Jim's Peacemaking

Dear Friend, “There must have been 40 or 50 soldiers from the Colombian Army who came through here. They accused Jorge, my son, of being an informer for the guerrillas. I was so scared. They took his picture and asked him a lot of accusing questions. I was afraid to let him go fishing like he often does. They were all around the house. I was afraid that if there was a confrontation with the guerrillas, bullets might hit any one of my children.” “They asked our first and last names and checked them, with lots of others from the community, against their list of supposed guerrilla sympathizers. We are not guerrilla sympathizers, but there is nothing we can do to convince them otherwise. They have guns, so I don’t argue with them. Someone must be singling us out. I was so scared that I called Pierre of CPT to let you all know about it. Then I was scared that they might be listening in on the call. Pierre said it is was ok and wondered why the army keeps using these fear and intimidation ta...

Dear Friend, Land mines are one of our biggest problems here. You know how children are. You tell them to stay on the path, but it is so hard for them to realize the danger and obey. Just for them to go to help find some firewood or go to school, it is so dangerous. One was badly injured and we took him to the hospital in San Pablo, and they said they could not treat him there. Then we had to take him to Bucaramanga, all at our expense. There doesn't seem to be any help from the government," shared one of the farmers. Delcy, from the Vice President's Office of Human Rights, answered, "If they cannot treat a person in San Pablo, they are responsible for transporting him to where he can be treated. I will have that looked into." Another farmer shared, "The Army treats us like dirt. They have check points on the paths to our fields, and they stop us and accuse us of being guerrillas and detain us for hours at a time. They entice our children with candy and then...

Hello friends! " Would you like something to read on peace?" I asked the taxi driver as I had done probably a half a dozen times to taxi drivers in my trip to Bogota. He responded, "Sure, I am always interested in reading." I told him about Peace Pilgrim's 28 years walking and sharing about peace in the USA and gave him a Peace Pilgrim booklet. And than I said, "You know I am sorry to say that I feel a lot of the conflict here in Colombia is caused by the million dollars a day my government gives in military aid to Colombia. Can you imagine the lobbying being done to keep the war going by the big US corporations who are supplying those arms?" He responded, "That has been my analysis too. It seems your government wants to keep the war going for the business it generates." I am reading Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins. It is about Perkins' life of working to convince governments of poor countries to go into debt to do ...

Hello friends, This week, as the team and I met together to hear each other, I really sensed that God was actively involved (as He always is) in our lives. I went into the sharing time a bit anxious, with notes to make sure I did not forget something, but once I got started I hardly looked at the notes and was able to just share from my heart in a sense of trust and peace. As a part of my quiet time, one of the things I read almost daily is a truth I came to one time with a counselor as I was dealing with a conflict. It is: "When I enter into conflict with a pure heart and trust and not as a power struggle to win, it leads to peace and us affirming each other." I sense God has enabled this "peace and affirming each other" to happen here with the team. The team has very generously given hours in reading and meeting to work not only on the issue of my desire to do peacemaking presentations about CPT with the Mennonite Brethren, but also to working through the misund...