Jim's Peacemaking

Hello friends, "I used to be very active in the peace movement, but my current work has been so consuming I haven't participated much in the last ten years," shared Rich Wood, a former United Methodist pastor, during a conversation with me on the train to Chicago. For the past ten years Rich has been dedicating himself to exposing the way drug companies are wrongfully pushing farmers to use unnecessary drugs on animals here and abroad. I also got to share CPT photos and stories with him. "It is very encouraging to hear about CPT peacemaking. Even though I get 40 emails a day, I would still like to be on your mailing list." I responded, "You can always delete my email if you are getting too many emails; I will never know it!" And I added, "But don't forget your work is an important part of peacemaking and I want to encourage you to keep at it. Blessings to you in it." Rich and I agreed though our work often feels overwhelming, one thing...

Hello friends, "Your friend Mr. Fitz got in my head. He got even me thinking. We never pay attention in that class, but everyone was listening," a star football player at Verdugo High School said to my friend Cordell Bowman. Before the class started the teacher told me, "Now this class might get out of hand, and if it does we will just usher you out of the room." Another teacher, after hearing my sharing, said, "You have to share this with more people. So for the next 90 minute period, please go to my friend's class for 45 minutes and then come back to my class. You got me thinking too." Another teacher shar ed, "You talked about values, something these students seldom hear about, and that was good." For four classes in a row, I shared in this LA high school. I never have had such attention from students during high school classes. They filled the time with lots of important questions. I was worn out, energized, and very encouraged when it...

Dear friends, My three months in Colombia and on the CPT team there were drawing to a close, and Noah was leading the team worship which would be my final one this time. He asked people to share anything they wanted to share with me or to say prayers for me. Michele shared, "I really appreciate the fact that when you took me downtown to make a copy of my passport, you also introduced me to your many friends that we met along the way. I also appreciate how you shared CPT brochures with those we did business with." Pierre said, "I just always chuckle inside whenever I see you giving out a Peace Pilgrim pamphlet. I can't help but think that you are a peace pilgrim too." He added, "And you will be Uncle Jim to our two-year-old daughter Vania from now on!" As I listened to these and other sharings and looked around at each person, suddenly a light went on in me which made me share, "You have each helped me become more of what God meant me to be during...

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...