May 2, 2012
One important part of what we do with Peace Catalyst is introducing Christians to Muslims, so that they can build friendships and learn from each other. With this goal in mind, a couple of weeks ago, Martin and I met a group of Christian friends at a local mosque. We observed the prayer time and toured the facility. We enjoyed our visit; and as we were leaving, the leaders there invited us to a special event that would include a dinner, special speakers, and a Muslim comedian. We had no idea what that even meant-a Muslim comedian-at the mosque?? We were intrigued, so last Friday night we went to check it out.
by: Susan Brooks | Categories: Events
April 17, 2012
In Peace Catalyst International, we aspire to launch a global movement of Jesus-centered peacemaking communities. To that end, our PCI team in Raleigh has helped to catalyze a significant movement of Muslims and Christians who are moving beyond unhelpful stereotypes and are building bridges of friendship and trust. Back in the fall, however, things took a major twist for us. A well-respected local rabbi reached out, basically saying that he had heard about our work in bringing Muslims and Christians together and that he wanted his Jewish congregation in on the fun.
by: Thomas Davis | Categories: Events
April 10, 2012
Are today's evangelical Christians going to miss the opportunity to be peacemakers in this generation? Generational blind spots have caused many Christians to miss the blessing of following Jesus as a peacemaker in the issues of their day-slavery, human rights of Native Americans, Japanese who were interned in camps during WWII, minorities during the civil rights era, etc. Is the issue of how we treat our Muslim neighbors nearby or around the world going to be another one of those missed opportunities?
by: David Vidmar | Categories: Events
March 27, 2012
We were honored to have Brandon Sipes and Jim Weigel with our Arizona staff team last week. They belong to a group of people who developed the Kumi method. What is Kumi? It's an approach to conflict transformation that developed out of the issues in Israel-Palestine and is now being used around the world in many types of conflict. We wanted to hear from Brandon and Jim about their work and see how it could help us with our own work of peacemaking.
by: Tim Ballard | Categories: Events
February 9, 2012
Like most Americans, I am frustrated by the government. Polarization and gridlock of congress; attack ads and uncivil discourse; inability to stop the economic meltdown. What a mess! I feel like Nathanael did when he heard about Jesus for the first time: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I have to ask, “Can anything good come out of Washington, DC?” Well, there is at least one good thing coming out of Washington, DC that we should rejoice over, and that is the National Prayer Breakfast.
by: Rick Love | Categories: Events
December 9, 2011
Walking with refugees is one of Peace Catalyst's priorities in Phoenix, and we're thankful to have the partnership of Redemption Church in this work. Arizona is home to tens of thousands of refugees, and the people of Redemption recently got together to bless them this Christmas. Members of the church partnered with Peace Catalyst to donate much-needed supplies and other gifts to the Maricopa Women's Refugee Health Clinic for distribution to refugee mothers throughout the Valley. There were so many gifts that it actually took a U-haul to deliver them all! A huge thank you to everyone involved! A whole lot of women are about to be made very happy because of your generosity.
Categories: Events
November 16, 2011
Last night's Peace Feast at Golden Valley Uzbek restaurant was a huge success! Thank you to all our guests for coming out to hear the story of our Uzbek friends, and thank you to our hosts for making it such a wonderful evening!
Categories: Events
November 14, 2011
God has hidden His beauty and creativity in the various cultures of the world. It would take hundreds of days and thousands of dollars to travel the world, but God has blessed us by bringing ethnic restaurants to our neighborhoods. Instead of traveling for 20 hours, we only have to drive for 20 minutes to get a taste of the cultures of this world.
Categories: Events
November 10, 2011
In 2004, a group of about 25 people from a small church group met at a Lebanese restaurant near Arizona State University. Each week they came with hungry stomachs and open ears. This group was interested in other cultures, and Ali, the owner of the restaurant, didn’t leave them disappointed. He would always recommend different meals, explaining the ingredients and telling stories about meal times in Lebanon.
Categories: Events
November 3, 2011
At Peace Catalyst, we do this thing - which we would love others to reproduce around the world - called Peace Feast. We've got two events coming up in Phoenix, so we thought we'd take this opportunity to share a few blog posts about what Peace Feast is, what the vision for it is, and how it got started. So for today, what is Peace Feast?
Categories: Events
