CRC Makes Trip to Honduras

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> CRC Makes Trip to Honduras
> Story One
> February 17, 2011:

Carlos Hernandez left Tegucigalpa, the capital of
Honduras, almost immediately upon being asked to
look into a case involving a farmer who had
probably been killed for seeking a fair price for
his land to make way for a massive hydroelectricity project.

Once Hernandez, a social activist who serves as
president of a new organization dedicated to
transforming Honduras, arrived in San Pedro de
Catacamas , he met with two pastors from the
Christian Reformed Church in Honduras. They
filled him in on the strife occurring as farmers
have fought the firm that plans to flood more than 20,000 acres to make a d am.

Hernandez traveled to San Pedro de Catacamas on
behalf of the Association for a More Just Society
(AJS), which he helped to found with Kurt Ver
Beek, a professor of sociology at Calvin College.
He was also there as president of the board of
Transformemos Honduras (TH), a new ecumenical
group founded after the 2009 presidential coup in
Honduras Hernandez says he was especially pleased
to be working with members of the CRC in
Hondurass, since the denomination ? founded and
supported by the Christian Reformed Church in
North America ? has not been too deeply involved
in the social justice efforts being undertaken by AJS or now TH.

He wasn?t sure if the Honduran CRC pastors would
want to work closely with him. But he remains hopeful.

There are strong ties between the social justice
organizations. AJS helped to launch Transformemos
Honduras ("Let?s Transform Honduras"), a larger
anti-corruption, citizen-action movement.

"AJS and TH are both examples of how the church
can organize itself to do justice," says Peter
Vander Meulen, coordinator of the CRC?s Office of Social Justice

The two have, together or separately, decreased
violence in one target neighborhood by over 80
percent, helped 60,000 people receive proper
titles to their land, achieved convictions in the
case of an AJS lawyer who was murdered, exposed
corruption in Honduras? public health and
education systems, established counseling
programs for victims of domestic and sexual
violence, and involved 150 high risk teens in
vocational and leadership training.

CRC agencies and individuals have been supporting
AJS for over 10 years ? and with very good
reason, says Vander Meulen, who recently visited
Honduras to see the work of the organizations.

"We are optimistic that we will be able to help
the farmers in the north," said Hernandez. "We welcome the CRC of Honduras."

CRC of Honduras congregations, of which there are
75 with about 5,000 members, tend to be more
deeply involved in Bible study, prayer, the study
of doctrine, and teaching their people about the
Reformed faith than they are in social justice
projects, says Caspar Geisterfer, a Christian
Reformed World Missions missionary posted to work
with CRC in Honduras congregations.

Geisterfer says he sees it as his job to help
train pastors to do pastoral care, especially
with victims of violence, and to show the
churches that there are ways "to be a light
within a corrupt country. We discuss questions
such as 'how can we be just in various ways?'
This is about working in God?s kingdom," said Geisterfer.

"I believe that social justice is a part of the
overall ministry of the CRC in Honduras, and so
it is a part of my work with the CRC of Honduras.
I am working to the point where the leaders of
the CRC of Honduras will see the work of AJS as a
local resource that the CRC of Honduras can use in its own ministry."
Transformemos Honduras has as its members
Catholic, Protestant, evangelical, and a range of
international non-government organizations. The
group emerged after the then-president, Manuel
Zelaya, was removed from office and forced onto a
plane that took him into exile. A new president was elected last year.

"We wondered what were the next steps going to be
after the coup," said Hernandez. "Many of us got
together and started to dream what could happen
in Honduras after the political mess was over? We
decided we wanted to work on ways to help
Hondurans make their politicians accountable."

Their first action was to call churches to prayer
and fasting as they celebrated the annual Day of
the Bible in September. Members of the group also
went on a cross-country bicycle ride, riding from
the Caribbean coast to the Pacific Ocean, to hold
justice and information rallies in the center of
the towns that they went through.

As for issues, the mostly ecumenical Christian
group decided to tackle the corrupt way in which
teachers are hired in Honduras as well as the
corrupt practices in massive requisitions of
medicine for Honduras? public health system.
Besides health and education, the other issues TH
plans to work on are changing the justice system,
increasing government transparency, and helping to create jobs.

AJS has been especially active in matters

involving land rights, stemming crime, labor
rights, and women?s rights; in most cases, they
bring the problems they uncover to the proper
government agency and demand that it act with justice.

"Thank God for these people who have the heart
for the poor," said Rev. Leonard Vander Zee,
editor-in-chief of Faith Alive Christian
Resources, the publishing agency of the CRC, who
recently visited AJS to see its work first-hand.
"They are out in the front and changing the
society of Honduras, protecting the rights of those who have the most to lo se."

Some people are concerned because the words

?social justice? carry with them left-over
baggage from the days when liberation theology, a
potentially more disruptive movement, was being
popularly espoused in Latin America. But the type
of social justice being worked on by AJS and
Transformemos Honduras is not necessarily as
confrontational. As best they can, they work
within the system, although ASJ will support protests in certain circumstan ces.

"Some of the churches are against it [social
justice] in theory, but they are generally open
to it. They don?t see this work as anti-Bible or
anti-Christian," said Hernandez, who told the CRC
pastors in San Pedro de Catacamas that he would
do what he could to help farmers and ranchers get a fair price for their la nd.

In many ways, having a church embrace social
justice efforts requires time and a chance for
the churches to see the actual results of actions
that they take. For instance, the CRC pastors
involved in the dam project were pleased by the help that Hernandez offered.

Even so, they will wait to see what happens.
Should Hernandez be able to win a fair price for
the land, without more killing, it is possible
that those pastors will return to their rural
Honduran churches and sing the praises of what
persistent, faith-based, social justice can accomplish.

They then may be more willing to wholeheartedly
support such groups as AJS and Transformemos Honduras.

When they started Transformemos Honduras in the
wake of the political unrest, Hernandez said,
they thought that evangelical churches would
become more involved in the process of transforming their country.

"Despite the fact that the groups we work with
are Protestant, the Catholics are more open to
this," said Hernandez. As is the case with the
CRC pastors involved in the dam project, he said
he suspects more evangelical churches will become
involved when they see the results of certain actions.

Both AJS and Transformemos Honduras have

encountered scary and distressing realities.
Today, because of death threats, the AJS office
in Honduras requires a high level of security, as
do officials with the organizations. AJS has high
levels of security because one of their lawyers
was murdered in 2006 after taking a security firm
to court to request fair wages for the employees (security guards) of the f irm.

Carlos has received death-threats because of his
outspoken efforts to make Honduras a more just
society. After the AJS lawyer was assassinated in
2006, Carlos received a message threatening that
he would be next. But the Inter-American Human
Rights Commission ordered the government of
Honduras to implement measures to protect Carlos.
Despite these obstacles, Carlos has continued to
work for justice and to inspire his fellow
Hondurans to follow God?s call to do justice.

"We believe that the Holy Spirit is pushing us to
live this way of compassion. Along this path, it
can be very hard. There are times when we have
felt that we were in the middle of a storm (such
as when the labor rights lawyer was
assassinated), but we have felt God?s presence
with us and have seen areas of transformation," says Hernandez.

Even US officials, who work hard to maintain a
balanced, diplomatic path on many contentious
issues, are willing to work with the
social-justice organizations. "I'm really
impressed by the work of Transformemos Honduras,
as well as AJS," said Bill Brands, director of
USAID (the United States Agency for International
Development) in Honduras. "Where they work best
is in building allies to deal with issues and to
bring citizen involvement into a range of areas ?
They empower people to get more involved."

For more information on AJS, visit: ASJ Info.
Also, ASJ website in www.asjhonduras.com;
www.transformemoshonduras.com, the Transformemos
website in Spanish, and www.revistazo.com, ASJ?s online newspaper, in Spa nish.

> Chris Meehan, CRC Communications

> --
> Chris Meehan
> News & Media Manager
> Christian Reformed Church in North America
> 1-616-224-0849