Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Thanksgiving



This photo was taken by Mauricio Mendez in the IELCO office as we celebrated thanksgiving last week (no, it is not normally celebrated in Colombia). I usually teach English classes on Tuesdays, so last week we combined the classes and had a big pot-luck and all said what we are thankful for (in English) as well as a short Bible study on thankfulness. This is a great team to work with, and I am thankful for each of them. Also, there was not one thing of a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner: we had meatballs and chicken, pumpkin bread, tomato and cucumber salad, mini sandwiches,  cheese and guava paste, potato chips, plantain chips, avocado and coconut cookies. 

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! You, our readers, are on the list of people we are thankful for. Many blessings to you all as we start Advent. 


Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Diploma and Celebration

Last Saturday, November 18th, we held the year’s final workshop at the House of Reconciliation and Peace Education, a ministry of the Emmaus Lutheran Church, in the city of Medellin. This workshop was the final gathering of a yearlong certificate process called “Conflict, Justice, and Reconciliation”, in which the Emmaus Lutheran Church in Medellin organized trainings on a number of issues regarding peace-building efforts in the city and in Colombia in general.

The workshop group after lunch. Photo by Pastor John Hernandez.
This was the first year of the House of Reconciliation and Peace Education and the certificate training course was the first project. We focused this final workshop on exploring the relationship between four main components of reconciliation which they have been focusing on in the certificate course: justice, truth, forgiveness, and love. We explored how these four can interact in order to strengthen peace-building initiatives, and how they relate to the current process of Colombia regarding transitional justice mechanisms, truth seeking processes which will hopefully lead to forgiveness, and how love holds it all together.

The personification of truth, justice, love and forgiveness in a group interview about peace-building in Colombia. Photo by Pastor Jairo Suarez.
As we finished the workshop, 15 excited members of the House of Reconciliation received their diplomas. This left a lot of excitement for future plans of working towards implementing in practice all that they have been studying this year.

Everyone with their diplomas at the end of the day. Photo by a member of the House of Reconciliation.

Adi Martinez, member of the House of Reconciliation and student of Theology, after receiving her diploma. Photo by Pastor Jairo Suarez.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Commemorating the Reformation

Around the world, commemorations of the 500 years of the reformation have been occurring, remembering all the many changes that have happened due to the reformation which started in 1517. Here in Colombia, commemorations are happening as well. Sunday, October 22nd, at New Life (Vida Nueva) Lutheran Church in Bogota, a special worship service was held with a guest panel to discuss the history of the reformation, and its impacts on the IELCO today.  The women’s ministry of the church also held a ‘Dinner with Katarina’, a program to share the impacts women had on the reformation (but often not remembered in history books).

The women of Vida Nueva (New Life) sharing stories of specific women who made the reformation possible.
This last Sunday, October 29th, an ecumenical worship service was held with IELCO’s partners in DIPAZ (Inter-church Dialogue for Peace) at the dedication of the new Lutheran church-building in Caracoli, southern Bogota, a community of people mostly displaced from the Colombian conflict which IELCO has been accompanying for 20 years now. The focus of the worship service was on reconciliation, a central focus of DIPAZ, both ecumenically as well as in the current reality of Colombia’s peace process.

Pastor Jairo Suarez leading the worship service at Luz y Vida (Light and Life) in Caracoli, in the brand new temple.
From Left to Right: Sara Lara, coordinator of Justicia y Vida (Justice and Life project) of IELCO, Pastor Jairo Suarez of IELCO, Jenny Neme, director of Justapaz (Mennonite advocacy organization), Pator Nelson Celis of IELCO, and Curtis.