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Alejandro
Jes Stoltzfus Buller

The process of getting to know a community, understanding its history, social reality, politics, and economy, to make possible an accompaniment of work and lifestyle is difficult.  It is a beautiful process of encounter, conflict, learning, and celebration.  The ten seeders of the Seed program have been in this process in the past three months, getting to know their service locations, sharing in daily life with the community, adapting to new jobs, and identifying the advantages and challenges each placement holds.  In this first Semilla bulletin the idea is to show a small piece of this journey, as well as to introduce each local community and the work each seeder is accompanying.
 
On the Caribbean Coast the program is working with Sembrandopaz (sowing peace), an organization that works in the region with projects of food security, community development, and sustainable peace.  In this region, Seed has four people living and working in local communities (Larisa Zehr – Caño Berruguita, Will Morris – El Carmen de Bolívar, Anna Vogt – Mampuján, Leonel Elias – La Palma).  The four seeders are accompanying processes of displaced, returned, and resistant communities, supporting agricultural projects, organization of projects, and local leadership strengthening.  The adaptation to life in rural and farming communities has been an interesting process for the seeders on the Coast.
 
Strengthening networks has been an issue various seeders are working with also; for example Jessica Sarriot in Medellín accompanies a network of churches called the ISP (Sanctuary for Peace Churches), as well as a local congregation of the Mennonite Brethren that accompanies a group of victims of the armed conflict, in a small town called La Ceja, Antioquia.  Daniela Velasquez and Erica VanEssendelft in Cazucá are also working with networks, with the Anabaptist Working Table, which has soup kitchen projects, a primary school, and recreational spaces/afterschool activities for youth in the area.  For these seeders, strengthening networks has proved a very active job, which they share about in their articles.
 
In the regions of Valle de Cauca and Choco, Seed is working with Mennonite Brethren (MB) churches and their social and peace building ministries.  Juan Pacheco, in Valle, accompanies Edupaz, the peace office of the MBs in this region, who are working at strengthening peace-builder churches (a project called FICP) with different communities in the region.  Cellia Vasquez and Carolina Pérez work in Choco, which is a department of mostly afro-Colombian population, with the social ministry of the regional conference; in their articles they describe the process of these ministries in the region.
 
You can find the articles of each seeder by clicking on their name and placement, or look to the left hand column to see a list of all the communities.  The next articles from Seeders will share about the history of each community and its members, the challenges and celebrations each has faced in the past, as well as the relationship that may exist between these histories and politics/events from other parts of the world.