Just how difficult can it be to transition leadership of a community from one generation to the next? Some think of it as the relational equivalent of rocket science.
Pastor (that is his Spanish name, not his title) is always respectful of the youth who have begun to emerge as leaders in this rural community of campesinos in northern El Salvador who had to flee their country in front of government death squads during the civil war.
“They’re young, and they work hard,” he reflects about their enthusiasm for resolving the problem of the garbage in the community. He thinks about it more, then shakes his head in sympathy, “It’s hard to lead the people.”
Pastor and other elders were young when they began to take leadership roles as young adults during their eight years in Honduran refugee camps. With little to no formal education themselves they served as teachers and community organizers, and once the community returned to El Salvador in 1989 they led the effort to carve out a new home in the jungle, establishing productive fields and putting the organization infrastructure into place for their new home.
Shalom Mission Communities (SMC) and Valle Nuevo have had a fraternal/sororal relationship since 1992. Nancy and I have been visiting Valle Nuevo every year and sometimes twice for the last 17 years, enjoying and helping to carry on this important relationship. Nancy, for a number of years now, has been co-organizing the annual SMC delegation visit to the community.
Last year after a fifteen-year project of securing land titles for 171 families was completed and a new well was dug that provided a potable water source for the community, the older group almost en masse stepped off of the directiva, the governing board, and a group almost 30-40 years younger stepped in. During our 2018 SMC delegation visit, we heard some criticisms from the new leaders of the old: they were ineffective, they were out-of-date, and “Now we’ll show what can really be done!”
Nancy and I visited again this May. One year later it was a different story. The new leaders had discovered the difficulty of getting people to meetings, the frustration when people do not follow through, the disappointment and defensiveness that arises when others were projecting selfish motives onto the leadership group, and the other classic problems leaders everywhere face.
We were inspired by Pastor’s unceasing graciousness in supporting the new leaders. He was well aware of the criticisms that had been made of him and others, but he was always ready to assist and affirm when approached for help. And we were encouraged to see that several of the young people were seeking out Pastor for his help.
The SMC-Valle Nuevo relationship is a story of forgiveness. Those of us from the United States are complicit in the history of colonialism that subjugated the campesinos and the civil war that took the lives of many of them and left the others injured and traumatized. It is also a story that brings affirmation and meaning to a people who have been marginalized and treated as less than human.
We have so many stories from this almost 27 year relationship that we could write a book. Well, actually we have.
Compañeros, Two Communities in a Transnational Communion, is a collection of our stories and theological reflections by both SMC and Valle Nuevo.
Joe Gatlin