LWB Helping In El Salvador

El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally "Republic of The Saviour"), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. As of 2018, the country had a population of approximately 6.42 million, making it the smallest and second-least populated country in Central America.

Beginning Of The Ministry In El Salvador

The ministry of children's cell groups in El Salvador began in November 2010, from the desire of 2 young people, to be able to reach a group of children from the community of San Juan Opico. These children had limited resources and disintegrated home. In that year, childhood in El Salvador represented a great risk of violence, where children from the age of 7 joined gangs. In the heart of Saira de Villegas, and her brother Bruce Realegeno, began this journey of creating a children’s ministry, independently and without sufficient resources. With faith in God to be a guide of hope in Jesus for the children of the Santa Barbara community in San Juan Opico. They guided the children to know God, and the ministry became a violence prevention program for young children and adolescents. Joining them is Herbert Villegas, who married Saira, and to date has been one of the contributors to the ministry for 11 years. Together as a married couple they still embrace this ministry with their hearts while being in USA.

It is worth mentioning that part of the group of contributors was Saira's father, Carlos Realegeno, who was living in Canada. He was one of the people who supported the ministry, along with a group of believers from his church, as well as friends and family abroad. All of them joined every year helping with resources to carry out different literacy programs for children, computer courses, music courses, crafts, and sports.

The children met every weekend, in the house of our beloved and remembered Catalina Sánchez and her husband José Callejas. This couple have provided their home as a refuge for these children these 11 years. The Sánchez family has been a blessing because of the service they provided for our ministry.

As the children met each weekend, they received a nutritious snack, and a teacher would lead them in praise songs and in the word of God. Initially 80 children from the ages of 3 to 13 years were reached.

Among the aid campaigns there has been "Creating Smiles at Christmas." Celebrated at the end of the year, a party with clowns, food for children's games, and a special gift for each child, was organized. Toys and clothes were donated by people from different parts of the world. This put a smile on the face of each child.

The program Let's Go! God Believes in You and I do Too! is organized every January to February. The desire was to motivate children to continue their studies by giving them a new backpack to start their school year. Each year 25 to 30 school-age children have benefited. Several children who had dropped out of school were motivated to return to school again. Even today, we are so glad to see some of those children who have managed to finish their high school.

Likewise, several children with specific health cases have been helped with provision of medicines, shoes, and packages with personal hygiene utensils.

Among other relevant activities carried out from the beginning of the ministry were the birthday celebrations for the children. In 2015, we celebrated our first 4 teenagers fifteenth birthday called “ La Quinceañera”. Together with their families we were able to leave a beautiful memory in their hearts.

Luis **Chacón**

Luis Chacón met the Lord Jesus at the age of 11 when 2 women shared the Gospel with him while he was walking down the street. In 2017, a friend invited him to a church and reaffirmed his decision to follow Jesus.
In 2007 Luis Chacón began serving in the worship ministry. He also worked with children visiting communities, showing movies, and doing dramas taking the gospel of Jesus to others.
Then in 2014 some children from his neighborhood were orphaned by the murder of their parents. This was a consequence of the high rates of violence due to a conflict between criminal groups and security forces in El Salvador. Because of this event, Luis Chacón opened his children's group together with the vision of the ministry of Saira Realegeno to bring Jesus to that community.

Since 2016, Luis Chacón has been the leader in El Salvador who ministers to these 2 groups of children located in San Juan Opico in the communities of Santa Barbara and Colonia San Rafael. Every weekend he provides nutritious snacks for the children. The program also helps provide financial aid to those who are attending high school. The program delivers backpacks at the beginning of the school year. At Christmas, a special event is sponsored by the ministry Creando Sonrisas. Where the children receive toys and clothes according to their age.

In addition, Luis Chacón is a member of the CCI El Salvador church. There he ministers to children as a teacher in Zona Kids.

Now Luis Chacón and the 2 children's communities in El Salvador are under the support of the Love Without Borders Ministry.