God Bless,
Jo Ann Van Engen
ASJ Co-Founder (along with her husband, Kurt Ver Beek)
Justice Today And During COVID-19
June 3, 2020
A Letter from ASJ Co-Founder Jo Ann Van Engen
Dear friends,
It’s raining in Honduras. Not big news for most of you, but here, where we haven’t seen a drop of rain since January and the skies have been thick with smoke, it feels like a miracle. Kurt and I keep marveling at how green everything looks and how the clear sky goes for miles. It’s a well-timed reminder that no situation is permanent and that God continues to refresh and renew.
These last two months quarantining in Honduras have been challenging. We have been forced to think hard about what doing justice in Honduras looks like during this COVID-19 crisis.
The hard fact is that 80% of Hondurans use only government hospitals and clinics when they are sick. That means fighting the COVID-19 epidemic must focus on strengthening the national health system – something ASJ (formerly known as AJS) has been working at for almost 20 years. When the Honduran government asked ASJ to monitor its COVID-19 purchases – ventilators, mobile hospitals, and test kits – we realized it was one of the best ways we could do justice for Honduras’ most vulnerable people.
Last week, after hundreds of hours of investigation, we held a virtual press conference, and over 600 people tuned in to hear what we had found. We reported the good news – that the government had purchased good-quality test kits and ventilators at a good price. But, we also reported the bad news – that the lack of a strategic plan to distribute, install, and use those test kits and equipment threatened to put all Hondurans at risk.
We are hopeful that our report pointing out the gaps in the government’s response, along with clear recommendations for how to address those problems, will lead to corrections that will save the lives of vulnerable people. And that feels like what justice looks like during this crisis.
But, justice is also about seeing the needs of your neighbors close at hand. When the quarantine started, ASJ staff was immediately concerned that the hundreds of at-risk families in our Impact Clubs and Strong Families program would no longer have a way to put food on the table. So they immediately started checking in with the parents and kids in our programs and delivering cash and groceries to make sure no one would go hungry.
Those two examples – showing up at the door of at-risk families with food and sitting down with the President of Honduras to tell him where things are going wrong – are good examples of how ASJ sees its mission: being brave Christians doing justice for the most vulnerable.
I started writing this letter last week from my home in Tegucigalpa – focused on what doing justice in Honduras looks like in this moment of crisis. I am finishing it today in Grand Rapids, Michigan, heartsick at the scenes of rage and conflict playing out in cities all around the U.S. this past week. The reaction we are seeing is a clear sign that something is very wrong and, much as we might like to, we may not turn our backs on the problem. Long decades of injustice and racism in our society and in our criminal justice system have led to this place.
Today, I think we have to figure out what doing justice looks like in Grand Rapids and in our cities in this moment. It is helpful to clean up broken glass on our city streets, but it must go beyond that. We need to find ways to strengthen systems in the U.S., to hold police accountable when they break the law, and to root out structural racism where we find it.
We are not experts (although ASJ staff in Honduras successfully led police reform there), so we must learn from those organizations who have worked long years to understand and find solutions to these problems. These issues are complex but we have no choice but to fix them and that requires that we really ask ourselves how God is calling us to do justice in this moment. Kurt and I and ASJ-US are committed to doing that, and we hope that you will join us.
Hondurans cast their ballots during the November 30, 2025, general election, which saw historic voter turnout and a peaceful process supported by more than 12,000 national and international election observers working to safeguard transparency.
ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US Congratulate the Honduran People, Call for Full and Transparent Results As sister organizations committed to justice, peace and hope in Honduras, ASJ-Canada and ASJ-US extend our deepest congratulations to the people of Honduras on the peaceful conduct of their national elections on November 30, 2025. With the initial tally showing an extraordinarily close vote, we call on election authorities to do what is necessary to ensure a transparent count of the remaining ballots in order to guarantee public trust in the final outcome. We commend the Honduran voters for their dedication to democratic participation and their commitment to shaping the future of their country through civic engagement. We also recognize the efforts of electoral authorities, civil society organizations, the international community and the thousands of volunteer observers who worked to ensure a transparent, orderly, and secure process. We are especially proud of our sister organization, ASJ-Honduras, for their unwavering commitment to democracy demonstrated through their electoral observation efforts, their analysis activities, and their consistent call for a fair and orderly process. Now that such a process has been achieved, the work turns to counting the votes with accuracy and transparency. The results remain close, increasing the possibility of a contested result. We support the work of the election officials at the National Electoral Council to give Hondurans confidence in the final results by conducting their count with rigor and transparency. We remain hopeful that the spirit of peaceful participation in the democratic process embraced by the electorate will carry forward into the post-election period to come. We look forward to continued collaboration with ASJ-Honduras as we all work together toward a just and hopeful future for all Hondurans. Matthew Van Geest President, Board of Directors ASJ-Canada Russ Jacobs President, Board of Directors ASJ-US
A call to action for Honduras
The Association for a More Justice Society-US Supports the Network to Defend Democracy; Calls for Free and Fair Elections in Honduras November 25, 2025
Honduras’s Institutional Crisis Deepens Ahead of the 2025 Elections
Dear friend, I couldn’t stop looking at the picture. Of course, there had been plenty of inspiring photos from this summer’s Prayer Walk for Peace and Democracy. The sea of blue and white rising and falling as hundreds of thousands walked the Honduran hills through Tegucigalpa, flowing like a never-ending stream. Catholic nuns praying their rosaries alongside Pentecostals dancing in the streets. But the picture that still knocks me flat is the closeup. The one of the two men standing side by side (picture enclosed). They are exhausted, and the shorter collapses into the taller. The tears mostly hold joy and relief, but they are mingled with something darker. After all, there had been threats—promises of harm done to themselves and their loved ones if they led their followers through the streets of Honduras in prayer. Despite the fear and intimidation, Pastor Gerardo Irías and Monsignor José Vicente Nácher forged ahead. They knew Honduras needed unity and, above all, prayer before the looming November 2025 presidential elections. As an ASJ supporter, you know that these kinds of threats aren’t out of the ordinary, and your support has helped slow and reverse violence in Honduras. Today, I am writing to share a way you can continue standing with brave Hondurans like Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José in hope. The Evangelical pastor and the Catholic archbishop put the word out as widely as they could to their churches, hoping to mobilize 20,000 to walk and pray. Instead, an estimated 230,000 walked in the capital of Tegucigalpa alone. It was a historic moment. And without your past support for ASJ, it may have never happened. After all, two years prior, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José didn’t even know each other’s names. They first met in 2023 at ASJ’s offices. They were two of many civil society leaders convened by ASJ to discuss safeguarding democracy– especially before the election in 2025. It was at that meeting that they shook each other’s hand and learned each other’s name. It was at that meeting–and many subsequent meetings–where old religious prejudices began to be replaced by trust and mutual affection. So, when the moment came this summer to act, Pastor Gerardo and Monsignor José knew what they had to do. And they knew that they had to do it together.
Calvin alums turn faith into action through nonprofit
MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Thank You for Moving Forward With Us this Summer!
When Policies Shift, Families Pay the Price * by Jo Ann Van Engen
