The following story is part of the Vocation of Peacemaking series where we asked members and friends of the BPFNA to write brief essays on their peacemaking work. Each story is a wonderful reminder that there are as many ways to live a life of peace as there are people, and that we can act for peace in real and important ways wherever we find ourselves. This essay comes from Boaz Keibarak, the president and founder of Kingdom of Peace and Development (KOPAD) which works for reconciliation and peaceful stability among inter-tribal communities in Kenya and across Uganda and Southern Sudan.
Read MoreThe following is a report from our friend Boaz Keibarak on a series of Conflict Transformation trainings held from April 8-14, 2014 in four villages in the Rift Valley in Kenya. The trainings are an ongoing effort to ease conflict and tension between two warring groups in the region: the Pokot and Turkana. In October 2013, 135 people were killed during an eruption of violence in the area.
Read MoreFrom April 18-19, 2014, Lancelot (Lance) Muteyo, director of training and advocacy for the Pan African Peace Network, held a Conflict Transformation session at the Baptist Convention of Malawi (BACOMA). BACOMA is the largest association of Baptists in Malawi and among the most influential in Southern Africa. No one from BACOMA had previously been trained in Conflict Transformation.
Read MoreMembers of the World Peace Networks (WPN) and Local Peace Networks (LPN) committees affirmed the following projects and focuses for 2014 at the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America’s (BPFNA) board meeting in February 2014. LPN focuses on projects within the BPFNA’s four member countries (Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States) while WPN focuses on projects outside of North America.
Read MoreAs long as history can recall, the Turkana and Pokot ethnic groups have organized cattle raids against each other. Conflict began as a result of livestock theft, and the two groups have since been through numerous periods of war. The escalation of violence between Turkana and Pokot communities shows no sign of ending, and it is becoming increasingly destructive and less manageable. However, after attending a Conflict Transformation training led by Dan Buttry, a young man named Boaz Keibarack found the tools needed to go into these villages and conduct peace talks between the two warring groups.
Read MoreThe Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America’s (BPFNA) board of directors met at Myers Park Baptist Church from September 19-21, 2013 in Charlotte to orient new board members and set the organizational tone for the upcoming year.
Read MoreThe Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America’s (BPFNA) board of directors approved funding for Conflict Transformation trainings in Sudan/South Sudan and the Philippines, as well as funding to assist with the creation of a Baptist Peace Fellowship of Latin America and the Caribbean.
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