Mucho Trabajo-Sunday Sept. 21

Left and below: Members of San Andres Apostol












Above: Visiting after the morning service

Sunday was a bit of a long day. It started at 8:00am and ended around 6:00pm. We sleepily started with the morning service at San Andres Apostol, the night before was the Vigilio de Avivimiento that lasted from 7-midnight which meant we got home around 1:00am. It doesn't have to be Easter around here to have a vigil, in fact there's another one this Saturday for the women of the diocese. After the morning service, we headed out to the outskirts of a pueblo called El Congo to the Iglesia Anglicana San Jose del Congo. Surrounding the church is a community "Via Anglicana" built with the help of Episcopal Relief and Development. Via Anglicana is one of four such developments in the country and is made up of families who lost their homes due to the major earthquake in 2001. We were in Via Anglicana to attend a gathering of youth from another church in the diocese, Santisima Trinidad from San Martin, an outlying town that is apart of greater San Salvador. Amy was asked to speak to the youth about women entering the priesthood and other ministries, which seemed apt since most of the youth group was made up of girls. The youth around San Salvador and the outlying cities and pueblos have enormous issues to deal with. The pressure from the gangs to join them is intense(every member of the youth group at Amy's church has been approached and pressured by the gangs). Teen pregnancy is very high, an occurence that has stopped some from pursuing a call to the minstry, with girls as young as twelve years old sometimes becoming pregnant in the more rural areas. Poverty, the lack of adequate employment, all of these are issues that the youth here are immersed in, among many others. In talking with them you realize how important the role of family and the church is in their lives- an anchor among situations that have swept others away. These kids have incredible heart and strength, and if they survive, can lead the church in a powerful direction. I pray that God would protect them and that they would embrace the call, which was apparent at the retreat, that God has for them.
-Vince
P.S. The title of this posting is a double-entendre-- there certainly is plenty of work here, and Vince told the kids at the youth retreat that being my husband was "mucho trabajo"! -Amy

Youth Retreat at El Congo

The Rev. John Habeker and the Rev. Cesar
Hernandez preside over the evening service
at San Jose del Congo


Above: Rev. Amy Zuniga, Rev. Cesar Hernandez,
and los jovenes from Santisima Trinidad, before
a discussion on calls to ministry, in particular
women in the priesthood.


Above: Youth fromSantisima Trinidad, San Martin at the retreat.

The afternoon coffee club of El Congo stops
for a bit of Java, well, a whole lot of Java and
philosophizing. These hearty young men
after a long and grueling day in the throes
of their recent green coffee bean fight, like
to enjoy a good cup of coffee like any other
six year old. They start 'em on a good cup of Joe
young here in El Salvador. Here as they relax
after discussing the correct way to prepare a good
cup of coffee,"Is it five or ten spoons of sugar per cup?"
they engage in applying the universal sign
of annoyance and which has ruined millions of
pictures the world over, "bunny ears".

Vigilia de Avivimiento

Above: Members of San Andres Apostol sing with our
Roman Catholic brothers at the Vigilia at San Andres Apostol.



Above: Members of San Andres Apostol
sing at the Vigilia de Avivamiento
(Enlivening Vigil) at San Andres Apostol.
7pm-midnight!

Anniversary Trip to Suchitoto

Top-Iglesia Santa Lucia set on the edge of the plaza in the middle of town. Built between the

years 1853-1858.

Middle-In front of Lago Suchitlan
Bottom- Villa Balanza where we stayed the scales were done by a local artist. On the right are a stack of tortillas and on the left is the head of a bomb.


This is backtracking a little, but we did take an anniversary trip last monthe for our one year anniversary. We took a bus to Suchitoto which is an old colonial town about fourty-five minutes north of San Salvador and sits above the Lago Suchitlan. We had dinner in the bell tower of the Restaurante Villa Balanza and had a great time in the city, except for the bee sting Amy received in the open air mercado. Luckily it happened in front of a booth that was selling handmade soaps and herbal remedies where they gave her a salve made from a tree in El Salvador which relieves pain. It worked, though the sting did still swell up a bit. While hanging out in a cafe talking with the guy behind the counter, he asked Amy where she was from and what she was doing in El Salvador. She said she was a deacon with the Anglican/Episcopal church in El Salvador. He gave her a funny look and she asked, "Do you know the Episcopal church?" He answered "Yes, of course, a friend of mine was a priest here and is now in Washington D.C." Amy exclaimed, "You know Hannah?!" Turned they both had mutual friends, Rev. Hannah Atkins and her husband Elmer Romero who now live in Washington D.C. Incidents like that sure make the world seem small. Pretty cool. --Vince

Translating at El Maizal

Hanging out with the delegation of
clergy from the Diocese of L.A., and
ERD volunteers from Arizona at the
community of El Maizal and doing a
bit of translating.

San Andrés Apostol, Amatepec, Soyapango

Amy and Vince in front of Amy's new church.

Settling In

Family and friends,
Well,now that we've finally gotten somewhat settled in we can work on the updates! We have an apartment about a block away from the Diocesan office. It's a nice spot not far from the buses and near a good pupuseria(for those who don't know what pupusas are, you'll just have to come down and try them!).
We've met quite a bit with the Bishop of El Salvador,the Rt. Rev. Martin Barahona, who is also the Primate of Central America, and he has lined us out on our jobs. I will let Amy explain in another posting what she is doing, but I too have a job. It was a little unexpected. I knew vaguely, when I came down here, I might do a little something with music, but I wasn't quite expecting to do it in the scope that the bishop has lined out. In his conversation with us,which was all in Spanish, I kept hearing the words Ministerio de Musica. I thought, "Oh, well, that's kind of a cool title for playing a little guitar in Amy's church." I come to find out he meant for the whole diocese! His plan is to have two musicians and instruments in every church. I'm working on a curriculum for teaching guitar and people in the diocese are excited. Music has been an area the bishop has wanted to strengthen for a long time, so here we go. The songs here are awesome. One church here has a few guitar players that lead the music and it is so cool.The people sing with such heart. Hopefully theses guitar players will assist in the classes. Things are well. More postings on the various projects in the diocese to come.
Vince

Diocesan "Convivio"

• Above:Salvadoran Anglican laity and clergy gather to listen to presentation on Our Anglican Heritage.
• Below:Amy talks with Mario and Rafael, members of the music ministry at Iglesia Santa Maria Virgen, our congregation's nearest Anglican neighbor. We hope that Sta. Maria Virgen will help with the guitar lessons!
  

Over sixty people from almost all 25 congregations in the Diocese gathered last Saturday for a "convivio" (loosely translated, a lively gathering!) where we learned about Our Anglican Heritage, using a wonderful book by the same name in Spanish written by The Rev. Hannah Atkins when she was here as a missionary with the Anglican/Episcopal Church in the 1990's. Each congregation was assigned several aspects of Anglicanism to describe, and our group from San Andrés got "naturalist, political, tolerant, humane, moderate, and historical"- thanks, Hannah! It was really great seeing some of the women from our church get into describing these different aspects of Anglicanism. My favorite part was when Wilma, describing the church's commitment to a humane society said, "If we don't cry out, the stones will cry out, and we're not going to let the stones cry out!" Amen! -Amy