NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Making a difference in the world can seem like a tall order. For a Nashville group, it’s been a decades-long mission that started with one question: "What can we do?"
The work that has followed has saved lives more than 1,400 miles away at Jovenes en Camino in Honduras.
“I just remember walking and seeing all these kids on the streets, and I thought: ‘Where are their parents?’ And then found out from others they just live on the streets, and I was like: 'Oh my goodness,' and there were hundreds and hundreds."
Nashvillian Steve Davidson vividly remembers his first trip to Honduras back in 1986. The poverty was inescapable, and the abandoned children — everywhere. Honduras is the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere where boys are cast out by their families to fend for themselves even as toddlers.
Many more trips followed for Davidson and his wife, Lisa, taking Middle Tennessee teenagers on mission trips, then their families, and each time the same question would be asked:
"We’d go — all these street kids — what can we do? So, it planted a desire and vision in us to do something,” Steve said.
The idea for Jovenes en Camino was born. A foster home nestled in a valley 25 miles from the capitol city of Honduras.
“If you walk on campus today it’s like this little Garden of Eden.”
The eight-acre campus houses three dorms, a dining hall, a carpentry shop, farm and a clinic — all made possible by donations, many from the Nashville-area.
“Most of the giving has been a lot of people giving a little bit.”
All of it from the heart.
“It was a community of people who fell in love with another community of people in another part of the world,” Lisa Davidson said.
This week Jovenes en Camino celebrates 20 years of service. In that time, about 200 boys have called Jovenes en Camino home — some arriving without a name or even a birth date now creating family and a future.
"It is hard to delete from their minds what they saw in the past and it’s hard to deal with,” said Carlos Rivera, Jovenes en Camino director. “Some of them don’t have families. So, we need to show that we are a family. And there is a God that is the father who love us. We are trying to be the family they don’t have.”
Norman Baqedano is part of the Jovenes family. At just 2 years old, his mother left him in a hotel room and never returned. He told me it’s something he thinks about every day.
“I always want to remember where I came from to go farther in life and be humble.”
And indeed, he is. Norman is the recipient of a Walton International Scholarship. He is now in his second semester at the University of the Ozarks. As he navigates life on a foreign college campus, it's given him time to share life with those who made it possible — spending Christmas in Nashville with his Jovenes sponsors. Many families, under different roofs, bonded by one mission and one young man.
“I think that all of us are put here on earth to help other people and I think that’s what God wants us to do,” said Brenda Plunkett.
“I don’t know what he’ll do, or what he’ll be, but I know it’s going to be great!” said Lisa Davidson.
It is that sort of faith that built Jovenes en Camino.
“It’s been put together by broken people who love little broken people and then these little broken people like Norman, and many others — they are giving back and that’s what life is about,” said Steve Davidson.
The same faith that will write new stories for once-forgotten little boys.
Norman’s goal is to return to Honduras and one day serve as its president. It’s a lofty goal, but one he is certain he can achieve.
“What makes you believe that?” I asked.
“What I went through and the people I have on my side.”
You can read more about Jovenes en Camino, here: https://www.jovenesencamino.org/
Rhori recommends:
“Here’s another example of a small non-profit doing so much good in our community! Forrest Sanders highlights the group Friends Life Community, which provides adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities a chance to express themselves through art. In this case, original stage performances! Registered drama therapist Sarah Edwards guides the performers, including Mary Margaret, as they express themselves through written words and dance movements. The original show is touring and have a date set this September at TPAC!”
-Rhori Johnston
