CROP WALK, October 5

Youth and other members of the Church of Peace will participate in the CROP WALK sponsored by Churches United of the Quad Cities. This walk will take place on Sunday afternoon, October 5, 2008.

Each of the walkers from the church will receive donations to contribute to the CROP offering. Most of the funds received will be remitted to Church World Service for international aid to alleviate poverty and hunger. To learn more about Church World Service one can go to their website: http://www.churchworldservice.org/

A portion of the offering will be retained locally to address hunger in the Quad Cities. Since the food pantry at the Church of Peace is part of the Churches United coalition of food pantries it seems only fair that members of this church would participate with others to help raise funds to address hunger.

At a deeper level, the CROP WALK draws attention to the fact that there are low income and hungry people in our hometowns as well as around the world. And that addressing the needs of hungry people requires the efforts of the churches and other members of the civil society. We at the church act as community organizers to draw concerned people together to walk to aid the hungry, and to think and pray together as to why there are so many people in need.

Sanctuary Interior

Here is a photo of the Church of Peace that was taken some thirty years ago. It is an interesting study because the colors are a little different - it was then blue cast, and now it is cream. It is interesting also because this photo was so carefully done.

The church interior is more colorful than many sanctuaries, with a mural, and stencils on the walls, and stain glass windows. There is also quite of lot of carved wood.

Tragic Death

Today I participated in a funeral service for a man whose body was found in a car a few blocks away from the Church of Peace. The service was at the Apostolic Truth Temple, located on the corner of 12th Street and 12th Avenue, just across the intersection from Church of Peace in Rock Island, Illinois. The pastor of Apostolic Truth Church, Pastor Mark Anderson, invited me to participate. Other clergy sharing in the service were the Associate Pastor of that church, Matthew Peterson, Pastor Minnie Babers of the Apostolic Temple of Victory, and Elder Daryl Thompson of the House of Fire Ministries. It was a privelege to participate in this service of support for the family and the neighborhood. Several church leaders provided inspirational music. There were four speakers from family and friends, including one by our Rock Island Alderman Terry Brooks.

Gary Bourrage died of a gunshot wound to the neck. He was 33 years old. It certainly appears to be foul play.

Gary grew up at the Apostolic Truth Church. His aunt, Pastor Rena Dawkins, was the minister at that church for years, until she passed away. Pastor Mark Anderson was Gary's cousin.

This is the second such funeral of a young adult who died of gun violence that I have participated in at one of our neighborhood churches in the last two years. It all just seems so tragic.

Conflictive Reality

This is an account of a visit to Acteal, a small Mayan town north of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, that took place on July 16, 2008. My wife Nancy and I were on a delegation of church people on a mission trip to Mexico.

We were up and ready to get into the van by 8:00 am. One of the young missionaries accompanied us this day. We drove north and uphill through Chenhalo to Acteal. We drove past the Zapatista village and the Mexican military camp. Quick trip. What a contrast to 1998 when there were military roadblocks, and we had to show our passports and get out of the van.



The first thing I notice is that the steps down to the community are paved, when before they were dirt. The next thing I notice is that there is a new church. Fresh but not too well built. And the third thing is that there is an assembly area built above the crypts for the fallen.


I realize that this is the first time I have been to Acteal when it was not the 22nd of the month. This is the first time when it was not an assembly of remembrance, but that our group was essentially alone in the community to learn about the reality of the situation.


Our group was ushered into the church and we listened to a presentation about their situation. Our hosts were members of the leadership team of Las Abejas, the bees. This is a pacifist group who agree with the Zapatistas that the situation is intolerable for indigenous people in the area, but do not believe in violence or taking up arms. The massacre of Acteal took place on December 22, 1997. However, Antonio, our informant begins speaking about a land rights dispute that began in 1992.




After we were seated in the church we were asked to sign in and to give our internet address! They were happy to meet us and glad for international visitors. They asked who we are and we introduced ourselves as people from the United Church of Christ and also people from INESIN. They introduced themselves as Las Abejas of Saljalchel which was founded as a Catholic group in 1992. They were founded on the word of God, and always ask themselves, “What does God want us to do?” The Bible speaks for human rights. In 1992 President Salinas focused on land. There was a change in the constitution of Mexico in regard to land rights. This was a big change. We resisted. This land had been given to us by our forbears.

“We decided to use non-violent ways to settle land disputes.” On December 9, 1992 there was a community meeting on this topic. After the meeting some of our members played a little basketball after the meeting and then as they were walking home there was an ambush. Some (one, two)? Was shot but not killed. They went back to Chenalho to ask for help. The authorities said “no.” We carried them on a stretcher in the rain at night. Some went to Chenalho to accompany us and were put in jail for 86 hours. The justice authorities were against them. We contacted a private lawyer to seek justice but it was too much money, 8000 pesos. So we went to the Fray Bart human rights center. 2000 people fasting and praying. We did no work. In protest we walked the 70 kilometers to San Cristobal de las Casas to protest for the prisoners. We received lots of attention. We went to the offices of the government. This also received attention from Amnesty International. It took 27 days to get our people out of jail. This was reported to the Governor in the process too.

Then in April 1993 in the same community there was exploration for minerals in the area, and they destroyed our gardens, trees and houses. We said, “Who gave you this right?” We were getting no respect! “That’s our food,” we said. “We have orders from the government,” they said. “It is not necessary to ask the community. And if you try to resist I will have you put in jail.” They were from Campeche’. “We are not animals,” we said. There were a lot of us and very few of them. The mineral explorer began to recognize his situation. At the end the explorer was let go after he signed a document. With this document our people went to the authorities in Chenalho. “You should back the local people, because you are our local presence. It turns out that the people doing the exploration were from PMEX - the Mexican petroleum conglomerate.

This is how the case became public from the bottom up. PMEX looked all around Chiapas, and when these other communities heard what we had done they protested too.

In January 1994 there was the Zapatista uprising. We at Las Abejas are pacifist. While we support the goals of the Zapatistas we do not agree with the use of arms and violence.

Las Abejas also supported Bishop Samuel Ruiz in the 1996 Peace accords and on Indigenous Rights.

Eight days before the massacre here in 1997 we tried to start a dialogue.

Paz y Justicia. This name is ironic. It is a violent paramilitary group, but the name is Peace and Justice.

We asked, “What shall we do?” What if we just put ourselves in the hands of the paramilitaries?” Would a sacrifice change the discussion? Christ image? Just too scared about the whole people. .

People at the church knew something could happen. “Don’t be afraid, the bullets cannot take away your soul.” The people at the church were displaced persons from other communities. They were fasting and praying. We heard guns in the early morning. AK47s. People ran out of the church and went to the ravine. The paramilitaries shot at the empty church and then went hunting for the people. They shot at the people who were trapped in the ravine.

“They killed my friend Alonzo, and his wife and baby.” Alonzo’s last words were “Please forgive them.” These paramilitaries had red ribbons on their arms and their foreheads.

Altogether there were nine men, twenty-one women and fifteen children killed. The bodies stayed on the ground till night. Then the state government came and took the bodies to Tuxtla. We had to protest to the Red Cross to get the bodies of our community back. We feared that if we did not reclaim the bodies that it would be denied that this event had ever happened. Ultimately we prevailed and the bodies are buried in the ravine, where the people died. We had a funeral here on December 25, 1997. Bishop Ruiz was here.

We have had some divisions in the community recently. “Maybe we just will do God’s will.” So we just go back to our roots.

Analysis: The element that stood out for me hearing the account as given on this day was that it began with land. Disputed land. The impression for me was that what set this community, Las Abejas, apart was that they were organized and spoke up for their position. And that such uppity communities are seen as a danger, and that is why they were violently attacked.

When I asked about if this violent event was unusual my informants said, “no.” That such shootings had happened in several places. However, they usually happened between groups that have not forsaken violence. So if a group has had many members killed they are ashamed and do not want to admit it. They see this as revealing a strategic decline, and therefore it does not become widely known. What separates Acteal is that as non-violent pacifists they were ready to publicize widely what had happened. Because they were innocent.

After this we went to the crypts. Here there are photos and descriptions of all of those who were killed by the paramilataries that day in December, 1997.

After this we ate lunch in the car and drove back to San Cristobal. I, for one, was thinking what it would be like to walk the seventy kilometers to protest the imprisonment of my friends.

Red Sea

For the last several weeks the lectionary readings for the Hebrew Scriptures have been in Exodus. This last Sunday the reading was about Moses crossing the Red Sea.

For my children's time in the service I looked in my file and got out a booklet of children's art that I had collected quite a number of years ago from the children in our Vacation Bible School/Day Camp when they were talking about the Exodus narrative.

The picture at the top of this article is one of the illustrations of Moses walking through the midst of the parted waters. For some reason I had always assumed that the reason for using red for the water was simply that the red crayon was in the child's hand at the time. As we were talking in children's time I finally realized that the reason for the red water in the picture is because it was the Red Sea.

I was once again reminded that kids see the world in their own way. And if we pay careful attention we may see and hear the scripture in fresh ways by attending to a child's point of view.

Just Coffee

A request came in yesterday's mail from Churches United, our local church coalition, to help sell "fair trade" coffee to benefit their program. For more information look at http://www.churchesunited.net/.


I was reminded again that the second most traded international product, after oil, is coffee! Coffee is an international product that comes from warmer areas of the world - Central and South America, Africa, Sumatra and such. The best coffee is produced by labor intensive methods with hand picking, sorting, drying and packing. With coffee being such an important international product, it is actually pretty significant if people of good will change their buying patterns.


In the last several years there has been a movement to pay higher prices directly to coffee producers, rather than to have them sell to wholesalers at depressed prices. The resulting product is known as "fair trade coffee" because the price paid to producers seems more fair. These coffee growers participate in cooperatives that set high standards and coach the producers on such things as organic production, growing coffee in the shade and growing coffee in a bird friendly way.

Such fair trade coffee is marketed in at least three ways.

Some of the cooperatives market their product directly to consumers over the internet. Just google "just coffee" or "Mut Vitz" to find some of these botique producers.



Many church groups sell coffee at their churches to benefit these small producers. I know that in Rock Island I can buy excellent coffee at Broadway Presbyterian Church and St James Lutheran Church. They sell high quality coffee as a service to their members and as a mission project for the larger church. I bet the product that Churches United is selling is this sort of coffee.


The third way, and the way which to me shows the most promise, is to look for and buy coffee in my local market with the "fair trade" logo on the package. Target has several varieties with their Archer Brands label. I can find a "fair trade" coffee at my local HyVee, but I must look carefully. I can find one kind of Seattle's Best that is "fair trade." The reason that I like the logo option is for convenience. Also, if buyers like our family provide a market for a product it will be supplied. Our family buys no coffee other than "fair trade," and it is good to reinforce our local grocers when they do something right.



"Fair trade" coffee is for the most part excellent, high end coffee. It is a superior product that comes from folks taking pride in producing a product that they make with their own hands.


Another element to buying "fair trade" coffee is that it is a positive step the immigration issue. It is commonly agreed that most people would prefer to live in their home country and with their family if they are able to make a living while doing so. By providing a better price to coffee producers we help make it possible for some Mexicans from Chiapas and some Guatemalans to make a living while remaining at home.



Here are some photos. The Seattle's Best coffee shows the "fair trade" logo as the little black and white seal on the front of the package. The "Caracolillo" coffee produced by Just Coffee was purchased on the internet. Caracolillo means 'little snail' and corresponds with the illustration on the front of the package.

Home Damaged

Here is a clipping of the Lerch family home that was damaged July 21 in Rock Island.

Without Power

I drove to the church in a hard rain on Monday morning, July 21 to find that a very strong wind had blown through Rock Island. The closer I came to the church the more debris was in the street and when I came the last few blocks there was no electrical power.

At church there was neither electrical power nor telephone service. With our cell phones we received word that our Work Camps Director, Erin, was unable to come to church because a very large tree had fallen in the driveway of the family home and she was unable to move her car. There was a work camp group from Southern Illinois at the church waiting to go to work that day to help rehabilitate some housing. Our partner, Project NOW called to say that they were unable to receive the group.

I walked over to the parsonage and asked if they wanted to help alleviate storm damage. Their answer was "Sure!"

We drove to the 1400 block of 45th Avenue in Rock Island, where Erin's family lives. Their home is right next door to a family from our church. The church family had a 140 year old oak tree uprooted next to the driveway. It had fallen on the roof of their home. The family was in the yard. The house was uninhabitable. To date they living in a motel waiting for the repair of their home.

The work camp group helped several families remove tree limbs that had fallen. I think their presence also represented an encouragement.

Well, the church was without electrical power until Thursday, July 24. We served sack lunches in the front yard to kids who came for the summer lunch program. Our big concern was that we had hundreds of dollars invested in frozen food for the lunch program. In the photo above you can see my Honda generator outside the front door supplying power for the freezer.

We tend to forget how much we depend on electricity till it is gone for a time. The good point was that people actually talked with each other more since the television sets were off.

Confirmation Class

The confirmation class resumed last night, this was the first Wednesday after Labor Day. The Church of Peace was a German language congregation when it was first organized in 1895. At that time the denomination was called "German Evangelical" or Deutches Evangelische, and being part of the Lutheran family of churches, has taken confirmation pretty seriously since its beginning.

The class meets weekly during the school year for a two year period. I worked through the class schedule for this 2008-2009 year and there are twenty-seven class meetings! That means a youth should attend over fifty class meetings as part of their experience.

This year the major topics are the Bible and the History of the Church. The alternate year is the Mission of the Church and we talk about faith. One of the wonderful elements of the two year class taught by the pastor is that I get to know youth in the church pretty well. That is a privilege.

This church has kept careful records of those who have been confirmed here. When we had our 100 year anniversary we compiled the names of those who had been confirmed in this community of faith and published a booklet. There are some 1400 names. The names are listed both chronologically and alphabetically, so this booklet would be a help to those doing genealogical research.

Here is a photo of Courtney and Michael who were confirmed on Palm Sunday 2006.

Beautiful Gift

Last May a lifelong member of the Church of Peace, Nancy Snyder, died suddenly. She was a single person and her brothers and their families made all of the arrangements and when the funeral had been completed one of the brothers called me on the phone. He explained that Nancy had carried forward a collection of Hummel nativity figures that may have been established by their mother, Marge, or may have been begun by a family friend, Mildred Lamp. In any case, after family discussion, they wanted to make these figures a gift to the church.

In this photo they have been set up by our Altar Guild chairperson so that the council could see them. They are stored away and will be used at Advent and Christmas. What a beautiful gift. And beyond their beauty, what an honor that a collection made with love over years and years has found a place to be shared in the church.

Labor Day Parade

This morning a group of members from the Church of Peace participated in the Labor Day Parade in Rock Island. It was a nice, cool, day and we stepped off soon after the 9:30 start time and were done by 11 am. We ended at the home of one of our church members, Myrna Adams, and watched more of the parade from her front yard.

Our group was about twenty persons. Mainly it was the church brass band playing songs from the back of a hay wagon. The theme for the parade this year was trains - you know, "the Rock Island Line..." So the songs included Do the Locomotion, This Train is Bound for Glory, Gospel train and the Rock Island Line.

We also had walkers handing out candy and literature. Two persons carried the "God Is Still Speaking" banner published by our national United Church of Christ.

Here is a photo of my wife Nancy and I waiting for the beginning of the parade a few years back when the theme was "cartoon characters." I am Shreck and Nancy is Minnie Mouse.