At the end of October, 10 Mennonite Mission Network board members, seven Mission Network staff members, a Mennonite Church USA (MC USA) representative and several spouses, participated in a tour of Colombia, to learn about Mission Network’s key partner in Colombia, the Mennonite church known as Iglesia Cristiana Menonita de Colombia, also referred to as IMCOL. To facilitate this learning experience, Mission Network’s regional director for Latin America, Linda Shelly, worked with leaders at IMCOL to arrange time for us to hear from our international worker Bekah York; IMCOL staff and committee members; pastors of member congregations: and Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Colombia workers.
Through onsite visits, sharing and conversation, we came to a deeper learning and understanding of what it has meant for the Colombian Mennonite churches to be strong in their faith. They accompany others in a country where there are many displaced individuals and families due to political unrest, corruption and guerilla warfare along with thousands of refugees crossing the borders to flee their own countries’ unrest and instability. These leaders also spoke about Mission Network’s role with IMCOL in Iquitos, Peru, and with the global mission partnerships with Ecuadorian and Venezuelan churches, which Central Plains Mennonite Conference also participates in. No matter what country, ministry or agency was spoken about, the common theme that kept rising to the surface was the need for peace and reconciliation.
As Christians, we have read in Scripture about the kind of peace that Christ offers. This is the kind of peace that IMCOL, and their member congregations, seeks to pass on, as they walk alongside those who have lost their homes, refugees who are learning to live in a new country, and many who have been traumatized by violence and other experiences of harm. In doing this work, they have learned the importance of partnership. No group can do this work alone. No one agency or church has all the necessary resources to repair the ills of this world. We must work together by sharing resources, encouraging one another, serving one another, and most of all, uniting our voices in the spirit of peace and reconciliation through Christ.
Marisa Smucker
Interim Executive Director