Evangelists earn diplomas

On Saturday 21 June five members of the Evangelists Team of the Diocese of El Salvador were awarded their diplomas in Basic Biblical Studies. This eight-month course was offered by la Universidad Luterana de El Salvador. This comprehensive course was a survey course in which the students read the entire Bible. Along with the reading the students attended five-hour weekly classes on introductory issues and began their acquisition of necessary skills for responsible Biblical interpretation.

This programme is very much a practical course. The evangelists have been using their developing understanding of the Bible in Bible Studies as part of their parish ministry and in their preaching. Those Evangelists who are exploring a call to ordained ministry will continue as students in the provincial theological college (see CAETS)

Cross-cultural Moments

• On the highway at night between San Martín and San Salvador, passing four vehicles without rear-view lights or reflectors. One was a truck with no lights or reflectors at all. Only the white license plate gave prior warning to the truck's presence on the road.
• Standing thin on the double line in the middle of the street, waiting to cross, as busses, trucks and cars speed past in both directions. Rarely is it possible to cross both sides of a street at one time, and cars normally do not stop for pedestrians.
• Working out at a gym that is in a sophisticated commercial centre, and hearing a rooster crowing.
• Arriving at the church in San Martín and learning that yet another youth (16 years old)  had been shot to death on the street in front of the church ? the third since I have been serving in this church. Another youth was killed a few weeks later in the pasaje where our church evangelist lives.
• In a supermarket discovering an English breakfast tea that actually tastes good. Tea is not a big drink here. If one orders tea in a restaurant, one receives a cup of camomille tea, unless one specifies black tea.
• Passing through a green light at an intersection, and gasping with horror upon seeing a group of children, the oldest surely no more than six or seven, crossing against the light. By the grace of God the driver of the car in that lane had seen them and stopped. Despite laws similar to those in Canada, lights in El Salvador are only suggestions. Neither cars nor pedestrians find them sacred. One can never be sure that a pedestrian will not step out in front of one, although the people, including children, have developed a great acumen for survival, vying with death as a part of daily life
• Spending weeks preparing a theology course at an advanced level and then, the week before, being asked, instead to teach liturgy with five days preparation. This turn of events is not uncommon.
• Waking up to a newspaper headline that 293 persons, mostly infants under one year of age and the very old, in the first half of this year have died of a virus that causes pneumonia . Officials at the major children's hospital complain that they lack quantaty and quality of vaccines and needed drugs
• Finding out by accident that the time for a special mass has been changed to another day by people in the community and no one thought to tell me, the officiant.

Santísima Trinidad Investigates "Micro-Business" Project

The Junta Directive (Parish Council) of Santísima Trinidad, in consultation with Engineer Antonio Cabezas, first-class seamstress Doña Virginia de la Cabezas, and diocesan social worker Mirabel de Ramírez, are researching how to start a small business for a group of unemployed women of the parish. While various individuals have begun micro-businesses with diocesan support, the women?s group will act as a pilot project and hopefully a model for other groups in diocesan parishes.

The idea is to develop a line of cloth dolls of Hispanic and indigenous character to sell in both Central and North America. The women will make other types of crafts as well. The hope is that the business can get off the ground by August and take advantage of the coming Christmas season.

Dolls with brown skin are rarely found in El Salvador and other central American countries. This lack leaves indigenous children with the impression that blonde and blue-eyed is better. The dolls will not be targeted in the beginning for higher eschalons of the market-- rather they will be offered to the general public, much of which is of indigenous heritage.

This cottage industry will be run by the women themselves with help and expertise from diocesan personnel and other non-governmental organizations that seek to enable Salvadorians to develop their own employment. The hope is to employ 8-10 women initially and test the market for the possibility of increasing the group or starting a second one.

Currently, the group is looking for sewing machines, both home models and industrial machines. At this point the parish has four industrial machines, none of which work; however, a young man in the parish has the ability to assess if they are reparable and to make the repairs if necessary. Home models are needed for the finer sewing required for the dolls and especially the doll clothing. The industrial machines can be used for other types of crafts such as baskets for tortillas and covers for blenders. Blenders are very important in
Central America, as, among other foods, liquados  (a blend of various fruit juices) are very popular.

The group is also arranging a basic cutting and sewing course for the women, obtaining bids from sewing institutes and instructors. Because of the job market in maquilas, (sewing factories) sewing courses are not difficult to find. While most group members can do some sewing, they recognize the need to improve their skills. The group hopes to have the sewing course happening within the next week or two.

Kay offers a class in sight singing
or as called in Central America: la solfa.

How to begin to imagine how to explain what makes a note a note and how notes and rhythms combine to create music is a big challenge. One must first explain what one means that one tone is higher or lower than another. The sheer joy when the students begin to get it -- one note at a time, one tone when almost everyone is together in one sound -- is a tremendous gift to both teacher and students. The sphere of the heavens, the music of the soul, unfolds very slowly,.

The question is how to equip church leaders to provide musical support and appropriate innovation. We ponder how each of us received a half-hour of musical instruction daily for at least our first eight years of grammar school. We cannot remember when we could not read music, when we did not understand these very basic relationships of sound, rhythm and expression that bring joy to our celebration of the glory of God.

Visual Health Clinic opens at Santísima Trinidad