JUNE 11, 2005 -- THE CONTAINER HAS SHIPPED!! It should arrive in El Salvador the week of June 20.

We have been blessed abundantly!!

St. John's in Brookfield is coordinating an exciting project in an effort to support the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod in creating opportunities for men, women and children to increase their education, employment and health opportunities. A very generous donor has agreed to ship a large container of items to El Salvador!! We entitled our plan "The Container of Hope," building on the theme of hope which Bishop Medardo Gomez, Bishop of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod, shared at the 2004 Greater Milwaukee Synod Assembly (and reminiscent of the Caravan of Hope school bus and entourage that traveled from St. John's to El Salvador after the 2001 earthquake).

A primary component of the Container of Hope project is to develop a library in the community school in Los Heroes, El Salvador. This project is being coordinated by Jason Muth as his Eagle Scout Project. Jason is a member of Boy Scout Troop 16, which is based out of St. John's. Jason developed this idea after traveling to El Salvador in 2001. Jason collected approximately 1000 new and gently used Spanish-language books.

In conjunction with the book drive, we also included books for the Salvadoran Synod Lutheran Church library, and Bibles to distribute among the congregations of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod. Sunday School resources, pastoral study resources, and NIV large print Spanish Bibles.

A second component of the Container of Hope plan is to support the Sewing Cooperative in Los Heroes, and to support and encourage the development of additional sewing cooperatives throughout congregations in the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod. In addition to dozens of sewing machines donated by persons throughout the Greater Milwaukee Synod, we collected fabric, sewing notions, patterns, and other items to facilitate the establishment of sewing cooperatives.

A third component of the Container of Hope plan is to support the Woodworking Shops in Los Heroes, and hopefully, to open similar shops in other Lutheran congregations as well. There are currently 2 shops in the community, one of which employs Luis (the young man who made the crosses for the 2 003 Churchwide Assembly). We visited Luis' shop during our last visit, and learned a great deal about the tools needed in order to make these shops viable employers for young men in the community.

We collected medical supplies for the clinic of the Salvadoran Lutheran Synod including many wheel chairs and dozens of pairs of crutches, and sports equipment for church-sponsored youth leagues throughout El Salvador. Our collection even included two small boats to help the members of one community cross a lake to get their goods to market.

As we walk with our brothers and sisters in El Salvador, they share with us their ideas, their dreams, and their hopes. We have learned that enormous hope can be found in small places. For our Salvadoran family, hope lies in the pages of a children's book, in a piece of fabric, in a box of screws, in the Word of God. For a short time, this hope will be contained, as the shipping container travels thousands of miles ... but once the Container of Hope is opened, we pray that the little hopes that we send will burst open and become enormous. We pray, that the Container of Hope be a source of empowerment, so that the ideas, the dreams and the hopes of our Salvadoran brothers and sisters may become real.