How your contribution helps:

-------------------------------$500 per month -------------------------------$2000 per year Monthly salary support for Ruths ministry at Shekina School scholarship for Victor Hugo

Outreach programs of Shekina

-------------------------------$100 per month -------------------------------$100 per month ---------------------------------$25 per week -------------------------------$25 per basket

Working with new children who are coming to church each each Sunday Youth outreach to children in the public schools playing to teach values Weekly visits to an elder mens shelter and support for their basic needs Simple basket of food for families in crisis

----------------------4 per year at $100 each ------------------------------------$300 each

Training for the youth of the church on issues of Social Reality, Biblical Theology, Gender & Leadership... Ecumenical visits to other churches to learn about other models of community work and leadership to inspire and challenge Shekina youth

Youth leadership development at Shekina

------------------------------------------$90 -----------------------------------------$350

Shekina Community Center Building fund

One square meter of the basketball One square meter of the two story community center

court

The Mission
Cielo Azul creates personal relationships between communities of hope in the United States and El Salvador in order to share learning experiences, spiritual accompaniment and material support in our faithful work to build communities based on justice for all who seek a dignified, sustainable life. The Cielo Azul Fund is administered by a volunteer advisory committee from Central Baptist Church, The Simple Way and the Pastoral Council of Iglesia Shekina.

History

Pledge / Donation Specifics

We encourage monthly pledges because it helps both Cielo Azul and Iglesia Bautista Shekina in our planning. But we are deeply grateful for all contributions at any time. Online donations and pledges are possible by visiting our blog http://www.cieloazulfund.blogspot.com/ and using the Google form there, or by accessing our partner page on The Simple Way website http://www.thesimpleway.org/friends/cielo-azul/ The Simple Way is the 501 C3 fiscal sponsor of The Cielo Azul Fund. Checks should be made payable to The Simple Way/Cielo Azul & mailed to: The Cielo Azul Fund PO Box 211 Wayne, PA 19087

Bringing two worlds together... to learn, to support and to stand in solidarity with our extended family in El Salvador.

In the spring of 2003 several members of Central Baptist Church, Wayne, Pa. traveled with some folks from The Simple Way in Philadelphia to visit long time Salvadoran friends Alex Orantes and Ruth Rodriguez de Orantes and their son Victor Hugo. By the end of this visit it was clear to us that we needed to act to support the work of each of them and we began to look for ways to insure a stable income that could undergird their ministries. In 2009, inspired by the election of a Salvadoran president from a progressive opposition party (the FMLN) for the first time in the countrys history, we changed the name of the fund to Cielo Azul (blue sky)--partly to celebrate this new opening in Salvadoran society and partly to indicate new directions that we saw opening up in the work of each of them.

Alex

Shekinas Open Door Program

Ruth

The Present Reality

Since 2003, Iglesia Bautisa Shekina, where Ruth serves as pastor, has grown in size and vision, from a small group of worshippers in a rented store front, to a vital community of adults, youth and children who have purchased land, built a church and then added a large parcel to the church property with a vision for a community center to serve all of their neighborhood. Already, they have begun to offer programs on that new property. In addition to her service as a pastor for Shekina, Ruth has served as a volunteer professor in the extension program of SEBLA, a local seminary. She also coordinates the logistics and program arrangements for Cielo Azuls new El Salvador study trips, which bring North Americans to El Salvador to learn first hand about the political, economic and theological realities of life in the third world. (Download a prospectus for the Study trips at our blog http://www.cieloazulfund.blogspot.com/). During the same time, Alexs struggle with rheumatoid arthritis has increasingly limited his ability physically to accompany people in hard to reach marginal communities. But the electoral successes of the FMLN in Santa Ana has meant that a local government with a clear vision to benefit the poor has tapped Alex as a valued resource, giving him the opportunity to use his skills as a pastor, peace maker/ negotiator and community organizer within the structures of city hall, where he is an active member of the local government. Victor Hugo has participated actively as a member of local FMLN youth organizations that combine theoretical studies in politics and economy with local volunteer service projects in poor communities. In January of 2011, he also began to study in a private high school with a strong pre-architectural focus. To do so he must live with relatives in San Salvador during the week, returning home to Santa Ana on weekends.

Shekina Corn Festival

Ruth & Victor Hugo