So THAT Was the Trigger!

Interesting how missing one small fact can totally change how you see the overall picture. No one from the United States side of our group seemed to know exactly WHY we had such impressive police protection throughout this trip. All the facts I had on hand were accurate....but it was one small fact that I did not have on hand which totally changed the entire picture! Come to find out, Pastor Jimmie (from our sister church in El Salvador) APPLIED to the government in advance for us to HAVE this police protection. There is a special unit of police that specialize solely in the protection of visiting heads of state, diplomats, etc--called the PPI (Proteccion de Personalidades Importantes)(Protection of Important People--the El Salvadorian equivalent of our own Secret Service). Pastor Jimmie had APPLIED to the government REQUESTING that we have this protection....HE was the trigger!

It is true that a group traveling by bus was recently killed by one of the gangs in the exact area that we held our Tuesday clinic in (and where our sister church is building a mission church). It is true that it is rumored that the gangs are targeting church groups. It is true that gringos (white folks) aren't safe being out alone at night in San Salvador (but then, even our translators (native Salvadorians) said it was not safe for THEM, even, to be out walking on the streets of San Salvador at night. (San Salvador is like El Salvador's New York City.) But I added all the facts up--along with the observation that the other medical mission groups and church groups we saw here did NOT have a police unit protecting them and the conclusion I drew was that our group, SPECIFICALLY, must have become the target of one of the gangs. Well, that was totally wrong! The reason the other church groups did not have police protection is because they didn't have Pastor Jimmie watching out for their well-being, like we did!

Even WITH the police protection, still, one of the tires and the decal was stolen off Pastor's Jimmie's vehicle while it was parked in Los Llanitos on Tuesday. That is just a very rough area. That is where they are building the new mission church. We will be sending a construction team back to El Salvador next summer to help them build that church. While we were here this time, Herb and Larry were able to present our sister church with $5,500 that was donated by two families in our own church to buy the plot of land the mission church in Los Llanitos will be built on.