First Parish Church Features

2004 First Parish Church Mission Trip to El Salvador

Pete Didisheim's Remarks

El Salvador is a beautiful nation, although it once had natural resources that have long since been destroyed.

An estimated 97% of the country's original forests have been cut down to create agricultural land for coffee and sugar cane, to provide fuel, or simply due to population pressures.

Many animals have become extinct, and clean water - other than what you buy in a bottle - is almost non-existent.

In our visits to the countryside, Matt Horgan and Sue Chadima - the two veterinarians on our team - met with villagers to answer their questions about how to do a better job of raising their rabbits, chickens and goats - many of which were provided through the Heifer Project.

One man explained his sense of failure when half of his 100 chickens died. He had persuaded friends to chip in to buy the chickens, but then he sold the ones that remained. He had lost faith in himself, and so had his friends. But by the end of the visit he was ready to give it another try.

A man named Francisco introduced himself, saying: "Life is very difficult in El Salvador. No matter how hard you work, sometimes it's difficult to get what you need to survive." He was eager for knowledge that would help him survive.

A man from Santa Ana moved to the country-side when the government was giving away land after the civil war. He now owned a goat and he hoped to get enough goats so that, one day, he could sell several of them and buy a cow.

We asked one man when the rainy season starts: "It begins in May," he explained, "it used to be April. It's because of the forests being cut down and what we're doing to the earth."

How do you know this? we asked. "From talking with others who work the land. What the Americans are doing and what we are doing hurts the entire world."

We visited a medical clinic with one nurse who served four villages, one of which was accessible only by walking two hours on a mountain path.

We were chased by joyous kids who abandoned their soccer game at the first sign of the ASAPROSAR truck with Americans on board.

We visited schools in the countryside to deliver school supplies gathered here in Brunswick, Maine.

And we saw a culture that put our own lives into a whole new perspective.

First Parish Church is doing god's work through this small but meaningful effort to help make a difference for people who have so very little. Our trip made a difference for the people we met, and for us.

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