Jim's Peacemaking

Dear Friends, In my continuing peacemaking education, I recently read the book Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour. He is a Christian - a Palestinian priest who grew up during the formation of the state of Israel. His family is part of a Church that dates back to the very beginnings of Christianity. It has been very helpful for me in coming to understand, in a very personal way, how the conflict has affected, and is still affecting, the Jews and Palestinians living in the area. Here's one story: A man had asked Elias, who was his pastor, to come to his house because his mother was dying. After her death, Elias said to him, "We must surely invite your four brothers to come to see the body before she is buried." The brother responded, "We hate each other so much, if you invite them, you will have five funerals on your hands." This was an example of the animosity between people, even within families, in this village. Later, in the middle of the worship on Easter m...

Dear Friend, My next trip to Colombia will take me in a bit of a new direction, for I have been invited by the Colombian Mennonite Brethren to work for three months with them. I will be sharing about CPT work as a way of promoting peacemaking amongst their 44 congregations and nearly 4000 members. Because the Colombian Mennonite Brethren are in the process of recovering their peace heritage, it is a particularly ripe time for this to happen and I am very excited for this opportunity. This direction may not look as "exciting" as being on the front lines with CPT on the Opon River. However, I feel my potential for helping the Colombian peace process is multiplied in this opportunity because I will be encouraging more Colombian Christians to get involved in peacemaking in their own country. The Church has an important part to play, especially in bringing the call to love our enemies and integrity into the Colombian peace process. Last Thursday I shared with a loc...

Dear friends, "Did you go to church before you were put in jail?" I asked over the phone, through the glass window between us. Roy* responded, "No, but I did accept God at the worship service the Gideons have here every Saturday. I am reading the book of Proverbs in the King James Bible they gave me, though it is hard to understand." I asked, "Would you like to pray?" He said, "Sure." I then led us in a short prayer time. I shared with him about the different pieces of peacemaking literature I had brought for him. I knew he had some interest in that because we had met the first time at our weekly peace vigil some three years ago. Upon arriving for my next visit, the jailer told me, "Roy's visiting time is nearly up. Go right in, so you can have a minute or two with him." Again through the glass and phone I said, "Well, we don't have much time. What would you like to talk about?" To my surprise, he said, "...

"You're urging our congress to cut funding for our troops in Iraq really disturbs me, I am a vet from WW II and that is not supportive of the troops. I totally disagree with you." Said the vet after I told him about CPT work. I responded, "I feel it is supportive to bring them home alive, not in a..." (I never got to finish my sentence as it obviously did not make much sense to him.) He interrupted me, "This conversation was a waste of our time." I answered, "I don't think so, even though we disagree deeply. For us to talk with each other is what Jesus would want us to do." We ended by shaking hands as he parted. "How do you like working for the Carnival?" I asked a 20-some year old woman. "Well it sure beats living on the street." I wonder what in her history made her say that. After I shared quite extensively about CPT work, a brother responded, "That is good work you do. I was in Vietnam, and I am still...

Dear Friends, "I just got off the plane yesterday from Iraq, and I return in about two weeks," he said. I replied,"Wow!" He and Logan than began a long conversation about Iraq with a lot of military jargon I could not understand. David went on to say, "It seems sometimes you just can't get throgh to some people, and you just have to take them out. One of the guys under my command just won't listen. He is so angry at losing his buddies that he just wants to take out every Iraqi he sees. I have talked and talked to him and I just can't get him to stop that." Logan responded,"You know, some times rhetoric just does not work; you just have to act. When we took Sammarh in Iraq, my buddy entered the Iraqi police station without resistance because they were on our side. But he was so angry at losing his buddies that he slapped the Iraqi police captain in the face and hit him in the gut. Do you know what I did? I just put myself in front of my bud...

Hello friends, Four fellows slowly walked up to the Christian Peacemakers Team booth and spit tobacco on the ground as I asked, "Would you like to hear how we are working at reducing violence in conflict areas of the world?" They gruffly said, "Yeah." I gave them the same talk I gave many times during Cornerstone Festival: "Here is CPTer Art Gish in Palestine in front of a tank that was about to run over the farmers' market behind him; he was able to save the farmers' market that day." I ended with, "Would you like some literature?" No, they didn't want any literature, as I thought. One of them, who seemed to be the spokesman, proceeded to tell us, "I have been in Afghanistan. The Afghan people are really good people. I spent 15 hours a day with them, and I really got to know them. They were so glad we got rid of the Taliban, especially for the liberation of the women. We really helped that country." I responded, "I agr...

Hello friends, "Would you like to hear about how we are reducing violence in the war zones of the world?" I said to the shirtless brother as he hurriedly passed our booth amongst the crowd seemingly trying to avoid us. He responded, "You wouldn't want to talk to me; I just got back from deployment in Iraq." He then stared at the photo of Art Gish standing in front of the tank to save the farmers' market in Hebron and then pointing to the photo said, "I've been there." "You know, I would really like to hear your story," I responded. Then he began to tell Tracey (who is in the army reserves) and me his story. "I was part of the first troops from Kuwait to take Baghdad when the war started. The people welcomed us; they were really glad for our arri val. I was a mortar launcher." Tracey shared, "I wanted to deploy to Iraq to help the people, but my unit will never be deployed to Iraq and besides I am in administration....