Jim's Peacemaking

Hello friends, Those of you who know me personally know how I love to talk with people! And praise God, for He continues to use these conversations for the building up of His kingdom. On the bus trip to Bogotá (a week prior to leaving Colombia), I had a three hour conversation with my seat mate, Jorge (name is changed for security), an older fellow who shared with me some of his experiences living in Colombia during the present conflict “ which has gone on all his adult life. When I was young and saw all the suffering of the poor, there was a real temptation in my anger to think the only way to bring justice was to take up a gun. One of my friends and a natural leader took up the gun and soon was killed as a young age, killing any future contributions to society as well. Somehow I was saved from going down that road. I now have a business that works in the countryside. One time in order to do our work, I had to pay off two of the guerrilla groups by giving them jobs and pay off the...

Hello friends, The other Sunday a former paramilitary, Jose, who is the leader of a Christian band, invited CPTers to come to the worship service where they would be playing. So I went. Jose left the Paras (the illegal paramilitary organization) as a result of conversations he had with CPTers in the Opon four years ago through which he came to see the futility of using a gun to try to solve the 40-year-old conflict. Jose told me Sunday, "There were about 50 of us who left the Paras at that time. Some ended up in jail, as they were so used to criminal activity, it got them in trouble. Others returned to the Paras, and a few of us started to try to straighten out our lives. I am graduating from a seminary course Dec. 17. Can you come to my graduation?" "Regrettably," I replied, "I won't be here in Colombia then." Recently, when I was picking up a switch at the hardware store, the clerk asked, "Who are you? And what are you doing here in Colombia?...

Dear friends, I was traveling with Juan, a rural Pentecostal pastor, on the way to an evening worship service near Cucuta, Colombia. He told me this story: "One night the Paras (Paramilitaries) took a 23-year-old mother in our church and shot her in front of her children, because the Paras thought she had killed her Para friend. The community was afraid to go to recover the body, for fear of what the Paras might do to anyone who showed sympathy to the mother. So they called me. I went that very night and recovered the body and gave her a proper funeral in our church, as a way of saying that the church was not going to be intimated by the Paras threats. As often happens here in this war, it was soon found out that the killing was a mistake for she had had nothing to do with the killing of her Para friend. Then, led by the Spirit, the church carried the coffin to where Paras lived and buried the body there. "This made the Paras face their awful mistake every time they passed th...

Dear friends, I arrived at the border with Venezuela after a long six hour journey of climbing and crossing the magnificent Andes mountains, including being above the tree line and in the clouds at times. I went to the Colombian Consulate and found it full of people waiting. I went to the desk and, without even allowing me to say my name or why I was there, the secretary said, "Just have a seat. She will call you". I waited for an hour and half while some 40 people came and went, and I wondered if I had been forgotten. Finally the secretary saw me and said for me to go into a side room. By this time I was rather anxious. I hoped that all 25 pages or so of papers that I had brought for my visa would be OK. The Consulate, Ziada, said, "Didn't you hear me call for those who needed visas?" I hadn't heard her. I nervously gave her the stack of papers. As she began to go through them, she read about the beginnings of CPT, and she asked, "Who are t...

Hello friends, The next morning Lisa and I ate breakfast with the Los Neques family. Henry, the man of the house, told us, "Last week from Monday to Wednesday soldiers were stationed just across the river. They didn't do us any harm; they just bought some cheese from us. At night we can hear the helicopters which watch the pipeline." We had a long discussion about snake bites and their pet squirrel. Next we stopped at Mary and Steve's. Mary made us fresco de guanabana. Ummmm! Lisa and I had a long talk with Mary. She was concerned about the fact that they did not have gas for the community boat, which kept her and others from attending a meeting on getting electricity into the community. Ten years ago they had cleared a path for the electrical poles but nothing further ever came of it. If the project does not get going this year it will cost them more next year. At 11 am a military helicopter was heard nearby. Mary said, "It is looking for the cartel...

Hello friends, As we entered the Opon region, one of the first things Lisa and I noticed was the gas cartel getting empty barrels from areas of high grass on the river bank, along where we accompany the farm families. We did not mention this to the army we were about to meet because this could cause a firefight and that would increase the violence rather than work toward our goal of reducing violence. As we approached the center of La Florida, we could see a large group of soldiers under a tree on the bank. We pulled up to talk to them. Sergeant G came right up to us and said, "We are just passing through." We started by explaining that we were members of Christian Peacemaker Teams, and that we accompany the farm communities here to help enable them to stay on the land and reduce the violence. They were new to the area and did not know us. The sergeant seemed very interested in talking to us, and very sincere. They eventually found us chairs and we had a 2 and1/2 hour ...

Hello friends, The armed men pulled up to our house, and without any explanation took our 28-year-old Johnnie down to where the army was in the soccer field. I went a number of times to try to find out what was happening to him. And they just kept telling us everything would be OK, and that Johnnie would soon be released. Then two days later we found Johnnie's body amongst a pile of bodies in a ravine outside of Grande. "What was Johnnie like? How would you like to remember him? What work did he do?" asked Chico. Betty responded, "He was such a hard worker. Johnnie bought and sold fish on the street. He loved having his own little business. He liked to tease and joke around the house. He really made our family life happy. We really miss him. He was just a good person. He didn't even smoke. Why did they kill him? I do not understand." "Do you have any idea who these men were that took him away? Who did people in Grande say these men were? " Neighbor...