a las delicias area pastor carrying supplies to water tankLas Delicias is a semi-rural village of 1,500 people located in the eastern limit of the Department of San Salvador. Most of its residents are wage-laborers in the surrounding factories or small-scale farmers. The average person makes less than five U.S. dollars per day. The community is located just 5 miles from the town of San Martin, giving them access to a large market place as well as most urban conveniences including electricity. However, the area lacks access to potable water. Most residents spend 1/3 of their income to buy dirty water during the six months of the dry season. The area was recently affected both by the 12-year civil war that ended in 1992 and the 2001 earthquakes.

Pastor Miguel Duran arrived in the Las Delicias area after pastoring three churches in eastern El Salvador. He was brought to the area in order to work on a nearby farm and had abandoned the thought of pastoring in the area. He says that God began to do a work in him and his “pastoral heart” began to suffer which led him to minister to two women. They became the first “members won for Christ in the area.”

Previously, there were no evangelical churches in the region and the church experienced many hardships because of their negative stereotype as a cult. Miguel tells of many stories where God intervened to help. On one occasion, as they were attempting to build their first church building of adobe mud, they had no money to buy the water that they needed to form the adobe bricks. The water vendors had refused to sell them water when they found out it was for a church. There were seemingly no other options since it was in the middle of the 6-month dry season. They began to pray for God to provide water and it began to rain. It rained and rained, until at ten o’clock that night, they were praying for it to stop.

Miguel and Leonor Duran lost their oldest and youngest sons in the 2001 earthquakes during a landslide. His oldest son is survived by a 7 year-old granddaughter named Evelyn. His middle age son, ‘Miguelito,’ is co-director of the Christian Academy School in the area, and his daughter, Yesenia, is seeking employment in the U.S.

Miguel says he used to believe and preach that once someone has Christ in their hearts, they are always happy, even if they don’t have food or clothing. He says that when his own family was suffering, he realized that what he had preached wasn’t true; he hurt and suffered when his children had nothing to eat and he couldn’t provide clothing for them. After studying the Bible more thoroughly and meditating on Jesus’ life, he says he discovered that Jesus “not only preached the good news as forgiveness of sins, but also gave the people something to eat and healed their bodies. So, [Miguel] saw Jesus being interested the integral life of the person.” This realization transformed his understanding of the mission of the church.

pastor miguel at water well in 2006He recently commented that the most important challenge in motivating the local church is to get its members to look beyond what seems to be a lack of resources. He says that people often think they are so poor that they are the ones that need to be served (indeed, by any standards the members of the good samaritan church are poor and in "need" of service themsleves). Miguel uses the example of Jesus feeding the five thousand to illustrate that Jesus sends his disciples out to feed with the resources they have available. He says that the disciples were distraught because they were looking at what little resources they had available. They were not being obedient to Jesus' instructions. But as the disciples began to obey and share what little they had, God did the miracle of provision for those in need.

ENLACE has been working with the Good Samaritan Church (La Iglesia El Buen Samaritano) for over 12 years. The church's outreach committee managed a local health clinic and has spearheaded numerous projects in and for the community including numerous road and home construction projects, an addition to the public school as well as clean-up and health campaigns just to name a few. The biggest current projects are a water system that will benefit over 10,000 residents in the area and an integrated farm initiative. Many of the church members also take advantage of micro-loans and financial training available through ENLACE’s microenterprise development program. The church is now working on improving their children and youth ministries as a result of their recent growth.

Their willingness and ability to serve their community is unprecedented. The Good Samaritan Church is a church that is truly fulfilling the integral mission of the church through effective proclamation and demonstration of the gospel of Christ. Miguel loves to talk about how greatly God has been glorified in and through La Igleasia El Buen Samaritano. In a church that seemingly has no resources, led by a pastor with a first-grade education, in an area plagued by poor health, violence and natural disaster, they have found truly effective ways to show people how much God cares.

click here to donate to ENLACE in order to enabling us to continue to walk alongside pastor miguel as he effectively serves with his community.

click here to read more about the las delicias water project and how you can help.

click here to see picture galleries of las delicias.

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