At any rate, this scholarship program is pretty amazing! The students are mostly from the communities where Pastors Matias and Martina work and there are also some students in the program that are at the main Lutheran Church, the Casa Esperanza, and the Casa Concordia. Yesterday over 200 kids gathered in the church in Buena Vista for a church service and the kids acted out the gospel lesson, played some music, and gave speeches of thanks. Then each child was called up, their picture was taken, and they received a book, a few other little gifts, and a note from they people in Minnesota that sponsors the child. We all had lunch, the kids did some crafts, and they all ran around playing with the gringos. Today at the Casa Concordia we had a smaller gathering of those students who were not there yesterday- about 60 students I think. Below are pictures of some of the kids that were cramed into the church in Buena Vista and some of the kids from the community of Colon acting out the Gospel.
Many of the folks that are here from Minnesota sponsor a child, and it was very moving to see the kids and the sponsors interact. Some were meeting for the first time and others had met before. It is one thing to send money to a child, but when you get to meet and talk with that child it makes it so meaningful. There is obviously a great physical distance between Minnesota and El Salvador not to mention the numerous other differences such as language and culture. But that physical distance and all other differences were overcome yesterday and today when the children and the sponsors interacted. The children and their mothers were so incredibly grateful and thanked the sponsors again and again. Without the support, many of these kids would have no chance of being able to go to school.
This program hasn´t been around for too many years, but the enormous benefits are already evident. Last night Alvaro told us about his life. His dad died when he was young and soon after his mom started living with a man that mistreated him and his sister. So he decided to leave the house. He ended up in a orphanage for a little bit, then left and ended up living on the streets of San Salvador. He lived in a park and tried to earn some money by washing windshields of cars. He moved around to different places and some point he started sniffing glue. For awhile he lived with 9 other boys and an adult. Sometimes they slept in a park and sometimes they would find an abandoned house to sleep in. When they slept in the park people would complain to the police and then the police would come and tell them they couldn´t sleep in the park. One day he and the other boys were brought to the Casa Esperanza, Alvaro was the only one who decided to stay there. Trini saw potential in this young boy and she took good care of him. Through the scholarship program he got to go to school and started in 8th grade. He studied hard and finished the year second in his class. He went on to 9th grade and again finished second in his class. Trini sort of adopted him into her family as she has done with a few other kids as well. Alvaro thought he would go on to high school and so Trini again found a way for him to attend.
Alvaro thought he might like to study medicine and he read that Cuba has the best medical schools. Through a special program he gets to attend school there. And the scholarship program helps support his living costs. He has a few more years left of his general studies and then depending on what he wants to specialize in it will take him longer. When he was telling us his story he told us that the only reason he is alive is because of God. There were so many times when he could have died, and without God there is no way that he would be studying to be a doctor. He is home on a break and we got to celbrate his birthday a few nights ago. Truly an incredible success story. And I can only imagine how many other success stories there are already through the schoalship program and how many more there will be.
