Reformed with love: El Salvador ministry provides hope to former gang members

Hungry Church, a ministry partner of the Salvadoran Lutheran Church, provides job skills training in auto mechanics to former gang members. The Salvadoran Lutheran Church is an ELCA companion. Photo courtesy of Nestor Cruz.

By Caitlin Sellnow for Living Lutheran

“We love those who others fear to love,” said Nestor Cruz, pastor of Hungry Church in El Salvador. The church serves gang members who have been deported from the United States, providing them with safe places to stay, income, job skills training and other support.

Cruz began Hungry Church to provide a community for others like him. Born in El Salvador, he was taken to the United States as an undocumented immigrant when he was an infant. He joined a gang at a young age, got arrested and was classified as a youthful offender. After spending more than 12 years in prison, he came back to El Salvador. At that point, he had no connections in his birth country and no way to return to the United States.

Still, Cruz found hope in God’s grace. He became a Christian after he was incarcerated, and he believed God was giving him a second chance in El Salvador. He wanted to offer that hope to others. So Cruz spent time outside the migrant processing center in San Salvador, offering support to people who had been deported from the United States. He could often spot them because they spoke English—many didn’t know much Spanish at all.

At the center he connected with the Salvadoran Lutheran Church (Iglesia Luterana Salvadoreña or ILS), an ELCA companion. When staff from ILS’ migrant ministry met Cruz and learned about his work, they formed a friendship with him and then a partnership.

In the beginning that partnership wasn’t always easy. To ILS members, those involved in Hungry Church looked similar to active gang members in El Salvador. “They always came in a group, speaking English with a sense of camaraderie, and with tattoos on their bodies,” said Blanca Irma Rodriguez, coordinator of the church’s migrant ministry. But as the two groups continued to work together, they established a sense of trust.

In the beginning the partnership wasn’t always easy. To ILS members, those involved in Hungry Church looked similar to active gang members in El Salvador.

First, ILS provided seed money for Hungry Church’s microbusinesses, selling eggs and pupusas (griddle cakes). Through that support, Rodriguez said, “we were able to observe the love, responsibility and sense of identity that they had developed for the Hungry Church ministry.”

In 2018, the ministry’s leadership decided to provide job skills training. Through its partnership with ILS, an active member of the ELCA’s AMMPARO (Accompanying Migrant Minors with Protection, Advocacy, Representation and Opportunities) network, the church received a grant of $10,000 through Lutheran Disaster Response.

Leaders planned to use the money to train eight Hungry Church members in carpentry and auto mechanics. But demand was so great that they enrolled 20 participants. Some graduates have become teachers in the program and now pass along their new skills to more community members.

“A fraternal community has been created,” Rodriguez said. “As Christians, they are reaching and attracting those who have been orphaned in terms of fraternal love, who have been excluded from the benefits of material resources.”

The ministry is making an even bigger impact than its leaders had initially hoped, and they plan to continue growing it, eventually expanding it to other countries such as Nicaragua.

Love is the alternative

El Salvador’s government recently began cracking down on gangs, implementing a state of emergency that has been criticized by international human rights organizations. It suspends certain civil liberties and allows for children as young as 12 to be tried as adults for suspected gang affiliation.

“The success of the Hungry Church’s ministry in reforming gang members to lead productive lives demonstrates that there is an alternative to the government of El Salvador’s policy of seemingly randomly sweeping people off the streets and incarcerating them,” said Mary Campbell, AMMPARO program director.

Cruz preaches to his community that God doesn’t care where you’ve come from or what you’ve done in the past. The Hungry Church website describes this ministry as “a place where you’ll be welcomed no matter how many tattoos you have or where you’ve been. … At Hungry you will be loved.”

To learn more

For more information about the Hungry Church and the ELCA ministries mentioned in this article, go to:

Caitlin Sellnow
Caitlin Sellnow is an ELCA communications manager.

ELCA, NewsBrian FlatgardLiving LutheranComment