For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
Along with the infamous whistle-blower Snowden, there's another guy about his same age named Kevin Scott Sutay who recently did something equally strange.
Was it stupid, dumb, and idiotic?
Probably, but for some reason both these guys have really caught my attention.
For one, they're both about as old as I am (Snowden is 30, Sutay is 27 - I'm 28), and for another, it doesn't really seem that there's anything that incredibly wrong with either of them - they're both just highly mischievous and daring people.
Time might tell what each of these guys' intentions are, but whateverthey may be - regardless, it seems that they're trying to get something across.
I'm pretty sure you've all heard of Snowden, but for those of you who haven't heard of Sutay - well, he's a former U.S. soldier who served some time in Afghanistan and, after resigning from the Army, went on an adventure trip through Central America till finally making it to Colombia and down to San Jose* (the South Eastern jungle town where I used to serve as a missionary).
Kevin Scott Sutay in San Jose a couple days before he was kidnapped
Without knowing a lick of Spanish, he spent a couple of days in the town, raised a few eyebrows, then signed a couple of papers freeing the police from any responsibility towards him as he walked South to the "less than secure" town of El Retorno, where he was last seen by an evangelical pastor who took him in for a couple of nights.*
Kidnapped on the 20th of June 2013, the FARC has held him now for exactly 2 months, and they say that as a diplomatic gesture of cooperation in light of its current peace process with the Colombian government - they will release him - provided the government will let them use the right political personalities as the intermediaries in the process.*
The whole situation is really awkward because as part of the peace talks the FARC is having with the government, the guerrillas shouldn't have even kidnapped Kevin in the first place (as if the act of kidnapping people period were acceptable), but they defend their actions since Sutay used to serve in the US Army (and therefore in their minds he's a military threat).
I strongly disagree with that assertion, but what gets me is... why?
Why did Kevin just randomly decide to hit up one of the more dangerous regions in the whole country just to walk into the hands of the FARC?
...Some sources say he did it because he wanted to "walk" to Puerto Inirida* (which seems pretty far fetched because if that were the case, then he would have gone directly East, not South), and a few other sources say it's because he wanted to visit the indigenous communities of the Nukak* {which maybe has a little more credibility to it, but when I was there [which was just a couple weeks after his abduction], there was a whole community of people from this very ethnic group that were actually staying in the town's basketball coliseum, and plus! there are a couple indigenous communities that are a lot closer to town than Cheka-Muj (which is the only other option of where there's another Nukak community that is in the general direction of where Sutay was headed)}...
San Jose to Puerto Inirida (not likely)
So see, if I were him, and if I were wanting to learn about the Nukak, what I would have done was that I would have stayed in town and talked to the only other people besides them who actually speak their language (who are my missionary friends that live in San Jose) and asked them to introduce them to me... I wouldn't just go off into the jungle to hopefully stumble across them on my own...
So that's why I think there's something fishy about all this, and I honestly think there's got to be another reason besides the ones given, for why Kevin Scott Sutay randomly decided to walk into guerrilla controlled territory...
Maybe he did it because he wanted to provoke the whole world [which if that was his intention - he definitely accomplished it (or at least for the whole world of US/Colombian/FARC politics he did)], and maybe he also did it thinking that he would have a free way out (which if the guerrillas keep their word - he will).
But is Sutay really that smart?
I don't know, but what I do know is that the guy has guts.
Maybe his guts are a little nuts, but regardless, there seems to be a sense in which Kevin decided that there was something worth pursuing that was more important than his very life.
...And it's the same with Snowden. Maybe the guy was wrong for doing what he did, but I will say this - I envy people with the attitude of having enough courage to tell the whole world the truth, even if doing so will cost them their lives...
Because that's essentially what Jesus of Nazareth called us to do... to pursue Him and to tell the truth about his gospel to the whole world even if it will cost us everything (Luke 9:23).
Are we willing?
A couple of guys around my age were willing to give it all up for an un-understandable cause... The question I have is if we are willing to give it all up for one we understand? (Luke 12:48).
So man - these past 2 days I've been thinking a lot about the Boston Marathon, and my heart really goes out to all those who were affected by the bombs that went off there.
I ran that race myself, and it was the toughest race I've ever done cause it was super wet, windy, and icy, and right towards the end (probably really close to where the bombs were detonated) I got an excruciating cramp in my right leg in the final stretch (see bottom left picture).
It's just so terrible to think about what happened now 6 years later - and for me, to consider the mentality of a runner as he or she would be approaching that finish line (with so much pain as it is, yet with so much hope for finishing), and then to be thrown down to the ground from one second to the next and have your whole life changed forever...
...I saw the picture above as I was researching the bombings, and it really caught my eye, because I remembered an instance in high school where one of my best friends (Luke, our basketball team point guard) slipped and went crashing down to the road.
It was a dirt road actually, and it happened on the last corner of the final stretch that we were sprinting on to see who would finish first. No one else was close to us, but he and I were right on each other's tails, and right as we were making that last turn towards the end, Luke's legs got away from him and he just bit it man. Like big time.
His leg got all cut up and he was full of dirt, and in the exhilaration of the moment I stopped and looked at him and screamed GET UP! GET UP!!! COME ON MAN, GET UP! THERE'S NO WAY YOU'RE GOING TO LET ME WIN LIKE THIS! GET UP! and I bent down and pulled him up and we both jogged shoulder to shoulder to the finish.
...This last summer I told everybody about this story the day after Luke's wedding, and his dad was there, and I just remember how after I finished that story and it was kind of quiet - Mr. Bartel (Luke's dad) in his calm and dignified voice said something along the lines of how that's exactly what we're supposed to do as Christians, when one of us falls in real life.
It was a powerful statement to hear from him, because that's precisely what Luke's mom and dad have dedicated their whole lives in doing... they've dedicated their lives towards helping kids that are born or raised in really tough conditions, by pulling them up from where they are, and giving them another chance so they can get on their feet and start running again.
I think that's awesome, and for anyone of my friends that may be reading this... if there's any way in which you know you've fallen, please just get up. Don't let Satan get the best of you.
For those affected by the Boston bombs - let's help them get back up with our prayers.
Pictures from the 111th Boston Marathon (2007)
Hebrews 12:1-3:
Therefore,
since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay
aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of
God.
For
consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that
you will not grow weary and lose heart.
65 years and 2 days ago, all hell broke loose in my home country Colombia.
It was 1:05 p.m. April 9th, 1948 in the very heart of the capital city, that the very heart of a nation's people was assassinated.
His name was Jorge Eliecer Gaitan and he represented the hope of a country run by corrupt conservative tycoons. Popular, eloquent, endearing, liberal, charismatic - you name it man - this guy was going to turn the whole country around through every legitimate means possible.
Educated in Bogota and Rome, in 1936 he became the capital city's mayor and subsequently the nation's Minister of Education in 1940. In 1947 (2 years into the Cold War Era) he gained the upper hand as the single undisputed liberal candidate for the 1950 elections, and winning the people over by appealing to their emotions with his tremendous oratory skills - he was undoubtedly going to win the elections and bring about social reform to the poorer class...
All of this of course, before he was abruptly shot and killed one terrible day by a mysterious man who's ties no one has ever been able to trace to whom.
Murdered in broad daylight, Gaitan's death unleashed an unprecedented riot in Bogota that lasted for 10 hours straight, in which approximately 4,000 people died and huge portions of the city were looted and burned down.
...The violence spread into other major cities as well, as Liberals persecuted Conservatives and vice-versa, until gradually the war found itself in the countryside where for the next 10 years the whole nation experienced an atrocious period of civil unrest that cost the lives of some 200,000 to 300,000 people.
...And in some way or another this violence still exists to this day (it exists in the presence of armed insurgent groups such as the FARC*, the ELN*, and the AUC*), and it's so sad to see that through the death of this one man -there are so many more deaths that have happened ever since.
I often think back on this day in history, and whenever I make it back to Colombia I always like to go to Bogota's downtown plaza to look at the historical and governmental buildings in this sector and somehow remind myself of those days in which violence existed on every corner.
It was always the first thing I would do whenever I made it back to the concretejungle of Bogota after being in the virginjungle of San Jose, and I loved getting lost down there, and the feeling I would get like I was a nobody with all the crowd going every-which way minding their own business. I liked the commotion of it all, and the feeling that I was so alone, because somehow that would make me think of the deeper things of life.
It would make me think of the girl I loved and my friends in San Jose and the church I had started, and how looking at everything from an aerial view - that maybe we all still had a chance.
It would make me think of the whole reason for why I went down there to begin with, and the struggle it was to get there, and how it wasn't quite what I expected, but how it was quite a bit more than what I hoped for.
...The reason was because I felt like I was made for it, which, when it came right down to it - was also a similar reason for why I left... because there was a negative truth that I found to be equally evident as well: I left because I felt like I wasn't made to be alone (Genesis 2:18).
There was a war that had been waging for the past 60 years, initiated with the death of one man, and I wanted to do something about it. I started to, and then I fell in love with the liberal daughter of a conservative politician's wife who wasn't about to let her daughter follow a guy who had no ambition for wealth.
My ambition was hidden in another more intangible thing that was starting to take shape in an unconventional group of young Christians... And the weak my girlfriend met them; the times she showed me that she cared and the day she told me 'yeah' - from that day on is exactly when she took first place. From there on out I decided I would die for her, and a few months later I traded it all for us.
That in itself was a death of sorts, and I've never taken it back... If I were to go back in time and do it again, I would do it again many times over. Granted, I would have done a lot of things differently once I arrived, but that initial decision was dead on considering all the factors involved, and she was worth it.
And so what about the dream?
The dream is still there, but it's become dynamic.
I look back at the nightmare that Gaitan's death produced in Colombia and I still dream about the full restoration that Christ's life is producing in the whole world (John 17:3).
Displaced woman embracing a Christian evangelist after forgiving the guerrillas who killed her husband (Picture taken by missionary friend Jon Captain in Terra Alta, Cordoba Colombia).
Romans 5:19 says that, "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
In Colombia the sin of the one man Juan Roa Sierra who killed Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands more, just like in Genesis the sin of the one man Adam resulted in the death, literally, of the whole human race.
...In that same verse Paul also mentions the obedience of the one manChrist, who willingly submitted to God's will that His Son should die so that there would be many who would be made righteous through Him (see also John 3:16, Luke 22:42, Philippians 2:6-8, and Acts 26:18).
Very much unlike the death of Gaitan that simply brought more death - the death of Jesus Christ brought more life!
...And it brought it to everyone who dares to believe it (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13) - even to the perpetrators of the war themselves.
Interestingly enough it was this very thought that inspired me to go to Colombia in the first place. Somehow I wanted to share the gospel even to the members of the guerrilla forces, and even though I never made it, I got close*, and I started a church in a region where there were many who at one point had been either directly or indirectly affected by this violence.
...A violence starting back at the beginning of time through the one man Adam, highlighted on April 9th 1948 with the assassination of the one man Jorge Eliecer Gaitan, but which can be nullified through the resurrection of the dead that came through the one man Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the living Son of God (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
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*FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
*ELN - National Liberation Army
*AUC - United Self Defense Forces of Colombia
*The closest I got was when I was on a Colombian military base from about 30 yards away I saw a man and a woman who had been members of the FARC but who had recently turned themselves in to the army to be re-inserted into society.
Movie trailer for a very good film that depicts the terribleness of what Colombia's war has done, and the types of people it has affected (Colores de la Montaña):
Pictures of guerrilla members that a friend attained from a computer South of San Jose (faces of people to pray for):
In 2001 it was estimated that guerrillas from the FARC consisted of about 16,000 members, but today it is believed that this group has dropped down to about 8,000. To learn more about the FARC click here.
Born and raised in Colombia I know the language and customs like the back of my right hand, but born and raised by Americans I look and sometimes act like the front of my left... (Ok, bad joke. Right and left hands have nothing to do with anything except that when I was really young my mom told me I used to be a lefty but then I got into a car accident when I was four and from there on out I became a righty).
...I became a righty because my left hand got messed up real bad and so intuitively I started using my right hand, and to this day my left hand has always been second best.
In the same way, and for being a dual citizen, whenever I’m in the States I intuitively let my American nature dominate my personality, and whenever I’m in Colombia I intuitively let my Colombian nature dominate my personality... Sometimes I pull a fast one on people and I’ll conversely use my American personality when I’m in Colombia or I’ll use my Colombian personality while I’m in the States, but that’s just on rare occasions so that I can psych people out or receive some sort of extra benefit for adhering to either culture.
While I’m not ambidextrous, I am bi-cultural and for me there are a whole lot of advantages that come along with that reality which I am conveniently able to use whether or not and whenever or not I am in Latin America or North America.
Besides being a contradiction of cultures though, I’m also a compilation of cultures, and fortunately as a part of this compilation, I likewise have a compilation of passports... (and I have two in fact) - one blue one and another one brown.
The blue one can get me into just about any country in the world except for Cuba and the brown one can keep me out of just about any country in the world except for Cuba ... (as well as Colombia of course).
...The brown one also got me into the Colombian military once, and if it weren't for the huge effort I made in talking to every higher ranking soldier I could find, I could have remained in the Colombian military for two whole years (they let me out temporarily until I cleared up my status in the capital city because I was in the wrong jurisdiction, I am short sighted, I was nice to them and bought them snacks and made phone calls for them, and I convinced them that starting churches was more important than fighting wars).
I’m really glad I didn't have to spend two whole years of my life in the military because I feel like sharing the gospel is more important than killing people (although in some cases I am in complete agreement that killing some people in some cases may be completely legitimate), but I’m really bummed out about the fact that a lot of times Colombians have been known for killing some people in some cases illegitimately.
Either way, there are estigma’s or generalizations that I have had to deal with my whole life whether I be in the States or whether I be in Colombia, and while at times it has had its advantages, at other times it can kind of become a drag... For instance, Colombians are often looked down upon as guerrillas and drug dealers, and Americans are at times looked... (I don’t know whether up or down - but regardless they are looked upon) as both materialists and movie stars.
Believe it or not, Colombians are a lot more welcoming to Americans in their country than Americans are to Colombians, and that’s probably because movie stars and materialists generally aren't considered that bad, while guerrillas and drug dealers definitely are considered pretty dog gone bad, but it’s just so ridiculous to categorize a whole nation for something that just about 1% of the country is involved in just because those are the people that attract the most attention (Oook so maybe there’s a whole lot more than 1% of Americans that are materialists, but I’m pretty sure that there’s a whole lot less than 1% of Americans that are movie stars just like there’s a whole lot less than 1% of Colombians that are guerrillas or drug dealers).
Either way, within the United States, Colombians can at times be looked down upon for either being violent or illegal people, and though I have usually always bypassed this type of negative racial profiling for looking straight up American, it bugs me that most all my Colombian and Mexican brothers, or anyone else that even looks partially Hispanic, can at times be considered straight up violent or illegal just because of the color of their skin.
This guy actually was both extremely illegal and violent and his name is Pablo Escobar, and I think that it was totally appropriate that he was put to death.
In fact, there are a whole lot more undocumented Latins living in the States than there are violent ones, and in addition to this fact, just about all the undocumented ones that I know of I would generally consider as being very noble people that have a tremendously strong work ethic.
...Because take for instance the example of construction:
Just about every roofing crew I've ever seen in the United States is all Hispanic, and countless framing crews, foundation crews, and dry wall crews are frequently also all Hispanic as well.
...And It’s the same in farming, or in factory jobs, or in house cleaning companies too... just about everyone in these industries are Latin probably because they do really good work at really good rates and most North Americans wouldn't even want to do these types of jobs themselves. And if they had to, they would only want to do them if they were getting paid a whole lot of money to do so... a whole lot of money that in this nation’s present economy is simply not available.
...And that’s the main factor in most people’s minds.
Whether it be legal or illegal to hire undocumented Hispanics to do certain types of jobs is one thing, but whether it be beneficial to do so is quite another, and I would personally say that with reference to the latter question, and in just about all cases and for just about all parties involved, it indeed is very much beneficial for everyone, and doing away with all the undocumented immigrants in this nation by deporting them back to their own countries would be a huge problem for this nation’s economy.
For one, a lot of big factories would have to close up shop and move to other nations where they would start up physical plants there where they would be able to pay their workers less and therefore produce cheaper products which in turn would be more competitive in the global market, and if these countries did that, which countries do you think would be the ones to benefit the most for this migration of work?
...Well the countries that the work migrated to would, not the countries where the work migrated from.
Why? Well think about the States and Mexico for instance... Say a huge chicken plant such as Simmons Chicken (which by the way I worked at once for three days and I was one of only two white employees in the whole plant while more than a hundred of all the other workers were all Hispanic) ... say this chicken plant got busted for having hired undocumented workers and therefore the vast majority of all the employees there got deported back to say Mexico... what do you think would happen to the chicken plant?
Well, what would happen is that the chicken plant would want to hire regular North Americans, but at the going rate for which this company was paying its workers in the first place (which I remember was as low as about $7.25 when I worked there), barely no regular North American would want to even be hired under these types of conditions (which were pretty miserable both in terms of the type of work we were doing as well as the type of money we were getting for doing it), and so because of that, this chicken plant would then do one of two things.
One, they would raise the salary for each worker which in turn would mean less profit for them (because if they started raising their prices to match the additional expenses not as many people would want to buy their chickens), or two, they could just move the whole location of their physical plant to Mexico where not only could they hire workers for a rate far lower than $7.25, but they could also cut corners on a lot of other safety standards and sanitary standards which in turn would create a lower quality product and a lower standard of living even for the Mexicans that would start working for a company such as this one in their home nation after they got deported back there.
In such a case as this, who would the “winner winner chicken dinners” be? ...Well, the Mexican government would for one, because they would get the extra tax income from the chicken plant... and the other winners would be the really really poor and honest Mexican’s who never went to the US illegally in the first place who would now all of a sudden have really low paying jobs which is still better than no jobs... but besides that I don’t know who else would be the winner winner chicken dinners.
But what about the losers? ...Well the losers in this case would be one: The American government who would now have to pay to get the undocumented workers back into their home countries while simultaneously having less tax money from the chicken plant to do so; two: the American owners of the company who would now have to go through the hassle of changing the location of their physical plant; three: the undocumented workers who would now be back in their home country earning lower wages; four: the American people who would now get a lower quality product even if the price remained the same; and five: the chickens themselves who would now be getting killed in a more unsanitary environment...
But for me personally in my chicken plant career, I only lasted for three days because I got the job through a temp agency and right after I got it, I found a better job open up in a far less stressful environment and for a far better rate (which still wasn't that good at all because I was only getting paid like $9.50), but regardless, that was still a whole lot better than $7.25, and even though I enjoyed being around my Hispanic brothers... in jobs like that (and just as how America the Beautiful has taught me).. it’s all about the money baby!
...But anyways, I said at the beginning of this entry that Colombians are sometimes generalized as either guerrillas and drug dealers while Americans are sometimes generalized as either materialists or movie stars... and while I’m absolutely sure that I've never been a guerrilla or a drug dealer in my life, I’m not so sure that I've never been a materialist or a movie star...
In fact, whenever I’m walking along the street or paying for something at a counter, there have been a few times when people have told me that I look like Kramer...
Now, that's kind of weird, but what’s funny about that is that the Seinfeld show (from which Kramer comes from), is actually a show that is all about everything I just talked about...
Seinfeld was the first show in North America that was about absolutely nothing in which people were heralded for doing absolutely nothing, and in many respects this show has become iconic for contributing absolutely nothing to American culture ever since.
America used to be known for its hard work and for its “raising itself up from the straps of its boots”, but in recent history America has rather become known for getting as much money as possible by doing as little work as possible... and so if everyone wants to stay true to this new type of the “American way” then deporting all the undocumented immigrants back to their home countries is not the way of going about that...
And whether I’m a part of this “American Way” or not, I don’t know, and if I really do in fact look like Kramer, I don’t know either, but one thing I do know for sure, is that I ain't no chicken! man; and neither do I want to work in no chicken plant either.
I ain't no chicken because I've got enough guts to say that some undocumented workers aren't all that bad to have around even though I know a lot of people who will disagree with me, and I've also got enough sense to think that it should be perfectly fine to let certain undocumented types of people take upon themselves certain types jobs (eventually with the hope of taking any type of job) that help them and that help the economy... If that is truly what they want to do, and if letting them do it is benefiting them as well as Americans... then let them do it! [and whether I’m a part of “them” or whether I’m a part of “the Americans”, I already told you that I still haven’t figured that out yet, but one thing that I do know is that regardless, I’m pretty down with being either one just as long as doing so would in some way benefit me! (although on a larger scale I'm neither one because my primary citizenship is in heaven and in that culture what we think about is how we can benefit not ourselves but others)].
But is that the right attitude to have? Well, personally I’m not a real big fan of nationalists and I really don’t want to be categorized as someone that is ethnocentric either (although being patriotic at times I consider very appropriate), but yeah, I mean for me as a Christian - I don’t want to be someone that’s always dodging the law (unless of course that law went against my conscience), and so I’m definitely more than ok with paying taxes, and I’m definitely more than ok with following rules too, but one thing I do want to do for example is help change laws that in some way can benefit either me, or other people that I identify with as well, or with this nation as a whole.
One such rule is the Sanctuary City Bill and in essence what it does is provide certain cities of refuge for people who appear to be undocumented immigrants so that they can live and work without constantly having to look over their shoulders to see if cops are going to come and bust them exclusively on the grounds that “they look like they could be illegal”... in other words, racial profiling against anybody that has brown skin.
Now, I don’t have brown skin in the sense that I don’t look Hispanic by any means (I actually look pretty white Caucasian because that’s what I am), but being what I am I can honestly say that I have seriously experienced some of the most genuine and generous hospitality I could ever want for practically my whole life in a country replete with Hispanics... Yeah, a few of my friends would joke around with me every once in a while and try to talk to me in a goofy American accent, but my experience as a whole throughout my whole life in Colombia has been extremely positive.
Is it the same for the Hispanics here?
What’s ironic is that the majority of what all the Hispanics are doing in the States is helping the economy, and yet there are some people that don't understand that, or they have a thing against their color or language or something, and so they want to kick them out.
In the history of Mexico it could be said that the United States stole a whole bunch of their land back in the days of Sam Houston and Davy Crockett and Santana, and yet in this day and age Mexico is generally very welcoming to Americans and hospitable to them as well, even though that kindness is not always reciprocated.
...But yeah. Anyways, I mean even though I feel really strongly about all these things - the real issue I believe, goes far beyond nationalities or colors or borders or languages or economics or any of that.
There's a really alarming song by Switchfoot called "Politicians" and the chorus says, "I pledge allegiance to a country without borders, without politicians, watching for my sky to get torn apart," and what I think Jon Foreman is referring to here has to do with the city of God that will be fully established when the sky is torn apart and Jesus comes down on the clouds of heaven in glory (Matt. 24:30). He will reign over a city with no borders between nationalities, that will have no politicians swayed by different political agendas, but rather everything will be governed perfectly by Father God in his ultimate Theocracy.
...And what's remarkable is the second part of the chorus where Jon confesses, "I am broken I am bitter, I'm the problem, I'm the politician..." Because it's like he's admitting that he's just as much a part of this broken and bleeding world as anyone else, and that he's no better than any politician who may be living primarily for him or herself in the system that he or she governs. I mean that's really the whole point of a capitalist democracy isn't it? That it works so well because everyone is so selfish, and if you create a system that rewards people who work really hard for themselves, then it will probably succeed because that's what we as humans are most inclined to do. It's what we are equally inclined to do all across the board, and it is only by the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are enabled to live for His glory and for the good of our neighbor... (which I know that I don't always do, but which I desire to do so more and more).
God is the only one that can empower us to live for others, and his kingdom is the primary one worth truly pledging allegiance to.
Revelation five tells us that one day there will be a group of humans from every tribe, tongue, and nation all gathered together as one kingdom to reign on the earth and serve our God (v. 9-10).
Amen! Come Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20).
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"When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God."
There's a movie I watched recently that ren.der.ed. me. speechless man (and since then I've watched it three more times)... and I'm not even kidding you that it impacted me so much that I now consider it my favorite movie ever. It's called "Even the Rain" and it deals with the tension that exists between many of the indigenous people and the 'conquistadors' in much of all the Americas.
The movie is like "a movie within a movie within a movie" because it's about a group of actors who are filming a historical piece in Cochabamba Bolivia about the colonization of the indigenous people while they simultaneously do a documentary about what happens to their actors and their "extras" in real life.
Really ironic picture with Franklin and I and a colonizer statue
...I don't want to explain the whole story, because it'd be cooler if you just watched the movie on your own, but basically, the craziest irony in it all is that the injustice and segregation that existed between the indigenous folk and the colonizers hundreds of years back - those injustices continue to exist today, in some form or another, between citizens of the higher classes towards people from the lower classes... especially against the indigenous people for example, in countries like Peru and Bolivia.
There's a part where the actor who acts like the director (and yeah - I know that that sounds really contradictory but that's honestly the way it is)... the director feels like he's spent and he just wants to throw in the towel and quit filming, but his best friend who is charge of all the logistics approaches him and reminds him of the instance in which he realized that his friend had truly gotten inspired, and that this movie about showing the whole world the tragedy of the brutality and exploitation of the conquistadors towards the indigenous people - this movie was definitely worth finishing...
It was definitely worth finishing because the presently disheartened director had called his friend some seven years back at like two in the morning telling him that he had found a quote by a priest named Montessinos in the sixteenth century that was the first "voice of conscience" in the New World.
To this priest (and that, as if it were just one man against a whole empire), from a humble structure made of straw, it is attributed to have said the following:
I am the voice of Christ from the desert of this island. You are in mortal sin. You live in it and in it you die.
One of the first pictures I took in San Jose (smiling Nukak man)
Why? Because of the cruelty and tyranny with which you use against these innocent people. Tell me this: with what right, and with what kind of justice do you so cruelly and horribly enslave these indigenous people who lived so peacefully in their lands? With what authority have you initiated such detestable wars with these people? With what right do you have them so oppressed? So exhausted and famished? They are dying because of our own fault! Or better said you are killing them! How could you be so asleep? How could you be so zoned out in this lethargic dream?... Look at the indians in their eyes! Are they not human? Do they not have rational souls? Are you not by chance obligated to love them as you would yourself?
Are we not by chance obligated to love our neighbor as we would ourselves (Mark 12:31)?
Yes, we are.
And I have never seen a better example of a group of people that are following through with this commandment so clearly - especially towards indigenous people - like the missionaries I got to serve and serve along with, when I lived in San Jose such as Johan and Lyda, Jack, Suso and Elga, America, Julio and Nadia, and Gustavo and Rosiris.
...In contrast with the conquistadors that left it all in the sixteenth century in the pursuit of gold - these missionaries that I just mentioned left it all in the twenty and twenty first centuries as a result of the joy that the discovery of the love of Christ produced in them when they were compelled to share it with others (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
Amen!
Would you like to join in this mission as well?
Above: Working with people from "El Refugio" community the first time I met them in 2009. Top Middle: Visiting the Perafan parents from the Refugio community with some of my best friends from San Jose in 2010. Bottom Middle: Acting like a goof with Adrian Perafan in 2011 Bottom: Nathan Harris and I visiting Adrian and his brother in 2012 Remark: All of the people from the Refugio community are really cool and speak Spanish but currently have no missionary working with them.
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