East Africa Bible College, 4th February 2023 Eldoret Kenya – The East African Bible College premises in Eldoret Kenya, was today host to an event that the mainly theological college, training practicing pastors and theologians, doesn’t regularly host.
For the past two months the College has on every Saturday seen a small but determined group of South Sudanese Community leaders and peace practitioners, gather and fellowship together under a new revolutionary peace building program centered on group bonding & Experiences sharing actions.
This small group of peace builders with a big ambition of being South Sudan peace ignition circles, with intentions of bring peace one community at a time, found their inspirations and peace ideals from curated readings picked and discussed from a rather curiously titled book ”A promise to our children, field guide to peace” by Fields of peace organization Oregon.
Eldoret Town is one of the cities in Kenya that enjoys a large South Sudanese Diaspora community, it is estimated that over ten thousand South Sudanese have called this city home for decades.
This rich and diverse South Sudanese diaspora community population has over the years attracted a lot of organizations and personalities interested in uplifting and empowering South Sudanese Diaspora populations, which can have an important ripple effect with the populations back in South Sudan.
When we spoke to Mr Bior Garang Sixty Four Voices Co founding member and the program lead Fields of peace Trainer, asking him why they chose Eldoret rather than South Sudan as a starting point for their first circle’s training, he responded by saying that,
”As much as the Eldoret resettled South Sudanese communities, most of many who are refugees or former refugees, might be currently feeling at home in Eldoret, this shouldn’t be assumed to be a sign that they are fully healed or are at peace.
As much as they have left active war and traumatising environments and resettled in Eldoret that is a more peaceful environment, this peace hey enjoy, shouldn’t be viewed from the point of absence of the active war environment they came from.
Peace should always be viewed as a state of being and not a blunt action of being away from harm, so that peace becomes a wholesome entity where one exudes harmony from within as a result of finding inner peace first, then extend it outwards to create peace in others or the society.
In all of us inner peace offers us a higher clarity and ability to connect with the world outside in a much more meaningful and beneficial way, inner peace is interlinked with the understanding of one’s inner traumas (trauma here is not only the physical trauma but rather an imbalance in one’s inner being & consciousness)
And in the words of Thomas Hubble, when we don’t first confront our inner demons/traumas they will always reveal themselves in the world we engage in, just like a cup has a limited amount of fluid it can contain so the human soul/spirit/capacity has its limit of inner conflict/trauma it can contain and is why inner stability and peace should first be attained or at least understood and managed to extend it outwardly without projecting it negatively on others and the outside world,
”Unbalanced inner peace/trauma whether it reveals itself as denial, rejection, dissociation, or ignorance, the avoidance of trauma shows up as an inability to meet life, which is the foremost symptom of separation. Circumventing awareness of trauma and its effects is the most essential form of spiritual bypassing.
Too often, we naïvely seek only “light and positivity,” or we spend hours or lifetimes using meditation or other witness practice to unconsciously distance ourselves from the pain and grit of our own and others’ suffering. Our intentions are good, but by avoiding the raw nakedness of what is real in an endless search for the ideal, we miss the deep spiritual intimacy that can only be experienced through a willingness to profoundly be in and with the painful dark. ‘
It was with regards to this great need for healing that we at Sixty four voices with support and funding from Fields of peace Oregon, aimed to create wholesome healed communities that will be peace ignition point by bringing established community leaders together to share their past histories in ways that will enable them heal together, & be the ignition points of spreading the un-quenchable flames of peace in their communities, here in Kenya and South Sudan.
Mr Bior also added that This new way of training community leaders in peace building offered by Fields of peace that focuses on centralising the individual through, peace Ignition Circles and community peace Ignition programs, will give us the space to heal together so as we work in our collective inner peace as peace builders, we will be better placed to extend it to each other, as we facilitate our intergenerational healing and as we heal and integrate the traumas of our time, we assist in the integration and healing of theirs. And as such help our country heal and move towards the path of lasting peace and forgiveness amongst ourselves.