We spent the last day celebrating the life of Oscar Romero and visiting the major locations where he impacted the world. Our journey began at the small chapel where he lived even after he was promoted to Archbishop. Sister Mercedes gave us a tour of the famous chapel where Romero was assassinated while leading Mass and invited us to the platform where he stood and looked at his murderer. She described in detail what part of the Mass he was and how a red Volkswagen pulled up to the front doors that were open. As we were educated about what happened the sister invited us to share our word that defined how we remember Oscar Romero. We remember him to be a champion, a prophet, pastor, a true follower of Jesus and someone who is not afraid to cross borders.
We spent day six being educated about the struggle to keep gold mining out of El Salvador. Our time was spent in San Isidro where the Canadian based mining company, Pacific Rim went in without permission and began exploring for gold after the 1992 Peace Accords. They successfully found the precious metal at a value around 200 million US dollars. The organization we were able to sit with is called ADES which stands for, The Association for Economical Development.
Alex Orantes is the husband of Ruth who is the pastor of the Shekinah community. Ron described Alex as the best teacher he has ever had because Alex takes him to see what Alex is talking about. One piece of wisdom that I may always hold onto was how Alex described that Ruth is the pastor for the people of Shekinah, but he feels called to the people of their city outside those walls. In America we have a very difficult time with religious language. Pastors are sometimes considered the person you see on the stage addressing a crowd, or the visionary leader who is responsible for entire communities, the person who makes decisions, the leader etc. However, in my understanding I have learned that pastors are the leaders who walk with the people in their journey pursuing Jesus. They listen and share in conversations and love well. Alex feels called to walk with the people outside of the building. What a beautiful expression of “Body Life”, two theologically trained individuals who are reaching out in different ways. This is something I have loved seeing.
