Safety
SafetyThe building across from our apartment houses the Baghdad offices of a political party. They have at least two armed guards patrolling outside with their Klashnakov rifles 24/7. Most offices,...
View ArticleFight or Flight?
“If an attacker inspires anger or fear in my heart, it means that I have not purged myself of violence. To realize nonviolence means to feel within you its strength--soul force--to know God. A person...
View ArticleOne Cool October Night in Baghdad
Sunday night mass at St. Raphael’s The cool evening breeze of Baghdad in late OctoberWindows open letting the sounds at twilight enter inThe tenth day of RamadanThe muazzin begins his call to prayer...
View ArticleRemembering Margaret Hassan
“Giving material goods can help people. If food is needed and we can give it, we do that. If shelter is needed, or books or medicine is needed, and we can give them, we do that. As best we can, we can...
View ArticlePressure Cooker
“People’s homes are like the cells of a prison. And Iraq is the prison.” A friend of CPT here in Baghdad gave this assessment of his country during a recent visit. His neighborhood is adjacent to an...
View ArticleImagine
Last week Maxine Nash and I visited a friend of the team at his home. Nuir (not his real name) invited us for dinner and to spend the night. A number of things related to that visit seemed quite...
View ArticleCandles in the Shadows
At a team worship time soon after the kidnapping of Margaret Hassan I have a very clear image. It was of a land of shadows and darkness. But within that land candles were burning; not many but enough...
View ArticleUprooted
The Palestinian village of Jayyous is blessed. Blessed by a wonderful hilltop location looking over a fertile valley with olive trees, orange groves and greenhouses. The village of Jayyous is cursed....
View ArticleThe Rock of Foundation
Flying over the Mediterranean to Amman, Jordan in September of 2004 I felt a great deal of anticipation as the plane neared the coastline of Israel and Palestine. I had never been to the Middle East...
View ArticleThe Force of War and the Force of Peace? The Same Force Moving in the...
It seems as if there is a tendency to see war as a very active force and peace as a very passive one. We refer to peace in the negative- nonviolence or non-aggression. As if peace is a vacuum created...
View ArticlePromoting the Justice of God
“Promoting the justice of God”The following talk was given at Northern Virginia Mennonite Church on Feb. 27th, 2005 Being part of Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq has led me to many “firsts”- first...
View ArticleStuff
With instructions from the airline to check in four hours prior to departure I had ample opportunity to explore the various nooks and crannies of the international terminal at O’Hare. On the north side...
View ArticleThe Middle of Nowhere
Today Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq was visited by a young Iraqi man whose family raised more than twenty thousand dollars from contributors worldwide to pay for medicine for the hospitals and...
View ArticleThrowing Open the Book
It was the 20th of April, the birthday of the prophet Mohammed. We had guests from Najaf and Kerbala visiting us for dinner that night. For grace before the meal a CPTer went into the office and opened...
View ArticleIt Was a Fairly Quiet Day in Baghdad
17 May 2005. In Baghdad today, four clerics (three Sunni and one Shi’a) were assassinated. The bodies of two other Sunni clerics who had been abducted last week were found. A suicide car bomber...
View ArticleTunnel Vision
“Iraqis always seem to have lots of guns in their houses.” A U.S. Army colonel was making reference to how prevalent gun ownership is in Iraq. We were meeting with him in his office in the Green Zone....
View ArticleFor the Sake of Our Children
A colleague and I walked to a shop to pick up an order. The shop owner told us how very depressed she is regarding the ongoing security and infrastructure crisis in Iraq. She feels, as do many Iraqis,...
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Sanded In Baghdad
Spending three days in the Baghdad airport waiting to see if the sand and dust would let up enough to allow flights to arrive (and then allow me to leave) was more stressful that I imagined. Of course,...
View ArticleCountry and God
This is the end of my first week of living in Frederick County, Virginia, which is situated in the northern part of the Shenandoah Valley. While I’ve spent time there before working at Opequon Quaker...
View ArticleThis Sad Wearing Away of the Heart
“I must have something in life which will fill this vacuum and prevent this sad wearing away of the heart.”- Elizabeth Blackwell This was the quote today in my planner as I considered the tragedies...
View ArticleBack to the Future
Back in the days of Saddam, religious and ethnic persecution was commonplace. Shi’as were subjected to detention and harassment by Sunni led police and military and in some cases injured or killed...
View ArticleRevisionist Constitutionality
The draft constitution for Iraq that has been published in the Western press has been widely reviewed and commented upon by many individuals. There have been ongoing revisions to the constitution. The...
View ArticleFaces of Desperation
We are gathered around a campfire sharing chai (tea) and fellowship. “We” consists of nineteen Palestinian men women and children (ages one to thirteen) who have either been born in or have lived most...
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Snapshots from the Syrian Border
From Oct. 4th until Oct. 17th CPTers accompanied and then stayed with a group of nineteen Palestinians living in Baghdad who decided to try to gain refuge in Syria: refuge from the night raids,...
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There Are No Words
“The ongoing difficulties faced by Fallujans are so great that words fail to properly express it.” Words from a cleric in Fallujah as he tried to explain the litany of ills that continue to afflict his...
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