Description

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On a Thursday morning in 1981, four thousand campesinos (fieldworkers), fleeing a US-funded Salvadoran death squad, stumbled down the rocky, overgrown side of a hill to the Lempa River. Some were mown down by machine guns and the strafing of helicopters; others drowned as they were swept away by the river. The rest escaped to live the next eight years in UN refugee camps in Honduras. In 1989 many of these refugees returned to El Salvador as the repatriated community of Valle Nuevo. Companeros tells the stories of a twenty-five year relationship of accompaniment, healing, and forgiveness between Valle Nuevo and a small association of churches in the United States, Shalom Mission Communities. The two groups have come to embrace a transnational communion with one another despite the economic, political, and spiritual chasms that exist today. This work is a collective, collaborative effort of storytelling and theological reflection, interweaving oral and written accounts of suffering, thanksgiving, sharing, remembering, and proclaiming the death of Christ until he comes again.

About the Author

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Nancy and Joe Gatlin have lived their passion for community building for more than forty years in Chicago and Waco as members and cofounders of communal households and two inner-city church communities. Joe has worked with Habitat for Humanity for the last thirty years and currently is Director of Field Operations for the US Area Office. Nancy, born in Costa Rica and raised in Uruguay, is a teacher and educator and has led SMC delegations to Valle Nuevo for many years. Joel H. Scott currently serves as the Director of Development and Outreach for World Hunger Relief, Inc. He has fifteen years of experience in higher education leadership and community engagement. Joel and his family have been a part of Hope Fellowship and SMC since 2009.