CPTnet
1 January 2014
CPT INTERNATIONAL: Twelve peacemakers of Christmas, part 1
by Sarah Thompson, Executive Director*
Merry
Christmas & Happy New Year! Once more we are honouring a specific CPTer for
their peacemaking work on each of the twelve days of Christmas. The CPT Facebook Page has the full profiles.
#WeAreGrateful
First day of Christmas: Adriana Cabrera Velasquez
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| photo by David Jiménez González |
Adriana is the member of the CPT Support Team who
coordinates Personnel; a Colombian Quaker who has the passion for helping to
knit CPTers together across our teams. She is comfortable with silence, and
resistant to the tyranny of time. Her thorough work, often done at a marked
pace, imbues CPT administrative tasks with a feeling of holiness… putting the
ministry back in administration.
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| photo by Tim Nafziger (Marius on the far left) |
Second day of Christmas: Marius van Hoogstraten
Marius met CPTers for the first time in Palestine,
as a young Dutch travelling around exploring life, spirituality and activism
and trained with CPT in 2009 in London.
He’s
been active on the Iraqi Kurdistan team and now serves as the Outreach
Worker for CPT Europe.
In
May, Marius helped organise the European Convergence in Malmö, Sweden,
including an act of public
witness which commemorated
the 16000 deaths of people attempting to cross the European Union’s highly
militarized borders.
CPT
Europe will be hosting an exploratory delegation to the European borderland of
Greece next year.
Third day of Christmas: Rachel Stacy
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Rachel is a creative mind, a natural-world genius
and a committed Quaker. At CPT she has been in the role of Chair of the
Steering Committee. Through her leadership she has facilitated conversations
about structural change, increased our professional image, and given key
support to the Director.
We
thank Rachel for the way she has stepped up in the last year to
stand-in-the-gap and help behind the scenes, keeping the organization running
and moving in the Spirit.
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| photo by Tim Nafziger |
Fourth day of Christmas: Stewart Vriesinga
Stewart has
been a cherished member of the Colombia
Team for 8 years. He is known
for building solid relationships which the communities strongly reciprocate,
his knack for storytelling and sharp contextual analytic.
Stewart
speaks truth and life into everyday experience; be it a mundane day at the
office, an encounter with the police while on accompaniment, or an afternoon at
the pool.
Fifth day of Christmas: Esther Kern
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Esther is Canada Coordinator, and the kind of person you want at your side
when you are celebrating, and when something goes horribly wrong. She has a way
of supporting people through thick and thin; you know you can count on Esther.
Her brilliant white hair is only outshone by her quick smile. She is a
cherished elder in CPT who recently fulfilled her ambition of visiting every
project site.
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| Photo by Tim Nafziger |
Sixth day of Christmas: John Vallely
John joined CPT in August 2013. He is the first
indigenous Project Support Coordinator of the Aboriginal Justice Team.
John invites us to reflect upon impact of settler-colonialism on all of our
lives, especially relating to religion. His collaborative spirit, poignant
questions, and rooted perspective have already enriched and changed the way we
do things in CPT.
See part 2
See last year’s Twelve Peacemakers of Christmas: Part 1; Part 2
*Hannah Redekop from the Colombia Team contributed the 4h Day.
