Class today started with a two hour long lecture by someone from WOLA (Washington Office on Latin America) about the situation of violence, security, organized crime and impunity. A great way to start our class theme of the day: social, systemic and individual sin... right? I began the last half of our class with the women, by taking a glance at how the church has portrayed sin throughout its history- especially regarding women. 
I left the last segment for the pot. I brought this broken pot to the class "Teologia Desde Las Mujeres" as a way to talk about, see, touch, and express the reality of sin as brokenness in our lives and in this culture.
I am in awe by what art and symbolism drew out of these women and helped us express to one another. I asked them to paint a picture of their own experiences of sin, how they have experienced brokenness, caused brokenness, or how they see it in the culture around them. 
Each of them depicted vivid scenes of violence from their own lives, and then shared about them intimately. I was struck once again by the pervasiveness of violence in this culture and country. The violence was given names, faces, voices and stories today in these accounts of survival and solidarity.
In one class we moved from the systemic problems of organized crime in the country and problems of violence and impunity, to the stories of women who nearly added to those statistics. I praise God for their lives, their stories, and they're willingness to share as they move forward. In four months of class together they have never shared quite as personally as they did today. Was it the art... the Spirit of God... the image and symbolism of brokenness... some of all of the above? Nonetheless it was a powerful space for all. And I learned new lessons about teaching. Start with the pot.
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