"I learned how important it is to assume responsibility for the things I have done." These words surprised me.  They came from one of the inmates participating in Costa Rica's first Sycamore Tree Project(R)  or STP at the concluding session of the project.  This man had resisted sharing anything relative to the offense that had sent him to prison.  And despite this reticence, I believe he was sincere in his statement and that he had learned something very valuable.  He will be released from prison later on this year after serving more than 15 years in prison for a sexual offense.  I believe he is a better man for having participated in the STP. 

Looking back upon the 8 weeks of the STP, I realize that my expectations for the program were completely wrong.  I had heard so much about the STP, read the amazing comments made by past participants in New Zealand, received training and been present at two STP sessions during a trip to Medellin, Colombia.  I had anticipated dramatic results like the ones I had witnessed in Medellin: offenders confessing to several homicides and expressing repentance and a desire to change; or a victim forgiving the man that had murdered her youngest daughter.  Costa Rica's first STP did not have any spectacular or dramatic results.  Participants did not appear to be shaken to the core of their being nor was there any evidence of dramatic conversion processes.  But through it all there was a pervasive sense of having been part of something very meaningful that brought participants together for a brief period of time.  One inmate said at the closing session: "I looked forward to our Wednesday night debates and conversations.  When Wednesday arrived I could hardly wait for the day to go by so that I could be here."  Another participant, one of the victims, said to us: "I felt at home here. It's been good to share with you some of my journey. I have felt liberated here." Another victim experienced reconciliation with an estranged family member as a result of participating in the program. 

It did not appear that anything earth-shattering happened during Costa Rica's first STP and yet there was a clear manifestation of God's presence throughout those 8 sessions.  I was reminded of the passage in the first book of Kings (19: 11-13) where God reveals himself to Elijah, not in a rock-crushing or mountain-rending wind or in an earthquake or in a fire, but in the whispering of a gentle breeze.  It is impossible to tell what kind of repercussions this program will have in the lives of each one of those who participated.  Perhaps the experience was like a brief transfiguration, where for a brief space of time we were all able to see one another not as offenders and victims, but as brothers and sisters struggling to listen to God in our lives.  We could see one another as broken people progressively being made whole by the hands of the Master Potter, working through our resistance to being moulded and shaped by loving hands.

Miguel Tello

August 2005