Building HOPE in HONDURAS

by Emily Wierenga (reprinted from Beacon Magazine)

It’s one thing to spend two weeks in a foreign country helping the needy. It’s quite another to keep going back, again and again. Yet every year a group of men and women from the Hamilton area who call themselves ‘The Carpenteros and Friends’ have been investing their lives, their energy and their finances into the people of Central America.

“The Carpenteros are not a typical short term mission group,” says Ana Joya, a Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) worker in Honduras who met them in 2003 on their first discovery trip to the country.

“What CRWRC has with the Carpenteros is a partnership. Communication with the group is constant and ongoing, prayer requests are sent from both sides (Canada and Honduras), and their main focus is to build relationships with the locals."

Having worked with many different short-term mission teams and volunteers over the years, Joya says she noticed something different about the Carpenteros right away. “They really wanted to help,” she says. “I saw in them great commitment to serve their neighbour; they showed tremendous interest in the people.”

This interest in Central America has led to a long-term investment in poverty-stricken communities. The Carpenteros’ support is three-fold, consisting of financing micro-credit cooperatives so small businesses and farmers can have access to credit; helping children and young people finish their schooling; and providing essentials like water, medical cabinets, latrines, cement floors, and various construction projects. “They have a servant heart,” says Joya. “They don’t see each other as saviours or heroes; they want to be an instrument and a hand that works alongside Hondurans to improve lives and communities.”

{mosimage}This amazing journey began in 2001 with an announcement by Bas Hania to the congregation at Flamborough’s Calvary Christian Reformed Church stating that help was needed to rebuild homes in earthquake-stricken Pushtan, El Salvador. Following the service, Hania recalls fellow worshipper Ken Vanderlaan approaching him and stating “We can make a go of this.” By the evening service Vanderlaan had recruited nine people. Two weeks later, more than 25 had signed up and in November of 2001 the team was enroute to El Salvador to rebuild homes.

“I had been involved with volunteering before,” says Hania, “but a mission trip to a poor country which has gone through a civil war and then an earthquake is quite a bit different.”

Chris Mantel was part of the original team that traveled to El Salvador. “Our job was to build four houses for families whose homes had been damaged by earthquakes earlier that year,” the father of three recalls. “But, at the end of those two weeks, the houses were quite secondary to the relationships that had been built. While it was intended to be a one-time venture, no one could deny the tremendous need for ongoing help.

Upon their return, the team connected with Henrietta Hunse, director of constituency relations for Burlington-based CRWRC.  “That (El Salvador) experience touched them deeply,” recalls Hunse. “They became aware of the depth and extent of needs there, and were determined to find a way to return to the community to bring further assistance.”

As a result of Hunse’s guidance, the Carpenteros’ vision and passion were channelled toward a much broader plan to effectively touch lives and bring about lasting transformation.

“The Carpenteros had developed a strong sense of attachment to Pushtan,” says Hunse, “but I challenged them to not focus all their resources on one community. The battle against poverty can only be won in the long run when the local communities themselves are the primary decision makers, and rely heavily upon their own resources.”

After exploring with the group how they could best support CRWRC’s work in El Salvador and Honduras, “the Carpenteros became strong supporters of micro-credit projects in those areas.”

While visiting teams work side-by-side with local residents on tangible projects such as building latrines or bringing water to remote communities, the Carpenteros are able to support continuous improvement through micro-credit cooperatives in nearly 60 communities.

During the past eight years, the program has grown exponentially, with over $500,000 being raised to support micro-finance and community improvements in both El Salvador and Honduras. The group has also branched out beyond the founding church, as work teams now regularly include members from various Southern Ontario churches.

The Carpenteros’ main fundraising event is the Spirit and Sport Christian Celebrity Dinner, which is held in Hamilton in late September and has featured sports icons such as Paul Henderson, ‘Pinball’ Clemons, Darryl Sittler, Jesse Barfield and Tony Fernandez.

On the Saturday before Valentine’s Day, the group also hosts a dinner at Calvin Christian School (Dundas), complete with romantic tableside music by a Mexican mariachi troupe.  Many of the volunteers who help with these events have never been part of a work team to Central America.

Guided by Ken Vanderlaan, Carpenteros work teams are encouraged to listen more than they speak. “The whole world is our classroom,” he says, “with remarkable teachers.{mosimage}

Prior to each trip, team members take part in orientation sessions designed to foster a ‘servant’ frame of mind, and to emphasize building ‘relationships’ instead of things. Cultural sensitivity, prayer, devotions, evaluating North American values, and a deeper understanding of the roots of systemic poverty in Latin America help prepare team members for what many have found to be a life-changing experience.

Vanderlaan tells team members to “practice flexibility, live with vulnerability, embrace people with affirmation not criticism, work as a Christ-like servant, and be determined to learn from everyone.

“What strikes me about the Carpenteros is their amazing blend of humility and zeal, fuelled by the love of Christ,” shares Hunse. “They are doers… but also learners.”

Having gone on two other trips since 2001, Mantel is passionate about the vision of the team. “Carpenteros and Friends does not do short-term missions, and we do not provide charity,” he clarifies. “It is our intention to maintain long-term contact and relationships with these various communities and to partner with the communities on the things they tell us they need to become independent and self-sufficient.

Perhaps the greatest example of a community being transformed can be found in El Carrizal, a remote village of 1,000 in the dry foothills of Olancho District, a province that even Hondurans describe as the ‘wild west.’

{mosimage}Five years ago, many families were living on $700 a year, and they laughed at the idea of a micro-credit cooperative. But the Carpenteros and their Honduran partners convinced the people of El Carrizal to take a leap of faith. Today the micro-finance cooperative has a working capital pool of more than $20,000 and they are helping to plant a new cooperative in a neighbouring village.

For 39-year-old Mantel, being part of a Carpenteros’ work team means so much more than going on a trip and doing something helpful. “I have become part of a family—not just with those in Honduras or El Salvador, but also with my fellow team members.”

In short, “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the times I’ve spent there. A little bit of me is left there every time I go.”

Pastor Jeff Janssen was familiar with the Carpenteros even before he accepted a call to the Flamborough church in 2005. A year ago he joined a team on a trip to Tigre Island, a small impoverished volcanic island along the Pacific coast of Honduras. “I was very blessed and challenged by the Carpenteros’ ministry,” he shares. “I have often felt some pain that we in North America do so little for the rest of the world. The team gave me a doorway through which I could enter and broaden my horizons.”

Four years ago the Carpenteros initiated an Education Fund that provides matching funds so children in impoverished families can continue with a high school education. Through an outpouring of memorial gifts for Ken Vanderlaan’s wife Shirley, who passed away suddenly in 2007, the Education Fund is allowing more than 50 students to attend high school. For under $400 per student per year, costs such as transportation, books, pens and uniforms are covered – costs that would have been overwhelming for a family earning just $1,000 a year.{mosimage}

Whenever a team of Carpenteros visits a community supported by the Education Fund, proud students can’t wait to tell of their achievements and share their career aspirations – dreams that seemed unthinkable and impossible just a short time ago.

“In many rural communities, children graduate from Grade 6 and then have nowhere to go and nothing to do. The girls help around the house, and the boys help in the field,” explains Ken Vanderlaan. “By the time they are 14 or 15, many of the girls are pregnant, and getting married to a boy who is only 16 or 17, and the cycle of poverty continues for another generation.  Allowing these students to obtain a high school education means they can think about having a career, and they will become leaders in their village.”

Karl and Anne Mantel went on their first trip with the Carpenteros in November 2007. While they had heard about Central America’s living conditions from their three children who had gone previously, “Poverty looks different when you see it for yourself, and when the poor are no longer just a faceless and nameless group. As we got to know these Hondurans, we could see that in spite of their hardships, they had many of the same desires and aspirations as people here – to live meaningful, happy lives and to provide a better future for their children and grandchildren.”

While the Carpenteros pour their lives into these communities year after year, they feel richer for having done it. “Through the people we’ve met and the experiences we’ve shared, we have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams,” says long-time team member Cal Bosveld.

No amount of money can determine the value of relating with people through the love of Christ. And it is this bond, and the friendships they have formed in some of the poorest communities in Central America, that keeps the Carpenteros going back.

As Vanderlaan states, “When they weep, we weep, and when they laugh, we laugh.”