MPI Active Nonviolence

Working through the different types of power during a presentation in our Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) class on Active Nonviolence (ANV), we introduced the power of Love as the most powerful and omniscient force in the universe. One participant shared how that power is challenging her to see her presence in the class as part of God's direction for her. She is from one of Mindanao's troubled areas and her father and uncle have been shot. This institute is part of her healing, she asserted, as she discovers the dynamics of nonviolence.

The class is looking at effective methods of change through the use of ANV. The use of nonviolence leaves communities stronger and more secure. Violence has asserted itself in many contexts as the only option. It is not. A majority of the time people meet each other the interactions are amicable and problems solved through simple negotiation. Nonviolence is the norm of human relationships while violence is abnormal.

While this is the seventh year I am facilitating at MPI, this the fourth year I am co-facilitating the ANV class with Myla Leguro, a Filipina who has worked nearly 20 years at peacebuilding here in Mindanao. Its a privilege and honor to work with someone so experienced and talented.

LGU’s and Laryngitis

“Injustice and land disputes yield armed conflict and result in poverty and malnutrition,” said a municipal counselor in our peacebuilding class for local government units (LGUs) in the Philippines. It has been gratifying to see the lights come on in some participant’s eyes as they learn that conflict transformation offers an alternative between suppressing justice concerns and asserting justice violently.

The two and a half day training started the afternoon after I got off the longest plane ride of my life, 24 hours from Houston to Singapore via Moscow. Add the 4 hours to get from Harrisburg to Houston and the 4 hours from Singapore to Davao and that makes 32 hours flying time in the silver aluminum can.

That aside, I arrived in Davao City with no voice. On my layover in Singapore I conducted a seminar entitled “The Good News of Christ Confronts a World of Violence” for the students of the Bethany International University. One student came up afterward and thanked me saying “The church doesn’t talk much about this topic.” I wonder why.

Now, short on voice I had to rely on my mentor and co-facilitator Deng Giguiento (pictured). She has trained community person for years in Philippines and East Timor and knows how to improvise on the fly should one of her colleagues loose his voice. I am here in the Philippines early for Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute (MPI) which starts the week of the 18 May. Stay tuned for more postings from MPI…

Fog of Life

The mist rolls in
blocking the vistas
with grey
sameness

Fog horns sound
from ships far and near
visioning by sound
blind

Unfamiliar ways of perceiving
when foresight is blunted
by uncertainty
senses

Hearing the Spirit
touching the invisible
smelling sweet peace
knowing

Fog of life
seeing through chaos
feeling our way to
God

17 Feb 2005
Lantau Island, Hong Kong
by jon rudy

Clear the Table

Life is like a table scattered full with Lego

A calliope of reds, and blues and yellows, and greens and blacks and whites

More than enough to create a masterpiece

With age the pieces are gradually and gently pushed from the center

To open a space to build

Those who pay attention to the shapes and patterns of the parts

Can use them to take the fragments and create coherency

As the pieces drop and the table top is cleared

Just the right piece is left when needed

So clear the table and expect perfection

Jon Rudy

16 Apr 2009

CITY IN THE TROPICS

Streets bleeding the stuff of the breathing

sewage, water, mango skins, banana peals

Mingle as one to form the soup of our existence

Afternoon rains, on the good and evil

wash the air clean of diesel and plastic

Making room for the scent of flowers

Sweltering heat as if the whole planet perspires

in this one in a myriad of cities with its mega malls and barrios

Sweat drips from the pores of the global economy

By Jon Rudy

Dec 11, 2001