Mennonite Weekly Review

BOGOTÁ, Colombia — As she documented how a long-running civil war impacts Colombia’s Protestant churches, Mennonite Central Committee worker Janna Hunter-Bowman spent hours poring over horrific details of deaths and threats and exploring how Christians are living out their faith in the midst of violence.

From left, Karen Avendaña, Laura Claros and Dina Sosa play together at a preschool begun by a Mennonite Brethren pastor in a violence-prone neighborhood on the outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital. — Photo by Melissa Engle/MCC

Now, she hopes Christians in the United States and Canada will take to heart the resulting human rights report and that it will move them to action.

“More than anything, we hope readers of the report will allow themselves to be troubled and challenged by the testimonies provided and join the witness,” Hunter-Bowman said. “We hope readers will share the suffering and the hope wherever they have the opportunity to speak, from the local congregation to Congress.”

The resulting document, A Prophetic Call: Colombian Protestant Churches Document Their Suffering and Their Hope, is built on testimonies gathered by church members or leaders. The first report, released this fall, documents details of 29 assassinations of men, women and children linked to congregations, 84 cases of people forced to flee their homes, 21 civilian combat-related injuries, four arbitrary detentions and other human rights violations. It also chronicles how churches are living out their faith with hope and perseverance.

Hunter-Bowman and a co-worker on the project, Pedro Acosta Fernandez, trained five regional coordinators and more than 30 church members to do interviews to document murders and threats. This can be risky work, and church members know they are taking a chance by getting involved. But they tell Hunter-Bowman it’s worth it.

About 3,000 people a year are killed in the armed conflict in Colombia. More than 3.5 million have been forced to flee their homes, including more than 2 million in the last six years.

Church members are not immune, and pastors in rural areas began flooding Justapaz, a Colombian Mennonite peace and justice organization in Bogotá, with horrific tales. Then-director Ricardo Esquivia compiled his notes into a report in 2003, which was still being quoted by human rights advocates as late as last summer.

Fernandez said each case strikes him hard even though he grew up with this conflict.

“Each story carries its own power,” he said. “I think a struggle all of us have that are involved in this work is how do you continue on … not being battered by these stories but not losing sensitivity to them.”

Hunter-Bowman acknowledges that in the United States it is sometimes easy for people to feel as if their voice is small before the enormous structure of the U.S. government.

“Yet caring constituents who educate their elected officials based on stories change hearts and votes,” Hunter-Bowman said. “In Colombia, church leaders tell us that U.S. military assistance inflames the conflict, making their ministry more difficult and dangerous. You can help make sure your representatives in Congress understand that dynamic. Witness through sharing the personal costs and the hope that churches are experiencing.”

A Prophetic Call: Colombian Protestant Churches Document Their Suffering and Their Hope can be found online.