A letter from Sarah Henken in Colombia (regional liaison for the Andean Region)
June 2014 - Profits vs. People
My friend Marisol loves to laugh, and has far too many reasons to cry. As a young woman she lived in the Urabá region of Colombia, an area of the country blanketed with banana plantations where laborers seeking improved wages and working conditions faced threats and intimidation. One day 72 people from her town were killed and loaded onto a truck, like so many crates of bananas. She fled in fear that day, displaced for the first time in a violent uprooting that she would relive twice more before settling in El Tamarindo, where she and her husband are now part of a cooperative of displaced farmers.
Members of Marisol’s community have spent the past decade living on and farming land that was vacant and unclaimed when they arrived and settled. They had hoped to acquire the land legally through government assistance available to displaced persons. A few years ago, however, owners appeared with a title to the property. You see, El Tamarindo is situated in a new duty-free zone established near the port city of Barranquilla to facilitate the swift and steady increase in international commerce projected to accompany the implementation of Colombia’s free trade agreements with the United States and Europe. Property values have increased enormously in the area, as it is suddenly attractive and strategic for business use. Vast warehouses are cropping up to store commercial goods and housing is erected for the workers, in some cases obliterating food production and the small-farm lifestyle.
I have come to know Marisol and her neighbors because of the privilege I’ve had to accompany the diaconal service committee of our partner church here, the Iglesia Presbiteriana de Colombia. The committee considers sharing in the daily life and struggle of communities like El Tamarindo to be an integral part of its work. They may not have the power to solve all of the community’s problems, but Christ’s transforming presence is at work in the very act of standing together, seeking first the kingdom of God and its righteousness (Matt. 6:33).
“We live in a scandalous world that denies God’s call to life for all.” Ten years ago the World Alliance of Reformed Churches met in Ghana and issued this affirmation in the Accra Confession. Ten years ago this strong theological challenge confronted our globalized economic structures. This past June delegates from the Alliance of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches of Latin America (AIPRAL) gathered in Barranquilla to reflect on the Accra Confession in this 10th anniversary year.
The AIPRAL representatives from across Latin America reaffirmed the vital call of the Accra Confession to the church and world today. As part of a three-day event they spent an afternoon at El Tamarindo, hearing firsthand the testimony of Marisol and her neighbors and witnessing the way their lives hang in the balance. These men, women, and children are left in the path of the wheels of progress, blocked from relocation to new land by bureaucratic delays, and disregarded by those with new plans for the land where they currently live. They put a human face on the costs of globalization.
The Accra Confession condemns the trend in our global marketplace to value profits above people. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has faced considerable resistance from churches of the Global North, where the centers of multinational business overwhelmingly reside. As thoughtful Christians, however, we have the opportunity to engage economic and governmental structures and work to make our world a more livable place for all.
“We believe that God is a God of justice. In a world of corruption, exploitation and greed, God is in a special way the God of the destitute, the poor, the exploited, the wronged and the abused (Ps. 146.7-9). God calls for just relationships with all creation” (Accra Confession, 24).
Presbyterian World Mission has identified one of its three focus areas as addressing the root causes of poverty, especially as they impact women and children. Studying the Accra Confession and finding ways to bring it to life in your home and community is a great way to get your mind and heart engaged. I recommend using the study guide on your own or with a group, and I would love to hear your thoughts about it.
Sometimes questions of global economic justice seem abstract to those who have comfortable homes and secure financial futures, but they are of real life and death importance to brothers and sisters around the world. Marisol and the people of El Tamarindo help me to remember the urgency of our work for justice. Here, and in so many other places, we see clearly that God wants to change the world-as-it-is.
This is why Presbyterians are involved in the slow, hard work of addressing the root causes of poverty: because a system that puts profits above the flourishing of life for each and every person and all of God’s glorious creation is contrary to God’s hope for the world. Your support is what allows me to be present here, praying and working with Marisol and her neighbors, supporting the ministry of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia. Thank you for your prayers, emails, and financial gifts. Please keep them coming, and let me know how I can support you as well.
I hope you will join me, Marisol, and the Presbyterian Church of Colombia in taking this commitment to heart: “Now we proclaim with passion that we will commit ourselves, our time and our energy to changing, renewing and restoring the economy and the earth, choosing life, so that we and our descendants might live (Deut. 30.19)” (Accra Confession, 42).
May it be so, by God’s grace.
Your sister in Christ,
Sarah
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 35
Read more about Sarah Henken's s ministry
Blog: Andean Journey
