Newsletters

Date: March 3rd 2010

Terror and Transformation in three Presbyteries
Linda Eastwood and Carol Weaver, 2/27/10

One of the challenges of the Accompaniment Program, as seen from Colombia, is how to be relevant to all three Presbyteries of the IPC – North Coast, Central and Urabá – and not just to the North Coast Presbytery (headquartered in Barranquilla) where our work started. As thoughts on this develop, Carol and Linda have had the unusual opportunity to travel and talk in all three Presbyteries – in various parts of North Coast Presbytery, in Bogota, and in a week's trip (from which we've just returned) through Antioquia's Urabá and inland regions. It's not been cheap – but folks in the IPC do seem to have become sensitive to the fact that not all North Americans are rolling in money, and they were good about trying to find economical travel, and in lining up "homestay" accommodation. From our perspective – and we hope from theirs, too – it's been well worth the trouble. (See more on our travels at Linda's blog)

Our Bogota trip was primarily to attend the national synod / General Assembly meeting, which meant that we got to meet the 30 formal delegates, and various others, from all three Presbyteries. There are disagreements regarding how different groups perceive the church's mission, and these are perhaps all the more obvious in a small denomination like this one, but there are major efforts to find common ground and to support each other in ministries of evangelism and social transformation.

Having met the Urabá delegation in Bogota, it was a pleasure to meet them again in their home settings, as we (Carol, Linda, and mission co-worker Richard Williams) visited churches, and between the three of us preached in three churches in the presbytery on February 21.

Our most moving experiences, across all three Presbyteries, have been hearing stories of both terror and transformation – of past and present threats, but also of hope for the future. The hope might best be seen in Medellin, where the new Metro system (including Metro-cable cars linking mountainside settlements to the city center) and parks, and museums, and a general face-lift give a sense that this former "murder capital of Colombia" is undergoing a radical transformation. Even there, however, the challenge of terror remains; Medellin's murder rate is once more on the rise, and the government is turning to desperate measures (like paying students $50/month to act as informers) to try to stem the tide.

The challenge of terror was most clear as we've listened to stories of displacement. With Ecumenical Advocacy Days fast approaching (please take part if you can!), Witness for Peace requested real-life stories of displacement to present to our representatives in Washington. While PC(USA) mission co-worker Mamie Broadhurst was collecting stories in Barranquilla, we took advantage of this journey to collect some stories in Antioquia – not difficult, especially given how many Urabá churches were started by, and are still predominantly made up of, victims of displacement.

Tomorrow, Carol returns home to Texas. Linda stays on in Barranquilla for another 6 weeks (and her blog will continue), but she will be "accompanying" the Reformed University rather than the "diaconía" of the church. Bill and Liz Branch arrive Monday March 1st to take up the reins of accompaniment. We wish them well.

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