Anyone who visited the BEARDED BABY table at the Small Press Expo last week will remember my friend Maisha Williams who was raising money for her peacework abroad by selling hand-made illuminated manuscripts.

Maisha has been a close friend of mine for a decade, and she is one of the most dynamic moral influences in my life. Her conscience has compelled her to visit the Palestine working with the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization dedicated to non-violent alternatives to war. We are presently developing a web page where her experiences will be documented. Maisha departed yesterday for her first delegation; I received the following press release today:

Christian Peacemaker Teams Delegation Arrives in Jerusalem

September 17, 2003 -- A six-member delegation sponsored by Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) arrived in the Jerusalem today. During the next 10 days participants will speak with representatives of Israeli and Palestinian peace and human rights organizations in Jerusalem and Bethlehem. They will then travel to Hebron, West Bank, where CPT's long-term team is based. There, they may assist in escorting Palestinian children to school in the tensely divided city, and visit areas where the homes of families have been threatened with demolition by Israeli troops. One such area is the Beqa'a Valley, where Israeli bulldozers leveled the home of there Palestinian families Sunday, leaving thirty people homeless.

Members of CPT's September 16-28 delegation include Bill Baldwin (Ottawa, Ontario), Christina Gibb, (Dunedin, New Zealand), Janet MacDonnell (Toronto, Ontario), Masato Wake (South Bend, Indiana), Maia Williams (Dale City, Virginia), and leader Mary Lawrence (Lunenburg, Massachusetts).

Christian Peacemaker Teams is an initiative of the historic peace churches (Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Quakers) with support and membership from a range of Catholic and Protestant denominations. CPT send teams of trained peacemakers to places of conflict around the world, with a presence in Hebron since June, 1995.