El Salvador Project
Since 2008 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 travelled 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 and the Calgary Hispanic Churches have 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 July, 2010, and Pastor Luis Vega returned in November/09. Pastor Serrano is in frequent contact with them.
Projects:
Church:
Pastor Monterrosa 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 building towards which the Red Deer Church has contributed $7,000.
Missions Trip, January 19-26, 2013
Pastor Monterrosa has now moved to Aleman and is living with his family in the Bakery's storage room. We plan to address the need for a home for the Pastor and his family with a Missions Trip to build this home. There is room for 20 men on this trip. Contact Carol at the Office for more information..
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, 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. Seventeen people have been trained to work in the bakery but it was only running at 20% capacity because they needed cash for ingredients so NWMC arranged for a loan for them to cover this cost and get them going.
Well water
Well water has been an urgent need for the functioning of the Bakery and for the community at large.
We are pleased to say that the well was completed in 2011. Our hearty thanks go to an organization called Son-Beam International who learned of this need and contributed $6,200 towards the total cost of $8,250 for the well. Another $1,670.50 was raised at our Annual Convention in March, 2011 for the well, and with other donations of over $8,000, the cost was covered.
In a 2011 hurricane this well was the only one functioning for a radius of about 5 km, so many people from the surrounding area were coming to use the fresh, clean water.
A big thanks to all, and to Son-Beam International who made it happen!
Farm
The Bakery and Sewing Room will help employ the women of Aleman, but the plan is to employ the men by helping them get into farming.
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.
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.