April 2, 2007
Dear Friends,
It has been six months since we moved to Barranquilla, Colombia.
The weather in the winter is a little cooler and a lot breezier,
quite pleasant. We are working well with the people in the Presbyterian
Church of Colombia (IPC) and the accompaniers who are here monthly
from the United States. We have visited many of the churches and
also the homes and farms of the displaced people. There is much
work to be done here. Through the many challenges and disappointments,
the people here continue to move forward, with hope and love and
faith in God. The many problems these people face and their attitude
about living in abject poverty make us want to work harder with
them.
On Sunday, we went to Cartagena, a beautiful, old city west of
here on the Caribbean. It is a tourist city with beautiful beaches
and an old fort inside the walled city that was built in the 1500s,
when the Spaniards arrived. Because of the problems here in Colombia,
it has lost much of the tourist trade, especially from the United
States. So now Cartagena has a lot of unemployment and many problems.
There is also a large and growing displacement camp, called “Nelson
Mandela Camp,” built on an abandoned garbage dump outside
the city. We had visited that camp in 1998, when it was only a
year old. It broke our hearts to see the families living in makeshift
houses of sticks, black plastic, and cardboard. They were used
to living on farms and living off the land. But they were forced
off their land by the armed groups who coveted, either for themselves
or for wealthy landowners who wanted to increase their holdings.
In 1998, 25,000 people lived in Nelson Mandela. The IPC was working
with a small group to build a community center. The work was done
by hand, with the men digging the footers six feet deep. When
we visited again to dedicate the building in 1999, it had 35,000
people. It was a joyous occasion, except that it was in October,
which is in the middle of the rainy season. We went from Barranquilla
to Cartagena by bus with a group of people from the churches.
When we got to the dirt road leading into the camp, we had to
get out because the roads were thick mud. We walked about a mile.
When the mud sucked the shoes off our feet, most of us went on
barefooted. The big trick was getting the sound equipment to the
dedication service. Somehow we all reached the center and enjoyed
the celebration. When we left and got back to the bus, there were
people with water to wash our shoes and feet so we could get on
the bus somewhat in order.
The camp now has 200,000 residents and is increasing every day.
Things look different and the same. The trees give more shade.
Some of the homes are made of more permanent building material.
But many of the homes look similar to what they were nine years
ago—sticks and cardboard. The roads are still dirt and very
rutted. Fortunately, this is the dry season. We arrived at the
community center and were welcomed by a couple of families. One
woman, Nelli, took my hand, hugged and kissed me, and said she
remembered me from 1999. She took my arm, the way she did back
then, to show how she helped me through the mud. What a moving
experience. Then we walked into the community center. It is no
longer a community center. It is now a school.
Nelson (second from left), a teacher at the new "Camino
de Esperanza" school in Nelson Mandela camp, chats with
Dr. Parrish Jones and Gloria Pua and Gloria Ulloa.
A few years ago, a teacher and his wife saw that many of the
children didn’t go to school. So the couple asked the Presbyterian
Church of Colombia if they could use the community center to begin
a school, which they named “Camino De Esperanza” (Road
of Hope). They received accreditation from the government and
were in line to receive financial support. Today 130 students
and four teachers use the facilities. The building is divided
into four areas by flimsy separations; chairs are crowded tightly
together. Because we were there on a Sunday, we didn’t get
to see any of the students. We did meet the teacher and his wife
and heard about their struggles. We found that besides schoolwork,
the teachers also teach about God and God’s love for them.
The money from the government hasn’t arrived in three years.
The department that handled that program closed because of graft
and fraud. Food is supplied for breakfast and lunch by the World
Food Program of the United Nations. They are struggling to keep
the school going. Parents and adults are willing to do the necessary
repairs on the building, but they do not have the finances to
buy the materials.
Some church members in Cartagena are working with the displaced
in Nelson Mandela. The new pastor of the Cartagena church is expecting
to hear from the presbytery in April about how funds are to be
spent to meet the needs of the people. He has a lot of experience
working with the displaced, since he comes from a very difficult
area of Apartado. We told him that we want to do whatever we can
to make life better for the inhabitants of Nelson Mandela.
It is so exciting and disheartening to see the realities of what
is going on in Colombia. We must do whatever we can to change
this situation. When we visited our representatives in Washington
D.C. in March, we asked them to support Plan Colombia 2 if they
could reverse the numbers and give more for economic support and
less for military support. We encourage you to do the same. We
also ask that you get involved in “Days of Prayer and Action
for Colombia” on May 20–21. Check out the Peace
in Colombia Web site for more information.
We thank God for all of you and for your love and prayers as
we all work to make this a better world for all of God’s
people.
Peace,
John and Paula Ewers
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
46 |
