Jim's Peacemaking

"A thousand saludos (greetings) for Plow Creek. I pray for Plow Creek every day," said Margarita in the attachment. I was glad I could say, "I pray for you daily, too." She than added, "We are so glad you come to visit us; thank you for remembering us; we appreciate it very much. How is so and so¦?" I heard similar words to these over and over through out our week in Valle Nuevo. And they back up their words with the best meals they can afford. What a welcome from some of world's materialistically poorest people, but some of the richest in the Spirit of Jesus. Margarita will be a recipient of the housing project we initiated this year. There are cracks in her house's adobe walls from the last earthquake, and the termites are turning the wood post into dust. If you are interested in hearing more about this housing project, let me know. I've visited there at least six times now, and I wasn't sure there was going to be much new. But I found I...

Greetings friends! I am recently back from Colombia. Here are my plans for 2006 combined with a report on 2005. To start off, here are some photos that catch some of the main aspects of my work in Columbia. Here we are in one of our many visits with the farmers in the Opon. The little girl was ill with a fever. We prayed together both for her and for peace. Encouraging us CPTers to pray with the farmers when we visit in their homes seems to be part of my role on the team. Here we are in our living room in Barrancabermeja praying for the four teammates who are being held hostage in Iraq. This really shook us up and made us consider in a new way that this could happen to us in Colombia. But it also drew us together to pray more. We were very grateful to see them alive on the January 26 video. Conversations with people I meet, like these guys, have become an important part of my peace work. Fonso, Leo and Joe challenged my stereotyping of all Colombians as people who would take Americans ...