It Started with Two Words...
Lekil Kuxlejal. Abundant Life. When Dr. Amaury Tañón-Santos had the students at the Mayan Intercultural Seminary (SIM) in Chiapas, Mexico discuss different meanings of the word peace, this term emerged from the students and stood out from the rest. It resonated with all of them. In its wholeness, it helped both teacher and students to have a deeper, more complete understanding of the Bible and peacemaking.
It inspired them to act for peace no matter the consequences.
It continued at Peace Camp when we heard from Dalia Juárez Fernández, staff member at SIM. That day, Dalia spoke about the violence happening in Chiapas and the unnecessary suffering of many in the local communities.
The good news? SIM had a plan - to use videography, photography and other art forms to document this suffering in the hopes of raising awareness about these unfortunate realities.
The bad news? Where would they find the money to fund this project?
But our Peace Camp 2012 participants rose to the challenge of funding this project. Not only that, but they helped us excede our original goal and raise over $9,000!
And it's far from over!
Last week, we received an exciting report from Doris Mayol, one of SIM's founders. The project, officially called the Art & Communication Workshop for Peace, took place from October 20-30, 2012.
"Thanks to the enthusiastic support of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America we got the resources to provide tools to an ongoing effort of training in Peace construction," writes Doris. "I organized a group of experts in Documentary films, Photography, Performing arts and Social Sciences from Puerto Rico to accompany our Mayan students with mass media communication tools to share with their churches and communities how to construct peace in Chiapas. Peace in the midst of political and economic turmoil and personal egotistical agendas is not an easy task..."
"...Our objective to complement the training of Peace construction by using photography and audio-visual tools was completely fulfilled. In two weeks our students produced beautiful photographs sharing their understanding of reality with beauty enough to get us to marvel yet again on what an extraordinary world we live in! But they also produced pictures of the crude reality they experience… poverty, hunger, injustice, pollution, etc. Yet, their eyes also captured the hope within these realities..."
"...Thanks for being with us, for walking with us, for supporting us and for sharing the dreams and hopes of the Mayan community for the Lekil Kuxlejal. We as SIM and from our little space will continue our struggle to reach the peace that Jesus dreamt for the world. Thanks for sharing your deepest love and dreams for Peace with us." Click here to read the full report.
Look at the amazing work we can do together!
Speaking of Lekil Kuxlejal, I leave you with this quote said by one of the workshop participants, “A peace, meaning 'absence of war' is like the dust on the soil, it covers things, covers the path. But Lekil kuxlejal is when the dust is lifted up by the wind; you stir up the dust, things get uncovered and then you see. To achieve Lekil kuxlejal is to uncover what is beneath the dust. Then you see your way through.”