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