“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

-Martin Luther King Jr. (Strength to Love, Harper & Row, 1963, p. 14)

Friday, October 21, 2011

Supia, Colombia, Part 1


I have heard good faith stories before and I did expect to meet people with experiences of hard life when I got to Supia, Colombia.  I'm quite sure that in the mix of meeting people, experiencing another culture and carrying greetings from my church, hearing people's stories was the essential thing that I was after in this trip.

A young adult from my congregation (Ben) and I flew to Bogota, Colombia last week.  We stayed our first night with a wonderful older couple I had met on my first visit to Colombia, three years ago, named Luis and Fanny (pronounced "Faa-nee").  Early the next morning we took a taxi to another airport and flew to Pereira where we were met by Jorge, our driver for the week.  From Pareira, we traveled by Jorge's taxi/bus on two hours of mountain highway to Supia.

Supia is a small town (about 25,000 people) nestled in a valley of mountains in the department of Caldas, the heart of the Colombian coffee region, and in this town is Iglesia de Union Misionera, my congregation's sister church.  We were joined in this relationship to Union Misionera de Supia through the peace church program of Justapaz, a grass roots Anabaptist justice and peace organization. (I recommend you check out the Justapaz web link above - this is a remarkable organization).


Let me share a story of faith from a woman I met...

Just a few years ago the people of Colombia experienced one of the most confusing and ugly human rights violations of the recent past, they call it the El Escándalo de Falsos Positivos.  This scandal, which came to a head in 2008, involved the Colombian military (or some faction of it) kidnapping and killing innocent citizens, and taking their pictures as guerrillas killed in armed conflict, thus offering "proof" of their success against the armed groups.  Many Colombian military officials were removed from their positions when the false positive incidents came to light from around the country.

This woman's husband was collected right off the streets of Supia by soldiers and taken to a holding center.  Those who were taken with him were killed as false positives.  He was seventy years old and so was released when they realized he did not fit the profile of an armed rebel.  He has since passed away, but the glowing story of God's passion for her community is displayed in this woman as she teaches the congregation's youth what it means to trust God and follow Jesus.

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