Well, I’m back in the states after a very enjoyable trip to El Salvador to talk with sponsored students, visit completed projects, and talk with those who need the help of TLAU.  My plan is to use the next week or so to recount the events of our trip, but for now, take a look at the newly uploaded photos.

To the left, students at Nuestra Senora de la Candelaria in Santa Ana present me with a plaque commemorating the generosity of TLAU donors.

If I wasn’t traveling to El Salvador in three weeks, I could say with confidence that I’d seen everything.

I don’t care what your soft spot is, whether it’s the mannerists or the pre-Raphaelites, gothic or baroque, Michaelangelo or Raphael, you must admit: that’s one well-adorned block of concrete.  Click here or the photo to the left to see more, including a few of the artist at work.

Especially moving is the banner that sits atop the TLAU logo which reads “Nuestros Angelos tienen Nombre” which translates as “Our Angels have names.”  I’d like to join Nuestra Senora del Refugio in thanking Father Keane for all he does, not only as the most active TLAU officer, but also as a pastor of souls.

Santa Maria, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros, pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte!

Walter sent a few shots of the first day of construction of the “cancha” or covered play area at Nuestra Senora del Refugio in Ahuachapan.  TLAU donated the three classrooms on the second floor in the photo to the left, and the large expanse of scorched earth in front of them (extending beyond the right margin of the photo) will soon be covered by a simple but sturdy metal roof.  This is a common arrangement for schools in El Salvador. Since it is a tropical climate, it’s always warm enough to play outside, so walls aren’t necessary.  However, because the equatorial sun is so strong, it is standard practice to provide a covered area for student activities and school functions.  If you’ve ever experienced the sun in Central America, you’ll understand how valuable the shade is.

For more photos, click.

Oh, the ramifications of the virtue of charity! It’s like dropping a stone in standing water and standing back to watch the concentric ripples expand.  Just as that tiny falling pebble affects the stillness of a large mass of water, even remote and anonymous acts of selfless good-will will cause the hardest of hearts to yield to God’s call.

That’s not to say that Manuel Roberto Molina Martinez and Ana Victoria Castillo de Molina have “corazones de piedro.”  In fact, all it took was an article in El Salvador’s national newspaper, La Prensa Grafica, about TLAU’s work at the Centro Escolar Nuestra Senora de los Pobres (see the original post; this story is recounted in a subsequent article pictured to the left).  The successful business-owning couple saw a need that, if addressed, would give hope to 170 very poor children that would otherwise find it more than easy to live a life of delinquency.  So they did what each and every TLAU donor has done and, I pray, will continue to do: something.  They paid for two more classrooms to complete a facilities plan that most of the school’s organizers probably thought was never going to be executed for lack of funds.  That was one year ago, and by Salvadoran standards, that’s called light speed.

Folks, I hope you grasp how truly awesome this is.  Keep it up.

Oh, and the last part of the article can be found here.  One day if I have time I’ll do a little rag-tag translating.

Thanks to my parents, Leonard and Sharon Nelson, I will be spending my spring break driving around El Salvador with Walter.  It’s been almost two years (or more) since I’ve visited, a fact that is only contributing to the excitement.  How funny it is that I have grown so fond of a country and culture that at one time appeared so strange that it frightened me.

First on the agenda will be visiting many of TLAU’s completed projects that I have yet to see.  Many of the projects have been inaugurated already, but Salvadorans are so hospitable that I’m bound to receive a welcome I definitely don’t deserve.

I will also meet many others who have benefitted from your generosity in other ways, such as the becados and their families.  And adding to the excitement, Walter informed me that I’ll be meeting Msgr. José Luis Escobar Alas, the archbishop of El Salvador.  (I hope I can muster enough courage to kiss his ring).

With the help of my youngest brother Jeffrey, who is visiting for the first time, I’m hoping to take many pictures and a few videos while I’m there.  Keep us in your prayers, and as always, stay tuned through the newsfeed–I’ve made a resolution to be more diligent with the postings.