Serving the other side of paradise
COXEN HOLE, HONDURAS — The island of Roatán welcomes nearly 2 million visitors each year.
They disembark from massive cruise ships to snorkel among the corals of West Bay, zipline over the South Shore canopy and visit the two- and three-toed sloths at Gumbalimba Park.
Rarely, if ever, do they set foot in “El Suampo,” an impoverished community tucked away in Coxen Hole, Roatán’s largest city and the capital of Honduras’ Bay Islands.
Resident of Coxen Hole, Honduras, go about their lives on a hot Saturday afternoon.
Some people call it “Swamp Hole,” says Johnny Solis Jr. as he drives past a row of simple wood-slat and metal-roof homes. His white, flatbed truck kicks clouds of dust into the air. It’s the tail end of the dry season. When the rains come, the streets often flood. Hence the name. Some of the homes here are built on top of the remnants of others that collapsed and sank into the sandy soil.
Until it rains, water is a precious commodity here. Tourists pay $4 per bottle for it at their hotels, but some schools on Roatán have water only one or two days per week. Some are forced to stop classes when their bathrooms become unusable.
That’s where Solis and his father, Johnny Sr., come in. As he drives past a school building in Coxen Hole, Johnny Jr. points to a large, black water tank connected to a series of tubes. The Solises, both natives of Roatán and construction workers, assembled a catchment and pumping system that provides the school with clean water — daily.
Johnny Solis Jr. and Sr.
The father-and-son team builds water systems for schools and clinics across the island with assistance from Christian Relief Fund, a nonprofit supported by Churches of Christ. Donnie Anderson, a Honduras-based worker with the ministry, supervises the projects.
“We definitely work in all the places tourists would not go to on purpose,” said Anderson, a self-described handyman and builder from Texas. Anderson participated in multiple mission trips to Honduras before moving to the Central American nation about 12 years ago. He and his Honduran-born wife, Dana, and their son live in Campamento, a small city in central Honduras’ Olancho state. They oversee Christian Relief Fund projects there.
Donnie Anderson
During the summer months, mission teams from Churches of Christ flock to mainland Honduras. Dozens of men’s ministries, medical brigades and youth groups build homes, paint schools, pull teeth and feed the hungry in cities from the capital, Tegucigalpa, to Campamento to San Pedro Sula. After long days of sweaty labor in the Honduran sun, many Christians retreat to Roatán to spend a day or two on the beach before heading home.
Anderson and Bobby Moore, Christian Relief Fund’s vice president for global operations, have accompanied groups on those trips.
But visits to admire Roatán have also become “a mission to serve its children,” Moore said. “Partnering with local friends who care deeply about their community, we have seen places and needs we never would have known otherwise.”
Safe water, safe schools, microloans
The 110,000 people who live on the island have plenty of needs, especially the Garifuna, descendants of West African and Caribbean people exiled by the British from St. Vincent to Roatán in 1797. More than two centuries later, “many of the areas the Garifuna live in are (in) abject poverty and despair,” Anderson said, “so we have been led to focus there.”
A tank provides water for a school in Coxen Hole, Honduras.
Anderson launched a nongovernmental organization on Roatán, Innovative Faith-Based Projects, and started working with the Solises. The NGO has completed 17 water projects, 11 with assistance from Christian Relief Fund. Anderson also partners with Bill Drury of Pura Vida Agua to develop safe water systems in communities near some of the schools where they’ve installed tanks and pumps.
The projects “remind us that, sometimes, the greatest gift we can give is as simple as a glass of water in Jesus’ name,” Moore said, “so others can experience the hope of a true paradise.”
In addition to the water projects, Anderson said, “we have helped rebuild some unsafe houses that had many children and were in danger of collapsing during rainstorms. We have remodeled two schools and made them safer and secure.”
A member of the Sandoval family works at the pulperia funded in part by Innovative Faith-Based Projects.
The NGO recently made a microloan (a small loan with little or no interest rate) to Miguel Sandoval and his family of six. Sandoval works as a sailboat captain on Roatán, and his family operates a pulpería, a small grocery store.
“I express my sincere gratitude for the help … and thanks to God,” Sandoval said. “We were able to give the business a boost, and we hope to grow more, to take advantage of the blessing we received.”
“I express my sincere gratitude for the help … and thanks to God. We were able to give the business a boost, and we hope to grow more, to take advantage of the blessing we received.”
At the beach, on a mission
Mission teams, including students, also participate in ministry during their time on Roatán, said Dudley Chancey, a longtime youth ministry professor at Oklahoma Christian University and member of the Memorial Road Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. For 28 years, he’s brought mission teams to the island after a week of hard work on mainland Honduras.
“While relaxing on a beautiful beach is a good thing, we have managed to partner with several people on the island to teach about Jesus in some private schools, do a Friday Vacation Bible School for street kids and serve them a home-cooked meal,” Chancey said. “We have also done clinics and Bible schools in two of the ‘swamp’ communities on the island.”
Members of the Gateway Church of Christ in Pensacola, Fla., have participated in missions during their time on Roatán. Youths from the congregation, including Zoe Lewis, served at a day care for underprivileged kids.
Zoe Lewis plays with children at Crystal’s Day Care on the Honduran island of Roatán.
“There were so many children (who were) just so happy to share and have you there with them,” said Lewis, who graduated from high school last year.
“It was the most fulfilling experience I have ever had,” said Lewis, who also worked with families on the island who had little in the way of possessions, but lots of love and joy nonetheless. That’s “a perspective I never would have found without this trip.”
Christians from Florida build a hillside home in Roatán.
Gateway members have volunteered at Clínica Esperanza, a nonprofit medical mission. They’ve also done outreach in two locales that most certainly aren’t on any tourists’ must-see list — a jail and a dump.
Braidon English, who graduated from high school in 2023, helped build a home on the island for a family in need.
After spending a week working in Tegucigalpa, a mission team from Oklahoma Christian Academy walks to dinner on the Honduran island of Roatán.
The sun and sand were nice, he said, but “seeing the Holy Spirit move in the hearts and lives of the Honduran people was inspiring.”
“You are at the beach, but you are still on mission.”
Chancey added, “People on the island need to hear the story of Jesus. We tell our groups, ‘You are at the beach, but you are still on mission.’”
ERIK TRYGGESTAD is President and CEO of The Christian Chronicle. Contact [email protected].
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