Opalinski is now in Turkey, where she’s traveling with Philadelphia-based PII religious scholars to provide media support while conducting research on Sufism and feminism in relation to the 21st century Muslim world. When she returns, she’ll begin her final year of studies in the Master of Arts in Religion program at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP).

In some ways, her time at 91����Ƶ – she missed the first day of the May session to finish a final exam at LTSP – offered brief respite and a chance to think about her life’s journey: from Minnesota to Africa, from Pennsylvania to Turkey.

Adding to a storytelling tool chest

“” taught by professors and , was “the nuts and bolts of learning Adobe Premiere software and how to use some of the top camera equipment in the business, some things that I may never get my hands on again,” said Opalinski, with a laugh.

Opalinski “dove into the video and audio technology, which was mostly new to her,” said Holsopple. “Besides her photography, communication and design skills, the most important ingredient that she brought to class was her desire to think deeply about why we communicate and how we facilitate the process. She took away new skills, but also learned more how the process is equally important to the product, wrestled with some ethical issues, and experienced collaborative community-building teamwork.”

“I have a strong background in photography, but less of a skill set in film,” Opalinksi said. “I had taken the ‘Media for Societal Transformation’ introductory course last year at SPI, which was fascinating, and this was a great complement. I really want to be able to offer this wide spectrum of media possibilities to my clients.”

Away from ‘corporate’ America

When Opalinski says clients, she’s not talking about the kind of people she worked for during six years as a graphic designer and marketing strategist in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area of Minnesota. Her clients now want to utilize media for faith-based bridgebuilding, social justice and peacebuilding.

This work has allowed her to both ask big questions and move towards providing answers. Her goal, she says, is “a better understanding of how the needs of the world can be best approached and met through our sacred call to service in Christ. How can all faith bodies unite to respond to the deep-seeded needs of all creation? How can we do so in ways that promote mutuality and respect, reflecting our common purpose as brothers and sisters of one human family?”

The answers, and the search for the answers to these questions, seem to be “one of the best paths towards a more peaceful world,” she says.

Opalinski points to several experiences at the root of her sharpening professional focus, specifically a strong relationship with her great Aunt Ruth, a nurse in Liberia in the 1950s, and a cross-cultural experience in Africa before graduating from Augsburg College (she still struggles with one searing memory: an afternoon spent drawing with a boy in AIDS hospice care).

When she returned to work in the corporate business world for six years, she said, “I don’t think I ever really let go of that experience. I was always thinking about Africa.”

Into communion through communication

In 2009, Opalinski joined the (YAGM) program of the . Based at Umphumulo in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, Opalinski primarily worked in the bishop’s office on communications development for the local diocese. But she also painted a mural in the children’s hospital, coached soccer, and taught elementary school students.

“YAGM gives you the opportunity to be formed and informed by living and working within a very different cultural context,” Opalinski said. “Within a couple of months, I felt like I was both uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time. It was a good discomfort.”

Before her YAGM term was up, Opalinski signed a two-year contract to work in Johannesburg as a communications coordinator with the . Her task was to develop a regional communications network – so that “they could learn from each other in more integrated ways, sharing each other’s joys and challenges, and really be able to live into that sense of what communion means as the body of Christ.”

She conducted one annual capacity training to introduce church leaders to their options, from print to social media, and then travelled to help each church to develop a sustainable communications plan. Some churches were strong communicators already (the Lutheran Church in Malawi, for example, had three regular staffers producing a newspaper), while others had no communication structures in place.

Seeing ‘where the Spirit leads’

By the time Opalinski returned to the United States in February of 2014, she had helped launch several new media forums, but more importantly, she’d helped church congregations strengthen their faith and community through connections and communication (view ).

Opalinski is now focusing her studies. She’ll keep supporting PII on special multimedia projects, while not ruling out a return to Africa. “There’s no doubt that I’d like to go back,” she says. “You don’t live in a place that long and not have it transform who you are and how you see the world.”

In Africa, she learned what she calls the sacred gift of living freely and simply in the moment. “We Westerners are completely bound to time and organization, which can detract from experiencing life as it happens,” Opalinski says. “God continues to surprise me each and every day, and sometimes it’s best to just let go, bask in the wonder, and see where the Spirit leads, even if it doesn’t make sense at the time. I have faith that when the time is right and the road is ready, I’ll know it. In the meantime, my questions push me forward and light my path ahead, wherever it may lead.”

Many names were tossed at the night of May 23, as his writing career and restorative justice work were humorously honored with a “roast” at 91����Ƶ. While most retiring professors of �ܱ���’s stature and worldwide celebrity are feted with a more standard banquet, a roast more suited both the man and his varied work.

More than 300 attendees agreed, traveling from around the world to honor �ܱ���’s influence as a reformer, teacher, a mentor, and visionary; to mark his retirement as a full-time faculty member; and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the publication of �ܱ���’s groundbreaking work, .

The evening also provided an opportunity to support the ongoing work of the , of which Zehr will remain a co-director with friend and colleague . A silent auction of global artifacts, artwork, locally crafted food and libations, and books, along with other donations, also raised about $15,000, not including pledges, for the continued work of the Zehr Institute.

After dinner…

Among comedians, a “roast” is a gathering at which a guest of honor is subjected to both praise and good-natured jokes at their expense. Stauffer, dressed in a suit and tie, emceed the evening’s festivities with , a longtime colleague since �ܱ���’s arrival at the in 1996. Jantzi came more appropriately appareled to the podium in the requested “Howard Zehr-styled formal wear:” boots, tan khakis, a tan shirt, a camera slung about his neck and a Indiana Jones-looking hat.

When queried by Stauffer about his neckwear, Jantzi looked at his floral tie and retorted: “This is a tie that’s as ugly as sin. I tried to get one as ugly as Howard would wear, but this is the best I could do.”

First on the program was a panel of alumni roasters, all of whom remarked in some capacity on their strong and shared personal friendship with Zehr, his sense of humor, and quiet way of inspiring confidence and empowerment. Among them was , MA ‘08, now restorative justice coordinator at the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in Vancouver, Canada, who spoke of becoming �ܱ���’s student one day and shortly after, accepting an invitation to co-present with Zehr at a conference.

“Howard sees something in you before you see it in yourself and he nurtures it until it comes to fruition,” said , MA ‘99, a 14-year veteran of working federal capital cases who is herself a pioneer of an approach called defense-oriented victim outreach.

The youngest member of the panel, MA ‘13, spoke of the in her native Mexico, between Zehr – in Tamaulipas to present the keynote address at the First National Conference of Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms – and poet and victims advocate Javier Sicilia, “two men who share similar bodies and souls.”

MA ‘04, contextualized Zehr with a reference to Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point,” which describes three types of “change makers.” “Howard for me is the consummate connector,” said Malec, citing Zehr’s skills in networking between practitioners and connecting his colleagues and students with exciting opportunities.

MA ‘09, took the microphone in “protest” to argue that the breadth and sheer vivacity of Zehr’s creative contributions in a variety of fields do not render him “the grandfather of restorative justice,” as he’s sometimes referred to, but rather “the Lady Gaga of restorative justice!”

, MA ‘06, a founding member of the nonprofit Latino Initiative on Restorative Justice, spoke movingly of �ܱ���’s influence on her personal journey from her native Ecuador and her current work as an educator and training of restorative justice in many Latin American countries.

, which focused on the aging body, took the brunt of several spirited jokes from , MA ‘00. Toews is a former student who has written and co-edited .

Guest Roasters

A panel of guest roasters included nine distinguished colleagues, some of whom wrote or provided video greetings: RJ practitioner honored �ܱ���’s influence in New Zealand, criminologist John Braithwaite sent congratulations from Australia, and �ܱ���’s longtime friend, Bruce Bainbridge, did the same from the State Correction Institution Graterford, where he is serving a life sentence.

, currently co-director of Mennonite Central Committee‘s Office on Justice and Peacebuilding, proclaimed that she had “30 years of stories” to fit into the next three minutes, speeding through Zehr’s powers of suggestion, his fast pace of speech, and his commitment to well-made coffee.

Actor, director, and playwright Ingrid DeSanctis remembered ,” based on Zehr’s book which received a standing ovation from 500 inmates at Graterford Prison in Pennsylvania.

, a mediator and consultant with a history of teaching in Center for Justice and Peacebuilding programs, proclaimed that he and Zehr shared something that nobody else in the room did: both are alumni of Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta, which boasts graduates such as Martin Luther King Jr.

“You carry the mystique of a Morehouse man well,” said Hooker, adding that the “Morehouse man” is “well-read, well-traveled, well-spoken, well-balanced and…” He stopped. “You’ve got to work on well-dressed,” he concluded, to laughter from the crowd.

Kim Workman, director of the New Zealand-based organization Rethinking Crime and Punishment, not only told humorous stories, but played the keyboard and sang an original ditty he called “Ode to Howard.”

The Zehr bobble-head

As the evening drew to a close, �ܱ���’s family joined in the fun. His wife, Ruby, recalled one of their first dates in college, when Howard invited her to the snack shop to share a Coke because he did not have enough money for two. She was followed by Howard’s brother, Ed Zehr, who reminisced about Howard’s boyhood skills tinkering with electronics and gadgets.

When Zehr assumed the stage after 9 p.m., he was met with a standing ovation. Cracking jokes, he recounted the early days of restorative justice work with Canadian colleague David Worth, announcing their next 50-year plan for the field – expansion to a social movement.

At the end of the night, , director of the and mastermind behind the festivities, presented the honoree with a custom Howard Zehr bobble-head doll.

“Ruby says my memorial service is taken care of, so she won’t need to have one when I die,” Zehr reflected afterwards. “I got off pretty easy overall!”

Andy Carvin, then working at NPR in Washington, DC. played “distant witness” to events documented via Tweets by “citizen journalists” in Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, Libya and other Middle Eastern countries from December 2010 into 2012. In 2013, Carvin published a book by the same name. and social media classes, led by professors and , initially adapted the book for the stage in the fall of 2014.

Workshop performances on Friday, May 8, and Saturday, May 9, represent a more formalized scripting. Both events, which are free and open to the public, begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Studio Theater on campus and will be followed by a talkback with Carvin and the play’s creators.

The event is co-sponsored by 91����Ƶ’s and the . The latter has granted funds through the to develop a full-fledged play that will debut in the spring of 2016.

An ensemble production

The creation of the “Distant Witness” play has merged multiple interests and specialties of its co-creators. Poole, who developed most of the current adaptation, had previously worked in cross-cultural theater and specifically with Arab culture organizations.

“I’d been wanting to do a project on the Arab Spring for some time,” Poole says, adding that he visited Egypt mere months before the uprisings began. “I witnessed a lot of class tensions. This prompted my interest in what those tensions might mean.”

Poole became involved in the fall of 2014, when professor Paulette Moore, on behalf of students in her “Social Media” class, invited the campus community to a Skype interview with Carvin. (Moore had met Carvin at a Washington, DC. conference and had been using his book in her courses as required reading.)

Poole and Moore decided to integrate the social media class with Poole’s “Devised Theater” class, in which students are taught the principles of ensemble play development. Eventually, the two professors pitched the idea of adapting the book for the stage to Carvin.

“He was very receptive [to the idea] and gave us some feedback on how to frame it immediately,” Moore said.

Groups of students in the combined class were asked to explore specific sections of the book through various improvisational exercises,  research and discussions – the results of which helped Poole write the play later. Throughout the process, students shared their experiences through live Tweets. and responded to their questions.

“Andy ‘dropped in’ virtually to one of the early classes unexpectedly and then showed up regularly thereafter,” said Moore. “It was pretty thrilling for the students.”

In an interview with 91����Ƶ news, Carvin applauded this cross-disciplinary creativity. The play “does justice to the Tweets that were written in real time,” he said. “It shows the authors were actual people calling for the world to bear witness to their reality.”

Each week, Carvin saw the students beginning to gain a better understanding of “the circumstances in which the revolutions were happening in the Arab world.”

Tweeting is also a good way to illustrate how journalism is changing, he said, adding that 140-character Tweets may have as much impact on the world community as traditional journalism.

Audience immersed in media-rich environment

Both the production in the fall, which occurred during Poole’s class final, and the spring workshop are what Poole calls “hybrid” productions. “It is designed to be a totally immersed experience for actors and audience,” he said, in words that evoke a living IMAX production.

The performance is in the round and will combine videography, streamed YouTube videos (taken from actual footage by citizen journalists in the Middle East), dialogue adapted from the book, Tweets from people during the Arab Spring, and live streaming of both audience and actors.

The actors are students from both Moore and Poole’s classes who are staying on campus for two weeks after the semester ends to participate in the production. Moore said he hopes a few volunteer actors from the , which includes approximately 50 peacebuilders from 20 countries, will join the production.

As for the audience experience: “I hope that the viewers come away from the experience of watching this piece with a better understanding of the Arab Spring,” Poole said. “I want to humanize these stories. I want to bring these stories close to home. I think plays are a really great way for people to learn how to be empathetic with people from other cultures and to break down cultural boundaries.”

Past visiting artists at 91����Ƶ have included New York City-based filmmaker and cinematographer Jun Oshima, documentary filmmaker Lisa Madison, Student Academy Award winner Tal Shamir, and photojournalists Susan Sterner and Tyrone Turner.

“All of these artists have an interest in culture and the way that media affects us,” said associate professor of media arts and peacebuilding , who also serves as art galleries director. “Being able to host visiting artists is rewarding both for our campus community and the wider community, but also for the artists themselves who are working on these issues of social justice.”

Thirteen pieces of art for sale were donated by 91����Ƶ professors , , , and ; current student Katherine Burling; alumnus Frank Ameka; and other artists who are appreciative of ���ѱ�’s vision, including Winslow McCagg, Eric Kniss, Floyd Merrell Savage, Thomas Zummer, and Leslie Thornton.

Sterner and Turner have also donated two images from a February 2014 exhibit at 91����Ƶ titled “Sonhos e Saudades.” The couple spent two years documenting issues in northeastern Brazil, including land rights, literacy, public health and women’s lives. Many of those photos are now being compiled into a book.

Turner says their donation is one way of supporting ���ѱ�’s message of initiating positive societal change. 

“When we had our opening photo exhibition last February, it was such an amazing experience and such a wonderful community that is attuned to issues of social justice,” Turner said. “Bringing working artists to interact and exchange ideas with students, and to exhibit art with important social justice themes is really important. I love that we can be part of and support that kind of work at 91����Ƶ.”

Bidding began Nov. 7, at the Darrin-McHone Gallery, owned by the , at 311 South Main St. in Harrisonburg. The exhibition is part of the First Fridays Downtown event.

Photos of artwork with artist biographies is available online at

The auction culminates with a reception and final bids at the Darrin-McHone Gallery Saturday, Nov. 22, from 2-5 p.m.

“The Arts Council of the Valley is happy to collaborate with 91����Ƶ in order to provide gallery space for the artists,” said Lindsay Denny, marketing manager. “As part of its mission, the Arts Council of the Valley provides memorable arts experiences for individuals in the City of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County through our visual, literary, and performing arts programs. The partnership with 91����Ƶ affords us another opportunity to support art and artists in our community.”

The main goal of the two-year grant is to improve water quality along 17 miles of the German River and Crab Run, two tributaries of the Shenandoah River and the Chesapeake Bay. The streams drain a 38,000-acre watershed around Bergton, Virginia. 91����Ƶ 10 percent of the land is agricultural (the land-use that contributes the most nutrient and sediment pollution to local streams), and Crab Run has been added to the federal “impaired waters” list because of high levels of E. coli bacteria.

Science professors and were the primary grant writers, and will guide teams of environmental sustainability students working on water quality monitoring and stream restoration. These will include working with landowners to adopt “best management practices,” like fencing cattle out of streams, to minimize pollution runoff, and conducting surveys of aquatic insects that indicate the relative cleanliness of a stream.

Hands-on lessons for students

Students will also have opportunity for real-world practice using GIS mapping software and get hands-on lessons in hydrology and restoration design under the supervision of Ecosystem Services, a stream restoration company that will be working in the watershed as part of the grant.

“These are very marketable skills [and] that’s a huge benefit for students,” said Yoder.

The grant will build on water monitoring work that Yoder and Graber Neufeld have been doing with students in that area for the past three years.

“It’s been a lot of fun to go out for an afternoon and a day, instead of sitting in class, and being able to actually walk the stream and use the techniques we’ve been learning about,” said Bryce Yoder (no relation to Jim), a senior environmental sustainability major.

“It’s exciting to know that this is a project that has funding, and our research will actually matter, and eventually will contribute to restoring sections of [these rivers].”

Jesse Parker, another senior environmental sustainability major, has begun doing some GIS mapping of the streams, which he called “a really good skill to have with any environmental-related job.”

“This is a really cool opportunity for current and future students,” he added.

Another distinguishing aspect of the grant will be the involvement of digital media students, who will document the stream, the community that surrounds it and efforts to improve its water quality. These will include students in professor ’s “Conservation Photography” class, and video students working on a documentary with professor .

CJP studying social dynamics

���ѱ�’s will also play a role in studying the social aspect of stream restoration, with special focus on the reasons why some landowners do and don’t take steps to protect water quality.

“There’s a cultural and relational component to small communities, [and often] there’s not a lot of attempt to understand those dynamics,” said , CJP program director and professor. “There’s also not a lot of attempt to figure out what are the complex social reasons that people might not adopt technical practices.”

Through interviews and group discussions with members of the Bergton community, CJP graduate students will study these questions, and create a guidance document based on their findings to inform watershed improvement efforts in other places.

“Hopefully we will have some outcomes that can be applied elsewhere, both from the restoration perspective and [understanding] the community dynamics,” said Graber Neufeld, who hopes that the recently awarded grant is just the beginning of a longer-term 91����Ƶ involvement in Bergton. “The other thing that I would hope is that we can see some improvements in watershed health in a way that is congruent with people’s livelihoods out there.”

Their film, “,” is helping to shape a national conversation about environmental justice, citizen activism, indigenous rights, and nonviolent resistance.

Largest open-pit mine ever?

The 45-minute film focuses on the proposed creation of the world’s largest open-pit mine – nearly four miles long, 1,000 feet wide and 900 feet deep – in the Penokee Hills, just miles from the world’s largest freshwater lake and several Native American communities that rely on the water source to preserve tribal traditions and economic well-being.

“91����Ƶ students are helping drive a very important dialogue about one of the major issues of our day,” says Moore, associate professor of and .

“This is a story that is far from over,” added Pete Rasmussen, co-founder of the and a prominent voice in the film. He noted the of a from mining company Gogebic Taconite to Governor Scott Walker’s recall campaign.

The film traces three compelling story lines – the extractive industry of open pit iron ore mining, its potential effect on one of the world’s largest freshwater lakes, and the multicultural group of citizen activists who have been monitoring the site and protesting the proposal. Woven into the narrative is a Greek chorus of West Virginia residents affected by the .

Alerting people of Wisconsin

The documentary is “a message to the people in Wisconsin of what will likely happen if the mining is continued,” said student filmmaker Anne Diller ’14. “After listening to the people from West Virginia share their warning to Wisconsin, it felt like we were piecing together a love letter.”

Since its premiere June 20 on the reservation of the Bad River band of the Lake Superior Chippewa tribe, the film has earned accolades from local activists.

Jill “Peach” Hartlev, a member of the tribe’s , helped host the premiere, which was open to the public and included a potluck, poetry, singing and dancing. Several of those interviewed in the film were also present, including tribal chair Mike Wiggins Jr.

“It was an overwhelmingly positive response among those present,” Hartlev said, who added that Moore’s presence made the event special. “It was very moving for me personally to see those faces and hear those voices. These are personal friends and also people who I work closely with. I was moved to tears.”

Rasmussen said he appreciated “the connections the students made, how it showed an understanding of how we’re all connected, from West Virginia to Virginia to what’s happening here.”

Putting all the pieces together

Local and national media had reported on the proposed project, Rasmussen said, but “the film put all the pieces together and has definitely had a broader impact with audiences who are not as familiar with the issue and the idea that we’re facing this all over the country in a systemic way.”

Hartlev and Rasmussen, who both attended multiple regional showings throughout the summer, noted that the various audiences shared an especially visceral reaction to Gogebic Taconite spokesman Bob Seitz’s statement about the presence at the proposed site of grunerite, a rare asbestiform rock that carries the risk of airborne carcinogens. Seitz’s statement contradicted both of the company’s own scientists, as well as that of Northlands College geologist Tom Fitz.

“There were gasps and laughter, expressions of disbelief during that segment,” said Rasmussen. “The people who have been paying attention in meetings and hearings have seen that denial, but there’s only a few people going to those meetings. So to get that on film is motivating to the public, because it’s something they’ve heard about, but they haven’t seen it.”

Moore – an experienced videographer who has produced documentaries aired by the Discovery Channel, PBS and National Geographic – noted that the experience of capturing that interview on film and dealing with the ethical aftermath was unsettling, though educational for her students.

“The students are really in the middle of this, and that interview segment shows that,” she said. “Here was a company spokesperson offering misleading information, right on film, and we spent a lot of time talking about the best way to handle it.”

Importance of bearing witness

Moore teaches a documentary filmmaking course every two years. (Previous student-involved projects include a and a feature about local cooperative restaurant .)

The challenges students – and professors, Moore says – to think about “���ѱ�’s message of service and responsibility in a media industry which is so entitled and can be quite destructive and powerful.”

“How do we think about media as creating a sacred space?” Moore said. “What’s our role as a witness to the social justice movement?’

Moore was introduced to the documentary’s subject matter by Danielle Taylor, who holds a from 91����Ƶ. Taylor created the “” video project and blog.

Moore began filming in the fall of 2013. On several occasions, she stayed at a harvest camp established near the proposed site by the Lac Courte Oreilles band, where participants monitor a mining project entrance, conduct research, and practice traditional hunting and foraging skills.

By the time the spring 2014 documentary class began, she had dozens of hours of footage and faced the unique challenge of “getting my students excited about something I was already passionate about.”

Link to West Virginia chemical spill

That wasn’t a problem after the Elk River toxic chemical spill on January 9, which contaminated the water supply 300,000 residents of Charleston, West Virginia, for days.

Senior Emma King and junior Karla Hovde interviewed several West Virginia residents, including Bob Kincaid, host of and a frequent contributor to the anti-mining discussion in Wisconsin. Those interviews had a dramatic impact on King.

“I really saw how misusing the environment hurts everyone,” King said. “Talking to people firsthand, rather than reading about it in a book, put this into perspective for me.”

Her involvement in the project changed her from a casual supporter of environmental causes to a passionate proponent.

“We were able to amplify the voices of a group of people who were concerned about their community,” Diller said. “I felt like I had a personal relationship with the people as we edited their interviews. They opened up and shared their stories with us and trusted us to get their message out to the world.”

Moore says the film is an official selection of the . A spring showing on campus is also planned.

For more information on this issue, check out the reports on the , , and .

Editor’s note: In February 2015, Gogebic Taconite announced , citing unforeseen “wetland issues that make major continued investment unfeasible at this time,” as well as concern with impending environmental legislation. Though the company continues to claim that it will still work on securing permits to mine, some local officials and have suggested the press release is a sign of victory.

And those SPI alumni who aren’t aiming to earn a degree? Some of them just keep coming back year after year – almost as an educational vacation – or they send their colleagues and friends to SPI.

Of the 2,800 SPI participants over the last 19 years, more than one in five have been repeat participants, taking courses during a second year or even multiple years of SPI. In that number must be counted almost all of CJP’s 398 master’s degree alumni, plus 91 graduate certificate holders. Some of their MA classmates are now SPI instructors, plus many of their professors have taught at SPI year after year.

Detouring six hours to reconnect

Among the first drop-bys to SPI 2014 were Florina Benoit and Ashok Gladston of India, both 2004 MA grads from CJP and now PhD-holders. They made a six-hour round-trip detour from a family-related stop in Baltimore, Maryland, to say “hello” to folks at SPI.

Gladston was last at 91����Ƶ in June 2011 when he gave a heart-wrenching talk at 91����Ƶ centering on women from a minority group in southern India who were being violently victimized by mobs from the surrounding majority group.

The two, both former Fulbright Scholars married to each other, happened to arrive on May 7 when Doreen Ruto of Kenya, a 2006 MA graduate, was the featured SPI “Frontier Luncheon” speaker, along with her colleague (and son) Richy Bikko, a 2011 BA graduate who majored in justice, peace and conflict studies.

Over that day, Gladston and Benoit interacted with a dozen professors, staffers and alumni whom they recalled from their studies at CJP 10 years ago.

When the day turned to evening and their borrowed car was found to have a non-working headlight, they lingered for activities very familiar to them – a community “potluck” meal, followed by a cultural program led by SPI participants, and informal dancing. (They huddled with this writer for much of that time answering questions about their work in India – but more on that later.)

They then accepted the impromptu invitation of Margaret Foth, a retiree who has been a long-time liaison with CJP alumni, and slept in a guest room at the Foths’ home, adjacent to 91����Ƶ.

 “It was like we recalled from our time as graduate students,” says Benoit. “We felt like we were visiting our second home.”

In 2013, Gladstone and Benoit had been scheduled to teach an SPI course on the logistics of humanitarian aid – more specifically, on how such aid intersects with peacebuilding practices, including the “do no harm” principle – but, unfortunately, that year the number of people seeking such training was insufficient to hold the course.

Always more to learn

A third former Fulbright Scholar, Shoqi Abas Al-Maktary, MA ’07, took a break from his job as country director in Yemen for Search for Common Ground and spent May 15-23 taking the SPI course “Designing Peacebuilding Programs – From Conflict Assessment to Planning. ”

“I don’t think anyone in this field can afford to stop being a student,” says Al-Maktary, who holds a second master’s degree in security management from Middlesex University in the United Kingdom. “There is always more to know, more to explore with others in the field. And SPI – with its intensive courses – is a great place to do this.”

Thomas DeWolf of the United States just finished attending his fourth SPI in six years, with the course “Media for Societal Transformation.” He first came in 2008 where he explored Coming to the Table (explained in next paragraph). He returned for a restorative justice course in 2009, and then in 2012, received a scholarship to take “Healing the Wounds of History: Peacebuilding through Transformative Theater.”

DeWolf’s connection to SPI began with CJP’s sponsorship of Coming to the Table, an organization focused on addressing the enduring impact of the slavery era in the United States. DeWolf has played a leading role in this organization, which held its annual conference at 91����Ƶ this year, over a weekend between two sessions of SPI.

Seven times at SPI

A 76-year-old clinical psychologist from Argentina, Lilian Burlando, has an astonishing record of attendance at SPI, having attended about a third of all the years SPI has been held. From her home at the southern-most tip of South America, Tierra del Fuego, Burlando has attended SPI seven times: in 2006, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. Often with her, also taking classes, have been members of her family of five children and 19 grandchildren. One of her daughters, Maria Karina Echazu, for instance, is a prosecuting attorney in Argentina who took a restorative justice course in 2007 and a practice course in 2011.

Burlando calls SPI “a refreshing experience,” citing interesting course topics, excellent professors and the sense of community. “To me,” she says, “SPI has been a fountain of intellectual and spiritual enrichment.”

Almost all the teachers at SPI – even those like Johonna McCants, who holds a PhD from the University of Maryland – have also been students at SPI at some point. McCants explains how she found her way to SPI:

In 2009, while finishing my doctoral dissertation, I began searching online for practical training in the issues I was writing about. I discovered CJP and SPI and quickly fell in love. I was attracted by the integration of theory and practice, the variety of courses, the diversity of participants, backgrounds of the instructors, and that the program was housed at a Christian university. I participated in Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) at SPI just a few weeks after receiving my PhD. The STAR experience, which was phenomenal, kept me coming back for more.

McCants brought along a first-timer to SPI 2014, Julian Turner. These two, who first met as teenagers, would be married in a month. But first Turner, who works at an infectious disease clinic in Washington D.C., soaked up the wisdom of Hizkias Assefa in “Forgiveness and Reconciliation,” while McCants co-taught with Carl Stauffer “Restorative Justice: The Promise, the Challenge.”

Loves the diverse people

From her base as a high school teacher in a public school in Washington D.C. – and with experience as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland – McCants says she is struck by the egalitarian learning community formed by SPI, where the instructors and participants respect and learn from each other.

Her favorite part about SPI?

Definitely, the people! I enjoy learning from people from different parts of the United States and countries all over the world, hearing their stories and developing new relationships. I also like reuniting and reconnecting with people I’ve met during previous times at SPI.

Discovering SPI on the internet, as McCants did, is not typical. More often, SPI participants are encouraged to attend by previous participants.

Libby Hoffman, president and founder of the Catalyst for Peace foundation, for example, attended SPI in 1996 and took another CJP course in 2000. This year she dispatched two rising leaders of Fambul Tok – an organization doing amazing work of promoting post-war reconciliation throughout Sierra Leone – to take two successive courses at SPI. Micheala Ashwood and Emmanuel Mansaray both took “Leading Healthy Organizations,” in addition to “Analysis – Understanding Conflict” and “Psychosocial Trauma,”
respectively.

Ten CJP master’s degree alumni had teaching roles at SPI 2014: Dr. Sam Gbaydee Doe, MA ’98; Dr. Barb Toews,   MA ’00; Dr. Carl Stauffer, MA ’02; Elaine Zook Barge, MA ’03; Roxy Allen Kioko, MA ’07 (PhD candidate); Paulette Moore, MA ’09 (PhD candidate); Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho, MA ’09 (PhD candidate); Caroline Borden, MA ’12; Soula Pefkaros, MA ’10 (PhD candidate); and Danielle Taylor, MA ’13. < — Bonnie Price Lofton

, who teaches the social media class, requires her students to keep a blog on a topic relevant to the class and offers ideas for that blog. She handed out a list of possibilities that included Al Weiwei, who is known around the world for his art as well as criticism of China’s ruling Communist Party.

Looking into Ai, Gunawan became intrigued and began to follow him on Twitter. After Gunawan published her first blog post on him, Ai began following her back. “I was so surprised,” said Gunawan. “He is world famous!”

When Ai was arrested and held for 81 days in China in the spring of 2011, 90,000 sympathizers around the world signed a petition asking for his release, according to .

As a project for the social media class, Gunawan was supposed to interview someone who knew a lot about her topic. However, she ran into dead ends as she sought people to talk to about Ai, she said in an interview with 91����Ƶ news service.

Beginning to panic, Gunawan sent Ai a personal message on Twitter. Not getting a response, she sent him a second message that said, “I need to interview you or I won’t get a good grade in this class.” He proposed a Skype interview for the next day.

Gunawan had never interviewed someone this influential before and was nervous at the prospect, so she texted Moore around midnight, expecting to get a response the next day. Her professor responded immediately and helped her come up with some questions for the interview.

Although Ai’s work as an artist is known widely – he is active in sculpture, installation, architecture, curating, photography, film, and social, political and cultural criticism, according to Wikipedia – he was not as pretentious or pompous as Gunawan expected a famous person to be. “I learned a lot about him as a person,” she said. “He is really powerful. I thought he would have an ego like people in a higher position have, but he didn’t. He is just a very nice person.”

Perhaps as surprising is the fact that Gunawan got through to Ai at all in China. “They wiretap his phone, his computer, his house, and he is constantly followed by the police as they spy on him and his whereabouts,” says his Wikipedia entry.

Gunaman asked him how 91����Ƶ could best support his work and Ai replied, “Maybe just write to your [university] president and ask [if maybe] I can come to your school to teach or talk or whatever… Now we know each other, and I know you, [and] you know me. So, you know, we can keep in touch.”

A unique twist to the documentary, Concrete, Steel and Paint, is that the painters include men incarcerated in a maximum-security prison as well as crime victims.

The filmmakers, Cindy Burstein and Tony Heriza, consulted with , distinguished professor of at , as they prepared to distribute the film. It covers the journey of these artists toward profound insights on the nature of crime – and reconciliation – during their collaboration, and explores how the criminal justice system affects everyone involved in the project.

After its 2009 release, Concrete, Steel and Paint found a wide audience within restorative justice circles. In 2012, Burstein and Heriza began working with CJP to use the film as a starting point for dialogue about using restorative practices to effect change on the wider social level that their film explores.

“Embedding our restorative justice work in peacebuilding is one of our unique niches,” said CJP professor , co-director of .

While is often conceptualized on the personal level between individual victims and offenders, Stauffer said that CJP is equally interested in broader use of restorative practices to address violence caused by large structures like the criminal justice system.

Sarah Roth Shank and Jonathan Swartz, both , and two other classmates have led dialogues at several events where the film was shown, including the 2013 National Conference on Restorative Justice in Toledo, Ohio. Future students will have opportunity to continue leading similar dialogues around the film, both for practical facilitation experience and to explore the use of restorative practices to confront systemic injustice, Stauffer said.

The filmmakers’ enthusiasm for these dialogues began after they worked with Zehr to lead one at the Concrete, Steel and Paint premiere in Philadelphia. After seeing hundreds of strangers erupt into conversation with one another after the screening, they were inspired to continue exploring how their film could continue to spark conversation among and between crime victims, criminal justice reform advocates and other stakeholders, as well as motivate them into action.

CJP has incorporated the role of media and social change through dialogue into its curriculum. At its annual in 2014, two courses co-taught by 91����Ƶ professors and graduates of CJP will relate directly to these themes.

•  “Media for Societal Transformation,” co-led by a veteran filmmaker on faculty, , and Danielle Taylor, MA ’13, will be held during SPI’s first session, May 5-13, 2014.
• “The Impact of Social Issues of Restorative Justice” will be co-led by Stauffer and Jacqueline Roebuck Sakho, MA ’09, during the second SPI session, May 15-23, 2014. (Read more about Sakho’s restorative justice work .)

In 2015, SPI will hold an intensive, three-week media camp for more advanced training in using film and social media for .

“Developing media and advocacy skills is important, because we know that documenting structural problems is key to changing the system,” said , CJP program director.

Stauffer said that CJP encourages people to think systemically, asking the key question, “What would it be like to make a whole system more aligned to restorative values and process?”

More information on these and other courses at SPI can be found on its .

“Brazilians are big dreamers, incredibly optimistic,” Sterner explained in a recent telephone interview, reflecting on the time, 1998-’00, when she and Turner, her professional partner and husband, worked in Northeastern Brazil. A two-year fellowship with the Institute of Current World Affairs Time enabled them to document, in still photography, the human side of issues there, including land rights, literacy, public health and women’s lives.

An exhibit of this work opens Feb. 14 in 91����Ƶ’s Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery in the University Commons.

, associate professor in , characterizes the couple as “some of my oldest and dearest friends,” whom she met when they were neighbors in Northern Virginia.

“It’s been amazing for me to watch them grow and change,” Moore adds. “Everything they do has a deeply human element.” She views their creativity as never “merely aesthetic. They’re deeply concerned with every story. They are not patronizing, but walk with the people they photograph.”

The couple will speak at both the exhibit opening and a performance of the play Time Stands Still on the evening of Feb. 14.

Sterner was touched by the Brazilians’ “optimism and ingenuity – how they went about solving problems. It’s a country of survivors.” Northeastern Brazil’s �������ã�� (backcountry) is a semi-arid, often-mythologized area that entails “hard lives.” Droughts and famines require frequent migrations, reminiscent of America’s Depression-era Dust Bowl, Sterner explained. She and Turner primarily worked in the provinces Bahia and Pernambuco and the city Recife.

Sterner is director of photojournalism programs at D.C.’s Corcoran College of Art and Design. Prior to the Brazil project, she documented immigration and poverty in the United States and life in Haiti for the Associated Press. From 2001 to 2006, she was a White House photographer.

Sterner’s work was previously featured in a 2011 exhibit at 91����Ƶ, titled “Women’s Apron Stories,” which centered on women in El Salvador.

Turner, a New Orleans native and adjunct professor at the Corcoran, has worked with the Times Picayune and Los Angeles Times newspapers. His work has appeared in National Geographic on subjects including Katrina, the Gulf Oil Spill and quilombos (descendants of runaway slaves who settled on the Brazilian frontier).

The couple will speak at 4 p.m. at the Feb. 14 opening of “Sonhos e Saudades: Tracing Northeastern Brazil.” That evening they will participate in a talk-back following a production of Time Stands Still,  a Tony nominated play written by Pulitzer Prize winning Donald Margulies, at 7:30 pm in the Eshleman Studio Theater. The play is about a photojournalist who has returned home from covering war-torn Iraq, where she was injured; she must deal with personal issues, including her relationship to her reporter-boyfriend,  a fellow war correspondent.

The installation will include raw footage from Shamir’s 2011 Academy Award winning film, “The Vermeers.” Shamir proposes to exhibit Jan Vermeer’s paintings in a digital environment, surrounding the audience with a digitalized, fragmented and moving version of Vermeer’s images.

“Tal has been inspiring and sharing his experience in creating his film with visual and communication arts students,” said , professor of media arts and peacebuilding. “It’s exciting that he’s chosen 91����Ƶ as a venue to take his film to the next level by projecting it on multiple screens in our gallery.”

Admission to the event is free and open to the public. The gallery is located in 91����Ƶ’s University Commons.

For more information, contact Paulette Moore at 703-597-7766 or email paulette.moore@emu.edu.

The 4th Annual , sponsored by the (encompassing those who work with “moving pixels”), was founded by David E. Carter, originator of the well-known Telly Awards for film/video work.

Weaving Life was produced by last spring, in cooperation with . The documentary began airing on ABC-TV affiliates on Oct. 21, with the last airing on Dec. 16.

Weaving Life tells how Terry wove relationships, joy, partnership and understanding into his lifelong work in Afghanistan. Terry, a 64-year-old United Methodist, was among 10 humanitarian aid workers assassinated in Afghanistan in August 2010. was among the slain workers.

The documentary shows the way Terry set out to build bridges where “everyone else was blowing them up,” says production consultant and storyteller Jonathan Larson. “He spans the chasms of suspicion, religious hatred and outright warfare, with patient bonds of trust and openness.”

, media arts and peacebuilding professor at 91����Ƶ, oversaw the 16 students who produced the documentary, with help from classmates in a motion graphics course taught by , PhD, professor of visual and communication arts. Unable to go to Afghanistan to get new video footage for the documentary, the students relied on photos, numerous motion graphics and effects, and videotaped interviews to illustrate the story.

The highest Pixie award is a platinum award for entries scoring 9 or higher on a 10 point scale; those scoring 7 to 8.9 points qualify for a gold award. More information is available at

Terry’s story is also the focus of a book, . The book is available for $15.99 (25 percent off for group study) and the documentary is available for $14.99 from . More information on the program and book is also available at

MennoMedia, which produces documentaries through participation in the , worked with 91����Ƶ intern Justin Roth to complete the documentary to meet ABC-TV specifications for airing this fall.

Weaving Life tells how Dan Terry, a United Methodist who worked with numerous Mennonites through the years, wove relationships, joy, partnership and understanding into his lifelong work in Afghanistan. Terry, 64, was among 10 humanitarian aid workers assassinated in Afghanistan in August 2010.

Going against the grain of almost all conventional wisdom, the documentary shows how Terry set out to build bridges where “everyone else was blowing them up,” says production consultant and storyteller Jonathan Larson. “He spans the chasms of suspicion, religious hatred and outright warfare, with patient bonds of trust and openness.”

The production of this film was also a weaving together of opportunity, timing, and willing student production workers through students, who worked on the documentary during the spring 2012 semester and first showed it during ���ѱ�’s graduation weekend in April.

, media arts and professor at 91����Ƶ who oversaw the 16 students who worked on the documentary, says they were drawn to the story because of Terry’s almost 40 years “devoted to the people, the culture, and the landscapes of Afghanistan.” The students were able to interview Terry’s wife and daughter extensively for the documentary.

, and Brian Carderelli, a videographer and resident of Harrisonburg, were among the 10 workers who were killed along with Terry. The team was returning to Kabul from a medical relief trip to northern Afghanistan when they were ambushed.

Larson, an international aid worker who first met Dan Terry as a student at Woodstock boarding school in northern India, tells much of Terry’s story in the film, and is the author of a forthcoming book, Making Friends among the Taliban: A Peacemaker’s Journey in Afghanistan (Herald Press, to be released Oct. 19, 2012).

“Every now and then, a story comes along that seems so improbable, that it causes us to stop and reconsider what we have taken to be settled issues,” says Larson.

, which produces documentaries through participation in the Electronic Programming Committee of the National Council of Churches, worked with 91����Ƶ intern Justin Roth to complete the documentary to meet ABC-TV specifications for airing this fall.

To find out which ABC stations are planning to air the documentary, check .

For information on encouraging a local ABC station to use the program, call Sheri Hartzler, electronic programming director at MennoMedia at 540-574-4487.

MennoMedia is an agency of and .

Dan Terry devoted his life to helping Afghan people.

For nearly four decades, the humanitarian aid worker coordinated small-scale community development projects throughout the struggling country until his murder in 2010.

“I never know how to describe what my dad did. Every time I called him, he was doing something different,” said his daughter, Anneli Terry-Nelson, 30. “He was a networker. He knew someone who could do something someone needed to be done and could link them up over a cup of tea.”

The 64-year-old was among 10 humanitarian aid workers murdered on Aug. 5, 2010, as they were returning to Kabul from a medical relief trip in the northern part of Afghanistan.

91����Ƶ alum Glen Lapp and Harrisonburg resident Brian Carderelli also were killed in the ambush.

On Friday night at the MainStage Theater in University Commons, 16 91����Ƶ students from the university’s visual and communication arts department unveiled a 57-minute documentary, “Weaving Life,” which portrayed Terry’s life.

Paulette Moore, a media arts and peace building professor, thought of the idea for the documentary after one of Terry’s friends, Jonathan Larson, spoke during a university chapel service.

“Those killings affected our community, the Mennonite community, greatly,” Moore said. “We were part of that story.”

Kelby Miller, a 22-year-old senior from Sarasota, Fla., served as the senior producer for the project.

The film depicts Terry’s unique approach to humanitarianism.

“I hope the documentary shows people Dan’s different ways of doing things,” Miller said. “He wasn’t just worried about giving them things but [also] making relationships.”

Justin Roth, a 21-year-old senior from Bettsville, Ohio, served as the project’s editor. Roth said he learned a great deal about Terry’s life during the semester-long project.

“We learned a whole lot about Dan through the stories of other people,” he said.

MennoMedia, which produces documentaries through the National Programming Committee of the National Council of Churches, plans to prepare the film for airing on ABC television stations this fall.

91����Ƶ (91����Ƶ) students, intrigued by Terry’s story of commitment and humility, will present a documentary, “Weaving Life,” that explores his life, work and tragic death, Friday, April 27 at 6 p.m. in the .

“Dan and his family spent 40 years devoted to the people, the culture, and the landscapes of Afghanistan,” said , media arts and peacebuilding professor at 91����Ƶ who oversaw the 16 students who worked on the documentary.

Glen Lapp, , and Brian Carderelli, a videographer and resident of Harrisonburg, were among the 10 workers who were killed along with Terry. The team was returning to Kabul from a medical relief trip to northern Afghanistan when they were ambushed.

Special guests at the Friday showing will include members of the Terry, Lapp and Carderelli families, as well as Jonathan Larson, an international aid worker and life-long friend of Dan Terry.

A talkback after the viewing, which is 57 minutes long, will provide opportunity for audience members to interact with the student producers and special guests.

The student production team spent the spring semester gathering video footage, photos and stories, as well as conducting interviews across the U.S.

The showing is free and open to the public.

This event is jointly hosted by the 91����Ƶ Visual and Communication Arts department, ���ѱ�’s and , also located in Harrisonburg.

MennoMedia, which produces documentaries through participation in the Electronic Programming Committee of the , will prepare the student-produced video for airing on ABC stations in the fall.