Periodically we'll post stories or updates from some of the missionaries we support, or we'll feature stories about some of the many ministries of our church.  This month, Paul Jeffrey reports from Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia.

Paul Jeffrey; A Letter from Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia, 31 May 2007

Cazuca, a burgeoning poor neighborhood south of Santa Fe de Bogotá, receives daily a steady flow of families displaced from their homes in Colombia's countryside. Displaced families in Cazuca receive support and organizational assistance from the Mennonite Development Foundation of Colombia, a member of Action by Churches Together (ACT).
Photo credit: Paul Jeffrey/ACT

Dear friends in my supporting congregations:

Henri Aguilar’s entire body was marked by the tattoos he’d acquired while a member of one of Honduras’ notorious street gangs, but inside he was a new man. He’d left the gang that had once claimed his allegiance, come back to the church of his childhood, got a steady job, married and had a baby girl.

He named her Genesis as a sign of his new beginnings.

I interviewed Henri in May while in Chamelecón, one of the most violent neighborhoods in Honduras, to prepare an article for Response magazine on church-based work with youth in Latin America. Five days later, as Henri was cleaning up after working all day, three masked men burst into his home and shot him dead. Henri was about to leave for Mass, where he was going to read from the Psalms.

The next morning, while on another assignment in Bolivia, I got word of Henri’s killing in an email, and the news left me depressed for days.

Henri’s personal journey had represented scarce good news in an extremely violent and bleak landscape, and his death seemed to represent the powers and principalities of this dark age thumbing their nose at all our best efforts to carve out spaces for peace in the middle of despair. I have no easy words to erase the grief and frustration left behind in the wake of Henri’s killing. If anything, it underscores the critical importance of mission among those at the margins who suffer daily from violence and hunger.

While in Honduras I also photographed and wrote about small rice farmers and how they’ve been affected by free trade (hint: it’s not a happy story, either). From there I went to Bolivia and Argentina, where I documented the work of Church World Service in the remote Chaco region, focusing especially on the resistance of indigenous groups to the invasion of foreign oil and gas companies.

After being back in Oregon for a week, and enjoying a visit home from our daughter (who is doing very well in school in Vermont), I’m now in Colombia where I’m going to report on how churches are involved in grassroots initiatives to create "peace communities" in the middle of seemingly unending conflict. Next week I’ll be in Guatemala, continuing to prepare articles for an issue of Response that will focus on Latin America.

Residents of the Hassahissa IDP Camp near Zalingei get their water from a well and distribution system installed by ACT/Caritas.
Photo credit: Paul Jeffrey/ACT-Caritas

With Action by Churches Together (ACT), I’m negotiating a return trip to the Darfur region of Sudan, possibly in July. Getting a visa and all the necessary permits is a very sensitive political and bureaucratic process, and nothing is certain yet. In addition to Sudan, we’re also looking at some stories for Response on ministries with women and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In August I’m hoping to stay home and finish installing the drip irrigation system in my garden (so I can quit complaining to Lyda, when I arrive home from trips, that she hasn’t attended sufficiently to my precious plants).

We’re also planning to take some family time for camping and other adventures.

In September and October, I’ll be itinerating in the United States, and all of you should have heard by this coming week from your conference itineration coordinator regarding dates (if you’re current on your support).

I look forward to this time with you, to sharing some of what I’ve been doing and to learning more of how your congregation is involved in mission.

Please continue to pray for me and my family, and for the family of Henri.

His one-year old daughter Genesis was baptized a few days ago on Pentecost Sunday. No matter the forces of evil, we continue faithfully forward, seeking the light of God in our lives and the lives of our children.

Paul