Rev. Mario Vega

Senior Pastor · Elim Church

Address P. O. Box 2854 San Salvador, El Salvador, C.A.

E-mail mariovega7@gmail.com

Web www.elim.org.sv

Mario Vega is senior pastor of Elim Church in El Salvador, a cell church of 117,000 members. He is the author of 12 books and writes weekly opinion articles in one of the main newspapers in his country.

The Origins of Elim

The origins of Elim International go back to the birth of the Elim church in San Salvador, El Salvador, Central America. The Elim church had a very simple origin. It was born as a local congregation in 1977, when the young preacher Sergio Daniel Solórzano Aldana, of Guatemalan nationality, began to visit El Salvador to attend to a group of people interested in establishing a congregation in the capital city following the model of Elim Christian Mission in Guatemala.

The Church Becomes a Mission

By 1979 the first branch of the church was opened in the city of Zaragoza, located 20 kilometers south of the capital San Salvador. With this, what had been born as a local congregation took the first step towards becoming a Mission. In the same year another branch was opened in the city of Santa Ana, the second most important city in El Salvador located 65 kilometers west of the capital. On April 13, 1980, the young preacher Mario Vega was sent as a permanent worker of the branch in Santa Ana who, in July of the same year, was ordained Pastor becoming the prime minister recognized by Brother Sergio Solórzano.

Transition to a Cellular Church

In 1985 church attendance hovered around three thousand people. The church continued to grow but did so at a pace that was considered slow. By this time the books of Pastor David Yonggi Cho began to be known in the country. His model of growth through cells in homes caught the attention of the leaders of the work. In the same year Pastor Sergio Solórzano traveled to Seoul, South Korea, to learn more about Pastor Cho's cellular system. From that trip, Pastor Sergio Solórzano understood the effectiveness of the method although he did not possess a total mastery of the system. However, the first efforts to establish a cellular growth system began to be made. At first there were many hesitations and mistakes; but, little by little, the understanding of the system became greater.

A New Pastor General, A New Vision

The appointment of Brother Mario Vega as Pastor General and his presentation to the Central Church took place on April 20, 1997. With this, the congregation received hope. The days counted and in a couple of weeks a recovery of confidence had been achieved such that when Brother Sergio Solórzano opened his group the impact on the Central Church was not perceptible. From that moment on, Brother Sergio Solórzano broke all relations with Misión Elim. Upon assuming as Pastor General, Brother Mario Vega, began a work of reorientation of the ministerial function, a reorientation of the priorities of the Mission and the Central Church, a reworking of the pastoral care towards women, young people and children and, in general, an abandonment of the almost sectarian positions that the Mission had acquired in recent years. Ministerial integrity and probity and optimization in the administration of finances were encouraged.

Purchase of New Land for Elim Church

"The Dream of the People", this is how this project has been called. On September 5, 2007, the Pastor General, Mario Vega, announced that the land of 14 blocks (142,512 square rods) is already owned by Misión Cristiana Elim, this thanks to the leaders and the entire team of pastors who are part of the cellular system, who assumed with great responsibility, the promotion and sale of rods at a price of $ 10.00 dollars each.

There were also contributions from people living outside the country, who through bank transfers delivered their donations.

With the purchase of this new land, it is intended to build, "the garden church", as Pastor Mario Vega has called it. As for the infrastructure of what will be the new auditorium of Mission Elim is pursued, a complex that in addition to having a building to praise the Lord, with the right conditions for 10,000 people, will have a library, a wide and pedagogically adequate children's care area, School for leadership training, administrative offices, counseling center, cafeteria, large gardens. In the same way it is intended to conserve forty thousand square rods of ecological reserve.

A center of spiritual recollection but at the same time of recreation and enjoyment of an environmentally free area of pollution.

The land is located in the vicinity of the municipality of Apopa, in the Department of San Salvador, on the golden road.