Pilgrimage to El Salvador – March Break, 2027

Are you interested in joining a partnership that has blessed people across North America since the 1980s? Is the Spirit urging you to discover Christ’s work in communities that look dramatically different from your own?

During March break 2027, leaders from the East Central Ontario Regional Council together with the Eastern Ontario Outaouais Regional Council and the Pacific Mountain Regional Council will welcome 20-30 people and travel to San Salvador to be guests of our global partners at Emmanuel Baptist Church. Through this week together you will learn about Salvadoran history, perhaps help build a school, community centre or church in rural El Salvador, learn about peace making initiatives as alternatives to social exclusion, violence and poverty. In short, your life will change.

On May 5th, there was an El Salvador Information session on Zoom: On Tuesday evening about fourteen prospective pilgrims and the leadership team met on zoom to talk about what a mission awareness trip might look like to El Salvador. We started with brief personal introductions and we learned that there are a diverse group of people interested and there were some who have participated in an El Salvador experience and would like to return for more. There were some who have participated in mission trips in the past and many for whom a trip like this would be a first. There were well-travelled folks and people who have never travelled outside Ontario. There were retired folks and some still in the work force and there were youth still in high school. Three major communities were represented. ECORC (East Central Ontario Regional Council) area in south-eastern Ontario, Emmanuel United Church in Ottawa and a group from the Okanagan region in British Columbia making this truly a national trip.

We discussed an overview of the trip. It would take place over the course of a week during March break of 2027, some time around the second week of March. We will travel together and be met at the airport in San Salvador by our hosts and taken to our accommodation on the outskirts of the city. Our agenda for the week will be set by our hosts and we will learn about the history of this small country through visits to museums (like the civil war museum and the war memorial). We will learn about Saint Oscar Romero and his work as Bishop, we will likely visit the catholic cathedral in downtown as well as the small chapel where he did so much of his ministry. We will learn about the geography of the area and learn about the impact of volcanoes, earthquakes and mono-cropping that has shaped the Salvadoran people. We will build community with our host congregation as we work side-by-side on a project (like the building of a chapel foundation or the construction of a cistern) and as we worship together in their sanctuary. And, we will build community as a group of pilgrims through large and small group activities.

To help prepare for the trip, we will be meeting on zoom three times (Sept 8, Nov 10 and Jan 12 each at 7pm) and in person by region on Feb 6. At each meeting there will be time to plan, to build community and to ask questions.

The cost of the trip will likely be in the range of $2500 which includes everything except spending money for souvenirs. As a group we will be organizing fundraisers for two purposes. The first to help offset the cost of the trip and second to raise funds to help our hosts with a ministry project of their choice (most likely some kind of build). Again, fundraisers will be grouped in each of the three regions. It’s never too early to start thinking about potential fundraisers.

Adults who have visited El Salvador before will also have an opportunity to visit United Church global partner ADES, the Santa Marta community advocacy and agriculture support group.

Are you ready for this? Then please consider joining us March Break, 2027 but before you complete this application, please consider some important, practical facts:

• El Salvador has a tropical climate, with especially high levels of pollution in the urban areas
• Much of the terrain is volcanic and very steep. We will walk a fair bit on this trip.
• We sleep in dorm rooms with 8 to 10 people.

While our hosts are well connected and make our safety and health their priority, it is important to understand the political situation in El Salvador:

• El Salvador remains under a state of “Special Emergency”, whereby some legal rights remain suspended.
• This has resulted in mass incarceration, which many believe has reduced the activities of the gangs and significantly reduced the murder rate.
• However, there are reports of false arrests and difficulty extracting young men from prison once arrested, including citizens of other South and Central American countries.

If you have any questions, please ElSalvadorMarch2027@gmail.com

Please fill out the application below if you are interested in joining us!