Small but mighty
Overcoming challenges, the Kogi Christian Church flourishes Text by Anne Basye
V
isiting the Christian Kogi people of Colombia means a three-hour, 3,000-foot climb
up the Sierra Nevada de Santa Maria mountains. Descendants of a pre- Colombian indigenous group, the Kogi have lived atop the world’s highest coastal range for millennia. Of some 20,000 Kogi, nearly 200
are Christian. T e others follow indigenous traditional religious practices. Like the rugged range that sur-
rounds them, life has had tremen- dous ups and downs since the fi rst Kogi became Christian about 30 years ago. T ey were threatened more than
once during Colombia’s long con- fl ict between paramilitaries, gueril- las and government troops. T e Christian Kogi were pushed from their land by traditional Kogi suspi- cious of their faith. T ey also lost their protected status as indigenous people, greatly reducing their access to health care and opportunities for education. Some, like Juan Carlos Gil, a pas-
tor of the Kogi Christian Church, were kidnapped and pressured to renounce their faith. But the Kogi persisted. “T ey
are a community of resistance,” said Mary Campbell, ELCA companion manager for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Outside of Santa Marta, Colombia, a man walks across the footbridge to the path that will take him to the Kogi community, which isn’t accessible by car.
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www.thelutheran.org
Photos by Mary Campbell/ELCA As they grew in number and
determination, the Kogi reached out to other Christians—many of them Lutheran. In 2009, when Gil and 32 other Christians were held against their will, the ELCA launched an international campaign advocating for their release. Today the Kogi are no longer
displaced. T ey live on three con- tiguous farms, where they raise food and run a kindergarten through eighth-grade school. And home- grown pastoral leaders like Gil nur- ture Jate Shama (“God is Here”)— the Kogi Christian Church. To Gil, confronting and over-
coming challenges has been an essential part of the Kogi’s faith- building process. “Although many times we didn’t understand why or how, we keep strengthening our faith,” he said. “We can only say that God himself acts in us, giving us the power to continue in his path.”
Recovering the ‘lost book’ An early connection between the Kogi and Lutherans began in 1978 when Linda Gawthorne began living among them. With a colleague, Gawthorne, a
member of Christ Lutheran Church in Long Beach, Calif., launched the
Author bio: Basye, a freelance writer living in the Pacific Northwest, is the author of Sustaining Simplicity: A Journal (ELCA, 2007).
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