Service today sparked by IVEP

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 17 June 2000

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Forty tired and lonely people sit surrounding a small table where a Mencoldes volunteer is discussing conflict resolution.

"This year we've already worked with 600 families, displaced by violence or threats in their home communities. It's only September," said Esperanza "Pancha" Moreno, standing at the back of the large meeting room. A little girl, her face blank and expressionless, walked to Pancha, leaning on her leg. Pancha smiled and stroked her dark hair. The child mustered a sad smile.

"These people could go to the government, but they may not find shelter or answers. They need help and they can trust Mencoldes. In my country," she adds, "you must learn to trust in God. Few others will help you."

This is work Pancha was called to and she knows it. "There has always been a little spark in my heart that calls me to serve others. My experience in the International Visitor Exchange Program (IVEP) was the oil that kindled that flame."

From 1994 to 1995 Pancha participated in the IVEP program, working first at Calgary Urban Projects Society in Calgary, Alta., and then in Abbotsford, B.C., at the University of Fraser Valley. Pancha was hosted by Sandy Babiuk in Calgary and by Lee and Martha Coughlin in Abbotsford.

"People were really nice to me, inviting me into their homes and introducing me to their lives. But at times it was hard and lonely," she remembers. Her English was poor in the beginning of her assignment and her work was not always as challenging as she would have liked. "Whenever I felt bad, I searched for my north, and my north was service. Soon I discovered that I had crossed the desert and the good times were ahead."

Her stay in Canada was a period of spiritual self-discovery, says Pancha, and healing.

"That was the best part, to be honest: my spiritual experience. I think the year was special for me because I got to know myself better, and I had moments of real 'encounter' with the healing Jesus," she says. "IVEP awakened my sense of solidarity and desire to work with people in need. I went home to go to school to get the tools so I could serve."

In 1997, Pancha joined the staff of Mencoldes, a relief and development agency of the Colombian Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches, working with displaced people. She also helps administer other Mencoldes programs.

"Like IVEP, Mencoldes has been a school for me and it has provided an opportunity to serve in difference places."

Pancha is currently co-coordinator of a joint relief project of Mencoldes, Mennonite Central Committee and Venezuelan Anabaptist churches. Landslides and flooding devastated northern Venezuela in December, 1999, burying the homes of more than 300,000.

"I serve," she says, "because it is through my actions that others see my faith in Jesus Christ."

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org