In God’s plan there are three forms of education – instruction, discipline, and correction. The word “education” comes from the Latin educere, which means to “take out,” “extract,” “form,” “instruct,” “mold,” “build,” “change.” These definitions better help us understand the meaning of the counsel given in Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
The establishment of church schools is also a part of this great commission to train and educate our children in a godly way. “Church schools are to be established for the children in the cities, and in connection to these schools provision is to be made for the teaching of higher studies, where these are called for.” Review and Herald, December 17, 1903.
In obedience to this commission, the General Conference delegates in session established the Department of Education on
December 13, 1989. In 1997, the four countries that make up the Western Central American Union – Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize – implemented the plan of the Education Department into our Union. At that time, the Reform School had already been established in the Department of
Totonicapán, Guatemala, by Professor Fortunato Solís and Pastor Humberto Ajucum, with the generous funding of the Austrian Field. With this new school as motivation, I prepared a plan to establish schools in all the countries that comprise the Western Central American Union.
By 2005, the school in Honduras had begun. This motivated Brother Vicente Ortiz to donate land located in a rural area of Sonsonate, El Salvador, about 70 kilometers from San Salvador, the country’s capital. A few classrooms were initially built as a small beginning.
It was in this same year that our beloved Sister Santina Macera (Italy), Director of the Good Samaritan Department of the General
Conference, stepped in to donate $1000 in support of the project. This greatly encouraged other members to take that first great step of faith and donate towards the new school. Other collection methods were used to help raise funds. One of them was the Dollar Plan, which raised more than $8000 for the building project.
A Construction Comitee was immediately organized under the direction of the president, Pastor Adán Jiménez, with Brother Saúl Nieves as treasurer. In 2009, the Western Central American Union
Committee was invited by the Department of Education to help begin construction work on the school. Arriving from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, we pastors and missionaries took off our ties and picked up shovels, hoes, and picks to join in this work of faith. We did not have sufficient resources, but we understood that this was God’s work and continued trusting that He would complete what He had begun.
Pastor Carlos López from Guatemala was placed in charge of the project. He accepted the challenge, and we started a team to move the school forward.
At that time, the Plenary Committee appointed me as Leader of the Education Department of the General Conference on an interim basis.
Thank God we had the support of the President of the General Conference, Pastor Idel Suárez. The Education Department also managed to give aid, which came in time to continue the project.Our gratitude goes first to God, Who gave the direction for church schools to be built and Who sustains them as well. We also want to give special recognition to the Good
Samaritan Department and the
Education Department of the General Conference, the German Union, and to various brothers and sisters who, with their visits and generosity, made possible the dream of having a school in El Salvador.
During the first semester of 2012, the legalization process of the school with the Ministry of Education was begun under the management of Professor and Pastor Oscar Archila with the assistance of his daughter Sarai. To become authorized and licensed to work as an educational institution and be approved by the Ministry of Education of El Salvador was a huge challenge. Thanks to the work of Professor Oscar Archila, the Dr. Andres Vesalio School was officially established as a church school with a license for educational operations.
In January 2013, we began the school year with great joy and welcomed our first group of thirty-two students, who filled our institution with life and meaning. In our first year, we received twenty-five scholarships from the Good Samaritan Department of the General Conference to help students from families with limited resources. Now this number has been reduced to twenty.
Today, the school has ninety-two students, nine teachers, one academic director, and one administrative director – our brother Remberto Ortiz, who has served faithfully as an administrator, custodian, and Bible teacher, and who always gives his best. The school continues to face various challenges, among which are the needs to increase student enrollment, employ specialized teachers, involve more parents in the educational work, maintain this education project despite the ever-present dangers posed by gangs and criminal groups in the community, and, finally, the biggest challenge of all, to become self-sustaining.
In April of this year we were visited by Sisters Margie Seely (USA) and Manuela Di Franca (Germany) of the Education Department of the General Conference. They conducted several activities with the students, parents, and teachers, and gave meetings in various churches of the Field. Their visit was a great blessing for the school.
We pray to God that this school can fulfill the great commission of integrating academic and spiritual instruction for the students in accordance with the motto of the Education Department, “Educating for Eternity.”
by Pastor Danilo Lopez Monterroso
