Special Report: Sister Parish program provides another model of missions

Portorillos is in the mountainous area of El Salvador

(decorahnews.com is posting a series of news stories about the programs Decorah churches have with other congregations overseas)

Decorah Methodist Church member Kathi Mitchell says her church's exchange program with a congregation in Potrerillos, El Salvador is based on a "solidarity model," seeking to promote understanding through the "Sister Parish Program."

For 20 years church members have been visiting Central America--first Guatemala and now, for the last ten years, Potrerillos, El Salvador.  Mitchell says the program of exchanging visits--one year in El Salvador, the next year having the Salvadorans visit Decorah--stays away from having construction projects, like many American churches do in Central America.  "Money changes a relationship," she explains.

But Mitchell says the Sister Parish program has paid off both in Potrerillos and in Decorah.  "I have become a social justice activist," she says of the impact of her three trips to El Salvador.  She says the relationship-based visits have also had an impact in El Salvador, where there has been a lot of community development, especially around Porterillos' community-based healthcare system.

Mitchell says she is "not anti-mission," but she remains hesitant to do projects.  Even so, she admits that when she returns to America from a trip to El Salvador, the question she gets asked frequently is "What did you build?"

(Tuesday: Final thoughts on the changing nature of church mission trips)