The Details

You notice I have named my blog “…To Live…To Work…To Learn…” Since you will be along with me on this journey, in these first 2 posts, I aim to introduce my next two years and explain my blog’s title. First, the details: I leave on September the 24th to begin 2 years as VMM (Volunteer Missionary Movement) missioner in El Salvador. I will fly into San Salvador (the capital of El Salvador) and for two days, I will travel and orient with representatives from VMM and FUNDAHMER (the organization I will be working with—more about that in a second). Then, I will join the 12 other VMM missioners that serve in Central America at a retreat in Guatemala. Here I will meet the other missioners and have a little spiritual “nourishment” to get my two years off on the right foot.

After the weekend retreat, I will travel back to San Salvador to begin 6 weeks of Spanish language school at CIS (Center for Exchange and Solidarity) in San Salvador. The opportunity for language school is a blessing not only because I will learn the language to help facilitate my life and work for the next 2 years, but also because I will learn about Salvadoran history, culture, and current events in afternoon sessions. Moreover, because my language school is located in San Salvador, I will have an adjustment period to begin becoming acclimated to life in El Salvador and for getting to know people from FUNDAHMER and other missioners and volunteers in El Salvador.

My six weeks in language school will end in November. At that time, I will begin working with FUNDAHMER, which is an organization that supports and serves impoverished Christian base communities in El Salvador. FUNDAHMER has projects involving a lot of different types of work in the base communities. (For example, a friend who also graduated from Furman in the spring is presently working with FUNDAHMER in work involving sustainable agriculture). Despite the variety of FUNDAHMER’s projects, all of their work and identity revolves around key principles of their mission: Biblical formation, theology, values-formation, human rights, empowerment, community development, accompaniment, gender equity, alternatives to poverty, and preservation of the environment. What a list! It will be interesting to see how these values play out as themes of my journey of living, working, and learning over the next 2 years.

I will be specifically involved in FUNDAHMER’s Youth to Youth Leadership Project, which will provide faith formation and leadership training to youth in El Salvador. A brutal civil war in the 1980s and the economic, political, and cultural struggles during the war’s aftermath have created pivotal and often dire situations for the young people of El Salvador. Through the Youth to Youth Leadership Project, young Salvadorans will be empowered to actively participate in their communities, the Church, and the world in spite of their social and economic limitations and will be empowered to develop and preserve their dignity and hope.