The Citizen, 2002-08-21, Page 11Evidence of a way of life
Lena Siegers holds a gas can from a boat which had been
shot by military groups in Colombia. (Photo submitted)
HURON CHAPEL EVANGELICAL
MISSIONARY CHURCH
Auburn - 526-7555
PASTOR DAVE WOOD - 523-9017
Sunday 9:30 a.m.
10:30 a.m. -
7:30 p.m.
Wednesday 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. -
7:30 p.m.
Friday 7:30 p.m. •
Family Bible Hour
Morning Worship Service
Evening Worship
Crusaders & Youth
Adult Prayer Meeting
Youth
BLYTH UNITED CHURCH
Corner of Dinsley & Mill Street
Sunday, August 25
Worship Service 11 a.m.
Rev. Dr. Eugen Bannerman's theme for the month of August is
"Pray Without Ceasing."
Ala 2l/elexu4ce
Minister: Rev. Dr. Eugen Bannerman
Office: 523-4224
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
11:00 a.m. - Morning Service
- Sunday School
9:30 a.m. - Belgrave Service
Wheelchair accessible
Nursery care available
Rev. Cathrine Campbell - 887-9831
You are Weteome at the
BLYTH COMMUNITY CHURCH OF GOD
Summer Schedule
10:00 a.m. - Adult Sunday School
11:00 a.m. - Morning Worship (Junior Church during service)
7:30 p.m. - Evening Worship
Kids' Club - Every second Tuesday - 2 p.m. Ages 6-11 welcome.
Bible Studies - Wednesday morning 10 a.m.
Wednesday evening 7:30 p.m.
Phone 523-4590 308 Blyth Rd., Blyth
Reale 7W.* ca, jai cognatteft
Sunday, August 25
Morning Worship Service - 10 a.m.:,
Evening Worship Service - 7:30 p.m.
Boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowe.st not what
a day may bring forth.
— Proverbs 27:I
BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
it Hwy. 4, Blyth 523-9233
Wheelchair accessible
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTGRAL CHARGE
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Joan Golden - Diaconal Student Minister
Church Office 887-6259 E-mail - bepc@wcl.on.ca
Ethel United Church
Brussels United Church
For the month of August & September 1st.
we will be joining in worship with our neighbours at
Melville Presbyterian Church
Remembering --- Celebrating --- Living Our Faith!
Cornerstone
Bible
Fellowship
Ethel
Communion - 9:45 - 10:30
Family Bible Hour and Sunday School - 11:00 - 12:00
Prayer & Bible Study - Tuesday 8 p.m.
Ladies' Time Out - The last Thursday of each month
7:30 - 9:00 p.m.
John 14:6 - Jesus said, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, no
one comes to the Father, but through Me."
Everyone Welcome
Call Pastor Andrew Thursdays or Fridays at 887-6123
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
Welecomes you to C444te 4444t ef,414.44, eat% cut
Sunday, August 25
MORNING PRAYER
Trinity, Blyth
9:30 a.m.
St. John's, Brussels
11:15 am. 6.
The Rev. Tom Wilson, B.A., MDiv. 887-9273
THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2002. PAGE 11.
Area woman spends 6 months
in Colombia with Peacemakers
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen editor
Lena Siegers doesn't spend a lot of
time at home.
In a week's time, after a brief
summer break, the Westfield mother
and grandmother is returning to
Colombia as a member of the
Violence Reduction group for the
Christian Peacemakers Team (CPT).
Siegers first trained in CPT in
1993 and spent three years as one of
their full-time people. After a part-
time stint, she returned to full-time
commitment in 2000.
Her sense of duty was instilled at
an early age by parents who taught
the value of a life of service to
others. Born into an old-order
Mennonite family in Waterloo,
Siegers, the eighth child in a family
of 10 recalls a simple lifestyle but
not a poor one. Her parents, she says,
taught that true wealth comes in
giving. "My mother was a
Mennonite who believed in all
peoples. My father believed in
making enough money to support us,
then the remainder was someone
else's.
"The thing that makes me do what
I do," she says, "started from
watching the way my parents lived.
After World War II, when people
were supposed to hate Germans, my
mother got the names of two
German families and she sent them a
parcel of hard-to-get commodities. I
remember kneeling on the floor
watching my mom bundle these
packages not comprehending at the
time the significance. As an adult,
however, I realized this was special."
Siegers, admits that as a teenager
she began to question much of her
Christian upbringing. "Seeing
through history and into the present
so much evil being done in the name
of Christianity there was a time in
my late teens when I wanted to
throw it all away. But how could I
with the history I had -with my
parents."
What she learned, says Siegers is
that things are not what make up a
life. "It's who we are and how we
relate to others, And I know that who
my parents were is the right way."
That right way led her to CPT, an
organization which Siegers says is
"on the edge of the church".
Primarily a program of Brethren and
Mennonite congregations and
Friends meetings, the teams are
inter-denominational.
The goal of CPT is to attempt to
bring peaceful answers to conflict.
"When I see violence today, realize
the only way to true peace is to
return good. Building violence on
violence has never resolved
problems."
Her efforts on behalf of CPT have
taken her to many violence-torn
areas. What she has seen makes her
very sad. "I don't believe CPT can
solve all the problems, but every
person we make life better for is
worth our time and effort. Every
farmer who can plant a crop again is
worth our time and effort."
Specifically in Colombia, because
the conflict there has raged on for
decades, Siegers believes CPT's
commitment must be long-term.
Having just left Colombia in June,
Siegers said CPT have met with the
leaders of all four armed groups —
the two 'legal' ones, the navy and
military, as well as the 'illegal'
paramilitary and guerrillas.
It is the treatment of civilians
which most concerns CPT. Siegers
describes them as being caught in
the middle, suspected by the
paramilitary of assisting the
guerrillas and vice versa. The
presence of CPT will curb some of
the military group's violent
behaviour.
In Colombia Siegers and the
members of the CPT worked in the
area of the Cimitara and Opon
Rivers, trying to help displaced
citizens of four communities return
to their land. Fearful of being killed,
the civilians often remain in the
cities where they have taken refuge
but are unable to find work.
CPT has accompanied members of
three communities back to their
land, agreeing to be a presence in
those communities for a specified
time.
Residents of the fourth community
are living in a refugee camp where
conditions are deplorable. They are
afraid to return to - their homes,
however, because there is still a lot
of activity happening there.
Many of the people in Colombia
have lost their schools. Siegers said
that the Colombia government has
provided good materials for students
but people are afraid to send their
children.
She tells of a school teacher who
was assassinated because she was
believed to be a member of a
women's rights group. Her body was
thrown into a river.
"When CPT first went to
Colombia," says Siegers, many of
the bodies they found had been
dismembered. CPT has written
denouncements which they take to
the media and legal authorities.
"Many times nothing is done
because people take the law into
their own hands. But since CPT has
started .this, over the last six months
we have not found dismembered
bodies."
Admitting that the military leaders
don't particularly care for what the
CPT are saying, she explains that the
Continued on page 16
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10:30 a.m. - Contemporary Worship I
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