“Many people in El Salvador [a Central American country] say that the only way to quit a gang is in a body bag. But . . . Pentecostal churches offer a way out alive.” (The Economist 1848 Magazine, April/May 2018, “Salvation,” Sarah Esther Maslin)

The violence in El Salvador’s gang ridden culture is horrific. Tattooed gang members and police fight daily battles. A church in that country’s capital, San Salvador, the Eben-Ezer, attempts to make a difference. Besides religious meetings, members bake bread, which they sell for support.

The work offers no quick fix. Members sometimes revert to past ways, unable to quit drugs or drawn back to the former way of survival. A couple of pastors “acknowledge that they’re trying to do what many consider impossible: spirit away members of El Salvador’s powerful gangs. But they believe this is the country’s only hope.”

El Salvador is one of the most dangerous places on earth in terms of homicides, The gangs appear to meet the needs of young men from dysfunctional families searching for community and a place to belong.

Gangs offer protection and a kind of family. Serving a gang gives at least some sense of purpose.

Thus, the church as community is not a mere slogan. A refuge for former gang members must be powerful enough to overcome the expectation from police and the gangs themselves that this new life will fail.

Indeed, the struggle to survive in El Salvador is intense. One can only hope and pray for divine deliverance, even one person at a time.