In April, our daughter Hannah completed five years in Colombia. She was working for Christian Peacemaker Teams , a Mennonite/Anabaptist group, working for the rights of all people. In Colombia, her work was to walk beside farmers whose land was under threat. Multinational corporations wanted the land. Paramilitaries wanted the land. The farmers had been working the land for many years, and had held the land through the long civil war. Hannah’s work was to a pastoral and international presence for these rural communities who were under threat of having their land taken away.
Shirley and I had the great opportunity of visiting two of the communities that Hannah had worked with for five years. She was much loved, because she has that pastoral spirit, and she speaks Spanish fluently. They know her, and trusted her love for them. The children of these communities especially loved Hannah, and they will miss her dearly.
Esther, from the Old Testament, was made Queen. She was helped by her cousin Mordecai. He had looked after her during her lifetime, and had watched as she moved up the ranks of the community in exile, until she was made Queen. The King did not know that she was a foreigner, Jewish. There was a decree saying the Jews would be exterminated, and Esther had to confront her husband the King. As Queen she was not able to enter into the King's presence or she would be deposed. Mordecai told her that she was called to be Queen, “ for such a times as this.” So, Esther told the King, and Haman, a royal official, who had sent the decree calling for the killing of all Jews in the Kingdom, was killed. There is a lot of violence in this story from the Old Testament.
There is a lot of court intrigue in the Esther story, as there is in Colombian life and politics. Hannah and CPT is called to compassion and love, and that is how they work in the communities that have called them to be there. They were called by the Colombian Mennonite Church. Hannah was called “for such a time as this”. And now it is a new time for her.
She will be leaving on Tuesday for the another place of violence and terror. She is called to accompany children to school. It is something that we take for granted in Canada. She will be there to document abuses by soldiers as well. She is called to love and work to lessen the violence in a place of of great history and community.
Her mother and I will pray for her work to of great value, to those people whom she will encounter. As in Colombia, we will pray for her safety, but we are not worried. It is “for such as time as this” that she has been called there. She has the skills to do the work. She knows the community in the place she is going . She knows the politics are complex, but it not her job to change the politics, but it is to love the “ least of these” ; to walk beside the community that is most at risk. She is not called to live a life of safety and ease here in Canada ( I do not know what that means for me and my faith here in Canada ). We are proud of her commitment to justice and peace Go in peace, Hannah, to love and serve the people and our Lord. Amen. SO BE IT.
Fred Redekop
Ponder Anew 