Faith Leads to Hope - Sojourners · 2012. 9. 5. · Faith Leads to Hope A discussion guide from...

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Faith Leads to Hope A discussion guide from Sojourners WWW.SOJO.NET/CONGO JEFF TRUSSELL FOR THE ENOUGH PROJECT

Transcript of Faith Leads to Hope - Sojourners · 2012. 9. 5. · Faith Leads to Hope A discussion guide from...

Page 1: Faith Leads to Hope - Sojourners · 2012. 9. 5. · Faith Leads to Hope A discussion guide from Sojourners The Enough Project, a human rights group that aims to end genocide and crimes

Faith Leads to Hope

A discussion guide from Sojourners

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Page 2: Faith Leads to Hope - Sojourners · 2012. 9. 5. · Faith Leads to Hope A discussion guide from Sojourners The Enough Project, a human rights group that aims to end genocide and crimes

Faith Leads to Hope

A discussion guide from Sojourners

The Enough Project, a human rights group that aims to end genocide and crimes

against humanity, has produced a video series, “I Am Congo,” through its Raise Hope

for Congo campaign. “I Am Congo” features extraordinary people living in eastern

Congo amid the deadliest war in the world. The videos present the stories of Fidel,

Amani, Denise, Petna and Dominique in their own words

Check out the Raise Hope for Congo website at www.raisehopeforcongo.org for

resources to get up to speed and get involved.

Inspired by this video series, Sojourners, a national Christian organization committed

to faith in action for social justice, has produced this discussion guide, I Am Congo -

Faith Leads to Hope.

This resource is intended to compliment “I Am Congo” for individuals, small groups,

and churches to reflect biblically, theologically, and prayerfully on the ongoing

conflict in Congo.

Each profile is accompanied by a reflection and discussion piece that will allow you to

experience the power of story-telling to help raise hope for Congo.

Follow the video profiles at www.sojo.net/congo.

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Faith Leads to Hope

“I Am Congo” is a groundbreaking video series featuring five amazing people living their lives amid the deadliest war in the world.

Christians are called upon to tell and retell the story of hope, grace, and change that we see acted out in the scriptures. It is through hearing and responding to this story that our own lives and stories are transformed today. It is through the telling of stories that we learn about the lives and worlds of those who live next door or those who are halfway across the world.

Extreme poverty, famine, war, and disease can seem like overwhelming problems with no hope or solution. But faith can move the largest mountains even in our world today.

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

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These are stories of hope. These are the stories of the people who call the Democratic Republic of Congo home—in their own words.

In eastern Congo, we meet a human rights lawyer who fled a volcanic eruption with just her law book and became an advocate for rape survivors. An artist pulls together a film and music festival every year in a city with few paved roads, let alone a theater. In a national park bigger than Yosemite, a conservationist protects endangered mountain gorillas caught in the middle of decades of conflict.

“I Am Congo”— a series more than a year in the making by the Enough Project’s Raise Hope for Congo campaign—features professional video storytelling on an issue largely ignored by the mainstream media and unknown to many.

The goal is simple: to introduce more people to the Congo and empower them with solutions to help end the conflict there.

Too often, stories from Congo focus on the extremes: either killing, raping, and crushing poverty or “feel-good” stories that ignore the chaos. These extremes not only fail to capture the full picture of Congo; it leads many to turn away.

“I am Congo” tells the full story of the Congo and its juxtapositions: natural beauty col-lides with decay; humanity struggles against a constant drumbeat of war; brave commu-nity leaders overcome personal tragedies to fight the status quo of corruption and conflict.

I Am Congo – Faith Leads to Hope, is intended to highlight the work that God is already doing in a war-torn region of the world and raise awareness among Christians to the conditions and struggles of God’s children around the world.

Watch the I am Congo trailer: www.sojo.net/congo.

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Activist: Fidel Bafilemba

“There is no way to peace along the way to safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture.” —Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In Goma, the epicenter of Congo mayhem, where corruption and poverty thrive, Fidel Bafilemba embodies the courage to challenge the norm of his home country.

“That’s me—the disorder of this country, but also the hope for a better future. A hope for an educated people. That’s me. Fidel Bafilemba, activist.”

Working for peace in his hometown has been a journey of transformation—Fidel is a militia member turned peace activist. In the midst of chaos, Fidel manifests hope—a hope for a better future where he, his family, and his community can make self-determined deci-sions for prosperity and reconciliation.

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

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It is similar to some Christans' struggle in bringing to fruition God’s “kingdom come,” even amid mayhem, “for the kingdom of God depends not on talk but on power.” (1 Corinthians 4:20).

When others see destruction, poverty, and war, Fidel envisions the future of his people. It is a future of a Congo lush with natural resources and beauty that benefits, rather than destroys, communities. That’s why Fidel refuses to accept impunity and injustice, and seeks to empower others to question and ask, “why?”

“Why don’t we have roads? Why don’t we have education? Why don’t we have, why don’t we have?”

Through Fidel’s example, it is evident that this shift away from accepting injustice toward a more hopeful perspective is not only crucial in seeking change for his family and com-munity, but also the rest of Congo.

“So our transformation must begin with the renewal of our minds. And that is what the Christian story is about—offering a fresh lens through which to see ourselves, others, and the world. In the process, Christianity is meant to shape a new identity within us by creat-ing a new sense of we—a new community that defies our usual categories of anthropol-ogy.” — Emmanuel M. Katongole (with Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove), The Pattern of this World

Watch Fidel’s video: www.sojo.net/congo.

Discussion questions

1. Discuss how Fidel’s story reflects the causes of “Congo’s mayhem.”

2. Fidel is creating an activist movement for peace in his country, which began with his own personal transformation. Can you relate to Fidel’s personal journey, and how?

3. What does it mean to be a self-determined community and what are the challenges to creating a self-determined community?

Prayer

God of peace, we pray for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo amidviolence. Give those working for positive change courage, and comfort all those who are fearful or in mourning. Amen.

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More about Fidel

Fidel Bafilemba lives in Goma and works as a field researcher for the Enough Project. He has a long history of working in human rights and education, as well as extensive experience as a translator and “fixer” for western journalists. Before joining Enough, Fidel worked in upper management with the International Rescue Committee in Goma, leading emergency programs implementation in the field to provide aid to Congolese citizens in war-torn parts of the eastern Congo. He speaks 13 languages.

In a short blog post about “I Am Congo,” Fidel reflects on where he has come from, the path he has chosen, and the message he feels is most important to share with the world.

Referring to his past life in a militia group, he says, “But that past is far behind me now, and today is a new day. My hope is that my children will grow up in a Congo that allows and even encourages every citizen to think independently—to challenge the status quo of taking up arms for power. To me, this video has provided an opportunity to convey the importance of a common denominator uniting all citizens of the world—one that leads to progress and one that eastern Congo largely lacks—an education system that promotes critical thinking.”

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Community Builder and Footballer: Amani Matabaro

“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.” – Etty Hillesum, a young Dutch diarist who died at Auschwitz

The social fabric that wove together Amani’s moral values and passion for peace is the target of rebel groups that roam the Kivu provinces of Eastern Congo and seek to destabilize and destroy communities. Amani grew up playing football and attending school and church in an area that has been chronically unstable for the past 16 years.

Despite the threat, Amani learned within his local structures the power of community in overcoming insecurity—the hub for gaining moral and intellectual values “to make every effort to come together and live as a community.”

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

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Congo is still suffering from the overspill of the Rwandan genocide, the aftermath of which took the lives of both of Amani’s parents.

Taking heart from the moral lessons he gained from playing football with his school and through his education, Amani decided to overcome the insecurity caused by the rebels by bringing people together by providing a peace market—a community nucleus for women, children, and men to gather in a safe, empowered, and peaceful environment to care for one another. As 1 Corinthians explains, God created us as one body, “that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.”

Amani views those assembled at the peace market as this body. His story is one of estab-lishing peaceful community structures.

Watch Amani’s video: www.sojo.net/congo.

Discussion questions

1. Children, schools, and women are foundational to the social fabric of community. What motivates rebel groups to make these their targets?

2. How do you think instability in schools affects community development and growth?

3. What are the ways that Amani has worked to bring peace to his community? What are the connections or parallels to your own community?

Prayer

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is despair, let me sow hope. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. Amen. — Prayer of St. Francis.

More about Amani

Amani is a part-time field researcher for the Enough Project. He is also a community builder and the executive director of Action Kivu, a Congolese nonprofit organiza-tion that works to empower war-affected women and children through implementing community-based projects and sponsoring education for vulnerable children. One of his signature projects at Action Kivu is an eight-month sewing program for vulnerable

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communities, where women learn to sew, knit, and embroider, and eventually acquire the skills and capacity to work on their own as seamstresses.

Amani, who speaks eight languages, is a man of action deeply committed to improving the lives of others. Rather than implementing his own vision upon the community, he does his research among the people, talking to them, taking surveys, learning about what the majority of them want before implementing projects.

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Human Rights Lawyer: Denise Siwatula

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” –Eleanor Roosevelt

“If we just sat with crossed arms, what would happen then?” is the question Denise, a Congolese civil rights attorney, asks us.

She has seen the destruction of her home through natural disaster and the pain of thou-sands of Congolese women who are raped every year. Still, she is faithful with the calling that she has been given—working to prosecute the cases she can to help rape survivors seek justice and find the hope to continue on.

Denise knows that to make peace, it is necessary to restrain and often punish the evil that humans do to one another.

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

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“The Bible takes evil seriously and clearly says that evildoers should be held accountable for their deeds, and that the state has the legitimate role of bringing to justice those who perpetrate terrible crimes,” writes Jim Walli in a Sojourners article “The Things That Make For Peace.”

But Denise’s work does not focus just on the punishment of those who commit rape but on the restoration of the survivors.

While the story of Denise is hopeful, she does not pretend that the path she has chosen is easy. Still, it is her faith and hope in God that gives her the strength to continue.

“When I find myself in church, I try to forget myself,” says Denise. “I try to forget what I have lived through. I visualize another environment, one that is so different from the actual one around me.”

Motivation to continue the hard work of building God’s kingdom comes from a place beyond one’s self. God has given us the gift of being able to imagine and work for anoth-er world that more and more closely reflects God’s will. We are to pray as Jesus taught us,

“Your Kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

Watch Denise’s video: www.sojo.net/congo.

Discussion questions

1. Why is rape used as a weapon of war? What are the consequences of the high rates of sexual violence for the society?

2. How does Denise’s faith influence her work?

3. When have you felt like you’ve “crossed your arms” and failed to take action? What aspects of this story challenge and encourage you to uncross them?

Prayer

We pray for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who have faced conflict and unrest for decades, including violence by weapon and by rape. Though the thou-sands dying every month often go unreported, we know that your heart breaks for the lives lost and the people damaged. We ask that you establish a just peace in that place in the name of our Prince of Peace, Jesus. Amen.

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More about Denise

Denise Siwatula is a lawyer with Synergie, a coalition of organizations providing com-prehensive services to survivors of sexual violence in eastern Congo. The women with whom Denise work face severe challenges in seeking justice, including undue financial bur-dens, lack of support from authorities even though there is a national law against rape, a high emotional toll recounting their stories time and again to officials, and a system where even those found guilty can bribe their way free. Very few cases Denise works on result in true justice, yet she refuses to accept that impunity will reign. If she, someone trained in law, doesn’t strive for something better, she wonders, who will? Denise attended law school in Goma, eastern Congo, one of only a handful of women to attend. She finds solace in her faith, and can be found at her church almost every day.

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Artist: Petna Ndaliko

“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.” — Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh

How do you combat violence, institutionalized rape, a corrupt government, and years of injustice? With more violence, better weapons, or more strategic strikes?

For Petna Ndaliko, you do it through art. In spite of attempts by the Congolese govern-ment and militia groups to silence them, Petna created a stage for local youth to ex-press themselves. They sing about oppression, about corruption, and about the people’s ability to overcome.

Art heals. It unites a community. And it can ignite a spark for change. Film can inspire rape survivors to find their voices and tell their stories. From a grassroots level, music moves people to action.

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

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Petna calls himself a small light from which a huge fire starts growing. For many Christ-ians, this echoes Matthew 5:14, “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Petna’s hope is for the flame to spread through the youth of Congo, to carry the message of hope forward to future generations, finding creative ways to combat injustice.

As Brian McLaren put it in a Sojourners article, “Is God Violent?”:

“Jesus practiced as he preached: Reconciliation, not retaliation. Kindness, not cruelty. A willingness to be violated, not violation. Creative conflict transformation through love, not decisive conflict termination through superior weapons. Courageous and compas-sionate resistance, not violence. Outstretched arms on a cross, not stockpiles of arms, nuclear or otherwise.”

Watch Petna’s video: www.sojo.net/congo.

Discussion questions

1. In what ways can art bring about change? What is the connection between a flourish-ing arts environment and a peaceful community?

2. When have you hit a wall in your own life? What gave you hope to continue?

3. What are the ways you have seen art build peace and foster community?

Prayer

Protector of the weak and the helpless, we pray for healing in the Democratic Republic of Congo through creative peacemaking. For those whose nights echo with gunshots and whose days resound with the cries of women who have been brutally raped, we ear-nestly pray for healing and security. Empower the youth in their dreams for community and equip your peacekeepers in Congo so that they may uphold justice! Amen.

More about Petna

Petna Ndaliko is the co-founder of Yolé!Africa, an organization founded in 2000 that promotes peace and reconciliation through arts and culture. The organization operates a cultural center in Goma where they provide a platform for exchange of ideas and expres-sion among youth from different backgrounds and social statuses, offering mentorship and artistic support including film, music, dance, and exhibitions.

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Yolé!Africa also organizes the Salaam Kivu International Film Festival, an annual 10-day festival and a vivid reflection of the rich artistic community and culture of eastern Congo. Yole! values respect for all human beings and stands against all forms of exploi-tation or violations of human rights. An artist himself, Petna has created a space where youth can keep “building and not destroying.”

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Conservationist: Dominique Bikaba

“Peace for humanity is not only the absence of war, or the end of violence ... For us Christians, peace is based on a fundamental new relationship between mankind and God. That is why Christ said he brought peace, ‘not as the world gives.’ He brought a dif-ferent peace.” – Bishop Samuel Ruiz García

Eastern Congo is home to some of the world’s most stunning scenery—and some of its most brutal and unimaginable violence. The relationship between these two symbols of the region is a close one.

Part of the call of Christian peacemakers is not only to make peace between people a re-ality, but also to bring peace between people and the planet. In his work, conservationist Dominique Bikaba recognizes that peace between people and peace with our environ-ment are closely intertwined, and he is seeking to bring about both.

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

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Armed groups are waging war in eastern Congo, taking no heed of the grave impact that the conflict is having on the environment around them. The resources of the region are being exploited, to the detriment of future generations. This disregard for the communi-ties of the region is a modern-day salting of the land. It’s a practice well known to the people of Israel in the Old Testament, in which armies would spread salt on the land of their adversaries so that nothing would grow there (see Judges 9:45).

The conflict in Congo is being waged on local communities—but Dominique is a prob-lem-solver. He is seeking creative ways to conserve these communities while conserving the environment they inhabit, fostering the inherent relationship between the two. He is “bringing the forest to the community.”

Through educating local communities, he is helping them create sustainable communi-ties that live in peace with their local environment—not in conflict with it. And when it comes to peacemaking, a sustainable community is vital.

As Glen H. Stassen writes in a Sojourners article, “Nonviolence in Time of War,” “Foster just and sustainable economic development. When a country experiences … economic deprivation, it is more likely to have a war.”

Dominique’s commitment to being a peacemaker is reflected in his unwavering com-mitment to the environment around him, and an understanding that without peace be-tween communities and their natural environment, there can be no true peace in Congo.

Watch Dominique’s video: www.sojo.net/congo.

Discussion questions

1. What is the connection between protecting a community’s environment and protect-ing a community’s children?

2. Dom was raised by Pygmies, a marginalized community in central Africa. How can people of faith stand with other marginalized communities to take action for justice?

3. How can work on local environmental issues help foster community where you live?

Prayer

O Lord, we pray today for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We pray for the end of violence and injustice. We pray for good governance and a healthy environment. For all creatures who are victims of exploitation, we ask for your healing and protection.

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For those involved in corruption and impunity, God, change their hearts. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayers. Amen.

More about Dominique

Dominique Bikaba is the founder of Strong Roots, a grassroots organization focused on conservation, sustainable development, and educating and empowering the local and indigenous communities that live in the region. The organization protects and conserves wildlife in the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. In the past 15 years, stresses on the park, including ille-gal mining, refugee camps, foreign invasions, civil wars, poaching, and bush meat trades, have put the Eastern Lowland Gorilla at a high risk of extinction.

Dominique has a degree in rural development and extensive professional background in conservation and development. Though he would prefer to live closer to the forest where he spent his childhood, for safety concerns he lives with his wife and children in the city of Bukavu.

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Understanding the Conflict in Eastern CongoFidel, Amani, Denise, Petna, and Dominique each give a different perspective on the con-flict and remind us that behind every statistic is a story. Despite Congo being the poorest country in the world and home to the deadliest conflict since World War II, these stories show us how people are working to restore peace and justice in their own communities.

You can use your voice and faith to join the people of Congo in working for sustainable peace in eastern Congo. To learn more about the crisis, to stay informed, and to find out how you can take action, visit www.sojo.net/congo

Jeff Trussell for The enough ProJecT

All Biblical citations in the document are of the new revised standard Version (nrsV).

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Enough is a project of the Center for American Progress to end genocide and crimes against humanity.

Founded in 2007, Enough focuses on the crises in Sudan, South Sudan, eastern Congo, and areas

affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army. Enough conducts intensive field research, develops practical

policies to address these crises, and shares sensible tools to empower citizens and groups working for

change. To learn more about Enough and what you can do to help, go to www.enoughproject.org.

all biblE CiTaTiONS iN ThE dOCumENT arE Of ThE NEw rEviSEd STaNdard vErSiON (NrSv).

Sojourners is a national Christian organization committed to faith in action for social justice. We seek

to inspire hope and build a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the

world. With a 40-year history, Sojourners is a nonpartisan leader that convenes, builds alliances among,

and mobilizes people of faith, focusing on racial and social justice, life and peace, and environmental

stewardship. Working through magazine, Sojourners’ website sojo.net, public speaking

events, media outreach, educational resources, books, advocacy, and trainings, Sojourners is an

internationally influential voice at the intersection of faith, politics, and culture. For more information

visit Sojourners at www.sojo.net.