The outpouring of support for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) from Arabs and Muslims during CPT’s Iraq hostage crisis inspired awe. It prompted Christians around the world to call attention to the plight of detainees in Iraq. Add to these voices a global choir calling for the release of all captives and you will sense the flood of peacemaking occasioned by the CPT hostage crisis. This book includes many stories from the crisis—stories of this reaching out across cultures and faiths, stories that subvert the voices calling for division, stories of hope in the face of grave loss. Stories people need to hear. As important as these stories are, getting this book to press has presented extraordinary challenges (see "Why We are Self-Publishing"). In light of this, I wish to thank the book’s authors for their steady devotion to this project and to telling all of the stories that need to be told. I also wish to thank the following: Doug Pritchard, Anita David, and Gene Stoltzfus—the CPT reading committee; Zoe Mullery, for serving as liaison between me and Watani Stiner; Joel Klassen, for translating the chapter by Sandra Rincon; Anita David, for sending the Arabic statements translated into English; Esther Kern, for gathering the list of support statements; Jan Stansel, for responding to my inquiries so graciously; Harmeet Sooden, for providing the text of the interview included herein; Norman Kember, for permission to reprint his article; Darryl Brown, for designing the book cover. I will never forget the exact moment, 3:20 a.m. PST on March 23, 2006, when I received the phone call informing me that Norman, Harmeet, and Jim were freed. The same overwhelming joy and ineffable sadness I felt at that moment reverberates throughout this book, beneath every voice and story. Thank you, the reader, for listening in. —Tricia Gates Brown, 38, has been a CPT reservist since 2003. She holds a PhD in New Testament Studies from the University of St. Andrews and is author of the play about CPT entitled Whatever Kindles and the book Free People: A Christian Response to Global Economics. She is editor of the CPT collection Getting in the Way (Herald Press, 2005). Tricia’s poems have appeared in Rain Magazine, The Portland Review, and Geez Magazine. She lives with her teenaged daughter on the northern coast of Oregon, where she works part time as a museum curator and freelance editor, and writes. She recently finished a book of memoirs and started a novel. |
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