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I was afraid they would kill me.

Well, as a followup to my "surge of dialogue awareness", tonight was the infamous night, and it was indeed pretty powerful. Sheila ran the show, providing us with stories, quotes, pictures, sound clips, and just plain up-close-and-personal details on life in Iraq. A coupla points:

  1. Want to build peace w/ someone? Sit at a table with them. Eat with them. Set aside your uneasiness, reach out, and sit face to face. Tables are everywhere. We all eat about 3 square meals per day.
  2. Violence is not an option. Live by that credo, and alternatives will present themselves.

A little tie-in to my own faith journey: People who profess themselves to be Christian usually have a time they can look back on and point out as being when they started that journey, right? Sure, you are born a Christian, but at some point, you have made it your own, nobody else's. Or at least started the process. Well it happened for me at a retreat for high school members of the P.O.P. in the Rockies... I, for the first time, reached out to God. And being a detail-oriented person, I wanted to know what to do with my life NOW, not in the future as a career, not even what to do in college, but what was I called to do where I was at. By the end of that night of prayer, I had my first mission set before me. To be a peacemaker in my family.

Anyway, there was far more content in her sharing, but I couldn't really do it justice. We spoke briefly afterwards and I'm gonna explore what all entails being involved in this group. It's still not as comprehensive, I think, as the P.O.P., but it seems much more proactive within it's particular area of expertise. It's like a far more advanced version of the Action Program that the P.O.P. coordinates.

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