While many of my friends and relatives spent the Fourth of July weekend enjoying cookouts and parades, fireworks and campfires, I was blessed to be able to hang out with two dozen leaders in the Augustinian Lutheran Church of Guatemala (ILAG).
This is my eighth trip to Guatemala, but the first time I've attended their leadership retreat, an event that takes place five times each year. Leaders from each of the 17 ILAG congregations are invited to travel to the Lutheran Center just south of Guatemala City for the weekend. Even though Guatemala is roughly half the size of Minnesota, it takes a long time to get across the country, so many of the leaders travel six, eight, or twelve hours by bus and on foot. The retreat ended Sunday evening, and the leaders left late last night and early this morning, making their way home to begin again the work in their farms, homes, and congregations.
Pastor Karen Castillo, president of the ILAG, had asked me to prepare a day-long workshop on conflict resolution, something the leaders had said they needed some help with. We spent the day listening to one another's stories and struggles, looking at various biblical principles, and having fun with several activities that highlighted the need to pray, listen, speak the truth in love, and work together to maintain the unity of the Spirit.
Playing the game of knots proved a fun way to practice listening and cooperation.
One of the best learnings was when the larger knot resolved into two separate circles, we were able to see how sometimes, resolution means letting some folks go their own way.
We also spent time having them role play various conflicts in their communities and possible ways to resolve them.
At the end of each day, I was able to interview several leaders for my research, asking them questions about their development as leaders and their thoughts on what makes for effective leadership. I'll examine their responses, along with thoses of leaders in the US, Tanzania, and Nicaragua, and I'm sure I'll come up with some insights about leadership.
To be honest, however, the greatest gift in this process was simply getting a chance to hear their stories. Many of them were separated from their homes and their families during the long civil war that ended almost 20 years ago. They have stories of refugee camps in Mexico or fleeing into the city, stories of their return and having to create new communities from scratch. They spend their days now growing corn and beans and whatever else might help sustain their families; they preach sermons and try to provide leadership in their congregations; they try to find a balance amid the conflicting pressures of economic and political forces beyond their control and interpersonal relationships in their homes and communities.
In some ways, our lives couldn't be more different. And yet, out of our different stories and different experiences, I felt a unity that was more than just wishful thinking. We laughed together; we shared our hopes that our kids would find loving, Christian communities to belong to; we talked about how sometimes, when we're all out of answers, the best we can do is just show up.
I've been seeing lots of Facebook posts and various blogs in this continuing national dialogue/debate/unrest about race, identity, and gender. To be honest, I often wonder how we'll ever find our way to a place in which all folks feel safe, respected, and free to explore and develop their God-given gifts. If I've learned anything on these trips this summer, it's that the path to vibrant and just communities is not to simply shout louder so that we might be heard over the noise, nor is it to ignore our differences and pretend that we're all the same. We need to take the long and slow path of listening to one another, speaking the truth in love about our pain and our hopes and our fears, and recognizing and respecting the deep and profound differences among us. We need to find a way to honor the ancient truth that we are many, and we are one.
"What if God was one of us,
just a slob like one of us,
just a stranger on the bus,
trying to make his way home?"
--Joan Osborne
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