When All Roads Merge Into One
Thursday, May 7, 2009 at 05:25PM by Margarita Campos and Michelle Bueno
Early last year, Isidro Ramirez, a 42 year-old husband and father of two, was looking for a job. While he had no shortage of work at the time—he was pastoring a new church in San Salvador—he was finding it difficult to support his family as his children began college. Even with his degrees in Christian Leadership and Ministry, Theology and Agronomy, along with 22 years of pastoral experience, Isidro didn’t know what kind of job he would find. That’s when Isidro’s son, Gerson, came across a brief ad asking for pastors with experience in agronomy to apply to work for a Community Advisor Program at a local non-profit in El Salvador. Rather than just paying the bills, Isidro realized that this job was a dream he had been praying for all his life.
Isidro’s journey to ENLACE started as far back as High School. At that time, he wasn’t a Christian and had no intention of spending his life to help others. He was no stranger to being poor and saw his studies as a way to get out of poverty and make something of himself. However, after being invited to church by a few classmates, Isidro began to sense a profound change in his heart. Within six months of attending church and experiencing God’s presence there, his entire perspective about himself and those around him was transformed. As a result, he gave his life to follow Christ and began to take notice of those in need around him; their poverty, their addictions, their bereft experience of life without God. Christ’s love, like the unseen pull of gravity, began to draw him towards people rather than away.
The change in perspective meant that his studies were no longer about him. He wanted a vocation that served others and impacted people instead of a career that starred himself. His desire to study both agronomy and theology bloomed from this distinct outlook, and he began to serve the poor as pastor and agronomer. Even so, Isidro wasn’t sure how God would use all his skills and abilities together. To most people—and to most job situations—his skills seemed comically unrelated.
Isidro giving advice at a new home garden in AbelinesENLACE hired Isidro as a church coach for the extremely poor and remote region of Abelines in June of 2008. ENLACE and three local church partners had been working there together since 1997. Along with a basic need for curative health care, electricity and infrastructure, many residents suffered from acute malnutrition, underscoring the need for a better diet. The use of home gardens has transformed this community’s health irrevocably, and agriculture—even on this small scale—is as important to churches’ outreach programs as is anything preached from the pulpit. As God knew, a church coach with training in both theology and agronomy is a perfect fit.
After a year of Isidro and the team’s toil, prayer and dedication, there are now 11 new partners in this region. Regarding this growth Isidro said,
The Good News is not just a matter of words and theory, but of God’s love and compassion in action. The opportunity to work with ENLACE was the moment that all the roads came together.
Click here to see the Spring Newsletter highlighting the Abelines area
Click here to see a photo gallery of recent housing recipients in the Abelines area
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