Grace Pilgrimage in San José de Apartadó in Colombia: More than twenty co-workers and students from Tamera and nearly 150 people from Colombia and other countries took part in the Grace Pilgrimage near the peace village of San José de Apartadó from October 1st to the 6th, led by Sabine Lichtenfels, Benjamin von Mendelssohn, and Padre Javier Giraldo of Bogotá.

It was followed by the first Global Campus outside of Tamera - an exchange of peace knowledge of various international communities and peace projects. We shared profound, communal, spiritual, as well as very practical peace knowledge.

A member of the community council said, "In the past the peace village was kept together by the wish to survive. Now we also have a perspective for the future. Such a community cannot be destroyed any more, even if we will face more difficult times." For the international participants it was a shaking experience to be at a place where life and death are so deeply interwoven, to share the life of people who are threatened daily with death, who somehow get the strength to mobilize all their life forces and to find a deep decision against revenge, and for peace and non-violence instead.

The visible effects of this time in San Josecito are a stone circle with engraved symbols of the values of the community, a solar dryer for processing cacao beans, an improved health care station, and the prototype of a clay oven and fireplace. Moreover, the friendship and connection between the communities have deepened so much that Tamera will be present there again and again in the future and is committed to the protection and the perspective of the peace community. The complete diaries of this journey can be found at: www.grace-pilgrimage.com
Foto: David Osthoff