Hope in Iraq

Hello. Here's another light in the darkness.

In a region called Micoahumado, the Paramilitaries and Guerillas have been

fighting for control. The violence was so bad that people were considering

displacing themselves (abandoning their farms and homes, like over 456,000

people did last year in Colombia). But they had a public meeting and a

priest asked how many were willing to risk staying. 100 persons put up their

hands. From this the Protestant and Catholic churches united with the

community to begin to forge a space for peace. They formed a community

organization for peace, life, and justice with a mission to look for a

peaceful solution to this tense situation.

They began by seeking out the leaders of the Paramilitaries and Guerrillas

(even though it is against the law to meet with any of the illegal armed

groups) and asking and telling them that they could no longer fight in the

populated areas of Micoahumado. One of the Guerrilla leaders said in a

newspaper interview, "I have never seen farmers be so bold to the armed

groups before, and they are a real challenge to us."

Since this started a year ago, the farmers have made the rule that it is now

illegal for any of the civilians to in any way be an informant. If anyone is

found to be an informant they are jailed for a time and if it happens again

they will be thrown out of the community and considered part of the armed

group. They have told the armed groups not to ask any civilians for

information, to stay out of the villages with their arms and uniforms, not

to charge any taxes on the civilians, and not to ride in any civilian

vehicles. This movement for a peaceful solution has gotten two nearly full

page articles in the newspapers. It is a special ray of hope and light in

the mist of a lot of pain and suffering in many parts of Colombia. The peace

there is somewhat shaky but please hope and pray with me it can hold, grow,

and spread like fire to all of Colombia.

This shaky peace has provided space so they could develop projects for the

community in health, roads, housing, and schools. All these activities had

been at a standstill. This really shows the way war affects lives. Can you

imagine not having enough order and peace for these basic services to

function? That is the way it is in many parts of Colombia. Our goal in the

Opon is to help provide the space where services can be put in place.

At a recent event, I was fortunate to get to visit with some of the teachers

from Micoahumado. One teacher wrote a prayer and a song regarding

Micoahumanado and gave me a copy. They were very excited about what has been

happening there. It was a gift to hear about it on a personal level. I gave

them copies of the Peace Pilgrim books, which they said they were very

grateful for.

The Micoahumado community has asked us to give some time to accompanying

them in this peace process, particularly in their dialogue with Colombian

government. As a matter of fact we are going with two people from the Opon

this coming weekend for a visit there. Pray that it will be a fruitful

time.

We have agreed to give them some time occasionally for the present. There

are other areas that are asking for our help also. Pray with us as we try to

make some hard choices in the next months about where to give our time.

My time here will come to an end soon, and I will be home, the Lord willing,

on 12/23/03. Starting now, please send messages to jimfitz(at)plowcreek.org

Peace,