From The Journey Toward Reconciliation

From The Journey Toward Reconciliation
"I cannot create an enemy when I look for and find that of God in another."

Early in 1987, I was traveling in Honduras near the border with Nicaragua. The Contra war was still raging. Along this border, particularly in the outskirts of the remote village of Danli, Honduran Mennonite brothers and sisters had been displaced from their homes. This happened because Nicaraguan resistance troops occupied the region as their military base. They were opposing the Sandinista government. Some Hondurans hailed the troops as freedom fighters, and others counted them as counterrevolutionaries.

At that time, the Honduran government claimed there were no Nicaraguan fighters based in Honduras. It was a hidden war at great cost. I had traveled with Carmen and Luke Schrock-Hurst, who were working with the displaced families. These people had the pain of lost time, homes, and family members etched in their faces. They were victims in a war for freedom that was not theirs…

Lederach, John Paul. “From The Journey Toward Reconciliation.” In Liberating Faith: Religious Voices for Justice, Peace, and Ecological Wisdom, edited by Roger S. Gottlieb, 459–62. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.

Reprinted with the permission of Rowman & Littlefield.

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