March 23, 2006
Dear Friends,
As we celebrate our first anniversary here in Bolivia, we send
grateful prayers heavenward for many blessings received.
We are thrilled with the new partnership with the Presbytery
of Newark, which is joining hands with Bolivia’s network
and the Presbytery of San Francisco. Three members from Newark
Presbytery came to Bolivia last fall and went home with loads
of enthusiasm. Now they are recruiting others to become involved,
and they will be receiving a visit from Bob and from Alejandrina
Ibañez, director of one of our member institutions here
in Bolivia. The Newark folk seem to have caught the Joining Hands
bug, and really seem to “get it”—that people
here want justice more than they want charity!
One of the most inspiring moments for us was the recent visit
of Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of the Americas
Watch, a nonprofit group which for the past 25 years has been
pressing for the closing of this school at Fort Benning, Georgia.
Now SOAW is bringing the word to the countries that send the soldiers
for training. The U.S. government invites governments of Latin
American countries to send their best and brightest soldiers to
this school for training in “democracy,” even though
it has been substantiated that the training includes torture tactics.
A number of perpetrators of military and political crimes in Latin
America over the years have been graduates of this school. This
week, Bolivians, including President Evo Morales, were profoundly
moved by Father Roy’s message, and by his video of thousands
of demonstrators at the gates of the school, mourning the deaths
of so many Latin Americans caused by those trained at SOA. Even
the Bolivian military leadership agreed that Bolivia should cease
sending students to this school, joining Venezuela, which has
already stopped. We hope official action will be taken by the
Bolivian government soon. From here Father Roy left for Uruguay
and Argentina on the same mission.
As U.S. citizens become increasingly upset with the carnage of
Iraq, we would do well to take note of the type of institutions
which promote the types of unacceptable actions which our own
troops have carried out in the Iraq War, and to take new steps
to close such institutions. For more information visit the
School of the Americas Watch Web site.
In October of last year we had received a visit by a wonderful
group of people from the Presbyteries of Newark and San Francisco,
our partners in the Joining Hands network. One of the visitors
was David McPhail, a retired Presbyterian minister from the Bay
Area, who returned home and wrote a reflection entitled: “When
Mission Becomes Solidarity.” Here’s an excerpt:
When I was a child, there was a clear, round glass jar at the
back of the sanctuary filled with rice, into which people placed
coins—some nickels and dimes and a few quarters. I was
told this was for the missionaries in China. In recent decades
many congregations have become involved with mission projects
that sought to provide practical help for pressing needs. Wells
were dug, schools were built, and training was provided. Most
difficult was when the projects came to an end. A funding source
stopped, a personal connection petered out, and some sadness
resulted. All these charitable efforts were good deeds that
flowed from charitable impulses plus an unacknowledged worldview—“We
are rich and you are poor and we will ship you some money (“resources”
is now the in word) to fix your problem.”
That we (the United States and Western European nations) could
be a part of the problem didn’t really enter into calculations
or was dismissed as being too political for churches to discuss,
much less act upon. We were just trying to help people, but
what has been the result? The rich get richer and the poor,
poorer, both between and within nations. With injustice like
this, all the charity in the world is not worth a bucket of
warm spit. Results are where biblical justice begins. Biblical
justice demanded a radical overturning of the status quo. Mary’s
“Magnificat” cannot be understood otherwise. At
the very least this would seem to require a “preferential
option for the poor,” not as charity but as justice. What
are the rules of the game that has brought about the current
state of affairs?
In the fall I was a part of a delegation from San Francisco
Presbytery that spent two weeks in Bolivia. We were a part of
the Joining Hands Against Hunger effort to build ties with those
working for justice in Bolivia, in our case an umbrella organization,
UMAVIDA (Joining Hands for Life) made up of eight Bolivian churches
and NGOs.
As we go further in this new relationship I believe we are
discovering another basis for equality that can lead to greater
solidarity. We are realizing that not only can we be a help
to Bolivia, but we are coming to understand how similar are
the dark forces we both struggle to face. We need their prayers
and wisdom as here at home concentration of economic power is
becoming ever greater.
A very special gift I received in my visit to Bolivia was the
humanity shared by my hermanos and hermanas who were so open
about their hopes and fears for their families and their country.
I received so many such gifts. If this be charity, so be it:
I am in their debt!
David closes with a prayerful sigh: “I hope I have more
than money to give in return, though that is needed, but only
when it is a part of our common solidarity in the cause of justice
for all God’s people, including us!”
In Christ,
Bob and Julie
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
46 |
