Castillo del Rey, El Salvador Mission Trip

Recently, my wife Barbara and I had the opportunity to travel to El Salvador to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of the people of that region through Healthcare Ministries. El Salvador is a relatively small country, situated in Central America, surrounded by Guatemala, Honduras, and the Pacific Ocean. It is a poor country, with basically two classes of people, the elite, which comprises 8% of the population, and the poor at an overwhelming 92%. El Salvador adopted the US dollar as its currency in recent years, but the wage for most is only $5 to $7 per day, staggeringly low, considering gas prices are about $3.50 a gallon. The literacy rate of adults is only about 57%.

The population of El Salvador is approximately 6.4 million people, with a medium age of only 14. A great many of the children have no parents or have been abandoned. It is common to see young girls caring for an even younger brother or sister. The adult population has also been ravished by the prolonged civil war in the 80’s, fueled by clashes between the peasants and the government. The country is still recovering from a damaged economy, a decimated population, and natural disasters, but has made notable progress in recent years. The current president, Antonio Saca, is popular and is able to relate to the poor as he himself is no stranger to poverty. This is helping the economy and giving hope to the people.

The land of El Salvador is very mountainous, with many volcanoes and craters. Some of these are quite active even today. The main crops include sugar cane and coffee bean plantations. There are also numerous sites of Mayan Indian ruins.

Our US staffed medical team of 23 individuals consisted of physicians, dentists, opticians, a pharmacist, and auxiliary personnel. We traveled nearly 20 hours to our final destination. We left Seattle early in the morning, stopped in Houston to meet up with the other team members, who hailed from different parts of the US, and from there we flew straight to El Salvador. Then we took an exciting two hour “school bus” ride through San Salvador, the capital of the country, into the rugged mountains over rain soaked roads, around careening corners in the dark of night, on what seemed like the world’s fastest bus. By the time the ride was over, we were all grateful to have arrived safely. The site of our clinic was Castillo del Ray (the King’s Castle) International Training Center, located at about 3,000’ in elevation, on the shores of Lake Coatepeque, a crater-formed lake surrounded by active volcanoes. In fact, adjacent to the Castle is the Santa Ana volcano, which violently erupted just a couple years ago. Miraculously, Castillo del Ray was spared any damage from falling ash and flowing lava. We were astonished at how quickly the area had re-vegetated, and how completely the volcanic destruction had been erased.

The Castle was like a self-sufficient compound, complete with dining hall, dormitories, gymnasium, swimming pool, and the famous Prayer Fortress, where there is 24 hour intercessory prayer for the children of El Salvador. There were horses roaming the grounds, keeping the grass mowed; there were 2 spider monkeys to entertain the children, and there were giant sized bullfrogs that filled the night air with their croaking. Since it was the end of the rainy season, the area was quite lush and green. Looking out beyond the perimeter of the clinic sight, we saw the arching canopy of the trees and the thick underbrush where the coffee plantations were located, protected from the scorching heat of the sun. And like any jungle, there were myriads of birds that provided early morning choruses and serenaded us at night.

On Sunday, our team set up the medical clinic in the large gymnasium, providing ample room for all the medical stations, and the flood of patients that streamed into the clinic over the week. The location of the dental clinic was the stage of the gymnasium. It was actually the best spot as there were windows offering additional lighting and refreshing breezes throughout the day. The training center is designed to host volunteer church groups or others on a rental basis, and thus has large dormitory facilities for men and for women. Since Barbara and I weren’t particularly interested in dormitory life, we brought out camping tent, in hopes of being able to “tent” outside on the grounds. However, the missionary hosts were concerned about the “nightlife (snakes, tarantulas, and other “creepy-crawlies”) so we ended up pitching our tent on the stage, alongside the dental clinic. Can’t beat a 10 step commute to work !

During clinic hours, we worked with the nationals, who were able to interpret for us. Some of our team members wanted to make a deeper connection with the local people, and attempted to speak a little Spanish, but with some comical mis-interpretations. One amusing instance was where a team member was trying to communicate with some of local women by addressing them as “mamasitas”. Later she was surprised to learn that she was using the term for “hot mamas”. We all had a good laugh over that one.

Our clinic was set up with distinct areas, including registration, medical, dental, optical, pharmacy, and counseling. Patients would indicate their primary need and service request at the registration desk, and then be directly accordingly. As a team we were able to see nearly 1400 patient visits during the week. The ages ranged from a few months to over 80 year olds.

Most these people were extremely poor, living in shanties under the canopy of the surrounding jungle-like mountainous areas. Many walked for miles to the clinic, others rode the local bus which stopped at the front gate of the Castle, and a few were so desperate to be seen, that they were in line by 4:00 am in the morning. With the crowd of people, waits of several hours to receive treatment were common.

As the people were treated by our team, we would share our faith with them, pray for their needs, and encourage them to seek more of what God would have for their lives. Many of their requests were for comfort in the midst of tragic family losses, for personal or family related health conditions, and for work to support their families. We sensed that the presence of the Lord was evident, giving them renewed hope for the future.

Even though the people came from far away and had to wait, they were extremely appreciative of the free medical treatment, the availability of the medicine, and the love and compassion expressed to them by the team. This love and compassion is a reflection of God’s love for us, and is a small measure of His enormous love to all people where in He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to be the sacrifice for our shortcomings, failures and sins. And with His death and resurrection, Jesus has freed us and made us presentable to God, enabling us to live eternally with Him, in His glorious Kingdom. What a place that will be, with beauty and grandeur beyond our comprehension. For it says in John 3:16, that “God so loved the world (whether here, in El Salvador, or anywhere else) that He gave His only Begotten Son, that whosoever should believe on Him should not perish (be in eternal darkness, separated from God), but have everlasting life!”

Life is so short for each of us, 100 years or more, at best. The Bible teaches us that everyone is just one breath away from eternity – a sudden illness, and accident, or even a dangerous bus ride – and there is no second chance. So our heart is about sharing God’s love and plan for people – His special most prized creation – through word and deed, here and abroad in places like El Salvador.


Sharing the Good News abroad,

John & Barbara Johnson