Jim's Peacemaking

Appeal Hello, This is not an easy thing for me to do, especially since only 2 months ago I made an appeal for my own support. So I hope you'll be understanding. Like many organizations, CPT has been running behind on donations this year, and to date it has spent (between its US and Canada offices) $ 100,000 more than it has taken in. Yesterday we had to spend $ 276.00 to repair our boat motor, which is hard to do in light of the above. But the lives of many farmers and their wives and children are at stake. So how can we say no to the repairs even if it was a hard bullet to bite? So to those that are able and feel moved to support Christian Peacemaker team's ministry, I want to ask you for your financial contribution. Please make tax deductible checks out to Christian Peacemaker Teams and send to: CPT P.O. Box 6508 Chicago , IL. 60680 Jim Fitz PS. Could you include that your response was because of Jim Fitz´s appeal. Thanks so much for your consideration on this. To maintain o...

Greetings: I am in and around the city for a few days. Yesterday we went to the Opon to cheer at 2 soccer games between the communities. We were there to give them some security, for they fear the Paras or Guerrillas could use the occasion to force them to agree to help them in some way, like pay a tax on all the goods they transport or to bring them supplies from the city. They have done this before. It is hard to say what you really feel when a group of armed people is threatening you and your village with their guns. Erin and Pierre stayed the night at the community's request just to insure that nothing happened later in the evening. We live in a house with 3 bedrooms, a long hall, a patio front and back, kitchen, dining room and living room. Each of us hand washes most of our clothes. I like that, because it's good exercise for one thing, and it also feels good to be doing manual work to take care of ourselves. This is a bit of my simple life philosophy coming through. We u...

Orientation Hello, It was great to see old friends again in the Opon the area where we work, and sense their true gratefulness for each of us to be there. I sense anew the importance of our presence for their peace of mind and the security it means to them. It all makes us feel needed. This makes facing the risks and dangers, 100´s of mosquitoes outside my mosquito tent waiting for me, the heat at 95° F, the humidity near 100%, mud most everywhere and such in this primitive situation worth it all. They are a strong and persevering people to live in these conditions. Our first day there Betty told us that guerrillas had walked past her place two times the day before. They ask her to give them some food, and though she doesn't want to help any of the armed groups, out of fear for what they might do, she gave them a bag of food. She shared her fear that with any of the armed groups being in the area she is afraid that a fire fight between the different groups will catch her, her fami...

Arrival Hello. We got here last night. All went well, except they hesitated with Erin's visa. After five minutes or so they gave her the OK. We don't know what that was all about. We had a good time of sharing and prayer at Reba Place, our sister community. It was encouraging to sense their interest and support. I am here in Bogota till sometime Thursday. We had a very nice welcome by the brother and sister Mennonites here in Colombia last night. They are very supportive of Christian Peacemaker Teams' work here. Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers for us and the work here. Jim Fitz

Pointers from CPT Congress Hello, Here are some gems or pointers that I picked up at the Christian Peacemaker Teams [CPT] Congress last weekend. I thought many of you might find them helpful. When I was sharing with a CPT steering committee member about some thoughts on prayer, she had a unique insight. I told her that I had come to feel that in a lot of ways prayer is just taking the time to say the words. Its effectiveness is not dependent very much on how we say the words, or our state of mind, how much we believe etc., but on the great listener we have, God. She said, "Life is 99% just showing up." In other words, prayer is a lot just being available. Another person was explaining about how their church is involved in a program of study that is based on the premise that if we want to grow, we need to give our time to practice and study. The web site is www.justfaith.org We don't learn to do anything well without concentrated practice and study. The implication of tha...

Introduction Letter Jim Fitz is a member of Plow Creek Mennonite Church, in Tiskilwa, Illinois. He works full time in peacemaking, which includes about 3 months a year with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Barrancabermeja, (Barranca for short) Colombia. In the Barranca area, CPT there provides protection from the threats to and killing of various armed groups by being a nonviolent presence and witness for about 100 farm families. Jim will be in Barranca area Oct.1- Dec. 22. During the application process for Christian Peacemaker Teams, one of the first things that the CPT interviewer said to Jim, " Do you realize this is a very dangerous situation and do you have a bunch of people who can pray for you?" This gave Jim some hesitation but upon some reflection, he felt that he had a church full of people who would pray for him. He also felt a clear call to this work. He felt he was ready to try to risk his life for peace in the same way soldiers risk their li...

Visa in hand Hello, well we are really celebrating, Thanks again for all your prayers, I sense in a way we prayed them in. 3 of us got visas, Erin and I fly on Monday, 10/ 6 around 8 AM. Please keep praying for the 2 Canadian visas for Pierre and Steward. I sense they will come, Bogota has said they are ready to issue them tho a few of the papers need up dated so we should know in about 2 weeks. more in a little bit, Jim