Major training for Asian peacemakers--November 2012

Training participants in front of the Chiang Mai YMCA

 In November 2012 we gathered 25 peacemakers from across Asia for a Training of Conflict Transformation Trainers held at the YMCA in Chiang Mai, Thailand.  We had people from 8 countries:  India, Thailand, Myanmar/Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Kyrgyzstan.  Some were educators teaching peace studies, some were grassroots activists, some human rights activists, some pastors, some church executives, and some missionaries.  We had various Christians and one Hindu in the group.

A "people sculpture" about peace

Exploring different types of nonviolent action

Together utilizing experiential education methodologies and often Bible studies we explored the topics of conflict analysis, personal conflict styles, conflict resolution, mediation, dealing with diversity in conflict (mainstream and margins), power dynamics, nonviolence, developing campaigns and strategies for change, trauma healing, reconciliation, the principles and tools of experiential education, and spirituality to sustain oneself for the long haul.

The "elephant game" exercise was particularly challenging!

In the "mattress exercise" participants had intense discussions about strategies to undo aspects of oppression

The training was very intense, some days going from 9 in the morning to 9 at night.  But we could deal with the intensity because of the variety of tools, experiential exercises, high energy engagement by the participants, and a passion to take something of great value back into the conflicts at home.

Legacy of the Children of Abraham

Christians and Muslims—how should we relate to each other?  Through violent competition, through conversion efforts, through keeping our distance, through loving our neighbors, through working together for peace?  All these options have been exercised by Christians and by Muslims.  Both religions, along with Judaism, trace their spiritual roots back to Abraham, but the relationships of these religious siblings has been highly conflicted over the centuries.

Five years ago 130 Muslim scholars from various Muslim traditions from around the world issued an open letter to the heads of global Christians communions, including the Vatican, Orthodox Patriarchs, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Baptist World Alliance.  The letter was titled from a phrase in the Qur’an, “A Common Word between Us and You.”  In the letter these Muslim scholars set forth two things that Christians and Muslims have in common:  Calling people to love God and to love our neighbors.  The Muslim scholars asserted that these two calls can be the basis for how the two largest religious bodies in the world relate to one another.  Various Christian communities formally responded to the Common Word document including the Baptist World Alliance.  These documents can all be found on-line at http;//www.acommonword.org. 

In Boston this November 30^th through December 2^nd Muslim and Baptist leaders from North America gathered for the second Muslim/Baptist Dialog based on the Common Word document and responses.  Papers were shared and responses given in plenary sessions and small groups.  I gave the final presentation, trying to bring the matter of how we relate into the practical areas of conflicts we face and how we will live together in diverse societies.  (If you want a copy of what I presented, send me an e-mail!)

Two days later I was landing in Abuja in northern Nigeria as part of a Baptist World Alliance human rights delegation invited by the Nigerian Baptist Convention.  For the last decade Northern Nigeria has been the scene of inter-religious violence between Christians and Muslims in which many churches and mosques have been burned and people killed from both religious communities.  But in the last couple years this conflict has taken a vicious turn through the appearance of an Islamist extremist group popularly called Boko Haram.  Boko Haram has engaged in a campaign of bombings and assassinations, targeting government officials, the military, the police, the United Nations, and churches.  Churches, including many Baptist churches have been bombed or fired upon, often during worship services.  Many people have lost their lives and many churches have been destroyed.

Praying in the ruins of a bombed church in Jos

Our delegation visited the sites of destroyed churches in the cities of Kaduna, Jos, and Kafanchar.  We listened to pastors and other church leaders tell of the attacks, the loss of members, and the difficulties of trying to rebuild.  We expressed our solidarity in Christ with them, praying together amid the rubble.  The Bible tells us in Romans to “weep with those who weep.”  We wept with our sisters and brothers.

Imam Muhammad Ashafa speaks as Rev. James Wuye looks on

But what should we do?  Some Christians have responded to violence with violence.  Others have responded by trying to work for peace.  We also met Muslims trying to work for peace.  One inspiring moment for me was meeting Muhammad Ashafa and James Wuye, an imam and pastor who both participated as leaders in the violence in Kaduna until they began an amazing journey of reconciliation (told in my book Interfaith Heroes 2).   As a result of their inter-religious reconciliation work they have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  We also had Muslims present at the two-day conference and training on conflict transformation we held in the Nigerian capital Abuja.  I led three workshop sessions on dealing with conflict nonviolently.

Nigeria is a pivotal state in Africa, the most populous country on the continent and a key leader in many diplomatic and peacekeeping efforts.  The Nigerian Baptist Convention has over 6 million members and 10,000 churches.  How the Nigerians deal with the challenges of Muslim-Christian relations is critical not just for the viability of their nation but also for inter-religious relationships in Africa as a whole and the rest of the world.

There are many views among Christians about how we should relate to Muslims.  I believe we must begin with the same call made by the Muslim scholars in the Common Word, loving God and loving our neighbor.  I also believe we as Christians are called to share the good news of Jesus Christ with everyone we can, but if we include hatred, suspicion, ignorance and violence in our approach we will not be bearing a good witness to the love of God.  We would also be unfaithful to some of the clearest and most concise the teachings of Jesus, who doesn’t even allow violence against us as an excuse not to love.

There are no easy solutions in Nigeria, but there are people including some courageous Christians and courageous Muslims, trying to find the way forward.  It was a privilege to come along side them for a while and to share the struggle together.

Kenya Trip--June 2012

In June 2012 I traveled to Kenya for a couple weeks of peacemaking training.  I was working primarily with Wilson Gathungu, my friend from an earlier trip, then later with Pini Kadulah.

The peace procession begins on the dividing highway

Wilson took me to Mauche, a village in one of the hot zones during the 2007-2008 post-election violence.  Pastor Kones from a Pentecostal church in Mauche had been a participant in our June 2011 Molo District training, and now he was hosting the training for his village and people from some of the surrounding villages.  The highway had become a dividing line between the Kikuyu and Kalenjin communities.  But we brought together people from those communities as well as some other ethnic groups.  For two days we trained on conflict resolution and building alliances for peace and reconciliation.  We concluded on Sunday with a march down that dividing road, ending with a rally in downtown Mauche.  Wilson had written a couple peace songs that he taught everyone.  They even got me dancing to them at the rally!


Then Wilson and I drove up north to the Pokot district where Pini had pulled together a 3-day training for us to lead.  The Pokots are involved in violent conflicts with their neighbors, often around the issue of cattle rustling.  We had an excellent workshop at the New Vision Baptist Church.

The high point was after we had done a Bible study on 2 Samuel 21 and the traumatized mother Rizpah who lost her two sons to violence and transformed the situation through her nonviolent public action.  So I asked them to apply what we were learning about trauma healing to the context of cattle rustling.  Young Pokot men have to have 30 or so cattle to give to a bride's family in order to get married, but almost nobody has that many cattle.  So they have to steal the cattle, and everyone is armed with AK-47s.  When someone is killed often their bodies are just left in the bush; there is no grief expressed, no retrieval or burial of the body.  People go on as if the young man never existed.

Wilson facilitates part of the workshop in Pokot

I asked them to name a fictional young man, which they did:  Noroko, "Warrior."  I asked what would we do when Noroko died.  Participants talked about whether Noroko had been justly or unjustly killed, determining whether they should ignore his body or engage in a revenge raid against his killers.  As the discussion went on I realized only men were speaking.  I asked if any women would like to speak, and a woman chief spoke out (yes, I met a few women chiefs on this trip) saying the same thing as the men.  I was getting nowhere, so I put an empty chair at center stage and said this was Noroko's mother--what would she say to us.  A woman came forward and sat in the chair, catching me by surprise.  She took the part of Noroko's mother and spoke of her grief and sadness that more would die over her son's death.  Her feelings had been unacknowledged in the culture, but she gave them powerful voice.  I challenged them that these were not my words or my expression, but an expression from a part of Pokot culture that was being silenced and marginalized.  She asked for ways to recognize his death and her loss.  Pini then brought out the matter of planting trees to remember those who had died in a way that would bring healing to the people and the land.  The next day we planted trees around the church and in the community to honor those who had died.

Boaz (in white) speaks to folks at Turkhana village

On Saturday, a young peacemaker named Boaz invited us to visit a distant village called Turkwell where Pokots had been in violent conflict with a neighboring Turkhana village.  It took us almost 3 hours to get to the village, which was way off the road and through the bush.  A pastor of one of the two churches in the village had been at our workshop.  When we arrived the men of the village were also sitting and squatting in a large circle with the women and children clustered around.  Wilson, Pini, Boaz and I all spoke about making peace, but one elder spoke comparing their enemies to a virus that must be wiped out!  It was quite a challenging dialog, but I particularly enjoyed watching the patient firmness with which Boaz handled the situation.  He was young but had a depth of wisdom and insight into the situation that enabled him to be an amazing peacemaker.

Mindanao, Philippines--Sept. 2011

At the end of a long training trip in the Philippines I headed to Davao City, Mindanao with three of the staff from the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches (CPBC). We were scheduled for a 3-day training on interfaith peacemaking.

Mindanao has been the hottest place in the Philippines in terms of violent conflict. The majority of southern Filipinos are Muslims, concentrated on the islands of Mindanao and Sulu. A major ethnic group among the Muslims are the Moros. For decades the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has been fighting for independence, but has in recent years established a cease-fire with the government. Meanwhile an Islamist group spun off from the MNLF, calling themselves the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The MILF has been in recent peace talks with the government of the Philippines, but those recently broke off. There's also a small more extreme group called Abu Sayyef. Alongside that conflict is another decades-old conflict with the New Peoples Army (NPA), a Communist insurgency that had declined following the 1986 People Power movement that ended the Marcos dictatorship. But the growing economic disparities and desperation of the poor have brought new life to the NPA insurgency.

So we were intending to focus on interfaith relationships as one particular peacemaking component. I'd hoped to have a more equal participation of Christians and Muslims, but that wasn't what developed. We had a large group of Baptists, one Pentecostal, and one Muslim. The Muslim was a young imam named Karem from a nearby mosque who could only be with us the first day. So I knew I'd have to be flexible in my workshop design to make the most of the situation which presented itself to me as a trainer.

The first day we dealt with more of the theory of conflict transformation that was most relevant to the situation in Mindanao. We covered getting to win/win solutions with a special emphasis on identity conflicts. We also did a lot of work on mainstream/margins. The imam was an excellent participant, not being intimidated by being the only Muslim in the group (definitely margin in this group!). He had a deep commitment to peace and broke a lot of stereo-types that the Christians in the group had.

The second day we focused on interfaith relationships. But we were all Christians since Karem had to conduct exams at the Islamic school at his mosque. We began with a little exercise called "The Big Wind Blows" that is kind of like musical chairs (without removing an additional chair each round). I said, "The Big Wind Blows for everyone who has been inside a mosque." Only one person had! These are the leaders and peace people in a conflict area where Christian/Muslim relationships are one of the key fault lines. So I knew we had to change that right then and there.

I asked the pastor who had invited Karem (and was the only one who had been in a mosque) if he could arrange for us to visit Karem's mosque later in the day. Meanwhile we worked on a number of interfaith relationship issues. We also exercised our curiosity about Muslims and constructed a list of questions the group had.

At about 2:30 we walked from our retreat center to the mosque (we'd been able to hear the calls to prayer throughout our time at the center). Karem greeted us warmly. We were given a tour of the school, spending time with short discussions in various classes. We discovered that half the teachers were Christians, though all the students were from Muslim families. We met with some of the leadership in the school to ask our questions about Islam and the various practices of their faith.

At the time for prayers we went into the mosque for, the men in the main hall, the women in a smaller area partitioned off in the back. We observed the prayers. Then we talked a bit more with Karem about the prayer time before heading back to the retreat center to debrief our experience. I closed saying, "The Big Wind Blows for everyone who has been to a mosque!" Everyone laughed and cheered.

We closed out the workshop on the third day looking at various strategies for building relationships for peacemaking work and how to move people with varying degrees of support or opposition to the issues that concern us. Participants worked on specific plans for their return home, including dealing with disagreement within their own Christian communities about even entering into positive relationships with Muslims (a challenge in many U.S. congregations, too!). The participants all left feeling very positive about what we had achieved. Afterward I talked further with the CPBC staff about next steps in peacemaking and training, both training that would involve me and things they could do on their own.

Building Bridges in Manipur, India--July, 2011

Manipur is the state with the highest killing rate in India. Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas struggle with different political concerns, religions and living contexts. There are multiple insurgent groups and civil society groups that join heartily in the conflicts. I've been there a lot, initially working on Naga reconciliation efforts. Now I'm expanding to deal with the larger circle of conflict. I've been especially excited to connect with a new peacemaking network called the Peace Dialog Initiative (PDI). PDI is a network of Meiteis, Kukis and Nagas chaired by Deben Sharma, a delightful kindred spirit.

We met for two days in Imphal at the Krishna Consciousness Center. The first day was spent in making position statements with spokespeople from each of the conflicted ethnic groups. Then there were responses from each group. At the end of the day it would be easy to despair because positions were hard and fast and totally opposite. Because the issues had to do with identity the problems weren't solvable by finding a meeting point halfway.

I was given the responsibility of facilitating Day 2, trying to help participants find a way forward and conclude with some sense of hope. I began with a few educational pieces to help participants reframe the way they were looking at the conflict as defined by the position statements the day before. We tried to think "outside the box" those positions created and brainstorm in dialog with one another. The brainstorm was begun in pairs from different ethnic groups coming up with ideas for specific steps forward and picking the three best. Then the pairs formed fours, shared their ideas and picked the best three ideas. Then we made eights and picked the best three ideas. I gathered the refined list and grouped them into 6 categories. Then we had participants cluster around the category that most interested them. The new groups then worked up specific plans to turn the ideas into substantive programs the participating organizations could carry out.

After feeling frustrated and hopeless at the end of Day 1, the PDI participants finished Day 2 excited and with a specific work plan to advance peace and understanding in Manipur. We ended with an appreciation line including many hugs. There's still a long, long way to go in Manipur, but a key step in the journey is to give birth to hope for the people who will create the peace imperative.

Kenya--June, 2011

In June I was invited to Kenya by Wilson Gathungu and a team from Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City where Wilson has been a student. In a class with Terry Rosell on Christian ethics Wilson wrote about the political violence in December 2007 and January 2008 around the national election. Rosell challenged Wilson that what he wrote shouldn't just be a paper but a project. Wilson in response established the Kenya Peace Iniative, a project that took him back home to do the organizing work for a major effort at conflict transformation training and grassroots reconciliation activities.

Terry's wife Ruth is also a professor at CBTS, and she grew up as a missionary kid in Kenya and Tanzania. Terry and Ruth and their four adult children took on the KPI as a personal concern, helping to raise the funds and go to Kenya to participate in the project. One of their children, Nehemiah Rosell, participated in an 11-day training I led in January 2010 to train people to do the kind of training I do. In additional my wife Sharon joined the team. We ended up with Sharon, Nehemiah and I as the training team with Terry and Ruth providing devotional leadership.

Meanwhile Wilson was doing some of the best organizing work I've ever seen. He pulled together a large planning team that drew from the two major conflicted ethnic groups as well as two other groups. Church leaders from various Christian denominations got excited about the training as well as many university students and leaders from various social and political sectors. Wilson used the planning process to draw many people from communities throughout the Molo District into the initiative. Then he worked out follow-up plans that built naturally on what we were doing. He did fantastic work in both design of the project and in the hard nitty-gritty work of contacting and organizing people.

There were 5 days of the centerpiece project our team led alongside Wilson. The first day was hands-on reconciliation work with the 50 participants from the various ethnic groups and organizations. We went to one of the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) camps. Then we built two homes--one for a Kikuyu family and one for a Kalenjin family, with Kikuyus, Kalenjins and others working side-by-side. I helped in hoisting up the roof beams. Sharon took off her shoes and jumped into the hole in the center of the house where mud was made with foot power to then plaster the walls.

Later in the afternoon we went to a school that was near one of the hottest spots in the violence. We planted a "peace forest"--over 50 trees with students of various ethnic groups joining our mixed peace workshop participants in planting the trees as a sign of peace. Then we all ate "out of one pot" from the different ethnic dishes.

For three days Sharon, Nehemiah and I facilitated a conflict transformation training. We covered topics of conflict resolution, nonviolence, trauma healing and reconciliation. We utilized many simulation games and other participatory activities. People commented about how there had been many structured dialogs by various groups to try to build peace, but they had never learned so much as at this training. That's the value of experiential education!

On Sunday our team went to a Kalenjin church only a few yards away from a Kikuyu IDP camp. Wilson had organized the people from the church and the camp to get to meet each other. They joined together in worship with Wilson preaching on reconciliation. Then people from all the various churches and communities in Molo District gathered in Molo Town. We had a big march with the Salvation Army band leading the way. We headed toward the soccer stadium for a peace rally.

Just as we came on the road to the stadium the skies opened with a torrential downpour that lasted almost an hour. We were all soaked and huddled under the only shelter in the area which was too small for us all. Pastor Grace, who had been in the workshop, praised God for the rain (we were on the edge of the drought area that was to make awful news in Somalia and parts of Kenya a few weeks later). She led the band out into the mud, celebrating. I would have called the rally off, but people aren't so easily discouraged in Africa! When the rains stopped everyone gathered by the soaked stage. The music started, and they did the whole program. I was the main speaker, preaching on Romans 12.21, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Since nobody else shortened what they did, I didn't cut it short either. We had a great time closing out an amazing chapter in the journey toward reconciliation in Kenya.

Wilson has continued building on what we started. We regularly connect with and consult with participants from the workshop. I'll be returning in June 2012 before the next election to continue to build on the work Wilson and others have been doing.

From an undisclosed place and time--#2

We traveled to another city, and on Monday we began another training. We had about 30-35 participants from many different ethnic groups. Again I worked mainly with the mainstream/margin concept, and got some of the best and most intense stuff ever from this group, serious and fun at the same time. Then we did studies on Acts 6 and Esther 4. I finished with some very specific peacemaking ideas for their context, using the image of drying the tears of Jesus.

One of our hosts closed out the day with a feedback session that was very moving. One man told about how he has felt so bitter and angry with people from the dominant religion over some of the hardships he'd experienced. He said he even hates to see people in that traditional religious garb. But he realized that he is in direct contradiction to the teaching of Jesus, and he felt a huge release and washing of forgiveness toward those from the other faith in our sessions. I was almost in tears as I listened to him. Then others spoke about ways their thinking has been stretched in exciting and tangible ways. They were very specific, talking about drying the tears of Jesus and not being limited by their marginal positions in society.

On Tuesday we continued dealing with the story of Rizpah and trauma. Later in the feedback session one man said he rated the workshop as a 10 on a scale of 10: "This was the answer of God to our situation." We dealt with some specific problems in which they had experienced heart-rending conflict. We helped them strategize about creative and transformative ways to address those situations.

The next day we had another intense session meeting with top religious leaders from minority communities. We explored the problems and ways to develop new alliances to address those problems.

Whew! It's been an intense trip, and far more productive than I'd ever dreamed. We might be able to find some ways to build on the openness we experienced to make a regional impact for peace. Plans are underway for follow-up activities.