El Salvador Project
The Northwest Mennonite Conference has taken on a project in El Salvador that we are excited about.
The Vision: To improve the spiritual and socio-economic development of the Aleman village by working together to implement
*Church Planting
*Trade Development
*Education
Initially the Spanish Mennonite Church in Red Deer heard about this project through one of its leaders, Ciro Serrano, who was on a business trip in El Salvador in 2004. He met Pastor Ramon Monterrosa of San Salvador, who travels 96 kilometers west of his home three times a week to a village called Aleman to help the people. There are spiritual, physical and economic needs in Aleman that the Red Deer Church has been helping to address. NWMC has also committed to support the project. The Project has been closely supervised and missions leader Manuel Ramirez from Red Deer has been there, Pastor Ciro Serrano was there in April/09, and Pastor Luis Vega returned in November/09.
Projects:
Church: The Red Deer Church has been contributing to the support of Pastor Monterrosa, who has been devoting his time and efforts to these people. The church has grown substantially in the last two years. He began with 3 adults and 30 children and now has about 28 families. They meet in a covered shelter without walls, so part of the project will be to build a church buidling.
Bakery
A Bakery had been functioning in a borrowed facility, but when the facility was no longer available the bakery closed down. With financial 
help from Red Deer, the local people have now finished building the structure of a multi-purpose facility to house the bakery, sewing room and a classroom. Since the NWMC November/09 fundraiser, they have purchased the needed bakery equipment and done the electrical connection.
Farm
This project is moving beyond the dream stage! They now have land 10 kilometers from Aleman in El Eden for the Farm Project. It involves helping the people to be self-supporting through raising animals, chickens, eggs and vegetables. The government will train the men to raise animals and do egg production. This will enable the men in this community to provide for their families in a consistent way.
Well water
This is an urgent need that will be the next one addressed.
There is also a need for a church building and a house for the pastor and family so he doesn't need to travel from San Salvador. They are hoping to move to Aleman soon.
We are excited about this project because we have the opportunity to totally change a community - spiritually, socially and economically! We invite you to make this your Missions Project for this year.