Dear Friends,

I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about my time with ASJ, and as I reflect, I find my eyes coming to rest on a blanket that I purchased on my very first trip to Honduras in 2003. That blanket still hangs over the back of my couch (that is when I’m not curled up under it), and I realize that it has become a symbol for me of the work that I, along with so many of you, have done together to help create a more just society in Honduras.

When I stand back and look at the blanket, I see a beautiful tapestry, a piece of art. The closer I look at it, the more I can see the intricate work that went into weaving each of the hundreds of threads together to make the whole. 

It reminds me of my journey at ASJ and how God, the ultimate weaver, has woven the experiences, passions, skills, gifts, and moments of hundreds of people all together to create something profound. Each thread may seem simple in the same way moments pass without us recognizing their significance, but when you stand back, you say, “Wow! What a thing of beauty.”

I can see examples of these threads in my personal life and how they have been woven together to make me who I am today. 

I see my church growing up and how every week I had to recite Micah 6:8 for my teachers: "What does the Lord require of you, to do justice, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God." This verse became the drumbeat of my heart - but it was a verse I didn’t fully understand until I was in Honduras seeing the work of ASJ. I see my family, people who showed me how to live out love, especially in other parts of the world. I see the thread of Calvin University where two professors, Kurt Ver Beek, and JoAnn Van Engen, exemplified for me how to approach life with both my mind and my heart when I did a semester abroad in Honduras. During that semester, they took me all over Honduras - Copán, Amapala, Olancho, maquilas (factories), banana plantations - and we studied Honduran history and various approaches to development work. This was pivotal as my love for Honduras began to grow, and my desire to be part of making life better for those living in vulnerable conditions took root. 

I have also been reflecting on the development of ASJ over the past 15 years and how God has been faithfully weaving threads together for ASJ as well. 

I see the thread of working for peace - ASJ co-founders Carlos Hernandez, Jo Ann Van Engen, and Kurt Ver Beek feeling called to do something to respond to the violence in their community, Nueva Suyapa. They initiated the peace and justice project, which reduced the homicide rate in their neighborhood by 75% from 2005-2010. This statistic alone could be the end of this story, but it wasn't because, at that time, Honduras had the highest homicide rate in the world, and everyone was looking for something that was working to address violence. Here was ASJ, a relatively small NGO at the time with a successful project, knowledge of how the system worked, experience with walking with victims, and now an opportunity to change national systems through a police purge and judicial reform - God is faithful.