Hope Chest: Remembering Juanito Carter

By Elena Huegel who serves with the Intercultural Research and Studies Institute (INESIN) in Mexico.

I can feel the smooth wood of the tiny box in my palm.  I wait until the plane takes off, as instructed, to turn it over in my hand and lift the small hinged lid. A distinct spicy wood smell floats softly to my nostrils, “palo santo” holy wood, its soothing properties caress my senses and help me to settle down for the overnight flight out of Asunción, Paraguay.  Then I begin to gently remove small rectangles of fabric from the inside of the box, laying them out on the tray-table. A brown piece of coarse sack cloth reminds me of Oikos, the puppet I made to teach the children about caring for God’s creation. I rub a soft silky fabric between my fingers recalling the theater games, skits, plays, and impromptu dress ups at the Leadership Course where I helped teach the pedagogy of recreation to participants from across the southern cone of South America. Each cloth remnant brings back memories of two and a half fulfilling years at the Jack Norment Camp of the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, in Caacupé, Paraguay under the mentorship of John “Juanito” and Renée Carter, long time mission co-workers of Global Ministries. The final piece of fabric is bright and hand woven with slips of yarn. It makes me smile, and I can hear the music and words from “Weaving Life,” a collective drama I helped produce with the youth from a local church.  When I lift this last piece of cloth, I discover a miniature card squeezed into the bottom of the box with a photo of Juanito and Renée. He is outfitted with the painted mustache and straw hat he wore when representing one of his favorite characters, a caller at a carnival, and she with the bright purple scarf wound about her hair as when she would play the part of a palm reader in one of the evening programs. Tears of gratitude and grief well up and drop onto the box and fabric pieces as I slowly put the layered gift back together: gratitude to Juanito and Renée for everything they taught me and grief at saying goodbye to my first ministry opportunity as a Global Ministries volunteer with the diverse family of the Jack Norment Camp and Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in Paraguay.

Thirty years later, now in 2025, I still treasure the little box, with all the priceless learnings it represents, that Juanito Carter pressed into my hand at the airport as we said good-bye.  “Don´t open it until you are on the plane,” he had said.  Once again this week, I bid Juanito good-bye.  I was not able to travel back to Paraguay for Renée’s funeral in 2007, nor have I been able to travel now to Juanito’s. When Renée passed away, I honored her life by lighting a floating candle and watching its glow under a star studded night sky as my canoe rippled across serene waters and set the reflections bobbing.  Today, I cradle my little hope chest of memories preparing, in my own way, to say “thank you” and “good-bye” to Juanito.

What did I learn first as a Global Ministries volunteer and then as a Global Missions Intern from the Carters?  These are a few of the many things I am grateful to them for teaching me both through their example and also many conversations.

1. God delights in my passions, gifts and dreams, and in taking the risk of serving in Paraguay, God fulfilled the desires of my heart: to work with people of all ages, to use my creativity in the service of others, to deepen my roots in Latin America, to invite others into transformative relationships with God, themselves, others, and creation.
2. To listen deeply, from a place of dignity, to the stories, hopes and desires of the people I have the privilege of accompanying.  They are often the wisest about how to respond to the situations we face. 
3. My degrees in Recreation and Spanish and my love for the natural world are valuable gifts in the nurturing of wholeness and healing.
4. My expertise in experiential and outdoor education, theater, group dynamics, creative thinking, and teamwork developed under Juanito’s guidance.  He challenged me to reflect on my motivations and actions, to remain curious about what others think and how they behave.
5. I have often thought that I did my first informal Master’s degree in the two and a half years I worked with Juanito and Reneé, setting the building blocks for my later degree in Conflict Transformation and for establishing the Shalom Center at the Pentecostal Church of Chile.
6. Play and laughter, joy and dance, fun and learning, costumes and storytelling, creative liturgy and puppets, art and craft making all have glorious parts to play in the adventure that is the Christian faith.  This principle of recreation, in the broad sense of creating a new, also became part of the theoretical and practical foundations of the Roots in the ruins: hope in trauma program which I coordinate today at the Institute for Intercultural Studies and Research in Chiapas, Mexico.

When Yvette Carter, Juanito and Renée’s daughter, let me know of her father’s passing, she wrote, “Papá is now dancing with Mamá.”  I can see Renée and Juanito, always a dynamic team, together organizing a party in heaven. He is wearing his painted mustache and has a stuffed pillow under his paunchy vest, and she has a sparkly purple scarf flowing about her.  They are dancing a waltz, first laughing together and then with a wink, splitting up and reaching for the angels and saints as new partners until everyone is dancing, rejoicing and celebrating together.  Thank you, Renée and Juanito, for jubilantly sharing your gifts and for the seeds of shalom you planted in so many of us trusting that we would share our own fruits for the healing of the nations.  Thank for that little chest which contains treasures of hope for me even in these challenging times.

Elena Huegel serves with the Intercultural Research and Studies Institute (INESIN) in Mexico. Her appointment is made possible by your gifts to Disciples Mission Fund, Our Church’s Wider Mission, and your special gifts.