This post is also available in: Spanish
This post was originally published here.
John Fredy Chocue Parra works with MCC SEED—Colombia.
“…that is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring” — Romans 4:16
In Montes de María on the Caribbean coast there is a small town made very special by its history of struggle—Pichilín, located in the municipality of Morroa in Sucre department.
Thanks to God I have been blessed to serve here through the SEED Program in Colombia, working with SembrandoPaz. But why do I say that this town is so special? Because of how its inhabitants have risen tenuously from their experiences with death and how, despite so much pain and difficulties, they still seek to create the place dreamed of many years ago by the town’s founders.
When I sit alongside my neighbors in the evening and listen to their stories of years past, when the violence had not yet arrived, drinking my coffee, I can see on the faces of young and old that they are people with a lot of faith, yes, that faith which is reflected in the laughter of children playing, in the excitement of young people harvesting corn and tobacco, and in the joy with which the women’s committee serves the community; also in the trust they place in their neighbors and guests which is so big that it makes you feel like you belong there, imbuing you with that transformative faith that immediately invites you to visualize the dreamed-of Pichilín that circumstances have not been able to overshadow.
Currently, the community has grown organizationally thanks to the help and advice of SembrandoPaz on the Caribbean coast; thus creating strength in unity, and in spite of adverse circumstances, here you can “fight for a future for your children and grandchildren,” as the community expresses; words full of faith and hope that demonstrate a path drawn by God, the divine marks of which are evident in the forgiveness, reconciliation, love for neighbors, the doing right and mutual help, the care for nature, the humility, friendship, and love for work.
As a SEEDer, I am happy to be able to venture on this path and be able to contribute what I know in order to strengthen this faith, so that in the very near future the dreams of the people of Pichilín are fulfilled, because God has promised it, and by faith it will be lived.
Corn and tobacco fields outside of Pichilín. Photo: Jhon Fredy Chocue Parra