Profile du pays : Salvador

El Salvador, which is Spanish for "the saviour" or Jesus Christ is a predominantly Christian country on a Pacific Coast of Latin America.  The small country is the most densely-populated state on the mainland of the Americas and it is highly industrialised.

In the 1980s the country was destroyed by a civil war between the small and wealthy elite population and the majority of the population, many of whom lived poorly. The war left around 70,000 people dead and caused damage worth billions, but it did bring about important political reforms.

In 1992 a United Nations brokered peace agreement ended the civil war, however, no sooner had it began to recover when it was hit by a series of natural disasters, including Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and earthquakes in 2001. These left at least 1,200 people dead and more than a million others homeless.

The country's people are largely Roman Catholic and Protestant. The constitution recognises the legal status of the Catholic Church, but there is freedom or religion for other denominations and faiths.

OM representation began in El Salvador (1980, Harvest Baptist Church), as a result of subsequent visits of Logos II to these countries during the 1990’s when country representatives were identified. The office is in the building of Iglesia Bautista Mies, in Soyapango city. We have been using this office, without charge, since 1990.

OM international officially recognized Central America as a ministry field in 2000 though evangelistic outreaches and recruitment of Central American missionaries has taken place since the early 1990’s.

OM Central America exists to mobilize national Christians into cross-cultural world mission involvement and local social help ministries within Central America and provide training in evangelism and missions for the national Evangelical church. Our programs emphasize evangelism within the region, provide social help for people in need, give training to Christian nationals and with the view of raising up national workers and leaders to staff OM offices and to minister effectively within Latin America. OM also makes quantities of Christian literature available in the region.

To achieve these purposes, the ministry emphasizes the following areas:

1) Discipleship training for national Christians

• Global Challenge and other short-term programs for nationals, Europeans and North Americans
• Periodic training programs for national church members in practical evangelism and world missions
• Equipping local offices with national workers and providing training for them

• Summer, Winter, Easter and vacation evangelistic outreaches for national and international workers in El Salvador

3) Social help for needy people

• Ministry in public schools (teaching values and AIDS prevention), squatter areas, orphanages, prisons and state youth facilities, among the elderly, unwed mothers, children at risk
• Mobilizing teams to provide food, medicines, clothing for the poor
• Providing training seminars on the subject of AIDS prevention