Read the numbers, remember the places where war continues, but above all let the gaze of your imagination linger on the faces of those made homeless by war. Do not shrink from the unspeakable sorrow that is unmasked in the eyes of the mother whose son has killed and been killed somewhere far from the family home. Look into the face of the pervasive despair that remains in the wake of the burning and looting of the village that was once a home community. Sorrow and despair are the realities of war. But not the final reality.
Wars do end.
Out of the ashes of war can come the exhilarating, irrepressible expectation of new beginnings. Lives that have been tragically disrupted by war do find new hope and new possibilities. In East Timor we are now fully engaged in reclaiming peace. Peace will not come to us fully formed, ours for the taking. But it is ours for the building - brick by brick and street by street.