In March of 2005 I arrived in Santa Tecla
anxious to work. We had moved from our country of Panama
to a small place in Central America called El Salvador.
My family and I moved to the city of Santa
Tecla and began the work. One of the first people we met was
Esperanza, who was already a Christian. She put us in contact
with a friend, Manuel, who introduced us to a Samuel, who in
turn introduced us to others. It was in this way that we began
to visit different people these first contacts knew and we
began to visit several neighborhoods in a door to door
evangelism effort, teaching the doctrine of Christ. Several of
the people we visited began coming to services and before the
end of March we had a regular attendance of 15 people in the
first Christian church of Santa Tecla. Now, at the end of the
year, there have been several baptisms and even a group 7
brothers and sisters who have graduated from a leadership
seminar that I have been giving them.
A few months after the work began, one of
the brothers took me to a new town named Chalchuapa. I really
liked the place and I began an evangelistic effort there. To my
surprise, a community leader there who supposedly hated pastors
and would not receive in his house any religious person,
welcomed me into his home for a visit. I talked to him about
Jesus Christ and the Bible for several hours until he inquired
of me if I had a place yet to hold church services in the
community. I responded that, no, I hadn’t, and he offered his
home to hold those services. At present, Don Tobias, his
spouse, and a son have been baptized and he and his wife got
married, trying to put things in their life in order. When this
second Christian Church in El Salvador was begun, we had a
regular attendance of 25.
Around six weeks ago when we helped some
families that were affected by Tropical Storm Stan, we meet the
family of brother Pedro in Nuevo Cuscatlan, and shortly
thereafter we began holding services there in an effort to teach
doctrine to a group of people he was worshipping with at the
time. We began that in essence the third Christian Church in El
Salvador, with 15 people.
In these first months of the work here we
have had many trials. Brother Manuel, one of our first contacts
stole money from the church treasury and Samuel, another early
leader, started getting drunk in public. I was forced to
discipline these brothers and neither of them accepted the
discipline and instead tried to divide the church. However, the
church members knew the truth of what had happened and that they
were at fault and rather than disintegrate, the church passed
its test and grew. This was a case where as the Bible says that
some will be heralds of Good News for others, but in the end,
they themselves will be lost. God has protected the church in
this time and I am convince the church is advancing from victory
to victory.
In spite of these trials and the culture
here, which is different in many ways than others that I know in
Latin America, the brothers and sisters here are moldable and I
am teaching them the true love of Christ and His church.
At present, the Christian Church in Santa
Tecla is averaging 95-100 for Sunday services. Many have been
baptized and a large number have changed their membership
leaving false doctrines to become a part of our congregation and
the Restoration Movement. God has truly blessed us.
At present, the Christian Church of
Chalchuapa averages about 110 people at its services. There
have been baptisms there and like the church in Santa Tecla, a
large number have joined us from other church backgrounds. We
also have an organized youth group and a ladies group. We even
have been blessed to have hosted a medical brigade there with
the help of Dr. Walter Garcia, a leader in the region of the
government’s Health Department. This brigade was done at no
cost, and we were able to see 40 people that we were able to
help with medicines. This Brigade also left us with a medicine
reserve, to be able to give follow up help, which to date has
assisted an additional 150 people.
At present, the Christian Church in Nuevo
Cuscatlan averages about 20 people. There also, we have been
able to baptize some new believers and have received some
changes of membership in the two months this congregation has
existed.
All told, the Christian Church in El Salvador now has between
225-230 people regularly attending services. We have been
invited to start another church on the edge of a volcano that
recently erupted as well. We hope to soon be able to start a
training program for future ministers and/or lay ministers. God
has blessed us to be able to buy land in Chalchuapa for our own
church building. We give thanks to God, Lifeline Christian
Mission, and the Christian Churches in the United States. God
is building his Kingdom in El Salvador and it looks to be a big
work.
Also
there is a photo of the construction in Chalchuapa. 
