By DAVID GONZALEZ

GUADALUPE, El Salvador, March 3 — An American evangelical relief group that is using private donations and United States government money to
help victims of two earthquakes has blurred the line between church and state as its volunteers preach, pray and seek converts among people desperate
for help.

Residents of several villages said volunteers from Samaritan's Purse, which has received more than $200,000 from the United States Agency for International
Development and is to receive a second similar amount, has held half-hour prayer meetings before showing them how to build temporary homes of metal and
plastic provided by the American government.

According to interviews with numerous villagers here and elsewhere in this predominantly Roman Catholic country, volunteers of the Protestant group have
distributed religious tracts and asked them to accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

"They said a lot, but the principal thing was God and that earthly things do not matter," said Óscar Romero, a villager putting finishing touches on his house.

Officials of Samaritan's Purse note that the group does not condition its help on acceptance of specific religious belief, adding that it has brought considerable
private resources here, which they may use in any manner. The message it spreads is not seen as unusual in this deeply religious country, but it is spread in a
society where Catholics and evangelical sects have long been at odds.

The group's use of federal financing has troubled aid officials and relief workers, who said the mixing of relief and religion could possibly conflict with contract
guidelines. That issue comes as federal agencies are trying to adapt to President Bush's plan to provide government aid to religious groups involved in social
services.

"It may very well be that this is a very fuzzy area right now," said Kenneth Ellis, the director of the Agency for International Development mission in El
Salvador. "I know our legal office in Washington is struggling with how do we deal with faith-based organizations."

Government money cannot be used to overtly finance religious activities or to provide selective help based on political or religious beliefs, said Kim Walz, a
spokeswoman for the agency in Washington.

The agency's federal counsel has also written that religious groups should not "promote religion at the public expense by using U.S. government funds or U.S.
government-financed goods or services to promote sectarian purposes."

Dr. Paul Chiles, the country director for Samaritan's Purse, said the group neither discriminates nor proselytizes aggressively. At the same time, he said that its
mission was understood and accepted by the federal government, which is helping it build more than 2,000 homes.

"We are first a Christian organization and second an aid organization," he said. "We can't really separate the two. We really believe Jesus Christ told us to do
relief work."

He said that although the group did not rely on prayer meetings when delivering aid, he did not think it was inappropriate to deliver a message of hope to
people for whom religion is part of daily life.

"We definitely don't ever use the gifts that we bring as a means to change people," he said. "We distribute it to people in need. At the same time, we bring the
message of the Gospel."

That message is central to its relief work, according to the group's Web page, which quotes its president and chairman, Franklin Graham, son of the evangelist
Billy Graham. The Web page notes that in one village where the group provided supplies, 150 Salvadorans converted after watching a movie about Jesus.

"When we go into these villages and help people get back into their homes, we hope we'll be able to plant new churches all over this country," Franklin
Graham said on the Web page.

Unlike other religiously affiliated relief groups, who try to team up with local groups expert in housing or community development, Samaritan's Purse has
drawn volunteers from local evangelical congregations. "When we build things, we say we build it with the love of Jesus, because that's why we are here," Dr.
Chiles said. "If we worked with the Peace Corps or the Red Cross, I don't think they would be comfortable doing this."

Such statements have raised suspicion among many relief workers here, who noted that other religiously affiliated relief groups had spun off their relief work
into separate entities that received federal financing.

The 31-year-old group is a newcomer to housing work in El Salvador, but it has worked in more than 100 countries, including Honduras, where it built 5,000
homes after Hurricane Mitch.

Senator Jesse Helms, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a critic of the Agency for International Development, has held up Samaritan's
Purse as an exemplary religious relief group. Some American relief officials privately complain that members of Congress have put pressure on them to finance
the group's work, even though they have serious reservations about its proselytizing.

"It's easier to fund them rather than make enemies," said one official who insisted on anonymity.

Officials noted that Samaritan's Purse met performance goals, and that there was therefore no reason — aside from the religious reservations — not to finance
it. Still, others worried that the group walked a very fine line.

"They are hitting these people when they most vulnerable," said one relief worker long active in the region. "It may not be pressure, but it sure is taking
advantage of a period in people's life when they will do anything like that to get a house."

Villagers who received houses were grateful and did not think the religious message was improper.

"They come to preach the word of God and to receive the word of God," said Iris Yolanda Minero Flores, a health worker in San Román. "It is a comfort
and helps give us strength. We all have to accept the word first, then receive what people send."

Dr. Chiles insisted that his group was not looking for converts, and that need was the only criterion for help. The conversion of 150 people mentioned on
Samaritan's Purse's Web page is credited to the pastor of a local evangelical denomination that is the group's aid partner.

The seeking of converts has been a sore point among El Salvador's Roman Catholic majority. In recent weeks, local clergy members said, relations between
the two groups have again been rocky, because some local evangelical groups have conditioned aid on accepting their religion.

"They see this as something where God speaks to the people," said Bishop Elías Bolaños, the Catholic prelate of Zacatecoluca. "They have started campaigns
of preaching, bringing people together every day to say God is punishing them. They are very pessimistic."