Our students spent 3 weeks in El Salvador learning from our partner, Seeds of a New Creation, about their work in their communities. They listened to teachings from pastors and community leaders, explored sustainable agriculture in rural communities and spent time on service projects with different ministries. The trip was mutually encouraging – a reminder that the kingdom of God is flourishing all over the world. One of our students, Kassia, and Alyssa, a trip leader, take some time to reflect on what this partnership means.
Kassia Beauchesne, Act Five Student
“We stood in a circle,all holding hands. Delaney, our translator, explained that everyone was going to close their eyes. Music began to play and children’s voices filled the air. The two kids on either side of me swayed out of sync, gently yanking me in opposite directions. The words were foreign to me and there were no screens or booklets to help me sound them out this time. I hadn’t been expecting to be standing there in a time of praise and yet, I felt the spirit of worship in that moment more keenly than any other time I had shown up expectant.
Sometimes, I tried closing my eyes and simply listened, feeling the presence of God in that space. I felt Him the most, though, as I kept them open, looking around the circle. To my left, at one little boy staring up to the sky as he sang, and to my right, in another child with eyes tightly closed and singing with such earnestness and sweet sincerity. I want to remember that expression of childlike devotion. The feeling of being tugged back and forth and having no idea how to sing along. The beautiful illustration of how God is in everything, even (and especially) in the unexpected places. I want to remember the washing over of peace as I felt the permission to stand there in that unexpected place, allowed to simply be and receive.
Through so many moments during our three weeks in El Salvador, I felt convicted by the example of mission I saw demonstrated by Semillas and their partner ministries. The way they are with the people, not just in the church, but outside of its four walls. In the unexpected places, walking alongside their neighbours. Fully present, fully engaged and incarnated in community.
I saw ministries creating community gardens, teaching youth how to breakdance, helping adults complete their high school degrees, and playing with kids in market squares. Though God was at the heart of all of those ministries, many leaders expressed that others have questioned or pushed back on what they are doing. Ministering through actions rather than words and going to the places we don’t think God is at work, can sometimes go against our assumptions as Christians.
In El Salvador, I felt a call to model Jesus, be embodied in my communities and place, and open my eyes to the ways He is moving that I might not have expected or seen before.”
Alyssa Zilney, Act Five Program Manager
“Our now four-year partnership with Semillas de Nueva Creación is a gift that flows in both directions. This recent trip was my third visit to El Salvador and my first since 2023. I arrived eager to reconnect, to listen, and to learn again from people I’ve grown to love and trust – and the visit did not disappoint.
“Seeds of a New Creation,” as the organization is called in English, is a Salvadoran community development organization rooted in a vision for the New Creation and shaped by the principles of Integral Mission. Integral Mission is a theological framework articulated by Ecuadorian theologian René Padilla at the 1974 Lausanne Congress. At its heart, it insists that the Christian gospel is both proclaimed and embodied – lived out in word and deed – and that these two cannot be separated. Following Jesus means speaking God’s reconciling work and participating in God’s justice, compassion, and restoration in the world. There is no hierarchy between evangelism and social action; rather, all of life falls under the Lordship of Jesus.
Integral Mission is holistic in its reach, incarnational in its grounding in Jesus’ life among the marginalized, and deeply contextual in the way it is shaped by real places and people. Semillas is a beautiful and collaborative example of what this looks like when it’s lived-out in a particular context and in particular communities.
There is much alignment between the vision of Semillas and the vision of Act Five. We, too, long to see local churches animated by a gospel that is deeply relational, rooted in place, and generative. At Act Five, we invite young adults along on a journey that stretches their imagination for what life can look like when it is shaped by the broad, unfolding story of Scripture and the hope of new creation. Semillas does similar work with local churches in El Salvador, nurturing an imagination for a restored world, and empowering communities to work toward it on their own land, with their own people.
While this partnership is an immense gift to us – the vast amount of learning, new experiences, relationship-building across differences, and new perspectives formed – our visits also matter for our hosts in El Salvador. They get to show us the goodness and beauty of their own country, the ways they see God’s homemaking and reconciling movements unfolding in their own places. This is not small. Early in the trip, I spoke with our students about the way many countries that have struggled economically have been made to feel small or disposable on the global stage. In El Salvador, our students encountered people who love their place and are proud of it and are eager to share it.
Getting to be the recipients of that joy, hospitality, and love, and then sharing it back in the form of curiosity, encouragement, and story is a beautiful thing. It nurtures dignity, mutuality, and hope. It reminds us that global relationships, when rooted in respect and reciprocity, can be life-giving in both directions.
And so I return to the name: Semillas de Nueva Creación—Seeds of a New Creation. The new creation is the reign of a good God made manifest on earth: integrated and whole. Therefore, the work is plentiful – it can go in any direction and has ample creative potential. Its expression is not limited to sermons and prayers and bible studies. It is realized in relationships, in ecological agriculture that heals both people and land, in work with children that interrupts cycles of violence, and so much more. It is about building a world that is exhibiting love in all directions. Through people, communities, and the local church – this kind of mission is a call for all of us.
Semillas works against the grain, against the current in their own context – even within the church it is hard to find support for this work, which requires courage, imagination, and long obedience.
This trip sparked our own imaginations for what a new creation could look like in our places. If you would like to learn more about the work of Semillas in El Salvador, you can do so here.”
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