SYMPHONIES OF HOPE

How it All Started

Symphonies of Hope– Choirs of Faith

Symphonies of Hope
Chris & Coleen Anderson
P.O. Box 1061, Pharr, TX 78577
In the U.S. : 608 - 313 - HOPE
Message phone in U.S. : 956-781-5133
Email: chriscoleen@symphoniesofhope.org
Email: chriscoleen@choirsoffaith.org

SymphoniesOfHope.Org
ChoirsOfFaith.Org

SinfoniasDeEsperanza.Org
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Orchestras & Choirs Serving in God's Love

It started as an idea-We wanted to teach our
children that there was more to life... Very
simply, we wanted to spend more time
together serving others in God’s love. Chris
had taught music for several years in a small
church school in Wisconsin but was
bothered that he never had enough time to
work with his own children in music. And
due to our constant work we had no time to
reach out to others either. After talking
with a few mission organizations and
struggling with different possibilities, we
decided we would be better off just doing
what we could manage as a family. We
started doing volunteer work in the U.S. But
quickly we began spending more and more
time in Central America. As we considered
serving in places like Mexico or
Guatemala—we realized that we would have
to keep travel and living costs very, very
low. As Chris explains:
“Many roads in Guatemala and Mexico are
very steep, and we didn’t have anything
more than a mini van—if we were going to
live in a camper it would have to be
exceptionally light weight.”
A few years back Chris worked as an
engineer, so the challenge intrigued him.
With our older sons, Joseph and Noah, he
began working on a camper made of light
weight steel and Wal-mart tarp. It all
seemed very crazy at first, but we had high
hopes. At the time we were greatly
encouraged by a boys' ranch in Arkansas.
They opened their welding shop to us and
helped greatly with the initial cost of the
steel. Would this weird structure of steel
and tarp ever become something we could
actually live in? We wondered…
God blessed our efforts and in a few months
we were on our way to Guatemala..pulling
our funny camper with our Aerostar mini
van. The camper had many little problems
but drove excellent and offered 8 x 20 feet of
living space at only 3,000 pounds.
As years went by the ability of our family to
speak Spanish increased bit by bit. Our
understanding of the problems that families
in different places face also grew. As time
passed we also became more aware of how
important it was to put God and our faith at
the center of everything we do in
communities that we visit.
Immediately upon setting forth to do
volunteer work in many different places we
began singing more as a family—mainly to
encourage ourselves. As Noah—our second
son, began to learn violin, Chris decided it
would be neat if we all played violin and
made a small orchestra. Then we began
teaching other children who had no
opportunity to learn. There were many
struggles, and there still are, but we are
determined to press on—as a small
symphony of hope.

Chris painting the finished
frame...

If anyone would come after me, he must deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow
me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.
Luke 9: 23-24

Oct 2002 -Joseph and Chris
welding the frame for the
camper in Missouri… We
weren’t quite sure how it
would work...

When the cover was done we
couldn’t wait for morning…
We had to see if it really would
fit. It was late and cold but we
were very excited to finally
reach this point!

2002- The first camper cover
had a number of problems. One
problem we didn’t think of was
that the intense sun in Mexico
and Guatemala caused the tarp
to shrink. By the time a year
had passed none of the windows
would close well… Another
problem was that whenever it
rained the seams leaked and
soon the entire cover was wet
inside and very heavy! We also
made the first beds out of wood.
The rough roads tore them to
pieces . By the time we returned
all of the furniture was held
together by numerous patches.
Before we left the second year
we had to do a lot of
remodeling!

2002—Chris & Coleen
sewing all the pieces of
the cover together… The
first camper was pieced
together with a sewing
machine. It was so big
and heavy in the end that
we had to push the
sewing machine across
the floor as it stitched it
together. Velcro was
sewed around each
window. The insides
were a thin layer of
fiberglass insulation
which made the whole
process rather itchy!

2002- The inside of the
first camper was rather
dark because the cover
was gray on both sides.

Before our 2003 trip we
cut off the old cover and
made a new one. This time
we made the inside of the
cover out of white tarp
which made a huge
difference in the light
inside the camper. We
built a new bunk bed out
of metal for the children
and used drawers instead
of bins to store things. We
also found a glue that
works for gluing tarp…
therefore eliminating the
need to sew everything.
We also added foil to the
outside of the tarp to
reflect the sun and
preserve the tarp. We
added a battery box to the
underside of the camper
and a few fluorescent
lights to the inside. Things
were getting more
comfortable now!

The final step is making the
travel cover for the camper.

2007 Making the new camper cover with Jesse…
an improved process

We had spring problems again and
finally replaced the axel but the
springs failed again anyway. In
2007 we replaced the axel once
more and the regular springs with
some heavy duty truck springs...
So far we haven’t had any more
issues.

The main mechanical problem
we had with our camper the
first year was that the springs
failed half way to Guatemala
in Sarabia, Mexico. A worker
chased us down as there was
smoke pouring out from under
the camper. The owner of this
little shop has become a good
friend over the years and we
now always stop for a visit
when passing through. Sarabia
also is where we found Atilano
the following year.