By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald

Mission: Care for farm animals in Honduras

SUPERIOR -- Next year veterinarian Allen Pederson hopes to leave his practice in Spooner and Hayward to work in Honduras. For sure there will be a few differences.

For starters he won't have to give his usual 'fat dog' lectures to clients--a reference to the overfeeding of pets in the United States, a major health issue. Fat dogs will not be a problem in rural Honduras where Pederson will live for the next three years with his wife Ann and their four children.

The family will be missionaries of an unusual sort. Affiliated with Christian Veterinary Mission, their goals will be to share the Gospel and train rural Hondurans to be animal health technicians.

The hardest part of this mission work, they say, is raising the money to get there. Before the family gets the thumbs up from CVM to establish a home base in Honduras they must have raised at least 80 percent of their first year's projected budget of $65,000.

That sounds like a lot of money, Allen Pederson said, and it is. To participate in this type of mission work, participants raise funds, which go directly to, and are managed by CVM. CVM in turn, pays the missionaries a stipend.

The 6-person Pederson family will receive $24,000 a year. Their health insurance is another $10,000. Travel expenses are included in the budget as is money for a vehicle; Pederson will not establish a single vet clinic but will travel throughout a portion of the country to small villages.

"People think living is cheap in a Third World country," Pederson said. "Only if you're living like (the natives) are and not trying to do a professional job. The kids still need shoes, pants. You still need tools to work with. It all adds up."

The Pedersons are not naive or inexperienced. The couple volunteered in the Peace Corps from 1987 to 1989 in the Dominican Republic. Allen did work with animals on this Peace Corps mission but the couple was also involved with public health projects for cleaner water and sanitary latrines.

"It laid a foundation for what we can expect conditions to be like in Honduras," he said.

Ann Pederson, who has a degree in natural resources and has worked as forester in the Spooner area, will school their children, who are already beyond the educational level of most Honduran children their ages. Daniel, 10, and Scott, 12, will be home schooled, and Lisa, 15, who is currently enrolled in a Wisconsin state virtual alternative school, will continue in this program provided an Internet connection is possible. For socialization and language skills, the children will also spend time in Honduran classrooms.

The eldest Pederson child, Jennifer, 18, is now finishing her senior year in high school. She will go to Honduras with the family in March. In the fall she will return to the United States to attend college. Her travel funds are also part of the family's first year's budget.

CVM was established more than 30 years ago. Headquartered in Seattle, it has a track record of helping missionaries succeed. Proper funding is critical.

"With not enough money at the start," Ann said, "you'll be frustrated and leave" without accomplishing anything.

Allen, 50, first became aware of CVM at prayer breakfasts he attended during veterinary conventions. Then this year he and Ann, 43, were able to visit the Dominicans they worked with 18 years ago and an interest in mission work in a foreign country was ignited.

"(The Dominicans) welcomed us back like long lost family," he said. "They were so warm, so appreciative. How do you tell these people 'we're too busy to work for you.'"

The Pedersons belong to St. Francis de Sales in Spooner and Fr. Andrew Ricci is their pastor.

"Fr. Ricci says God works through people," Allen said. And in Honduras people need animals for survival. There, horses and mules are important means of transportation in the rural mountain areas. Pigs and poultry are common as are cattle.

"You can't really call them dairy cows," Allen said. "They are mixed breeds, zebu-types with loose skin and resistant to tropical diseases."

One reason there is such a need for veterinary training in Honduras and the other countries where CVM works is the success of another non-profit charitable organization, Heifer International.

This group solicits money then purchases all manner of farm animals for the rural poor in many countries in an ambitious effort to teach self-sufficiency and end poverty and world hunger.

"The Heifer project has put a lot of animals in the country (Honduras)," Pederson said, "and they haven't ever had animals."

In addition to the veterinary work, the Pederson family plans to be active in the church and in community groups and possibly help with small business development or public health projects, similar to the work they did in the Dominican Republic while in the Peace Corps.

Mindful of safety, they will stay out of big cities, which are dangerous zones in Latin America, and employ the same methods people use anywhere to protect themselves.

"Just like in the United States," Pederson said. "You know situations which seem uncomfortable. You (get to) know your neighbors. We look out for them and they look out for us."

For now the family is asking for prayer support and financial help. Ann has been involved in plenty of fundraising projects when their kids were students at St. Francis School, and has been on mission trips with the parish. But it's different asking for money for a personal mission.

"Asking people for money is very humbling," Ann said.

Allen will sell his share of the veterinary practice he owns in Spooner and Hayward, and the family will rent out their home before going to Honduras. What will happen at the end of their CVM service? Where will he work? Where will the family live?

"We'll see where the Lord is leading us in three years," Allen said.

According to its mission statement, CVM "enables Christian veterinarians as they use their skills to minister to the physical, spiritual, and social needs of people around the world. We call this 'Christ's Love Expressed Through Veterinary Medicine.'"

People in the livestock-based cultures in Asia, Africa and Latin America learn modern methods of animal health care from CVM recruits.

Like the Allen and Ann Pederson family from Spooner, veterinarians solicit support from churches, businesses and friends to make the missions possible. Donations are sent directly to CVM. CVM helps the Pedersons with a realistic budget then pays them an annual salary.

More information is available from CVM on its Web site, www.cvmusa.org or by calling 206-546-7368.

To support the mission of the Pederson family, donations can be sent to CVM, 19303 Fremont Ave N., Seattle, WA 98133.

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© Superior Catholic Herald, 2007