Jim's Peacemaking

Colombia Visa Update Hello, I was very pleased with the meetings with the Senators and our Representative about our visas. The offices of Senator Durbin and Representative Weller both agreed to write letters on our behalf to sent to the Colombian government and to include with our application that we will submit personally on 9/8 at the Chicago Colombian Consulate. Evidently many of the about 400 persons I asked to pray did so. THANK YOU! I now ask your prayers for 9/8 and thereafter until we get an answer from the Consulate. If our visas come soon enough I plan to leave for Colombia about Sept. 30 and stay until Dec. 20. I want to take this opportunity to report regarding my fund raising. Because of the generosity of many of you, I have raised about $6,500 to date. I need about $4,000 yet. If you know of someone who might be interested in the opportunity to support my peacemaking, could you please share a description of my work with them and ask them if they would like to see ...

Pray for Visas Hello, As most of you know I hope to go to Colombia with Christian Peacemaker Teams [CPT] for all but three months starting Sept.30. This will provide protection for about 80 farm families from the Paramilitaries, Guerrillas, and Colombian Army and Navy. All these armed groups are fighting each other for control of the people, land, oil, and coca where the farmers live. And so the armed groups are constantly suspicious that the farmers are helping their opponents. And we are able to prevent the killings and threats from the armed groups on the farmers from happening with our presence there and with the important help of your prayers. As you might remember a year ago the Colombian government started making it hard for us to get visas and started deporting CPTers. So last fall CPT put on a campaign to pray for and pressure the Colombian government and US government Representatives and Senators to change this, so that we could again more easily be in Colombia. As a resu...

I think it important to give our attention to what our soldiers are thinking . Here are some important thoughts. Please share with friends, A U.S. soldier in Iraq wonders: 'How many more must die?' Peoria Journal Star, August 24, 2003 By TIM PREDMORE "Shock and Awe" were the words used to describe the awesome display of power the world was to view upon the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was to be an up-close, dramatic display of military strength and advanced technology within the arsenal of the United States and the United Kingdom's military. But as a soldier preparing for the invasion of Iraq, the words "shock and awe" rang deeper within my psyche. These two great superpowers were about to break the very rules they demand of others. Without the consent of the United Nations, and ignoring the pleas of their own citizens, the United States and Britain invaded Iraq. "Shock and Awe"? Yes, the words correctly described the emotional impact...

COLOMBIA: Letter from Carol Rose (edited for length) The week before last I visited a couple of villages that have been affected by US sponsored fumigations. While almost everyone agrees the growing of illicit crops in large amounts (coca) is problematic, the devastation caused by the generalized spraying of herbicides is devastating. I do mean generalized spraying--over homes and yards, over food crops, over schools and water sources. People are sick. Their legitimate sources of income wiped out. And the coca recovers with relative ease. So fumigation leaves communities even more dependant on the growing of coca. Three weeks ago a couple of men from the communities along the Opon River where CPT has our primary work were disappeared and are believed dead at this point. We're working on a worship service to help the community grieve. It's particularly hard when you're not sure about what happened and you have the armed group's reactions to worry about. This one was prob...

Sharing #7 The gift of the enemy The gift of the enemy is the theme of the 3 seminars I will be doing next week at the Cornerstone music and seminar Festival 7/1-5/03. Perhaps one of the most important question before us for our present time in history is how we will embrace the call to "Love our enemies", A good litmus test to evaluate our religious and political leaders is how do they embrace this hard teaching of Jesus. Jesus calls us to love our enemies, in order for us to be children of God, for God has it rain and shine on the good and evil and just and unjust alike. A point of solidarity with our enemies is in our common evil. We like they are a mix of good and evil, just and unjust. As we come to recognize these negative aspects of ourselves , do you notice how we tolerate and accept these things in ourselves? When we see this common ground with our enemies, then we can come to see our enemies sin much more objectively and even come to look at them with co...

Are our leaders ripe for Peace?? This has been a question I’ve been pondering lately. As I look at recent history, I see a pattern in Israeli leaders, one that I remember particularly starting with Begin in the 1970's. He started out very warrior--like, giving the impression he was going to straighten things out by using strong military force. He was going to fix those Palestinians once and for all. But after a few years he gradually began to sing a different tune. He came to see that military might just was not getting anywhere and began to question if all the bloodshed was worth anything. This all brought him to the point of talking with Arafat, which led to reconciliation that developed into an actual friendship between the two leaders. As you might remember, Begin was then assassinated, after which Arafat spent over an hour with Begin’s widow consoling her. She has remarked about the miracle it was when she came to appreciate Arafat and his compassion through this whole experie...

Thank you for your interest in being a part of bringing peace and justice to this hurting world. Christian Peacemaker Teams policy is that volunteers such as myself raise all of their own funds. Therefore, I depend on donations in order to give presentations to increase hope and encourage people to do their part to bring peace and justice to the world. I invite you to take part in this effort by praying for peace and/or making a donation. Make checks out to Jim's Peacemaking and send to : Jim's Peacemaking 723 Seward St Evanston, IL 60202 You can pay online: You can also donate with Paypal via a credit card or bank account . Ps. Again I ask you to please consider supporting this vital work to bring peace and justice to this hurting world. Thanks, Jim Due to present situation, donations are currently NOT tax deductible.  But donations are greatly appreciated to keep this peacemaking going.