel School. We visited various classes and practiced conversational English and Spanish. We also learned about the incredibly inspiring “Peacemakers” program at the school – where students assist with mediating conflict and practicing “La Cultura de Paz” (the Culture of Peace). In a country that leads the world in violence (outside of countries actively involved in war), this is critically important work. In fact, promoting “La Clutura de Paz” is the central work of the school and of all of IBE’s efforts with youth right now. We were blown away by the commitment of these students to the ways of peace…even though the path ahead appears so difficult.
In the afternoons, we joined youth from IBE and some university students for some painting projects at Cal Pipil, a youth center sponsored by IBE. The youth center offers classes in music, computers, cooking, filmmaking, etc. and is a life line for youth who would otherwise be pulled into gang activity or hopelessness. One of the most dramatic experiences of our week came on Tuesday afternoon when Antony, a young man we had befriended and work alongside at Cal Pipil, shared his personal story. It was devastatingly sad but helped us put a face to the “reality” that exists in El Salvador and helped us better understand the mission of Cal Pipil and IBE.
On Wednesday, half of our group traveled to Alegria, the small community near Suchitoto where Watts Street financially sponsors students each year. We were amazed to see how this community which has so little can provide for one another so beautifully (especially through their gardens) and offer such hospitality to us. The other half of our group assisted a group of students from Emmanuel School in planting trees back in San Salvador. After finishing up our painting project at Cal Pipil, we had a special celebration at the school with recreation, songs, and a beautiful cake. We concluded our time in El Salvador with a fun night at a Pupusaria.
This article gives you a good overview of what we did on this trip…but it doesn’t scratch the surface of what we learned. Each night, we gathered in a circle and debriefed together what we had seen and heard. On one night, we shared for an hour and forty minutes before we had to call time!