Lent Photo a Day: Arrival

This photo was taken the first night we arrived in Colombia, we were warmly welcomed at the airport and when we got to the Church Guest House (where we lived our first month) there was this basket of Colombian fruit and a sweet card to welcome us. 

Lent Photo a Day: Who am I?

At a workshop on Women's Rights, we played a 'guess who I am game', based on how others were responding to the identity taped to our backs. Being invited into spaces like this was always an honor as it showed a level of comfort and trust that my counterparts in IELCO and ecumenical partners felt.

Starting Lent

A few years ago we started the tradition to post a picture a day during Lent. This Lent we will continue with the tradition focusing on "remembering". We have been in Colombia almost 5 years (where did the time go) and there are so many stories that haven't made it on the blog; short stories from the ordinary moments of life that we don't want to forget. 

This is what I wrote in our last newsletter (which was emailed on February 25): Several years ago we started the tradition of sharing a photo-a-day on our blog during Lent. Lent is starting next week (March 6) and we have committed to continuing our tradition. This year we are focusing on remembering. We have been in Colombia almost 5 years now, and so much has happened. We have shared the bigger events on our blog (retreats, workshops, etc) however, so many of the day to day activities never make it to the blog. It is Biblical to remember and to share our stories. In Joshua we read: “The people crossed the Jordan River….They carried with them the twelve rocks that they had taken from the Jordan River, and Joshua set them up at Gilgal. Then Joshua told the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these rocks mean?’ Tell them, ‘These rocks help us remember the way the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River on dry land.’” (Joshua 4:19-22) These are our “theme verses” this year for Lent. We won’t share rocks (although, some of you may know I do have a habit of collecting rocks to remember places and times) but we will share photos. Every day in Lent we will share a photo of a memory either Curtis or I have from our time throughout the last 5 years. I hope you join us as we remember the people, places, and moments that have made Colombia so special to us.

This picture was taken at the Tayrona national park, and is our 'theme' picture for Lent. What are memories you have of Colombia? Memories of Global Mission? 

Colombia: Pushing for Peace and Women’s Rights

The week of February 18 - 22^nd Colombia was up for review by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women which monitors the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, an international human rights treaty of which Colombia is a signatory. As signatory to the treaty Colombia is called to review every four years about how it has improved on the implementation of the treaty. IELCO together with its ecumenical partners in DIPAZ and other civil society actors wrote a shadow report as an alternative source of information to the Colombian governments report during the discussions in Geneva. Sara Lara, the coordinator of the Human Rights program of IELCO was invited to be present in Geneva while the Committee discussed the situation of women in Colombia. The Lutheran World Federation highlighted this great experience in a recent article.

Colombia: Pushing for Peace and Women’s Rights

BOGOTA, Colombia/GENEVA 26/2/2019

https://www.lutheranworld.org/news/colombia-pushing-peace-and-womens-rights

Viviana Machuca (left), representing the Colombia inter-church platform DIPAZ, and Sara Lara (right), director if the human rights program of IELCO, in Geneva for the CEDAW shadow report on Colombia, meet with Rev. Dr. Martin Junge (center), LWF General Secretary. PHoto LWF/S. Gallay.

Lutheran church joins other civil society representatives presenting shadow report to UN’s CEDAW committee

(LWI) - Colombia’s hard won peace accords are at risk in the current political climate. That’s the view of a civil society delegation from the South American nation that presented a shadow report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in mid-February.

The shadow report, compiled by a coalition of NGOs including a network of churches known as DIPAZ, is entitled ‘Women and Peace in Colombia: in search of full rights’. It details allegations of human rights violations that continue to affect the most vulnerable women in the country, despite new hopes for justice and peace raised by the signing of a national peace agreement in August 2016.

Sara Lara is coordinator of the human rights program of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO). She was part of the delegation attending the CEDAW session in Geneva and she explains the challenges faced by those working for human rights in her country today: “We hoped the FPA [Final Peace Agreement] would usher in a new era of peaceful relations”, she says, yet she notes that conflict continues in many areas of the country.

The peace accord, signed by Colombia’s government and the main guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was narrowly rejected in a national referendum, requiring a revision of the text that was ratified by both houses of Congress in November 2016.

When the original agreement was signed, Lara says, it was “a great success, because women got a role and were visible”, with victims of human rights abuses obtaining the possibility of reparations.

“When the first peace agreement was rejected”, she continues, opponents of the accord “tried to water down all language of protection for LGBT and women’s rights and some of this protection was removed.”

In Colombia today, Lara says, “it’s been like a step backwards” as conservative political and religious forces seek to undermine the peace accord and reject calls for greater protection of vulnerable women, including those who were formerly members of armed groups. The shadow report notes that ongoing violence in Colombia continues to have a disproportionate impact on women and girls in rural areas, especially indigenous and Afro-Colombians, as well as women migrants from neighbouring Venezuela.

Lara explains there has also been a set back in terms of women’s rights cutting across all social and demographic groups, as conservative groups challenge a rights-based approach to women’s agency. Within the framework of DIPAZ, the IELCO is working hard to reconcile conflicting views, so that the rights and dignity of women and sexual minorities are not perceived as a threat to faith or family life.

During her visit to the United Nations, Lara says she saw how the Colombian government claims it is making good progress towards peace and human rights and that “all institutions of the state are working for the rights of women”. But she adds that violence and discrimination continue to affect women, particularly those in rural and remote areas of the country.

Lara believes the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) can play an important role in supporting work to promote human rights in her country. In particular, she insists, it can continue to advocate for the many victims of Colombia’s long-running conflict: “In the first peace accord they were at the core of the agreements but now they are left on the side”, she says, adding that the LWF can keep the focus on them through its “spiritual and theological voice”.

During their visit to Geneva, members of the DIPAZ delegation met with LWF General Secretary, Rev. Dr Martin Junge, who underlined the vital role that the churches play as they continue to be a key part of the effort to promote women’s rights in Colombia today.

Here is a link to the executive summary of the shadow report.

Christian Formation Training

At the beginning of every year, we visit each of the regions to lead a workshop with the Sunday School teachers. The idea is to start the year well and start the year strong. This year was no exception. Last October, Carolina was elected as the coordinator of Christian Formation (the program that leads Sunday School). So this year, Carolina, Zulma (the former coordinator of Christian Formation and the current coordinator of Formation and Leadership) and I traveled together to lead these retreats.  

The theme this year was looking at the Sacraments, how many Sacraments to Lutherans recognize (and why not the others that the Catholic recognize) and what do we believe about Baptism and Communion (the two Sacraments). Each of the three of us took a part of the workshop to lead, as well as the regional coordinator in each region. Zulma led the introduction, I led the part going deeper in Baptism, and Carolina led the part going deeper in Communion. 

Zulma leading at the very beginning of the day to see what people knew about Sacraments. 

 

Carolina leading a game (similar to shoots and ladders but life size!)

The group in the Llanos Regions

The group in the Boyaca Region

The group from the Central region showing an mobile they made about communion

The group in the Central region again - at lunch (I have been practicing my "selfie" skills)

 

The group in the Eastern Region

 It has been a busy month to travel to each of the regions, but definitely worth it. 

Churches accompany ex-combatant communities through delicate peace process

In December of last year, the Lutheran World Federation published an article about the great work being done through IELCO, the Emmaus Lutheran Church in Medellin, and Pastor John Hernandez. The article has great information, and so clearly explains the work and the importance of the work, also amazing pictures. Below is the article:

Churches accompany ex-combatant communities through delicate peace process

https://www.lutheranworld.org/news/churches-accompany-ex-combatant-communities-through-delicate-peace-process

SAN JOSE DE LEON, Colombia/GENEVA  | Dec 21, 2018

Mayerlis serves woman leader Aida a meal of sarapa – rice and chicken wrapped in a Cachibou leaf. Photo: LWF/Albin Hillert

FARC ex-combatants live fragile peace in Colombia

(LWI) In the far northwest – long one of the country’s most precarious regions – the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO) supports communities through a difficult and slow-moving peace process, to sustain peaceful efforts, and alleviate the risk of relapse into violent conflict.

Accompanying more than 300 families in the Antioquia area, ‘De la Guerra a la Paz’ is a project of IELCO, which is part of the global ecumenical initiative ‘Waking the Giant’, of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Officially launched in Colombia in November 2018, ‘Waking the Giant’ brings together an emerging platform of churches from a dozen Christian traditions in Colombia, in joint efforts to help achieve the United Nations’ Agenda 2030, not least through the Sustainable Development Goal on peace, justice and strong institutions.

“Peace is a big concept. Peace is education, peace is health, peace is life in dignity.” – Edwin Mosquera, project coordinator of De la Guerra a la Paz.

“When we arrived the community here didn’t know what to expect. ‘Will there be conflict, or killings or threats?’,” says former guerrilla commander Joverman Sánchez Arroyave, known by the name Rubén Cano in the FARC guerrilla (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). “But there has been none of that. We have come here to work, and to work together with the community. That’s what we are doing.”

Today, Rubén is one of a group of FARC ex-combatant families who have settled down for a peaceful life in the valley of San José de León, municipality of Mutatá in Antioquia in northwest Colombia. Together, they have purchased and now cultivate 36 hectares of land.

But transitioning from guerrilla warfare to a life in peace has not been an easy process. Two years after signing the peace treaty with the Colombian government in 2016, ex-combatants continue to face trauma, stigmatization, and insecurity.

Church project provides tools for peaceful development

The Urabá region forms a strategically important corridor for trade into Central America, and the resulting drug trafficking and arms trade still keep armed groups active in the area. With a government slow in fulfilling the promises of the peace treaty, and now a president who has argued that the treaty is too lenient on former guerrillas, the situation is all but simple.

“In the period the country is going through at the moment, there are a number of challenges… the fulfilments of the promises by the government have been very few and the development slow. So both the ex-combatants and the communities where they are reintegrating need support,” explains Edwin Mosquera, project coordinator of De la Guerra a la Paz (‘From War to Peace’).

“As a church in this instance, we offer not so much religious as we do practical accompaniment,” notes Rev. John Hernández, a Lutheran pastor who accompanies the project. “We offer support on trauma management, self-protection and legal issues.”

A growing community gives hope, while testifying to deep challenges

“To forgive is to remember without pain,” says a man in his mid-fifties, as sociologist Ana Eloísa Gómez leads a workshop with community members on the topic of forgiveness and reconciliation.

“We know that there are many things that hurt, that keep us apart. But maybe we can also think of things that unite us, that help keep us together as a nation?” Gómez asks.

 A young girl plays by a wooden fence during the workshop. It was a group of 27 ex-combatant families who first purchased the lot of land in San José de León, moving in from nearby Córdoba to settle alongside some 50 families of peasant farmers already living in the area.

Two years later, 50 ex-combatant families now live in the emerging community, which hosts a small restaurant, various committees for community organization and development, and which earns a living through agriculture, fish farming and poultry.

“Before, we saw that most people had their children, but then had to hand them away directly to the grandparents or the aunts, that the children never had the surnames from their own parents – or they would have been persecuted, killed or kidnapped. Now, I think it is very good, because some are reuniting with their children, and today we don’t have this problem,” says one of the community’s women leaders, Aida.

But there’s also a difficult side to the story. “The first ones who came here were those who were with comrade Rubén. Others decided to stay in Córdoba,” Aida adds. “But then came the paramilitaries and drove them away from the lands they were living on. And as they didn’t have any place to live, they came here. You see, here we can give refuge to comrades who don’t have anywhere to go."


“Seeing as, even though we are in a peace process, the government continues to be absent, what our project seeks to do is strengthen the steps for peace,” Mosquera says. “Peace is a big concept. Peace is education, peace is health, peace is life in dignity. In practical ways, this project has allowed us one of those small opportunities, to start to dream of building peace in Colombia.”

“I think this accompaniment is very interesting… especially how you help us to better understand what was agreed by both parties, the government and FARC, in the peace treaty,” Rubén says in conclusion. “I dream that what was agreed in Havana, witnessed by the international community, is fulfilled. That is the whole essence, to achieve the political transformation that is needed in our country, including peace.”

Written for LWI by Albin Hillert, edited by LWF Communications. All photos: LWF/Albin Hillert

Sojourners magazine also picked up the story, and republised a similar article with more pictures: https://sojo.net/interactive/farc-ex-combatants-live-fragile-peace-colombia

Starting the School Year

In Colombia (as in much of the world) the school year runs the same as the calendar year. The Lutheran Church of Colombia has four schools (pre-school though high school). To start the year, part of the work of leadership is to lead a training for the teachers.

With some of the teachers in Paz de Ariporo (in the plains region of Colombia)

We just finished the trainings in three of the four schools (we won't make it to one this year). This year we focused on looking and some of Martin Luther's writing about education and how that affects how we teach now. In my, very biased opinion, this was the best workshop we have led with the teachers (ever).

Some of the teachers at San Lucas (Bogota) talking about their commitments (from the reading) for the coming school year. 

 It is fun to start the year with such great energy and excitement at the schools.

The teachers from Sogamoso (in the region Boyaca).