12 Jan Honduras Conference Elects Juanita Chavez
On January 9, Juanita Chavez was elected superintendent of Honduras National Conference. She is the first woman elected to the highest office of any United Brethren national conference.
She succeeds Francisco Raudales, who has held that position since 1996.
Here are some items of interest about Rev. Chavez:
- Juanita was called to the ministry under the preaching of Archie Cameron. At the time, she was attending Ebenezer UB church in La Ceiba, Honduras.
- Juanita was among the first nine students in the Bethel Institute in 1971, and one of the four students in its first graduating class.
- She became director of the Honduras Bible Society in La Ceiba.
- She served Honduras Conference as director of Church Services and as director of the Bethel Bible Institute.
- In 1998, Juanita became pastor of the Ebenezer UB church in La Ceiba.
- Juanita was named one of four outstanding Christian leaders in La Ceiba (Archie Cameron was one of the others).
- Juanita and her husband, Carlos, have been married for nearly 40 years.
Some of Juanita’s story is told in Tio Archie, the story of Archie Cameron and the development of Honduras Conference. Follow the link below for an edited excerpt specifically about Juanita Chavez.
An excerpt from Tio Archie, by Steve Dennie
Juanita Chavez, a member of the Ebenezer United Brethren church in La Ceiba, Honduras, sensed God calling her into his service, but she didn’t quite know what to do about it. Having read that Jesus prayed early in the morning, she would go to the church to pray before going to her office job.
She also shared her thoughts with other people. Helen Villanueva, among others, advised her to enter the Bible institute in Tegucigalpa. But that would be expensive. Juanita was the first Christian in her family, and they weren’t pleased about it, so she knew she couldn’t turn to her family for financial help.
And so, Juanita continued serving Christ through the Ebenezer church, while harboring this desire to serve Christ fulltime. All she could do was invite God to somehow make it happen, if that’s what he truly wanted.
It was January, during a youth retreat after the Honduras Annual Conference meeting. On the last night of the retreat, many United Brethren adults from La Ceiba joined the youth for a big service at the Bethel church. Archie Cameron decided that instead of issuing an altar call for people to accept Christ, he would invite people to come forward to surrender their lives to fulltime service for Christ. And to stir hearts, he turned to Lydia, a young woman from Cortés who was attending Bible school.
Lydia gave her testimony about what the Lord had done in her life–how she had endured many difficulties and sacrifices to attend Bible school, and how blessed she felt knowing she would be serving the Lord in the future. The people were moved. Lydia then sang an invitation song, and invited people to come forward.
Juanita was among the adults who attended that service. That night is etched into her mind. She even remembers the yellow dress she wore during that service. And she remembers how, when the invitation was given, her fiancé, Carlos, turned to look straight at her. He knew she was wrestling with this very thing. They had talked about it.
And so it was that the first person to head toward the front of the Bethel church was not a teenage boy or girl. It was Juanita. She was quickly joined by three others committed to fulltime service–Lydia, José Rivera, and Ismael Canales. Archie asked them to gather closely, and put one hand out, one on top of the other. Then Archie put his hands above and below those four hands, encompassing them. And he prayed.
For Juanita, that night was the cornerstone of what became the Bethel Bible Institute. Plans were already underway to open the school. But that night, God spoke to young people about fulltime service, preparing hearts before the school even opened.
The Bethel Institute opened in 1971 with nine students, seven of them fulltime students. Among them were those four persons who had overlapped their hands at the Bethel altar–Lydia, Juanita, José, and Ismael. The school offered two hours of teaching in the morning and three at night. By 1976, the school’s fifth year, they had 16 students. The upstairs of a two-story building on the property, designed as a meeting place for conference time, doubled as a dormitory. Classes convened in the Bethel church sanctuary.
Since Juanita had a job, and since she knew the school had little money to work with, she wanted to pay room and board. The others pulled their weight in other ways–Lydia cooked, and the young men earned money by cleaning the yard and tending to other chores. Since Juanita held a job, Archie scheduled the devotion at 6 a.m. so she could attend. She describes his teaching as excellente, adding, “Only he could have as much patience as he had.”
The students gained plenty of real-world ministry experience. Every weekend, they went out to villages so they could practice what they were learning in the classroom. But before preaching or teaching in the villages, they would rehearse their presentation in front of their classmates.
In 1974, the government in Tegucigalpa approved plans for the Bethel Evangelical Primary School, which opened in early 1975. Juanita Chavez was instrumental in getting the school going. In fact, says Archive Cameron, “Juanita was the very center, the axle that ran the school those first two years.” By 1976, it had grown to include over 100 children from kindergarten through sixth grade.
Juanita Chávez was among the four students in the first graduating class at the Bethel Institute. However, her call to ministry didn’t find immediate fullfillment in the United Brethren church. “It has always been difficult for women pastors,” Juanita said in 1998. “People used to feel that a female pastor was less than the male pastor, but now that’s beginning to change.”
She did, however, accept many invitations to preach and teach for churches in other denominations, where women ministers were more accepted. She continued working as a secretary for a while before resigning from that position and making herself available for pastoral service. But finding no takers, she took a job with the Honduras Bible Society, becoming director of the work in La Ceiba.
Juanita went on to serve Honduras Conference as director of Church Services and as director of the Bible Institute. Then, in 1998, after the Bible Institute was closed, Juanita became pastor of the Ebenezer church. Her husband, Carlos, who worked with the Bethel Bookstore before they were married but spent most of his adult years with the fruit company, took over her Bible society position in 2000.
“Becoming pastor of the Ebenezer church was the greatest honor the Lord has given me,” she says. She views herself a life-long learner, and considers it especially important now that so many young people are studying at the university level. “Even though I’m older, I keep on studying, because I realize I need to stay a step ahead of my congregation. More young people now study at the university level.”
At an interdenominational committee of city-wide pastors, Juanita was named as one of four outstanding Christian leaders in the city. Archie Cameron was one of the others.
“The Lord always gives me perks,” she says. “Whatever I have suffered doesn’t compare with the blessings I have received.” She adds, “I’ll always be United Brethren. I love our denomination.”
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