We Will have Water: Ana Lourdes

Ana Lourdes is one of the thousands of community members in Las Delicias that will benefit from the Project Milagro water system. She now buys water from large trucks, but doesn’t know where the water comes from or if it is clean. She only knows that it causes stomach aches, illness, and it's expensive; but she looks forward to the day when she will have clean water in her home at an affordable price.

$50 / month for 10 months will provide the milagro of clean water for one household for generations to come!
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Project Milagro: Repairing a Road to "The Miracle"

$50 / month for 10 months will provide the milagro of clean water for one household for generations to come!

Donate Today!

Milagro Water Flowing to First Tank!

$50 / month for 10 months will provide the milagro of clean water for one household for generations to come

Donate Today!

More information at www.projectmilagro.com.

Water for Marina: A Dream Becoming a Reality

Many of you who have followed Project Milagro (The Miracle Project) in the communities of Las Delicias, Las Animas and El Rosario know the story of Marina. Marina is a hard-working single mother who has volunteered countless hours alongside her fellow church and community members, striving to make a dream become reality. Take a moment to listen to Marina's compelling story. 

$50/month for 10 months (or $500) will bring clean water to one household for generations to come. CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW!

Chronic Neglect: The Water Crisis in El Salvador

Below is a six-minute version of a documentary by Rose Anderson found on hubwitness.org about the water situation in El Salvador. The site has this to say:

While there is no shortage of water in El Salvador, almost 60% of the rural population has no access to a reliable water source, forcing women and girls to walk long distances and pay high prices to obtain water of dubious quality. In cities, water is almost never lacking in wealthy neighborhoods where pools are common, while in poor areas where water is available only a few hours a day or during the night, the price can reach 10% of a household's income.

The communities where ENLACE works are certainly not immune to these problems. In communities like Las Delicias on average residents pay 30% of their income to buy dirty water from water trucks during the six-month dry season. However, great strides are being made to bring clean water to the nearly 10,000 residents in the area (www.projectmilagro.com). 

Since 1993, ENLACE has already helped local churches and communities implement five water projects benefitting nearly 15,000 people. 

Just $50/month for 10 months or a gift of $500 will bring water to one household for generations to come. Donate now to project milagro and be part of the miracle!

PROJECT MILAGR0 2009 YEAR IN REVIEW

In a year of global economic hardship, Project Milagro made considerable strides towards providing water for 10,000 people in the hills of Las Delicias, El Rosario, and Las Animas. As 2009 closed, stage four (of seven) was near completion in which the first 100 families will receive access to clean water! It has been quite a journey, and here are some of the miracles that brought us this far...

• Cornerstone Church (Simi Valley, CA) contributed a significant gift in February and provided the necessary funding to begin construction of the first pipeline of the project. 
• ANDA (the national water company) donated over 1 mile of piping and provided technical help for the installation. 
• Starting in March, over 80 people from the various communities worked on a daily basis to dig the piping by hand.  Within six weeks the piping was installed. (see video)
• The Orange County (CA) chapter of Engineers Without Borders helped fund, design and construct a large water tank in Maroquines (between Rosario and Las Delicias).   
• Willow Creek Community Church signed on to provide the filtration system (to be completed by March 2010) which will clean the water supply of iron and manganese. 
• The necessary infrastructure has been built at the well station. 
  • First pumps installed 
  • Electrical system installed 
  • First re-pumping tank constructed 
• A number of U.S. churches and organizations have come alongside the project this year including the following: 
  • San Diego First Baptist 
  • The Crossing (Costa Mesa, CA) see video
  • Crossroads Church (Temecula, CA) 
  • Meadowbrook Church (Champagne, IL) 
  • Foothill Christian Schools
  • Engineers Without Borders
  • Samurai Enterprises 
  • Vanguard University 
  • AJA Charitable Fund 
  • Cornerstone Church (Simi Valley, CA) 
  • Willow Creek Community Church 
• Approximately $250,000 was raised in 2009 from U.S. partners and individuals. 

LOOKING AHEAD

In 2010 there is still a huge hill to climb. In the coming weeks we will describe in more detail the goals for moving forward. We hope to raise at least the same dollar amount as 2009 and begin construction on stages five and six.  

God continues to perform miracles in the communities of Las Delicias. Please continue to pray for more miracles and for the protection and provision of all the incredible people in the three communities who press forward in their goal for clean water.

Engineers Without Borders Partners with ENLACE

Engineers Without Borders, an NGO based in Boulder, CO, is involved with projects in over 45 developing countries around the world. Five of its 12,000-plus members are working with ENLACE on a holding tank a few kilometers above the well site of this project. A week or two ago, the tank site (Rebombeo #2) was a collection of scrub brush and sink holes along the side of a mountain between Las Delicias and Las Animas...

Click here to read the full article...

Construction, Training, and Haircuts: A Week of Creative Partnership

Last week, The Crossing Church sent a team to collaborate with the Good Samaritan Church in Las Delicias. For some team members, this was their 7th trip partnering with local ENLACE churches. With 25 members, this was the largest team the church had ever sent. It required months of preparation to properly match the skills and desires of the team with opportunities identified by the local community. This year, the result was a multi-faceted trip that included women's leadership training, working with children at a local school, organizing a soccer tournament, a Project Milagro construction project, and even free haircuts and haircutting training. Teams like The Crossing who are involved in a multi-year relationship with a local community play an important role in motivating and empowering the local church to transform its community. 

Click here to see the picture gallery from the work site.

Spending 30% on Dirty Water: Measuring the Impact of Project Milagro

Click here to make this dream a reality!

Go to www.projectmilagro.com for more information. 

As always, we welcome your comments.

A Journey of Transformation: Part 2

by Frederick McGough

Transformation

As a member of ADSA’s Advisory Committee, I have been able to see firsthand how effective rural churches in El Salvador can be when they reach out to their communities and initiate programs and projects that benefit of the whole community.  They understand their biblical calling which is to engage their community and be instigators of action. In the process, relationships are restored between community members and with God.  I have witness this transformation, and in that process I am being transformed and my heart is being renovated.

Project Milagro

Project Milagro is an amazing example of this.  To think that the rural church of 60 members, whose pastor has a 2nd grade formal education, has been able to effectively mobilized three communities, their community leaders, local government officials, federal congressional diplomats, and the national water organization ANDA, to focus on the common goal of providing inexpensive and clean water to 1,300 households. It is truly remarkable to watch as this church facilitate a multi-million dollar water project.  Furthermore, since the project was birthed in the community itself, is being managed by community leaders, and requires community participation, the ownership and sustainability of the project will remain in the community's hands.

Frederick with Salvador Romero, Vice President of ADSAMy “gringo mentality” still occasionally limits my comprehension of the sheer significance of the above. I fall back to my “first world” perspective and wonder why the project is taking forever and a day to complete.  I frequently second guess the seemingly endless inefficient construction logistics, and even at times have questioned the overall feasibility of the project.  

Yet over time working with the community, I have come to understand the communal importance of the community members digging the trenches by hand vs. using a machine. I also see the affirmative impact of all community leaders having a say in the process even if it takes weeks to make simple decisions versus "outside experts" telling them what to do. And the magnitude of ownership gained by ADSA in their countless meetings with governmental officials to become a legal water board versus paying "big city attorneys" to accomplish this task cannot be overstated. 

Only in retrospect, do I fully appreciate that the “means” is as important as the “ends”.  Sure, “the outside world” could construct a water system for the community in a fraction of the time and maybe for less money.  By participating in this community transformation, I've learned that since the community is the long term "stakeholder" it's only through the many trials and tribulations that come from the process that the proper sense of responsibility and ownership is birthed.

God’s Work

Last, but far from least, through this project, I have seen what it means to have real faith; faith in ourselves, faith in our neighbors, and most importantly, faith in God.  Project Milagro is God’s work, and it will be completed in His time.  We all must continue to have faith that God will continue to provide the resources. We all must continue put that faith into action and make the most of the resources that He provides. And when the project is completed, our faith will lead us to praise the Lord for what He has provided and our hearts will have true joy from the restored relationships among each other and with God.  

For those of you who have known me for more than five years, this blog might be hard to believe.  All I can say is that God is slowly transforming me.  He has shown me what it means to be truly poor and destitute, beginning with the man I see in the mirror every morning.   

May peace be with you all.      

Click here to read Part 1 of Frederick's "Journey of Transformation"...

Click here to see more about Project Milagro... 

A Journey of Transformation: Part 1

by Frederick McGough

Frederick with his beautiful family

 As the Director of Finance for ENLACE, I have been blessed to be part of an organization with the mission of “transforming communities”.  I also feel extremely fortunate to occasionally get out of the office and participate in various projects, one being Project Milagro.  I have never kept a personal journal, but if I had, I would have written something like this about my involvement over the past year:

Saturday, July 19, 2008 – Water Board Meeting in the semi-rural community of Las Delicias 

As I lean back in the white plastic chair, my mind wonders. I gaze through the open door of the cement block community building and realize that my "North American sight" is still judgmental even after five years of living here. I can’t help but notice the flies hovering over discarded potato chip bags and forgotten plastic bottles. The unwanted scavenger dogs and odd-looking cows loiter about the semi-paved road which are lined with dirt floor shacks that many local residents call home. From my seat I can see the blue and white wall of the overcrowded and understaffed school. The ever-present 90 degree heat and drenching humidity is occasionally interrupted by a slight breeze. The breeze does nothing to stop the sweat from rolling down the back of my neck and forehead.  My mind slips to my prior life, where you would have undoubtedly found me “relaxing” away in the bleachers at Wrigley Field or playing golf on any given summer weekend.  I am brought back to the present by Pastor Miguel’s question, “So, does anyone have any other comments on this issue”.  My focus returns to the nine other members of the Advisory Committee of the newly formed local water board, ADSA. The Advisory Committee has been established to assist ADSA manage their water system.  After two hours and counting, we are still discussing the same, seemly inconsequential issue, and I realize that I won't be making my children’s swimming meet.  In that moment, I asked myself,  "What I’m I doing here?"   

Monday, March 2, 2009 - First Day of Excavation, Las Delicias

Frederick at excavation site on March 2The dry season dust hits my face as I exit the Land Cruiser. The mid-morning sun is baking the already scorched terrain, reminding me why I've covered my exposed skin with sunblock and carry a liter water with me.  I accompany four other ENLACE members to observe and document the first day of the first piping stage of the water project.  Our excitement has been growing over the last five weeks since an agreement was signed between ENLACE, the community, and the national water company, ANDA.  If all goes well, in six months bacteria-free, inexpensive well water will be made more accessible to residents of three communities, who have been buying expensive and unhealthy water from water trucks for decades.

As we walk through a patch of banana trees to the work area, I find myself thinking of the countless job-site meetings I attended as a construction project manager in Chicago. Yet, nothing I had ever experienced could compare to this morning.

Over 100 community members had been digging since dawn with homemade picks and shovels. The trench was nearly a kilometer long and a meter deep, covering three elevations of farm land.  Other community members provided the workers with water, snacks, and moral support, as the community leaders skillfully managed the project. I can honestly say I had a brief sensation of “awe and wonder”. 

Frederick's journey doesn't end here. The second part of his story will be published next week.

Click here to read more about Project Milagro... 

"The Difference Here is Unity:" Interviews with Miguel Duran and ANDA Representative