Date: March 20th 2009

by Ruth Noel and Steve Doughty

Las Mujeres. The Women. … In the three weeks we have been here we have repeatedly found our minds and spirits moved by the women. Courageous women. Faithful women. Insightful women. Their numbers are too great for us to mention all of them here. To convey at least some sense of what is moving us, we would simply offer a single image, then a series of quick glimpses of particular women, and then return again to the image –

The Image – The Cross Made of Shoes – We were attending a special service for the International Day of The Woman. The worship leader suddenly instructed, "Everybody, make a large cross on the floor with your shoes." Laughter followed. "Only one shoe from each of you! We'll never fit it here if you use both." More laughter came and then a great massing of women moving towards the open space on the floor. Women from all over the city. Colombians of African, Indigenous, European heritage. Tiny and strong. Tall and willowy. Many very young. Many old. Just as many in between. All in one body placing their shoes. The two of us placing ours as they encouraged us to join them. All of us laughing now, and then, as we finished, quietness settled. The cross spread before us. A cross of work shoes, high heels, dusty sandals. The cross reminds us of so many different things: suffering, love, healing wrought through pain. We looked at the cross made of shoes. As the service continued, the women honored what is deeply true: women through the ages have struggled and suffered, and out of that suffering they respond to the pain and suffering of others.

Two Sunday School Teachers – Each taught an Adult Class. We sat in the class of one our first week here and, on our second Sunday, we sat in the class of the other at another church. Each woman was superbly prepared, passionate in what she said, masterful in getting the class to talk. And it was their obvious skill combined with our own growing awareness of injustice in Colombian society that made all the more daring what they offered. "Jesus didn't just challenge the Pharisees" said the teacher our first week. "He denounced them. That is hard. Very hard. Do we do it? Do we take on the powers?" Even we outsiders knew what she was asking. "I'm not one of those to get involved in politics," said our teacher the second week, "but God calls us to involvement with all of life." She acknowledged the reluctance to act that many felt, and also the searing need to go ahead and act anyway. She did this in a context where, by the end of worship, all had on their mind the continuing pain of Colombia's 4 million displaced persons. We know nothing about the circumstances of these particular women. We do know that, with deep faithfulness, they are seeking to respond to deep wounds in the society around them.

The Encourager – She has been blessed with a fine education. She holds a position of major regional responsibility in the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. She is an excellent and much respected public speaker. At this particular moment she sat in a meeting with several men. Among them was a young, small, handsome man, one of the displaced, who is trying to help people organize a school in his crowded, ill-equipped community for displaced people. His heart had been good in this task, but at this point he very much needed some coaching in how to go about his work. Her education could have intimidated him. So could her position and her wide reputation. This did not happen. She smiled warmly with every word she spoke. Her eyes offered respect. Her body leaned forward. Her hands gestured with the palms opening outward as if she was receiving from him even as she spoke. This went on through even the most pointed suggestions she had to share. The man left th e meeting uplifted. This woman fills many different roles. On this particular morning she was Encourager.

The Great Nurturer – 40 years ago she was a young attorney in Washington, DC and an active member of a church where she became involved with race issues in the city. She went to seminary expecting to enter inner city ministry. "I never thought I'd be in Colombia." She has been here 32 years. For many of those years she worked on education, including time in what was then jungle just south of Panama. Next she was asked to teach in a seminary. In time she became the first woman seminary president in all of South America. Today she teaches full time, meets one on one with her many students, writes numerous articles and translates. Last Saturday she welcomed us to her apartment with the same broad smile and warm, rich voice with which she has welcomed more students than anyone can reasonably count. For an hour and a half we received her probing questions, her keen insights on the biblical vision of the just society, and her intimate knowledge of in justices being wrought in Colombia by multinational corporations and other more internal forces. We left her apartment grateful that we will see her at least once more before we return home. And, like other students now spread across all of South America, we left much nurtured and stretched in spirit.

The Packed Room – The room was located in Hotel Dorado (Golden Hotel), an unpretentious looking structure. Long and narrow, the room buzzed with more than 300 people. The gathering was impressive because of the person for whom the crowd had come and, just as much, because of the crowd itself. The person whom all came to honor was an Afro-Colombian Senator in the national government. She is an outspoken advocate for human rights and recently negotiated the release of hostages held by guerillas. She also is a mother whose children are in exile for their safety. She herself was exiled in Canada following release from kidnappers, but now continues an active role in Colombia despite two assassination attempts. In that crowded room she spoke for an hour without notes. She spoke with mounting passion on the themes of justice as found in books of Esther and the prophets and on deep needs in Colombian society. She humbly accepted an award from a coalition of 25 wo men´s organizations in Barranquilla. The senator is increasingly mentioned as a candidate for President of Colombia. Just as impressive, just as moving, was the crowd that gathered. Women from all across the city. Women committed to the poor and to justice. Women daring to stand forth in a culture where it has been acutely difficult for women to do so. Women packing that room to the breaking point. And that brings us back again to the first image …

The Cross Made of Shoes – It spread before us, that simple cross pressed together from ordinary shoes, each belonging on some foot in the room. And that half comic, much needed instruction still sings in our minds, "Only one shoe from each of you! We'll never fit it here if you use both." Las Mujeres. Many mujeres. A growing multitude. Stepping forth in community. Las Mujeres are a sign of grace and courage in a place of deep need.

Ruth Noel and Steve Doughty (svdoughty@aol.com)