Emmanuel Church, El Triunfo

Emanuel Church is a humble and hard-working, rural congregation of 45 members. In 2009 their pastor, Orlando Andrade, heard about ENLACE through conversations with Pastor Victorio Paz from the nearby community of Abelines.

As a result of working with World Vision and the local mayor’s office, the church already had close relationships with its community. ENLACE helped to strengthen these existing relationships by helping the church to improve its organizational capacity and integration with other leaders and families of the community and by helping them to establish new relationships with the local community association, the Ministry of Health, and the local public school. As a result of these new intersections, the roof of the community's public school was repaired keeping over 200 students safe from the elements. Collaborating with the local health committee, the church hosted a medical team from the U.S. that served 360 people.

The goals for 2012 are to continue to strengthen the church's leader- ship through ongoing training and to facilitate the development of infrastructure projects, such as pedestrian bridges and housing, and health projects such as latrines, medical assistance and a water system.