Bonnie Klassen: On Embracing Change
Transition is both a natural and challenging part of life, and it is something that PACS alumni Bonnie Klassen has become very familiar with. After 27 years living and working in Colombia, Bonnie recently moved back to Canada, bringing with her years of experience working towards justice and peace in a global context.
Bonnie’s PACS journey began in the 1990s. Short trips abroad in high school had sparked Bonnie’s interest in global learning experiences and motivated her to apply for the PACS internship program. Although Colombia was not at the top of her travel list, encouragement from a trusted family friend motivated Bonnie to take the leap and intern there. Supported by Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), she spent the next 3 months working with an organization called Justapaz, an experience which she describes as pivotal in her life’s journey.
In her PACS classes, Bonnie had gained a wealth of practical and theoretical knowledge, from practicing conflict mediation to exploring policy and structural issues. However, when it comes to peacebuilding, she notes the limitations of a classroom environment compared to real-world experience. Her internship enabled her to apply the teachings of PACS professors in the chaos and unpredictability of an unfamiliar country:
What was most challenging was the internship… because then it wasn’t theoretical anymore. It was meeting people directly affected by violence, and engaging with the whole debate around ‘at what point is violence valid or justified?’
Hearing about the transformative nature of her internship, and how it would shape the rest of her life, it is no wonder Bonnie would strongly recommend an internship to any PACS student. Whether you choose to go abroad or get involved in your local community, the possibilities are endless and invaluable.
You can artificially make things neater on paper than they actually are ... Paper isn’t emotional, whereas reality is. PACS becomes so much richer as an area of study when you are also engaging with reality at the same time.
After she graduated from the PACS program, Bonnie was still unsure what the future would hold. So, she decided to return to Colombia, where she committed to working another three years with Justapaz.
I realized I was very passionate about working with justice and peace issues, and connecting with the church… but as a 23 year-old, you need more experience to see a way forward in doing that kind of work.
Experience is precisely what Bonnie gained in those next three years; in fact, she ended up staying for five. Five years turned into ten, and somewhere along the way, Bonnie chose to stay and build a life and a family in Colombia, where she would live for the next 27 years.
I connected deeply to the Colombian context… I realized I was happy living there, and that not everyone was. I found a sense of vocation.
This observation, she says, was part of her sign to stay. Motivated to accompany people affected by colonialism and conflict in Latin America, Bonnie opted to continue her work with MCC. In 2002, when MCC opened their office in Colombia, Bonnie became the first MCC representative within the country— a position she maintained for around 10 years.
I had a sense of having so much to learn from Colombia: from the people, the context, the church, from the civil society movement, from all the work for peace and human rights … There was just so much to learn.
As an MCC representative, she opened their new office, helping to develop and solidify the program. What started out as a team of two people gradually grew to a team of 25. Then, in 2012, Bonnie became MCC’s Area Director for South America, Mexico and Cuba.
Throughout her time with MCC, Bonnie has played a role in many different peacebuilding projects, but some of her proudest moments involve building connections between churches in Latin America. She saw firsthand how the impacts of colonialism led to conflict over “imported issues” that were ultimately unimportant. It was a matter of facilitating conversation and understanding between church leaders with different theologies. She recalls one leader, who told her: “Bonnie, you knew we didn’t like each other, but you knew that we were siblings, and you forced us to wash the dishes together.” These conversations, she says, were transformative in shaping how the Church impacts vulnerable communities in Colombia.
There just needed to be a catalyst … someone to say, ‘let’s just see what happens if we sit down at the same table’.
Bonnie has also helped MCC become reengaged in Cuba, during the country’s worst crisis in recent history. For her, being involved there feels extremely important, especially after hearing what it means to the local people, who have told her: “this is how we know that God hasn’t forgotten us”. For Bonnie, fostering that sense of hope is integral to building peace.
Change happens when there is hope. When hope is gone, then that really spirals into a terrible place.
After 27 years, Bonnie is satisfied with her contributions in Colombia ,
The sense of being okay with uncertainty, and a little bit of chaos, is part of what I had to learn [in Colombia]. That was quite transformative.
"I’d probably be a lot more nervous right now about not having a job, if I hadn’t learned some of that,” she mused. After many years of contributing to peacebuilding efforts abroad, Bonnie knows that she has much to offer in a local context as well. No matter where her journey takes her, Bonnie will undoubtedly bring a thoughtful and experienced perspective to whichever table she sits down at next.
By Alivia Schill
To learn more about internships with PACS, visit our Internships page.