Gabon Update

"We need to keep  hope alive."  Julieta Casimiro, Mazatec Elder

We want to thank you all for staying firm while we hold the tension of  unknowing about our final plans for the Sixth International Grandmothers Council in Gabon. Many forces are at work, which we need to overcome with the strength of our prayers and the integrity of our actions. Torrential rains in Gabon have almost completely blocked phone and website lines and inhibited the planning and building essential to the Council. We just found out that Bernadette’s heart is in a very delicate state. She needs to take shots every day to breathe properly.
 

Coinciding with this, the wife of the Gabonese President died suddenly. Understandably, this has sent the country into a spin. Since the Gabonese president has committed to making the arrival of the Grandmothers Council a national event, much of the planning will have to be limited. To minimize the impact on the Gabonese people, we can only bring a core group of people along with the Grandmothers. For these reasons, we will not be bringing participants to Gabon as we had hoped.

But we will continue. The Grandmothers possess incredible endurance and fortitude. We are continually awed by the force of their hope and the forward motion of their prayer.

Now more than ever we need to send prayers to Bernadette, to her Omyene people and to all of the peoples of Africa, who are suffering mightily from centuries of oppression. Please join us from your home places in prayer and ceremony to hold firm to the vision of peace beyond boundaries that the Grandmothers Council carries. They are just humble women, following through with their visions and uniting together. We all need to join together across space and time to give hands and hearts to this vision, held by so many of us around the globe. It starts with each of us. It will be followed through with each of us. And all of us will rejoice in its fulfillment.