The assistant pastor of my church is also an assistant village chief in his village. He was a part of a training I did with some church leaders in my church related to the way we analyze conflict and helping people in conflict situations.
After the training, he was asked to mediate a land dispute – two individuals in an ongoing heated argument were accusing each other of taking each other’s land. It was quite obvious who the rightful owner was and this was confirmed when the man whom the assistant pastor thought was guilty slipped some money into his pocket the day before the two in conflict were meant to meet with him to mediate the conflict. He came to me and described the situation and I encouraged him for his good analysis and good insight, and asked, “why not go and look at paperwork and do your job to the best of your ability and gather as much information as you can and analyze it."
He went to the meeting the next day confident that he had all the facts in order and could look to solve the problem impartially with no bias, just the facts.
A Land Dispute
-Male church assistant pastor, C2
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