Date: April 1st 2009

Fourth report from accompaniers Ruth Noel and Steve Doughty – March 31, 2009

This final report takes a form slightly different from its predecessors. The more we talked, the more we realized that what follows, which reaches into the realm of prayer, is the only way we can begin to express what we have experienced so closely in recent days. What we offer here is a litany of thanksgiving for the life in Uraba Presbytery, plus a few words on each item included in the litany. As background, on March 20 we journeyed many hours west and south into the region of Colombia that runs inland from the Gulf of Uraba. The region possesses stunning natural beauty, fertile lands, and a history of terrible violence in which, during the past twenty years, whole communities have been driven from the land by armed forces of the left and right. For seven days we visited with persons in the churches of Uraba Presbytery. On our final day, those watching over the two of us presented us with a gift. “You have worked hard here. Let this day be your Sabbath.” And in the context of an unexpected Sabbath rest, we began to realize the immensity of the goodness we had seen …

A Litany of Thanksgiving for the Life in Uraba Presbytery

O YOU WHO CALL US ALL TO LIVE FOR JUSTICE, HEALING, AND PERFECT LOVE, WE THANK YOU FOR THE VIBRANT LIFE IN URABA PRESBYTERY. WE THANK YOU FOR …

HOSPITALITY … Late afternoon on March 20, we arrived at our host family after a journey that had begun curbside at 4 a.m., carried us over new terrain, and through two tropical downpours. We were greeted with cool drinks, warm embraces, and the liveliest of smiles. Within 24 hours we knew this spirit-lifting care would not quit. We too saw that it extended to the countless children, elderly, and middle aged folk who passed through the home’s blue front door from early morning until late evening. By midweek, we realized that what we saw in this one home repeated itself in home after home. We came away knowing that hospitality in Uraba is not a matter of social obligation or pastoral responsibility. It is soul deep and ceaseless.

HONESTY ABOUT FIERCE PAIN … During the several days we spent listening to people’s stories, we heard almost more times than we could count: “We lost everything.” We heard no bitterness in the words, but often we caught the heavy echoes of continuing grief. Once, in a group of 24, an Elder dared carry matters to a level often shunned in more polite talk among “church folk.” He and other displaced persons had been used by outsiders. “They come, take notes, stuff them in their pockets. That’s the last we hear, except occasionally we learn they’ve benefited from some nice project they developed purely for themselves.” Those were hard words for him to speak, difficult for us to hear, and they opened a level of discussion we all needed.

PROFOUND FAITH … By mid-week we were talking to each other about how freely people spoke of their faith, of how it sustained them, of the joy it gave them when they walked in Jesus’ way of love for others. We noted the haunting beauty of their voices when they closed their eyes and sang, full-throated, their songs of praise and petition. We spoke to one another of the depth of their faith. Then we noted the Spanish word for “depth” is “profundidad.” Somehow “profundidad,” “profundity,” “profound” embraced more fully the reality we saw unfolding before us.

THOSE SKIPPING LIGHTLY OVER THE ROCKS … Our third day we picnicked with persons from several communities. Near our destination we crossed a stream, stepping tentatively from one slippery rock to the next, holding out our arms to keep from falling. One senior member of our party darted across with the speed of a sparrow. She laughed when she touched down on the other side. “If you don’t look down, you make it!” The character lines on her lean, beautiful face spoke of harder things she had dealt with in life. She had not let her eyes get pulled down. She was making it.

COMMUNITY IN CHRIST … People in Uraba spoke with great naturalness of the community they shared in Christ. “I lost everything,” one woman said, “even my family. And now? I have more sisters and brothers than I can count!” Her words, like those of many we heard, were free of any hesitancy to speak and bore no hint of self-righteousness. From her perspective, she had simply found something wonderful and wished to talk about it. In Uraba the focus on Christian community is bound both with the joys and with the demands of living in real sisterhood and brotherhood. To be together in Christ is to be part of a community that will forever stretch the limits that we humans tend to set on our love. We saw this in the constancy with which persons cared for one another and then looked together, with love, on the world around them .

ENGAGEMENT WITH NEEDS RIGHT NOW … Shortly before we went to Uraba, an unknown source distributed pamphlets threatening violence and death to the region’s inhabitants. Churches responded with what became known as “The Campaign,” a series of evening services lifting up a way of peace and prayer amid the turmoil. On another front, needy children and orphans are spread throughout much of the region. Here again we were moved by the response. Congregations are using their resources and fine, gifted adult members are applying their substantial skills to establish tutoring schools that will meet these children’s most basic needs. “How we raise our children is a mirror to the world,” said one young woman in a church meeting. In an exceedingly difficult situation she and others are lifting a fresh, clean mirror of hope. On still another front, one day while we were there, a cluster of pastors and elders met with a representative to the national government and with one to the r egional government to let them know the searing needs of their people. The Campaign, the schools, the meetings between pastors, elders and legislators will change nothing in an instant, but the people we were privileged to walk with for seven days clearly live from a reality far more potent than even the harshest conditions they are contending with.

FOR ALL THESE GIFTS, FOR THOSE WHO HAVE SHOWN THEM TO US, AND FOR ALL THAT THEY SUMMON US TO, WE THANK YOU. AMEN.

Gratefully submitted …

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

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