Below is a letter I recently sent to the Bethel College Mennonite Church (BCMC) in Newton, KS; Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church (LAMC) in Wichita, KS; and Shalom Mennonite in Harrisonburg, VA. These churches have been a part of my life in both Kansas and Virginia and have provided spiritual and relational support to me in these times of transition.
Update on Working with Mennonite
Central Committee in Colombia
Greetings from Bogotá,
Colombia! Two months have passed since I
arrived in Bogotá to begin my three-year term with MCC. Much of my time has been spent reconnecting
with different church communities I got to know during my internship last
spring. The churches here are involved
in exciting and necessary work that includes a variety of initiatives such as
peace education, safe spaces for people in vulnerable situations, food kitchens
for youth, and connecting refugees across borders. This last week was particularly exciting as
many Anabaptist churches hosted activities in celebration of International
Peace Day on September 21. A small group
of us facilitated peace workshops in a variety of primary and secondary schools
in a marginalized sector of Bogotá. Our
time with the students sparked exciting discussions about how peace is a
process that people can build together in their communities.
As with many MCC workers I am
assigned to work with an MCC partner organization called the Church
Coordination for Psychosocial Action.
The acronym in Spanish is CEAS (Coordinacion Eclesial para la Acción
Psicosocial). You can visit an online
description of their work at http://healingtrauma.pdd.mcc.org/resources/church-based.
CEAS is an initiative of the Mennonite Church, Mennonite Brethren, and
Brethren in Christ Churches in Colombia with the goal of supporting churches in
psychosocial and pastoral work. As a
result of the decades long armed conflict in Colombia, many churches receive
people who have been displaced from their homes and have lost family members
due to the violence. People come to the
cities looking for new opportunities of work and safety. Unfortunately they have few resources or
connections and find themselves victim to the vulnerabilities of urban poverty.
While churches do not have a lot
of resources and are not set up to provide substantial economic support, CEAS
recognizes that churches do provide spiritual support and an accepting
community. While this might not seem
like much if economic necessities are not easily available, I have been
surprised at how animated people become when they find a place where they are
accepted and are able to build community and a social network. I am learning not to underestimate the power
of community in the face of destitute times.
My role with CEAS involves
learning and evaluating how churches can be supported as they provide
psychosocial accompaniment for people who have been affected by the armed
conflict. Towards this end I am in the
process of designing evaluation tools and initiatives with the goal of
understanding the impact of what churches are already doing and what more they
could do to attend to victims of the armed conflict. Earlier this month I held three focus group
discussions with three different churches that were part of an interview
project I conducted last spring. Hearing
directly from members of the church communities helps CEAS better understand
the variety of dynamics involved in working with people in such vulnerable
situations.
Please keep the people of
Colombia in your prayers as the country continues to live through tumultuous
times. As some of you might have heard,
the Colombian government is planning to enter into peace talks with the
guerrilla group, FARC, in early October.
While many people are hopeful for this process they are also afraid of
its failure and an uncertain future.
Thank you and God
bless you all, Nathan
Toews
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