November 25, 2024
I couldn’t stop staring at the park across the street.
I saw it when I woke up the first morning in my host family’s home this past summer. They told me that for years, it had been the neighborhood soccer field. But it was often controlled by gangs and not a safe place for kids. So they and their neighbors decided to do something about it.
They partnered with ASJ to draft up plans for a park. ASJ secured funding from private businesses to augment public funds. Neighbors chipped in. Cement was poured, grass was planted, and lights were installed. When it was inaugurated earlier this year–only a month before my visit–it became the only park in the whole neighborhood.
And from my first day with my host family, I couldn’t stop staring at it.
I’ve seen prettier parks. But I’ve rarely been as moved by another park. I think it was what the park represented: a safe place for the neighborhood kids to play. A gathering place from the community to be together.
Most of all, it felt to me like a monument to the power of what can happen when we seek justice together.
One of ASJ’s greatest superpowers is its commitment to doing justice in community.
In Honduras, ASJ has always rejected the temptation to move fast and alone, and has instead embraced the slower task of building coalitions and alliances to advance justice.
In the US, ASJ is a community of over 1,000 donors spread out across the country who are all united in our common vision of a more just Honduras.
Because of ASJ’s commitment to walking the road of justice together, we have been able to achieve amazing results together this past year:
One of ASJ’s organizational values is to acompañar, to “go together”. All of the success we have been able to achieve this past year is only possible because we–you and me–have pursued it together.
You’re receiving this letter in the wake of our own election in the US. We know from past experience that US elections have consequences for Honduras, and for ASJ. That’s why ASJ-US has set a goal to double our financial support for ASJ-Honduras over the next 5 years in order to insulate our work from political pendulum swings and to set us up for long-term, sustainable growth. Because whoever is in power in Washington, we know that the real power to drive transformation in Honduras rests with you–our community.
Will you continue to walk the road toward justice with ASJ by making a year end gift today?
I hope you will, because there is much more road to be walked. The journey toward justice is long. But when we walk it together, it is also beautiful.
Toward the end of my time in Honduras this summer, my wife and two boys came to join me from the US. One evening soon after they arrived, my host family had us over for dinner. Like me that first day in their home, my six year old also saw the park across the street. And he desperately wanted to go play on it. So the father of my host family took him by the hand and led him to the playground.
And they played. Together.
Onward,
Rev. Kyle Meyaard-Schaap
Executive Director, ASJ-US
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PO Box 888631, Grand Rapids, MI 49588
| info@asj-us.org | 1 (800) 897-1135
ASJ (formerly known as AJS) changed our name in 2021 to reflect our partnership with Honduras and our Honduran roots. Learn more.
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