Take a Deep Breath

Hello Friends!  I am here and alive in El Salvador.  I apologize for being more than tardy on writing to you all.  They really mean it when they say it can take the first year or more to get settled in.  God is definitely at work around me but it is in my heart He is doing the greatest work.  In short...Leaving everything we knew and moving our family to El Salvador took a lot of trust in God.  On the journey to arrive here, I never doubted Him and was confident in His leading us to another country, another culture...another life.  Since arriving here, my faith has been put to the test (James 1:2-3).  The reality of all this change hit me like a Mack Truck and began a journey of re-defining much of what I knew.  We have been here for 11 months and there have been blessings and there have been challenges..  The challenges are ones you would expect such as language, cultural differences, climate change, different foods (the body responding to different foods :), and some you don't expect.  Blessings have come in many different ways, some are small in the way they are revealed, like a Salvadorian understanding my Spanglish!  Others in a big way, like seeing my children adjust to life here and make the honor roll at their school!  From a very high level, that is how life in El Salvador has been so far.  When I zoom in on all that life here has brought, I see that there is nothing that separates the challenges and the blessings.  God uses them all to grow and sanctify us along the journey to discovering who we are and how much we need Him in all circumstances.

Right now we are in the busiest season of ministry with short term teams coming each week back to back throughout the summer.  Most recently we were extremely blessed by having a team from Wisconsin come on a short term mission trip to El Salvador.  The Alliance Church of the Valley, from St. Croix Wisconsin.  Pastor Chris Folkestadt, brought his youth group along with other adult leaders to join us in ministry.  It was great to have other "Wisconsinites" here as a team to do ministry with us.  They were able to hand out rice to a community, present the Gospel through VBS in a public school and visit an orphanage that has not been open to us in the past!  God is opening doors and is on the move.  They learned more about the culture as well as the ministries with Envision Wired and the ministry here called Broken.

I have been involved with different roles in the groups that come down here and are leading some as well.  Over the past several months, I have also worked with a ministry that reaches ex-prisioners, gang members and women at risk, at a shoe factory called Metamorfosis.  This has been a good opportunity for me as I have used some of my past experiences to help the factory and the men and women that are there.  This was birthed after a prison riot had killed 21 prisoners back in 2007.  Sam Hawkins (founder) felt God's call to go into the prison's to preach and help those who are lost.  The shoe factory was built to help them learn a trade and become productive in society as God had intended.  Many of these men and women have been transformed by Christ and are a testimony to the power of His love! It has been a privilege to build relationships with them and hear their stories.  God is truly "metamorfosizing" (is that a word?) their lives.

There are other areas that are fields for the harvest, one is an American football league (SAAIF).  Steve Agreda founded the league here in El Salvador and has a full contact league and a flag football league which our staff plays in.  This has opened the door to many who have been deported from the USA that we are trying to reach with the Gospel.  As we build relationships, we invite them to the ministry's start-up church called "Hungry".  It is designed to offer a place for the unchurched to experience God's love and grace in a non-threatening environment.

In all this, I want to be in the place He wants me to be and to become who He wants me to be!  I continue to walk in this journey with hope, being humbled, to always be serving Him.

Thank you for supporting us and partnering with us prayerfully and financially!  We are blessed to be a part of God's work here in El Salvador together!

In His Mercy, James
(Praise and Prayer Below)

Team from the Alliance Church of the Valley in St. Croix Wisconsin!

End of the day debrief at the Schuenke home after a long day of ministry

Worship and devotionals with the team every morning

VBS puppet skit at a public school in a nearby community

My Twin!

From caterpillar to butterfly, God transforms us into something beautiful

Door to door evangelism building many relationships in the community

Full contact football league 

Me as quarterback for flag football team reaching deportees

Metamorfosis Shoe Factory

Building relationships with ex-prisoners and gang members

Lives being transformed!

Start up church for the unchurched called "Hungry" reaching deportees

Hungry church with new visitors as well as old

Luis, a second time visitor with his new Bible

David, one of our first attenders to the Hungry church and now a brother in Christ!

Praise & Prayer

Praise God for getting me through a bout of stomach issues that lasted more than a week (and off and on since we've been here)

Praise God for watching over my family, for safety and for adjustment

Praise God...I got my Salvadorian driver's license

Praise God for the connections being made through the football league, Hungry church and other places in the city


Pray God's leading us in ministry and unity within our team

Pray for a smooth transition for Vinculo de Amor and Metamorfosis to become a permanent part of the Broken Ministry here at Envision Wired

Pray for strength and perseverance during our busy group session

Pray for us to continue learning Spanish