Soldier carrying rifle while walking across a tropical riverside bridge

From Enemies To Brothers

Many questions were seeking to be answered: Could the memory of years of fighting simply be erased? Could we bury the suspicion between Christians and Muslims? How do I deal with the prejudice among my veteran soldiers – or the fears of the former rebels? Could we be certain of their loyalty? And, perhaps most difficult of all, how could we erase the invisible divide between “them” and “us”?Ultimately, the question was simple: How does one welcome a man who may once have been shooting at soldiers like us – and now ask him to become our brother-in-arms?

Families boarding buses while uniformed personnel coordinate an urban evacuation

The Children of Carmen

On our last night in Davao, I asked what they had learned from our trip. After hearing many of the kids offering gratitude for the trip, a young boy – someone who had stayed silent and detached for most of the trip – raised his hand slowly, his eyes wide and innocent, and when acknowledged, spoke candidly in their dialect. His words pierced straight through my heart: “I learned that not all soldiers are killers.” Silence. “And not all Christians are land-grabbers,” he added.

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