A year of living life

Our wedding day at my home church,
Eben-Ezer Mennonite in Abbotsford.

It’s been a year, what a year. One year ago today, we got married. It was a less crazy day than I anticipated, planning worked and most things went smoothly. There were of course a few hiccups (broken zippers and a momentarily disappearing Opa) but solutions were found. It was a beautiful day that I will treasure always.

A year later is a good moment for reflections, and our anniversary just happens to coincide with New Year’s, another good moment to reflect!

Getting married is not an accomplishment. I’ve read and agree with this article that’s been around on social media. In this past year of being married, we’ve had some accomplishments, some screw-ups, a lot of learning, and well, a lot of living life.

We’ve learned about seeing your life in a new way, as a couple, about putting the other first. We’ve argued and gotten mad at each other, we’ve laughed until our sides hurt and comforted each other in times of sadness and disappointment. We’ve talked and not listened, and then sat down facing each other to really hear what the other is saying. We found an apartment, big and empty when we moved in, and slowly over the months, we’ve made it into our home.

Our first Christmas tree!

For me the biggest challenge of learning how to be married together is that we had many work trips that took us apart. Every time life felt like we had a new normal, there was another trip and Isaías was gone again for several days (I also had a two week work trip at the beginning of the year). Thankfully for the last few months those trips have stopped and we’ve been able to grow more in regular life together, to just be.

With my friend Tigist at the MWC Executive Committee
meeting in Indonesia in February 2016.

This year I went to my first MWC Executive Committee meeting in my new role as Chief Communications Officer. We started new projects with MWC Communications and I keep growing in this role and trying to give my all. Isaías has spent countless volunteer hours as the treasurer for the Mennonite Church of Colombia, and also busy with work and studying again. Hmm… maybe this is why this past year has felt incredibly busy?

A lot of people and media is saying what a horrible year 2016 was and can’t wait for it to end. Yes, a lot of hard and sad things happened, but it was also a year with joyful moments, with people full of hope who keep striving to make the world a better place.

In the plaza when they signed the first Peace Accord. 

Isaías and I went to the central plaza in Bogota to celebrate and watch the signing of the Peace Accords of the Colombian government with the FARC guerilla group at the end of September. I will never forget the joy that filled the plaza that day! A week later we watched with tears as the no vote just beat out the yes, and weeks of uncertainty began. We gave thanks in November when a revised Peace Accord was signed, and then ratified by congress. Now we continue to pray for peace as we enter the implementation phase of these accords, most likely the most challenging part of the process. We prayer for the Anabaptist churches and all the communities around the country who have been working for peace for decades and will continue to do so, for the human rights workers who lives are still threatened, that Christ’s peace may manifest in Colombia.

On our honeymoon :)

This year had other joyous moments (like our honeymoon and a trip to Canada!) and other challenges, too many to list here. Through it all, something that keeps coming to my mind, in ways that it hasn’t before, is the abundance of God. How Jesus gives to us from his abundance, and cares for us in all situations. It is the grace of God that has carried us through this year, and it in the love of God that we trust and depend for the next.

May God bless you in 2017 and beyond.

A Historic Moment

Celebrating the signing of the Bilateral cease fire between the
FARC and the Colombian government in June 2016.

As a kid I always thought historic moments happened in the past or very far away. I’ve would learn about them in school or see them on the news from around the world. But never have I felt that I am in a historic moment. Never in my life have I felt like the earth is moving, that history is happening, really, truly happening before my eyes.

Tomorrow, Santos, the president of Colombia, and Timochenko, the leader of the FARC guerilla group, will sign the historic peace accords, ending a 52-year armed conflict. Then, in exactly one week from today, Oct. 2, Colombians will vote in a plebiscite to accept these accords or not.

The violence has been caused by many armed groups, the FARC, the military, paramilitary groups, other guerilla groups. This is a complex situation and these accords are not a magic solution to all the challenges that face Colombia. But these accords will demobilize the largest armed group in the country (not including the military). In the media we have heard many versions of the phrase, “an imperfect peace is better than perpetual war,” or “better to have dialogue than to have deaths.”

All around Bogotá, and Colombia, people are campaigning, “¡Sí a la paz!” “Yes for peace!” And in the news and on the radio every day we hear someone saying, “No,” these accords will not bring peace. This is a complicated subject and I know people who will vote yes, and some who will vote no. 

I am foreigner. I have chosen to live here now, but I will never be able to understand the depth of the impact the armed conflict has had on the Colombian people. So I listen (or try to).

Today in church the theme was peace, “Pan y Paz” (bread and peace), a theme continued from last week in honour of the International Day of Peace (Sep. 21). During the sharing time several people gave testimonies of the impact of the violence in their lives. There was a testimony of thanking God for years ago, when the armed men didn’t kill an uncle or his family, just an associate in front of them. Another testimony was of growing up living in constant fear of violence, of seeing it around them every day, of a neighbour being shot. A gentleman shared the story of the intense persecution his father faced when he joined the Mennonite church over 60 years ago. Through my husband’s family I’ve heard stories of people being killed in front of children. The stories of violence and suffering that have happened over the past 60+ years are overwhelming, and the truth is I am sheltered from most of them.

But what most impacts me are not the stories of suffering, but of resilience. In church I am surrounded by people pouring out their hearts in worship, by people who pray and hope for peace year after year. In spite of the years of trauma and hurt, their trust in God has given them a joy and a faith that moves them forward. It’s a community that uses their hands and feet to work for peace and justice in the name of Christ. Through connections with churches and Mennonite organizations I have met so many Colombians who haven’t stopped working for peace for decades. They keep on striving for peace, with faith that peace is gospel.

Justapaz marching for peace. 

I am married to a Colombian. His future, the future of his country, is now bound with mine. Isaías was born into a time when the FARC was fighting against the Colombian state. His entire life he has only known this armed conflict; his mother was just a child when it started. He told me that the effects of war, death and killing, have been so common that sometimes he’s become numb as a way to cope. It moves me to tears to think that he, his family, the new generation of his niece and nephew, could know peace in their country.

So we join with so many Colombians who say, “¡Sí a la paz! ¡Obvio que sí!” and we ask that you join us in prayer. Pray that the people of Colombia choose to take this step. This is not the final step, but it is a huge one. It’s historic.