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Jim Fitz's Christian Peacemaking

Peace Farmer







LaSalle NewsTribune

by Erin Sapp
Princeton Reporter

  TISKILWA -- Local farmer, Jim Fitz, donated several peace books which helped to shape and influence his six years of peace work to the Princeton Public Library Thursday morning.
  Fitz said he donated these books as a way of sharing.
  "They have all been really meaningful to me and have shaped my peace work," Fitz said. "I'm greatful for the library's openness to this."
  Fitz, who helped manage the Plow Creek strawberry and produce farm for several years, said he felt a calling to do peace work in Jan. of 2001.
  "I have four children and four grandchildren and thought my family would never agree to it," Fitz said.
  Fitz tried to dismiss the calling as an idea that would pass, but said it didn't go away and only grew stronger.
  "I talked to my best friend in the chruch and he said I seemed to have a passion for peace and maybe God was calling me to it," Fitz said.
  Surprisingly, Fitz's family supported his desire to join CPT (Christian Peacemaker Teams) and to devote two to three months of his time each year to peacemaking in dangerous areas of the world.
  One year later, Fitz retired from his management position at Plow Creek farm and began his peacework in the Opon region of Columbia. He has now been serving two to three months each winter in Columbia with CPT for six years, and leaves Feb. 1 for another two months in Columbia.
  "This civil war in Columbia started about 45 years ago," Fitz said. "The war started over land, but now all the groups have become involved in the drug trade and, in the Opon, in control of the oil in the pipeline."
  Fitz and other CPT members carry no weapons while they are in Columbia, though they are surrounded by armed Guerillas and Paramilitary groups who frequently attack and threaten the very people CPT is there to protect.
  "In Columbia we provide protection to about 80 farm families," Fitz said.
  The mere presence of the CPT members prevents the Columbian Guerillas and Paramilitary from attacking the farm families.
  When asked why he thinks the families aren't attacked when the CPT is there and why the CPT members themselves aren't harmed, Fitz said he believes part of the reason is because they have a lot of people praying for them.
  "I've come to believe a lot more in the power of prayer," Fitz said.
  Fitz also said the fact that CPT members are North American and attacking them would cause and international incident probably keeps the Guerillas and Paramilitary at bay.
  Fitz said while in Columbia he tries not to think about the threat of danger.
  "When we run into armed groups, they're often just teenagers," Fitz said. "I am scared sometimes."
  Fitz and other CPT members approach and talk to the armed groups about laying down their arms, and according to Fitz, sometimes they get through to them.
  "A Paramilitary commander came to the house we were staying in and said as a result of us talking to them he and 50 other people had left the Paramilitary," Fitz said of an experience on a recent trip to Columbia. "He graduated from seminary recently."
  One of the most important things Fitz has learned from his peace work in Columbia is learning to develop relationships.
  "Developing relationships with people you might consider your enemy is part of peace making," Fitz said.
  Fitz stressed that the CPT does not proselytize to the people they are protecting nor to the armed groups they communicate with.
  "Our goal is not proselytizing, but to enable the farmer to farm and live in peace," Fitz said. "We do encourage local churches to get involved, though."
  Fitz said before the CPT came to the Opon region of Columbia, churches and ministers were afraid to go there because of the many armed groups in the area.
  "CPT chose the Opon region because, in many ways, the area was abandoned by development organizations, churches and government organizations for fear of getting caught in a fire fight between the many armed groups there."
  Now both a Baptist minister and a Catholic priest visit the Opon region.
  Fitz and other members of CPT lobby congress to cut military aid to Columbia, in hopes that the money will stop filtering down to the Guerillas and paramilitary groups. They would like to see more money go into humanitarian aid to help the farmers and people of Columbia.
  Fitz's peace work and time in Columbia has taught him, more than anything else, the importance of prayer.
  "I've grown up in peace churches so when I started this I didn't think I had much to learn," Fitz said. "Now, in a lot of ways, I feel like I'm in kindergarten."
  Fitz said, more than anything else, his peace work and time in Columbia has taught him about the importance of prayer.
  "When I'm home I run into people I don't even know who say they've been praying for me," Fitz said. "Prayer works."
  Fitz's trips to Columbia are paid for through his own fundraising and through donations to the Plow Creek Church.
  While he is home in the U.S., Fitz spends his time spreading the message of peace by giving presentations about the peace work he has done and about CPT. He's available to any community groups interested in learning about the CPT's peace work in the Opon region of Columbia.
  To contact Fitz or to subscribe to the newsletter he publishes weekly while in Columbia, email him at jimfitz@plowcreek.org.
  To learn more about his peace work in Columbia, visit www.plowcreek.org/jimspeacemaking.htm.
  To learn more about CPT, visit their website at www.cpt.org.


Erin Sapp can be reached at (815)879-5200 or ntprinceton@ivnet.com.