The Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) teaches 16 to 20 short-term, intensive courses each May and June. Courses are taught on a variety of topics, including but not limited to trauma awareness, restorative justice, organizational health, evaluation, and the connection between peacebuilding, media, and the arts. These course can be taken for training and skills enhancement or academic credit. Visit our website () for more information.

“I don’t know anything about farming,” Brown said, during last week’s “Frontier Luncheon” at 91����Ƶ’s . “I watched Youtube videos.”

He hasn’t let this knowledge deficit stop him from seeking a life of service, however.

Brown started in Louisburg, North Carolina, in 2013 after deciding to leave behind a successful NFL career. He was driven by , Army Spc. Lunsford Bernard Brown II, who died in Iraq in 2003, and by a strong calling that life meant more than the game of football.

In 2014, First Fruits Farm donated more than 100,000 pounds of sweet potatoes and 10,000 pounds of cucumbers to local hunger relief organizations. From planting to harvesting to distribution, the farm relies on donations and volunteers that have helped Brown accomplish far more than he could by his own efforts.

“Every step of the way, whenever there was a problem that we had, someone stepped up. They would give us a call and say, ‘Heard about what you’re doing, don’t know exactly what you’re doing, but could you use this help?’” he said.

Brown’s mission to produce a sustainable source of food for his community has been a leap of faith. The sweet potatoes – a crop he chose for its nutrient density, long shelf-life, and familiarity within the community – were planted for no charge by neighboring farmers. They were harvested by volunteer networks of gleaners and then distributed by the , the , and the . Trusting that these connections will allow Brown reach his goals is how he lives a life of obedience and answers his calling.

Brown also sees his mission as greater in scope than providing food for the needy: “We’re not just about giving back. It’s about empowering our local communities as well,” he said.

First Fruits Farm also emphasizes the teaching and mentoring of young people in agriculture. Brown remarked that anyone could help on the farm. That includes his wife, Tay, a dentist, and their four children (the youngest, Lunsford Bernard Brown III, called “Tre,” is only six months old, but the others, including two-year-old Noah, all help on to the farm).

“If you visit my farm, I put you to work,” he joked.

Developing sustainable agriculture provides purpose for all members of the community and healthy, affordable food in an area where on a regular basis. In North Carolina, that statistic is at 26.7%, one of the highest rates in the country, Brown said.

Brown sees the problem of hunger as “an issue of the heart.” Since leaving the NFL, he’s heard from many people who claim that he could have done more with the millions of dollars he would have made as .

Brown says, though, that “throwing money” at the problem is a short-term fix. Only through truly committing himself to farming could he inspire others to practice agriculture for the benefit of themselves and their community. Production of locally-grown food is how Brown hopes to combat hunger on a national scale.

“What I believe now is throwing my heart at the problem … By doing this as a grassroots effort, there are literally thousands of youth, thousands of children – it has piqued their interest,” he said.

For the fall of 2015, Brown has set a goal of harvesting ten acres of land to collect 250,000 pounds of sweet potatoes. He hopes the first will attract over a thousand volunteers to harvest sweet potatoes and enjoy food, music and entertainment in the evening.

Additionally, he plans to begin growing summer fruits and vegetables and working with public schools to set aside land for growing fruit trees.

First Fruits also distributes seeds to those interested in starting their own First Fruits garden. Since February 2015, the has mailed seeds all over the world.

The concept of service isn’t new to Brown, a devout Christian. In 2008, he started the nonprofit organization, , which promotes biblical literacy and has provided the umbrella organization under which First Fruits Farm operates. In 2010, he won the for his community service, both in the metropolitan St. Louis area and in military and veteran outreach.

But now, in devoting all of his daily working hours to service, he’s found his niche. “All I can say is ‘Thank God,'” Brown said several times during his presentation. “It’s not my work, it’s God’s work.”

Speaking to about 100 members of the dining at Spotswood Country Club, Swartzendruber offered several stories to explain the transformative impact of the , including one involving his son Steven.

Steven did his cross-cultural in Central America as a 20-year-old in the spring of his junior year. Inspired by that experience, he did a year-long service stint in Mexico after graduating in 2000. There he lived with a family whose host mother became ill. Steven was holding her hand when she died. He returned to 91����Ƶ to earn an MDiv in 2005. Today, as a 36-year-old hospice chaplain, he often relives his Mexico experience by being present for, often holding the hands of, people who are dying.

For students who feel unable to spend a semester off campus, such as some collegiate athletes, Swartzendruber said 91����Ƶ offers shorter-term possibilities, often during the summer.

“But we would prefer that our students do their cross-cultural internationally and for a full semester,” he said, adding that “internationally” typically means in a second- or third-world country, rather than in a “posh” location.

He cited standout volleyball player – who graduated from a local public high school – for choosing to go to Spain and Morocco in the fall of 2013, though she missed a season of playing. The cross-cultural sparked her interest in doing three years of service in Central America after she graduates this academic year.

“We don’t send them as a single student to take a course in a university on their own,” he said. 91����Ƶ sends students as a cohort, accompanied by a faculty or staff member who typically has years of experience in that culture.

The first question from the audience after Swartzendruber’s talk pertained to the process by which 91����Ƶ selects the homes where students stay during their cross-culturals.

The president noted that the university’s decades of experience with these trips, coupled with the on-the-ground knowledge of the 91����Ƶ trip leaders, has enabled the university to build up a base of host families and to know how to locate other suitable families as needed.

Another questioner wanted to know about opportunities for people from other countries to study at 91����Ƶ. Swartzendruber cited 91����Ƶ’s , which has attracted more than 1,000 students from 62 countries since it began in 1989 and is one of the fastest-growing programs at 91����Ƶ. Once these IEP students have mastered English, they often go on to enroll at 91����Ƶ or at other area colleges and universities.

He also spoke of 91����Ƶ’s 20-year-old , which hosted 184 students from 36 countries in 2014. Since its founding, the institute has brought more than 2,800 participants from 121 countries to Harrisonburg.

Finally, he noted that about 37 percent of 91����Ƶ’s incoming class is “diverse,” meaning they are not Caucasians from the United States.

The luncheon wrapped up with a Rotarian offering his congratulations to 91����Ƶ for having a and a among its alumni group.

In 2000, when Ali was a graduate student in conflict transformation at 91����Ƶ’s , she encouraged a family friend, now-president , to take courses on building peace at 91����Ƶ.

Mohamud came in 2001, the year Ali completed her master’s degree, and took three intensive courses in the . Another Somali woman took SPI classes that year, Hawa Moallim. Ali, Mohamud and Moallim returned to their home country eager to apply what they had learned.

Somalia had been devastated by decades of violent conflict and lacked a functioning government. The three Somalis trained at 91����Ƶ yearned to nurture peace among their fellow Muslims, usually affiliated with clan fiefdoms that squabbled among themselves, sometimes to the point of killing. (Five more Somalis have done graduate study at 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding since 2001.)

Ali’s life since the early 2000s has alternated between highly visible public service and further graduate study. She served in Somalia’s parliament and in the prime minister’s cabinet in 2001-02. She left Somalia when radically strident Muslim clerics gained ascendancy in the mid-2000s and headed back to Virginia, where she earned a PhD in c in 2014. Yet each summer, except for 2007, she spent an extended period in Somalia. From 2007 to 2010, she was the senior advisor on reconciliation to the previous president.

Much need for peacebuilding in Somalia

Ali is now back in East Africa – permanently, she thinks – ready to put her experience and knowledge into practice where much of her family lives and “where the need is so great.” Her return has been welcomed by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. She is married to a Somali engineer, who is happy for her to realize her potential and lead as a woman in a male-dominated society. They have a 20-year-old daughter who is a student at .

But before Ali headed home this time, she paid a one-day visit to long-time friends Earl and Pat Hostetter Martin, who live almost adjacent to 91����Ƶ. Pat is a former SPI administrator. The Martins invited a couple of her former 91����Ƶ professors, and , to reconnect with her over a meal at their home. That day Ali reflected on her path to, through, and beyond 91����Ƶ, often in response to questions from an 91����Ƶ news writer who was present.

In the late 1990s, Ali recalled, she was the head of an NGO in Somalia, offering humanitarian assistance. “I was dealing with emergencies all the time – everything was destroyed. If a [water] canal was dug, it was destroyed.”

She kept telling herself, “We have to deal with the root causes of this – we can’t just deal with the symptoms.” But how?

She went to a workshop in South Africa, learned about a peacekeeping studies program in England, and got accepted into it.

Vernon Jantzi impressed her

She deviated from this plan when she heard Jantzi, foundational author of the curriculum of CJP’s master’s program, speak at a UNESCO conference in Nairobi. She sought him out and liked what he said so much, she came to 91����Ƶ, becoming one of the first 50 master’s degree graduates from CJP.

Ali already had a favorable impression of Mennonites from seeing some in action in Somalia as educators and healthcare workers. “Where I come from, community is very important. I’m glad I came here first [prior to state-run George Mason University], because here you know everybody. There [at GMU] it is big, and you can easily get lost.”

Ali was raised in a religious family, where her grandfather, father and four brothers knew the Qur’an by heart and were sent to school. Her mother, however, was not given an education. As Ali grew to maturity, her mom decided to keep the tradition and only send her brothers to school. Ali was mainly expected to help cook and clean, key skills she would need when she married and had children. One day, though, Ali recalls that an aunt visited and persuaded Ali’s mother to let her attend school.

Ali now asserts, “In any crisis situation, I think women are more skillful. When men can’t talk, women talk. They are better at facilitating dialogue.”

Challenged as a woman

Unfortunately, she adds, “Women [in the Somali culture] are not very aggressive or supportive of each other in leadership roles. The people against me [when she was in politics] were mostly women.” Ali says she hopes to see the day when a woman is president or prime minister of Somalia.

Ali aspires to start a professional training center for peacebuilders in Mogadishu – preferably in collaboration with CJP. She dreads, however, trying to attract funding for such an endeavor. “I don’t like the politics of donors, especially the money from [foreign] governments, which always has political strings attached.”

To achieve peace in Somalia, Ali feels that great effort must be made – and patiently sustained – to “engage everybody and not alienate or exclude any group.”

Is engagement and inclusion possible with Al-Shabaab? This is a group that has played a viciously destabilizing role in Somalia, and indeed the entire region, through its terrorist tactics, including repeated attempts to assassinate President Mohamud. “I’m not sure the best approach to them,” Ali admitted, “but I know reconciliation is always the best option.”

When , he said he had recently met with Ali in Somalia where they spoke of new national-level responsibilities for her; he conveyed her personal greetings to her alma mater. He also commended CJP’s , which has 16 Somali-speaking women as graduates or current students: “You educate a woman, you educate a family. You educate a family, you educate a whole nation.”

In a conversation-style talk at tables set for an intimate lunch, Mohamud told 91����Ƶ leaders: “I’d like to officially request your help for Somalia with the tools and techniques you have here, which are very life-saving tools – not [only] life-saving at the individual level, but life-saving at a nation level.”

He commended CJP’s , which has 16 Somali-speaking women as graduates or current students: “You educate a woman, you educate a family. You educate a family, you educate a whole nation.”

He added that another important group to nurture as peacebuilders is the youth of his country, who constitute the largest segment of its population and who have spent much of their lives experiencing violence and displacement. “All of their lives [have been] unstable for a long time. They keep running, one place after another.”

The young of Somalia need trauma healing, education, and work opportunities in order not to be vulnerable to recruiting by terrorist organizations, he said.

CJP program director concurred with Mohamud’s observation, saying: “We don’t want to create a society where young men are drawn into violence because they have no prospects for a positive life, while young women are taught to be peacemakers.”

91����Ƶ’s commitment to Somali region

Docherty touched on 91����Ƶ’s “long commitment to the Somali region.” She spoke of celebrating the graduation of CJP’s first cohort of Somali women in the peacebuilding leadership program in December 2013. There she felt “great hope,” but also heard the women express “the need to connect large-scale work on trauma healing with any initiatives to rebuild the country.”

Mohamud arrived in Harrisonburg in a mid-sized black car sandwiched between two other black vehicles, with accompanying members of the U.S. Secret Service.

“We are always honored when our former students return to campus, [but] to my knowledge, you are the first alumnus to return with a motorcade,” said CJP executive director in his welcoming remarks, evoking a warm smile from the Somali president.

How this president came to know 91����Ƶ

CJP’s direct connections to Somalia include alumna Khadija Ossoble Ali, who earned her in 2001. Ali then became a member of Somalia’s parliament and served in the prime minister’s cabinet. She left Somalia in the mid-2000s due to political changes and began pursuing a PhD at in Virginia. With her doctorate just completed, she recently met with Mohamud in Somalia where they spoke of new responsibilities for her. (The president conveyed her personal greetings to 91����Ƶ.)

After Ali began studying at CJP in the late 1990s, she recommended 91����Ƶ’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) to Mohamud, who was then an educational leader in Somalia. (He is the founder of what has evolved into in Mogadishu, with 5,000 students.) Mohamud took three of SPI’s intensive courses in 2001, focusing on mediation, trauma healing, and how to design learner-centered trainings.

“My brothers and sisters,” he said, recalling his time at SPI, “this is another great day in coming back here after more than 10 years away.” Since Mohamud’s time at SPI, more than a dozen Somali men and women have attended SPI, plus many others who have Somali roots but enroll in SPI from Kenyan, U.S., or other addresses (SPI does not track its participants by ethnicity).

“After I left here,” Mohamud recounted, “I extensively traveled in Somalia, mediating [between] different communities and clans [which] were having conflicts for different reasons.”

Understandings, patience, helped by SPI teachings

“The tools and the instruments that I took from here helped me a lot in sitting with the people, having the patience and the endurance to listen to sometimes irrational arguments,” he said.

Fortunately, Mohamud said, his SPI training helped him to realize that the people speaking irrationally and often choosing destructive paths were burdened by psychosocial traumatic baggage as a result of their constant exposure to violent conflict.

Unfortunately, he added, Somalia remains a tinderbox. A destructive act by even one person can undermine years of efforts at peacebuilding and reconciliation and spark widespread attacks of one group against another.

Threatened by terrorists

In this environment – with Somalia’s still-weak, distrusted governmental bodies – the terrorist group Al-Shabaab has played a viciously destabilizing role in Somalia and indeed the entire region, Mohamud said. Members of this group tried to kill Mohamud in a hotel assault four days after he became president on Sept. 10, 2012, and have launched other attacks on him over the last two years, sometimes killing people around him.

On a positive note, Mohamud said Somalia is a “very, very rich country” in terms of possibilities for its people to thrive once stability is achieved. It has millions of hectares of arable land, two strongly flowing rivers, the longest coastline in Africa, and the most livestock per capita. He pointed out that Somalia is situated at one of the “most strategic locations in the world.”

The meeting was held in an area that could be easily secured by the Secret Service and local police. Twenty-six representatives of 91����Ƶ joined Mohamud and his accompanying group of eight for remarks and lunch at , a relatively secluded meeting area on the back side of Common Good Marketplace, near the southeast corner of 91����Ƶ’s campus.

Mohamud singled out��, a rising junior at 91����Ƶ, for special attention at the luncheon, giving her a warm hug as he departed. He praised her deceased mother, , a Somali-Muslim renowned for her peace work in East Africa, for insisting that the “cross-cutting subject” of peacebuilding be woven through the required coursework of all students at Simad University.

Fruits of interfaith work

As one of three who spoke on behalf of 91����Ƶ, Byler explicitly referred to the interfaith nature of 91����Ƶ’s work with Somali-speaking people, who are largely Muslim.

Byler quoted two passages from the Holy Quran that “whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the lives of all humankind.” And: “Have you seen him who denies the religion? He is the one who harshly rebuffs the orphan and does not urge the feeding of the poor.” Byler offered Psalm 82:3 as having a similar message for Jews and Christians: “Give justice to the weak and the orphan; maintain the right of the lowly and destitute.” The Somali president nodded in affirmation as Byler spoke these words.

As a sign of CJP’s commitment to Somalia and the rest of the Horn of Africa, Byler said CJP is establishing its first “practice and learning hub” to “partner with and support our [East African] alumni as they engage in this challenging work” of addressing the deeply rooted, systemic problems that feed the cycles of violence.

91����Ƶ President presented the president of Somalia with several gifts, including training materials in the Somali language used by 91����Ƶ’s program.

Groundskeeping staff�� – including up to six full-time work-study students –��continue to pull weeds, mow lawns, care for trees, plant flowers and edible landscaping, repair buildings, and perform general maintenance. In the words of grounds supervisor , “It’s not like the grass takes a break.” Work-study student Shay Whetzel says he enjoys getting to the end of the hard day’s work, then realizing he helped make the campus “look amazing.”

Other vital contributors include library staffers who take care of one of the best places to study, housekeeping crew members who make sure the facilities stay clean, and dining hall workers who take care of the people taking care of everything else. All these groups have student workers to help out while caring for each other, the campus, and the events that visit the campus.

, with three full-time and eight work-study and/or temporary employees, handles the events that use the 91����Ƶ campus by coordinating with leaders, communicating with various departments, setting up furniture for use, and making sure everything needed by a visiting group is available.

“We stay extremely busy over the summer,” says , assistant director for auxiliary services. Generally speaking, he says 91����Ƶ hosts three kinds of large events, as well as a number of small events. The large events include church, youth, and athletic groups. Churches come to campus for meetings, retreats, and conferences. Youth groups come to worship and learn. Athletic groups come to practice and learn using 91����Ƶ’s equipment and fields. Many of these events go on for days at a time, so visiting groups must use the dorm buildings.

Blue Ridge Running Camp is largest

The largest athletic event is , involving 40 to 50 coaches from NCAA Division I, II and III schools across the country. The biggest church group is , involving several Apostolic churches from across the Eastern United States and Canada. These two groups, with populations reaching several hundred each, run back to back.

Auxiliary services prepares for Apostolic Eastern Camp to fill every single dorm room for a week in July, and then spends the weekend afterwards preparing the rooms again for Blue Ridge Running Camp. This weekend might be the most stressful time on campus during the summer.

The largest youth event is a summer camp held by , a Baptist group that involves several youth groups. This event runs early in July.

The events calendar linked to the auxiliary services section of 91����Ƶ’s website lists 32 major events running from the first of May to the ninth of August this year.

Outside of church, youth, and athletic events, 91����Ƶ serves family reunions, wedding receptions, travelers, and other one-time events by renting out Lehman Auditorium, the gymnasium, dorm buildings, or other facilities. Some traveling groups simply need to use the dorms for one night, or some performing groups, such as , may need Lehman Auditorium for a few shows.

Site of four Augusta school graduations

91����Ƶ serves Augusta County Public Schools by renting out the University Commons for the graduation ceremonies of four county high schools. Over the course of two days, 8,000-10,000 people pass through the Commons to attend these graduations.

The main 91����Ƶ-sponsored events after spring graduation ceremonies are the , , the , classes, and the . This year, especially, construction workers are on campus, and renovating Roselawn into office and classroom spaces.

Veurink points out that 91����Ƶ hopping over the summer is “a matter of stewardship – by using your facilities you generate revenue.” If 91����Ƶ didn’t invite others to use the campus, it would be wasting the potential of the campus. The revenues, which hit an all-time high gross of approximately $600,000 in 2012, says Veurink, support 91����Ƶ’s general fund. More than that, many of these groups form intimate connections with the 91����Ƶ community, as about 80 percent of the groups are returning groups. Veurink described the connection by saying that “they kind of become like family to us.”

Which is why aspiring peacebuilders from other Christian denominations often make their way to 91����Ƶ.

It’s why Jay Wittmeyer, now executive director of global mission and service for the Church of the Brethren, completed an MA at 91����Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in 2004.

At that time Wittmeyer was fresh from running a hospital in Nepal during its civil war, when that country’s version of revolutionary Maoists said they were struggling for justice and equity for those living impoverished in the countryside.

Interviewed at a gathering of STAR practitioners, Wittmeyer said the current situation in Nigeria reminds him of the dynamics of Nepal when he was there, off and on, from 2000 to 2004. Wittmeyer had recently returned to the United States after paying a supportive visit in April to Nigerian Brethren church leaders.

He said Boko Haram, a self-described Islamic group that is using violence and fear to try to turn Nigeria into its version of an Islamic state, is tapping the same grievances as the Maoists did in Nepal – meaning that Boko Haram feels that the oil money from Nigeria’s South is mainly going into the pockets of the Christian-dominated governing group.

The school in the far northeast of Nigeria from which Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of girls on April��15 was founded by Brethren missionaries decades ago, but is now run by the government for girls of any faith, said Wittmeyer. Residents of the area in which the school is located, however, have been largely affiliated with the Church of the Brethren. He elaborated:

[Brethren] communities have been attacked and burned out. A lot of church members are staying with family members, cousins . . . we’re not seeing tent cities yet. Families are hosting others – they’ve built extensions on houses so they can house more. Some need to drill for more water, there’s so many more people.

But people can’t farm their lands – this is the time to plant. Hunger builds up through the months as you go. People get attacked at night and they just run. They literally have nothing. Do you migrate south? Do you try to stay? We are in conversation with Church World Service about help for refugees. A lot of Brethren families that have moved into Cameroon.

The recurring question is, ‘How can we help keep the Brethren Church to maintain its peace position in situations where members feel as though they are being led like sheep to the slaughter?

Wittmeyer feels the Nigerian Brethren are “teaching us about discipleship and taking seriously the words of Jesus. They are living them out in ways that we don’t typically have to do.” Notably, the theme of last year’s annual Brethren conference in Nigeria was, “They can kill the body but not the soul.”

While Wittmeyer necessarily stretches his attention to other responsibilities in Asia, Africa and all of the Americas, within Nigeria full-time is another 2004 master’s graduate from CJP, Toma Ragnjiya. He is the “peace officer” at the headquarters of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (known as EYN).

Ragnjiya has spearheaded the Christian and Muslim Peace Initiative and runs the peace-training part of the pastor training program. He is featured in an inspiring 18-minute documentary posed on YouTube with the title “Church of the Brethren in Nigeria Sowing Seeds of Peace.”

Much of Ragnjiya’s efforts go into building mutual support between Muslims and Christians, so together they can douse any sparks of violence between the groups and make space for moderates. In 2010-11 when a Muslim school was burned by Christian youths (who said they were retaliating for Muslim violence), Brethren leaders stepped forward, saying, “We recognize that Christians burning your school is wrong, and we want to make amends for that.”

They ended up providing a well to supply water to the rebuilt Islamic school. “That opened up doors for dialogue,” said Wittmeyer. “Out of that developed an interfaith peace program that is looking at micro-finance, with no interest owed. We’ve also been funding individuals to get trained across religious lines – we probably have 20 now, male and female. Maybe a Muslim does an internship or apprenticeship with a Christian welder, who could help them get started in their own business. We could do this with tailor shops.”

Wittmeyer sits on the board of Heifer International, which he would like to see add STAR-type trauma sensitivity training to its development work. ��— Bonnie Price Lofton

Another alumnus, Nigerian Gopar Tapkida, MA ’01, worked with support from Mennonite Central Committee for a dozen years in Nigeria, building bridges between Muslim and Christian communities and reducing the terrain for violence, before moving onto a new MCC assignment in Zimbabwe. Go to emu.edu/news and search for
“Nigerian grad has had huge impact.”

Dickey, who retired from the foreign service at age 56, believes that the best years of her career are ahead. While serving her last assignment before retirement at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington D.C., she attended a session of Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) led by 91����Ƶ staffers Elaine Zook Barge and Vernon Jantzi. The training immediately resonated with her – she had witnessed the lasting impact of traumatic wars and natural disasters on individuals and communities.

Dickey next found her way to STAR’s home base at 91����Ƶ and enrolled in two of SPI’s four sessions in 2014, with plans to take two more SPI courses in 2015. “I put my toe in and liked it. Now I am fully submerging myself in the 91����Ƶ experience,” she says. She intends to earn a graduate certificate in conflict transformation while working to become a fully qualified STAR trainer.

An experienced diplomat who has been stationed in Canada, Mauritania, Yemen, Laos, and Vietnam, Dickey also studied in France and Tunisia. She has first-hand work experience in a number of other countries across the Middle East, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Dickey looks forward to taking her classroom experience and applying it in the field. Later this summer she will be landing for the third time in Uganda, where she will work with African Union (AU) peacekeepers who are heading for Somalia.

“The [AU] peacekeepers are in a very difficult position because they have weapons, but their mandate is to protect civilians,” she told 91����Ƶ News Service. “I don’t know weapons, but I do know how to work with people and how to help others deal with people.”

Dickey will focus on helping the AU peacekeepers to interact sensitively with the local populations by providing contextual information, including the historical and socioeconomic roots of the Somali conflict. She will also help them to understand United Nations standards for the protection of civilians. She said her work will be informed by the lens of dialogue and community-building gained during her time at SPI.

“The 91����Ƶ method is something that helps you to be at peace with yourself so that you can model that to other people,” she said. “A lot of people have two responses to conflict: rush into it or avoid it. But there are other, more productive ways to deal with it. I want to be one of the people who engages with and deals with conflict in a collaborative way.”

In the future, Dickey sees herself returning regularly to Harrisonburg, Virginia, for 91����Ƶ courses and conferences. “As a mature adult, I have found something new and exciting to engage me. I am hoping to take more classes and come back to train. I get a really good feeling when I come here. I know it’s the right place when I feel it in my gut.”��

It was the first in a new series of practitioner-focused consultations and conferences that will be held each year during the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI).

“We wanted to gather the folks who have been using STAR around the world to get their feedback on who’s using it, what’s working, and why, and make adjustments as needed,” said
J. Daryl Byler, executive director of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP). “We’re trying to set up a process of learning from our alumni and to update our curriculum based on what they’re learning as they put these things into practice.”

The event also helped to strengthen the network of alumni from around the world who have been trained in STAR since it was first offered in 2001.

Doing so will benefit both the university and STAR practitioners, as CJP plans to use this alumni network to implement upcoming contract work, Byler said.

One example is a USAID contract with CJP to provide STAR training to 150 staff in Juba, South Sudan. Five STAR alumni will carry out that training, along with two 91����Ƶ professors.

Byler said CJP plans to begin three-year cycles of on-campus events around several practice areas, beginning with a consultation and followed by a practitioner conference and a writing and research conference in subsequent years.

In 2015, CJP will host a STAR conference as well as restorative justice consultation, beginning a similar three-year cycle for that field. Discussions are ongoing about other potential focus areas for these events in the future.

In addition to helping CJP to improve its academic curriculum and bolster alumni networks, Byler said the conferences and consultations will encourage more writing and research in these areas where CJP has special expertise.

Holding these new events in conjunction with SPI also will add to the learning environment there, as many participants in the consultations and conferences are expected to also enroll in SPI classes, Byler said. He credited CJP program director Jayne Docherty with the vision to launch the new series of events. — Andrew Jenner

This was the experience of Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, a prominent Syriac Orthodox (Catholic) archbishop, who arrived at the 2014 on May 2. He was one of 180 people from 36 countries registered for courses, including six others from Syria. After his seven-day intensive English language class, he was scheduled to take a seven-day class on trauma healing. His stay, however, was cut short by his need to minister to the people in his church.

Midway through his first week at 91����Ƶ, Selwanos learned that his home city of Homs – which had been occupied by rebel forces and subjected to a starvation-level siege by government forces – was now fully in government hands.

For civilians, including Selwanos’ church members, this meant that it might be sufficiently safe to return to their homes in this ancient city, dig out from the rubble, and begin to rebuild. It also meant, as Selwanos learned to his sorrow, that their historic Belt of St. Mary church would need to be rebuilt – it was burned as the last of the rebels departed in early May under a ceasefire agreement.

Rebuilding on site dating to 50 AD

By May 11, the Sunday morning immediately after Selwanos’ departure from 91����Ƶ, the archbishop had joined with other church leaders to pray in front of the shell of Belt of St. Mary, built a couple of centuries ago above an underground church dating back to 50 AD.�� The church housed a venerated relic that was believed to be a section of the belt of Mary, mother of Jesus.

“In my 14 years here, the story of Archbishop Selwanos ranks as one of the most memorable,” said , SPI director. “When he was asked which side he was on, he repeatedly said that he was on the side of peace for all the people of Syria.”

Selwanos’ home city had been one of the first to protest the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad, with demonstrations beginning in March 2011, according to an Associated Press report published by The Guardian on June 11, 2014. The city became a battleground as government forces cracked down and opponents took up arms.

“Government forces clamped a seal over the opposition-held districts in early 2012. Most of the tens of thousands of residents had already fled. With the siege dragging on, rebels began deserting as hunger spread, and morale collapsed in late 2013,” said AP. “Finally, the last few dozen fighters were evacuated in May to areas further north under a ceasefire, and government forces took full control of the city.”

Selwanos told 91����Ƶ News Service that more than 1,000 Christians died as a result of the conflict in Homs. He himself led 150,000 to 200,000 people out of the besieged city in January 2012 after conditions grew desperate in what is known as the Old City section of Homs. Water and electricity were cut off. The handful of people who remained behind in their homes – usually in an attempt to protect them – were reduced to scavenging for anything that might be edible.

Archbishop Selwanos bravely speaks up

Selwanos did not stay quiet, even though speaking out put him in greater danger. When two priests and two bishops were kidnapped, and three priests were killed in April 2013, he publicly appealed for an end to the targeting of nonviolent church leaders. He did the same when 13 Greek Orthodox nuns were kidnapped in November 2013 from their monastery near the border with Lebanon and held for three months.

“If we sit with others and have dialogues, we can find some solutions to [arrive at] peace,” Selwanos said at 91����Ƶ, often speaking with the interpretative help of another Syrian at SPI. “If we want to develop and live with freedom and democracy, there are other [non-violent] ways of reaching this. Nowadays, all the people of Syria are losing due to the war. Violence does not bring peace.”

Selwanos believes in interfaith cooperation, as demonstrated by a May 20, 2014, posting of a photo on his Facebook page that showed a church ceremony in Homs graciously attended by The Grand Mufti of Syria, Dr. Ahmad Hassoun, who was credited for “working seriously for a correct interpretation to Islam.”

Before leaving 91����Ƶ, Selwanos visited a thrift store that raises funds for , which sponsored the seven Syrians to come to SPI. “He was interested in seeing Gift & Thrift because he knew that these stores provide major support for MCC’s international work, including humanitarian help in Syria,” said , executive director of . When Selwanos spoke with some of the volunteers who staff the store, he told them that his main focus was on the well-being of his flock rather than the Belt of St. Mary building itself, since “the church is the people, not the building.”

SPI as a “safe space”

The Summer Peacebuilding Institute, now in its 19th year at 91����Ƶ, consisted of four seven-day sessions, each with several course options. The institute brought together people as diverse as Christians such as Selwanos with Muslims from the same region, along with Christians and Muslims and people of other faiths (and no faiths) from dozens of other countries. By the end of this SPI on June 13, participants over the years totaled more than 2,900 people from 120 countries.

“We try to create a safe space where people from various sides of a conflict can sit together and talk outside of the conflict zone,” said director Goldberg, who has worked at SPI since 1999.

The education department will also begin offering a 15-hour graduate certificate in RJE for students who aren’t pursuing a master’s degree.

“Restorative justice offers a completely different model of addressing classroom discipline problems that focuses on building effective relationships both between teachers and students, and among students,” said , an professor who has led the development of the new RJE programs.

While the theories of restorative justice were originally developed as an alternative approach to criminal justice, they have increasingly been embraced by teachers looking for more creative ways to address classroom behavior and create better learning environments, said Evans, who anticipates wide interest in 91����Ƶ’s new programs.

“People are hungry for good instruction about what restorative justice looks like in schools, and how they can be better prepared to be restorative justice educators,” she said.

To make the RJE programs more accessible to students from out of the area, some courses will be offered online or in other alternative formats such as on weekends or as week-long, intensive summer courses.

A successful example of restorative justice in schools was featured in a by Fania Davis, a past instructor at 91����Ƶ’s . The executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland (Calif.) Youth, Davis writes that restorative justice programs in some schools have been so successful at reducing suspension rates – by 74 percent in one case – that the school board has endorsed use of restorative justice throughout the city school system.

In January of 2014, the federal departments of education and justice also threw their weight behind restorative justice in the country’s schools. The agencies issued a joint letter telling teachers and administrators to address the disproportionate rates at which minority and economically disadvantaged students are suspended – suggesting, among other things, the use of restorative justice practices to address discipline problems and create healthy learning environments. With that mandate will come even more opportunity for graduates of 91����Ƶ’s new RJE concentration or certificate programs, Evans said.

“The new programs in Restorative Justice in Education are an excellent example of the mission of our graduate programs, which is to meet needs in the world with our unique combination of expertise, perspective, and values,” said Dean of Graduate Studies . “This concentration is a result of two graduate programs working together to offer something that is quite unique to the field of education, and something only 91����Ƶ’s combination of expertise and values can provide to the world.”

Over the next several years, faculty from the MA in Education program and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding will begin developing new courses, with the goal of eventually creating a full MA in RJE program, Evans added.

For more information on the new programs, contact Evans at kathy.evans@emu.edu or 540-432-4590.

Yet in my 10 trips to Iran over the past 20 years, I find that Iranians from every walk of life are acutely aware of this historical fact about U.S. policy. The average Iranian is also aware of this: In 1953, the CIA joined the British to support a coup that overthrew Iran’s democratically elected leader, Mohammed Mossadeq. This led to U.S firms controlling 40 percent of Iran’s petroleum output.

We Americans need to know this history, too, in order to understand the gap likely to be visible between the U.S and Iranian negotiators at the talks.

On a microcosmic level, the faculty and staff at my place of employment, 91����Ƶ, need to understand this history in order to be gracious hosts to 10 Iranian-Muslim women scholars who are planning to attend our annual , beginning in early May.

Across the ocean, U.S. negotiators will be seeking tight controls on Iran’s nuclear program, fearing that Iran wants to build a nuclear weapon.

Yet in the mid-1970s, then-U.S. President Gerald R. Ford — whose key advisers included Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz — endorsed Iran’s plans to build a huge nuclear energy program, supported the sale of U.S. nuclear reactors to Iran and even offered Iran the chance to buy and operate a U.S.-built reprocessing facility capable of extracting plutonium from nuclear reactor fuel (a key step in the capacity to build a nuclear weapon).

At the time, the United States had a warm relationship with Iran’s leader, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

That changed in 1979 with the Iranian revolution that sent Pahlavi into exile. Later that year, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 hostages for 444 days. It was traumatic and embarrassing for most Americans — certainly for the Carter administration. Diplomatic ties that were broken in early 1980 have yet to be restored.

In my travels to Iran on behalf of Mennonite peace-oriented and interfaith initiatives, I have found Iranians to be hospitable and engaging, eager to talk with Americans and intrigued with many Western ideas. But it quickly becomes clear that they have a decidedly different narrative — and a longer memory — about when U.S.-Iranian relations went sour.

The alleged U.S. reason for backing the 1953 coup was to contain communism and Soviet influence in Iran. But the fact that Mossadeq wanted to nationalize Iran’s oil reserves can hardly be dismissed as a motivating factor.

In Mossadeq’s place the United States bolstered the leadership of Pahlavi, who grew increasingly repressive, detaining and torturing his opponents.

Part of the Iranian students’ motivation in 1979 was the fear that the United States was planning another coup after the hated shah was forced out of power.

At the where I work, we have hosted Iranian students for the past 15 years.

Face-to-face conversations help build understanding that is missing from the media portrayals Americans and Iranians see of one another.

If visas are approved, 10 Iranian women scholars will be arriving in less than one month. The women are doctoral students at Jami’at al-Zahra, the largest Shiite Islam women’s seminary in the world.

Restoring diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iran might yet take many years, and will require rebuilding the lost trust between our countries, one relationship at a time.

Both the negotiations in Vienna and these Iranian women, serving as ambassadors of friendship, are important steps toward a second chance for mutually respectful U.S.-Iranian relationships.

This , in the Richmond Times-Dispatch and is��being re-published and circulated by 91����Ƶ, with permission of the��Times-Dispatch. If used further, just credit the��Richmond-Times Dispatch.

Byler, who is executive director of the at 91����Ƶ, last visited Iran in 2009, before Iran severely restricted visas for visitors from the United States and Canada for an extended period.

With the 2013 election of president Hassan Rouhani and subsequent diplomatic talks between Iran and the West, Iran’s doors have opened again.

Byler was among a 10-member group in Iran from Feb. 19 to Feb. 25, sponsored by . The delegation spent a whirlwind six days in Iran on a tightly managed schedule of workshops, meetings with religious and academic officials, and visits to sites of cultural and religious significance with the purpose of exploring “if this is indeed a new time in which MCC work in a country often perceived as the enemy can and should be reinvigorated or even expanded,” according to an MCC press release.

The delegation headquartered in Qom, a conservative-religious center of more than 1 million residents and home to more than 70,000 seminary students. From Qom, they made day-trips to Isfahan and Tehran.

Itinerary packed with fruitful conversations

The itinerary was so packed that Byler, scrolling though photos back in his CJP office, has trouble recalling what happened on which day. He pauses between a photo of female scholars, dressed in flowing black chadors, talking in a university hallway, and a meeting room, where the delegation sits across from bearded ayatollahs in traditional turbans and black cloaks.

“This was Sunday. No, this was Monday,” he says, then laughs. “Wait, I take that back. It was Sunday.”

Before becoming executive director of CJP, Byler and his wife Cindy Lehman Byler represented MCC in Palestine and Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan from 2007 to 2013.

With only a few days in Iran on this trip, every opportunity to connect and to share with Iranians in face-to-face contacts was potentially precious, beneficial, and rejuvenating to MCC’s goals of promoting “understanding, friendship, and interfaith connections between the people of Iran, Canada, and the U.S.”

The MCC-Iran relationship has been growing and changing since MCC first reached out to Iran after a devastating earthquake in 1990, offering relief supplies in partnership with the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Two more relief efforts followed in 2004 and 2012, as MCC’s outreach has focused and strengthened into “ through shared knowledge,” according to an MCC press release.

Relationship maintained amid absence of state-level interactions

This work continues in spite of the dissolution of formal diplomatic relations with Iran by both the United States, since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and Canada, which closed its Tehran embassy and expelled Iranian diplomats from its borders in 2012.

MCC has facilitated and supported many student exchanges, sending American and Canadian students to study in Qom, and Iranian students for advanced studies in Canada and the U.S. Ten Iranian students have attended the on 91����Ƶ’s main campus, and two have gone on to earn their master’s degrees in conflict transformation.

MCC also started a series of academic dialogues between Mennonite and Shi’a scholars, the sixth of which will take place in May. These dialogues are now led by a network of Mennonite institutions of higher education in North America, with support from MCC. One of those scholars who has been involved in both dialogues and exchanges played an important role in this latest trip.

Dr. Mohammad Shomali, who helped secure visas, set the itinerary, and escorted the delegation on their travels, is director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies (IIIS) in Qom and also director of international affairs at Jami’at al-Zahra, the world’s largest women’s seminary for Shi’a Islam.

10 female students from Islamic seminary at 91����Ƶ

Ten female students from Jami’at al-Zahra are expected to come to SPI this summer, escorted by Shomali and his wife, Mahnaz Heidarpour, who also teaches at the seminary.

On the first full day in Iran, the MCC delegation met seven of these women, already experienced international travelers who studied in 2012 at CMU in Winnipeg, Man. Also in the audience for a day-long workshop about peacebuilding were some of Shomali’s male students from IIIS. The students are all fluent in English and with the equivalent standing of doctoral students at North American universities, said Byler. Members of the delegation spoke on topics ranging from theological understandings of peacebuilding to church-state relations, to peacebuilding within the family and restorative justice.

During the trip, the delegation also visited with three of the 10 Iranian SPI alumni, all of whom are in prominent roles: Mohsen Ghanbari Alanagh (SPI ’11), president of Al-Mustafa Open University; Mohsen Danesh Pajouh (’12), completing his PhD in philosophy of religion; and Seyed Mostafa Daryabari (’13), deputy of education at the International Institute for Islamic Studies.

Appreciation expressed for Summer Peacebuilding Institute

For Byler, reconnecting with SPI alumni in his new role as CJP director was a special experience, as each of these attendees said they had been deeply affected by the peacebuilding concepts shared at SPI and appreciated exploring the application of these concepts and dialogue in Iran.

“As the MCC representative, I was involved in the selection process for most of these students, so in that capacity, I knew them already,” Byler said. “As with most relationships in the Middle East, you start with one friendship and you build on that work. Those friendships continue in their importance to help us build bridges.”

Subsequent days were spent in a number of introductory meetings with ayatollahs, the powerful Shi’a religious leaders who are experts in various aspects of Islamic studies.

“There were a lot of pleasantries and some theological conversations,” Byler said. “A lot of what we were doing was shaking hands and making basic introductions with powerful religious leaders, so that they could see us as who we are theologically, as Mennonites, as people who stand for peace, and then we could move forward from there.”

4 91����Ƶ alumni among 10 in delegation

With Byler (’79 and MA ’85) on the delegation were ’97, 91����Ƶ professor and MCC U.S. board chair; Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, MDiv. ’07, MCC U.S. Washington Office director; J. Ron Byler, MCC U.S. executive director; Amela Puljek-Shank (’00 and MA ’04), MCC area director for Europe and the Middle East; Cheryl Zehr Walker, MCC U.S. director of communications; Ruth Keidel Clemens, MCC U.S. program director; Harry Huebner, Canadian Mennonite University professor emeritus of philosophy and theology; and Carolyne Epp-Fransen and Gordon Epp-Fransen, MCC representatives to Jordan, Iraq, and Iran.

In Tehran, the delegation met with Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, who leads the largest Christian minority in Iran, as well as other supporters of interfaith dialogue: Hawnah Sadr, daughter of the late Imam Musa Sadr (known for his ecumenical outreach); Dr. Rasoul Rasoulipour, a professor at Kharazami University; and Dr. A.M. Helmi, director of the Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization.

Byler says MCC’s return visit to Iran is a “hopeful sign” that the deep foundations of interfaith dialogue and friendship can continue to grow despite sometimes frosty diplomatic relations between Iranian and American governments.

“We have to be witnesses to the beauty of peace”

Shomali, too, shares this hope: “We have to be witnesses to the beauty of peace,” he told the delegation. “If it can be done by people of different faiths, it can be very effective.”

Though 91����Ƶ has regularly hosted students and visiting professors from Iran, the last 91����Ƶ visitor to Iran was , who was part of an MCC-led delegation in October 2008.

Byler hopes that will change this spring. In May, 91����Ƶ professor is scheduled to present at the 6^th Mennonite-Shi’a dialogue in Qom. He’ll be accompanied by director and several 91����Ƶ students.

“If the Iranian government also grants visas for this entire group, it will be a strong signal that we are indeed in a new day of U.S.-Iranian relations,” he said.