Sunday morning our bus takes us to the village Los Heros just outside San Salvador for service. We are later told the road may be the most dangerous in the country because it crosses gang boundaries multiple times. Nevertheless, we are not in danger because we are associated with the Lutheran church, which is promoting peace instead of warfare against the gangs. Riding with us are Linda and Tim, two volunteers from Milwaukee who are active in the area, working for the same purpose.
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The volunteer Linda, who along with her husband Tim are working with the local villagers as well as the gangs.
We arrive at the church. After the war when the rich landowners had to give up some of their land this area was given to the peasants. They marched up to the top of the hill and planted the crucifix at this spot for their church. For years the church was a simple wooden affair but recently it has been reconstructed from cement block. The crucifix on top is the original that was carried by the peasants to this spot.
Pastor Santiago wearing his usual smile. There is a gang boundary just three blocks away. Residents can not cross it to attend service. They must go to a church some distance away. After the service there are three military men standing outside the church, standing watch. They smile when I say "buenas dias". Still, Tim tells me that normally the police patrol the town, not the military. The villagers trust the police much more. When the government assigned some police to the town, they had to sleep in the school. The villagers were so happy to have them there that they took it upon themselves to build a house for them to stay in.
After the service there is pizza and ice cream. It's a big day. The children are having a lot of fun.
The homes are so close together there were no views but looking over the roof of a building just down slope from the church you can see the pleasant countryside.
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