Pan y Paz, Truth and Reconciliation

Some of the pan at church

Last weekend a lot was going on in my world. Here in Colombia the Mennonite Churches were celebrating Pan y Paz, Bread and Peace. In the MWC world, it was Peace Sunday. And In BC it was the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) event in Vancouver. Three different events, for most people completely separate, but for me they share many links.

Let me start with the TRC. If you haven’t heard about the TRC in Canada, here’s an introduction. I’d heard about this event coming to BC years ago. MCBC, my provincial church, has been preparing for it for quite some time, and I know numerous people who participated. I really wanted to participate, but plans changed and being in Bogotá does not lend itself to participating in Vancouver events.

I found a live stream online, and I thought I could watch some of it while working, but that was not a good plan. The small part I watched was so impactful, hearing people share of such deep and profound pain, I couldn’t listen to it while being in that setting. I’m glad the public record of everything that was shared is available online, so that I and anyone else who wasn’t able to be there can still see it.

Truth and Reconciliation. Hearing the painful truth of what has happened, so that we can work for reconciliation. Building relationships that acknowledge the hurt that has gone before, yet still have hope for the future.

This was going on in BC, and it was heavy on my mind, my heart and in my prayers here in Colombia. I’ve heard several people hear express that perhaps something similar to the TRC could help work for healing in the conflicts that have and continue to go on in Colombia. I still have much to learn about the complex context of Colombia, but it is clear that truth and reconciliation are needed in many ways.

Yet I am continually amazed at the Anabaptist churches, that I have come to know here, and the way they live out their faith in the Lord by sharing a holistic gospel. A gospel, a good news, that has its foundation in Christ alone, but doesn’t stay as only head knowledge, as only something felt personally. No, it is expressed by the hands and feet of the church, the people who are the church.

In the past year the MWC Peace Commission created a poster that says “Peace is gospel.” Peace is good news. I believe that peace is central, foundational, and integral to the gospel message of Jesus Christ, not an added-on theology that you can take or leave, but inseparable from who Jesus is. 

Heading to the concert.

And I’ve seen that lived out here in the Anabaptist churches, and got to experience it again with Pan y Paz. On Saturday, September 21, I spent the morning with two other MCCers in Soacha, the municipality just South of Bogotá. There we joined a Mennonite program called Creciendo Juntos (Growing Together) and their Pan y Paz celebrations. Creciendo Juntos is one of several Anabaptist programs and churches in Soacha. It is in a marginalized neighbourhood, with houses built on unstable hillsides because there is nowhere else to go, and displacement being the main cause most live there.

Creciendo Juntos works with the children of this community, and there are a lot. We saw many smiling faces. To celebrate Pan y Paz there were workshops, games, picking up garbage together, lunch, and a concert of local teens presenting their own rap songs. The reality these kids face every day is unlike any I have ever experienced. The stories and realities the staff of Creciendo Juntos encounter is challenging to say the least. Yet their smiles and joy show the presence of hope.

Group activity in Soacha

Getting ready for the concert.

The paper cranes for each person

Hope was also brought home to me in the worship service on Sunday morning at the Berna Mennonite Church. The sanctuary was filled with paper cranes, symbols of peace. In the middle of the sanctuary stood two tables, one filled with a paper crane for each person, and the other filled with bread we had brought with us.

Pan y Paz. Bread and Peace. Jesus is the source of our peace, and to have peace among each other, everyone needs to have enough to live, everyone needs bread. This is justice; that everyone has enough.

Worship Service at Berna

In the worship service we shared this bread with each other, making sure that everyone received bread. And after the service was done, in small groups people took the rest of bread out to the community around the church, and shared it with whoever they met.

Pan y Paz. Bread and Peace. Truth and Reconciliation. These were very different events, occurring in completely different parts of the world, in different languages. Yet to me the threads that tie them together are strong.

I see people coming together, listening and sharing from the heart, from the core of who they are. I see people living out the call to peace that is the gospel. Not just knowing and believing it, but living and walking with others. Humbling themselves to listen and walk the path of reconciliation and healing. Humbling themselves to share from what they have until we all have enough.

Problems and pain still abound, but there is hope. Our God is a great God. I am continually filled with awe at the ways the Holy Spirit is at work in the church and that gives me hope for pan y paz and truth and reconciliation.

Worshipping with the congregation

Messages and prayers of peace the congregation wrote.

With my paper crane

Worshipping together on the Sunday of Pan y Paz

The best and the worst

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” –Charles Dickens

So it may seem rather exaggerated to begin a post with a Dickens quote, a very well know Dickens quote (though I have read that entire book!). But it sums up for me rather well how the month of August has gone.

I may not be the most consistent blogger, but I have blogged at least once a month, every month in 2013, but not in August. I didn't forget; I chose not to.

August was a month of highs and of lows. Several good friends from the MCC/MWC team were traveling, I was alone in my apartment and I was feeling rather more homesick than normal.

In my family, August is a big birthday month, first my brother’s and then mine 15 days later. We always celebrate each person’s birthday. Not extravagantly, but by being together and doing something special for that person.

This was my first birthday in Colombia, and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I knew it would be different, and that’s ok, but part of me worried that it would be lonely. I didn't want it to be a big deal, but I wanted to celebrate somehow. But I wasn't sure how to share that with others.

So let’s just say that I had some very low days. I knew they would pass, and they did, but it was a very hard time.

One of the beautiful views in Boyacá

But August was also the best of times! There were good moments throughout, and the second half of the month was a lot better. I got to go with another MCCer to visit a Colombian MCCer’s home and family farm in the department of Boyacá. It was a wonderful weekend where I took far too many photos. I just loved walking and hiking in the mountains so much!

Then my birthday came, and it was great. The weekend before some of my friends from church planned something for me, which was stupendous! I enjoyed myself so much with them, and can’t describe how much I appreciated that they celebrated with me. On the day of my birthday (a Monday) we celebrated at the office too, with lunch and a cake. I got to spend time with friends in the evening and got several phone calls.

Feeling more at home in this beautiful city of Bogotá

This description makes the month seem rather normal, and in many ways it was. And that’s part of the beauty of it. I feel more and more like my life here is normal. There are still countless ways that I’m adjusting and will continue to adjust, but it feels so good to have normalcy; to have found a church community where I feel at home; to have made Colombian friends I can share and do things with; to feel comfortable in my neighbourhood and my home.

I wanted to share honestly, about how my life is going, and that includes that some days last month, I just can’t describe how incredibly sad and low I felt. And that’s part of life, here or anywhere. Life is the hard and the good, the best and the worst. And so I give thanks that life is also full of joys and happiness. I give thanks for the community I have found here, through MCC and MWC, and also beyond in the church and in Bogotá. Words fail me to express how touched and blessed I feel for this gift of community, for the gift of all these relationships that I have.