Jessica Hulsey- Kristin working on this (possible STPT story?)

From: Jessica Hulsey [mailto:jessica.hulsey@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 8:21 AM
To: Nancy Mering
Subject: Re: Tim's good suggestion

Hello Nancy,

Thanks for your email and the possibility of a story about us living in this region.
Trey and I live in Bethlehem working in Humanitarian Aid which includes community development, peace and justice work and relief work. Josh and Julie Korn live here (alumni but grew up here) and Josh works in reconciliation work between Pal. and Israeli's. Lastly, there is a couple who left a year ago that taught in a school in Bethlehem and could possibly add another dimension to the story. Doug Priorie and his wife Mandy were teachers at the Jerusalem School here in Bethlehem for 2 years and have some great experiences to share, also. Just wanted to throw that out there.

Trey and Jessica Hulsey work for a small humanitarian aid organization called Mennonite Central Committee. They currently live in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. Our organization works in 3 specific areas, here. Peace and Justice, Community Development and Relief Work.
MCC supports a wide variety of Palestinian and Israeli peace-building initiatives. These include conflict resolution among Palestinians, education among Israelis on injustices to Palestinians and dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis. MCC supports agricultural research and development in the Bethlehem area with funds from the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and supports the improvement of wells and water pipes in the area of Qalqilyah and Tulkarem.

We have been her for 2 years and have 1 more year to go.

We have a bunch of interesting org. we work with here. We as an org. don't come in and start doing our own work that we think is important. We join alongside the locals here (both Pal and Israeli) who are already doing good work. We support them both financially and with our time.

Some org. that might spark some interest:
YMCA Women's Training Program: Educational Training Program for women who get micro-finance loans through the YMCA to start a small business
Zochrot:: Israeli org. that works to help their own people understand what is happening to the Palestinian people
Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy:

Also, Josh Korn and Julie Kopp Korn. They both graduated from Gordon. Josh works for an org. called Musalaha.

Musalaha is a non-profit organization that seeks to promote reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians as demonstrated in the life and teaching of Jesus. They endeavor to be an encouragement and advocate of reconciliation, first among Palestinian and Israeli believers and then beyond to our respective communities. Musalaha also aims at facilitating bridge building among different segments of Israeli and Palestinian societies according to biblical reconciliation principles.

Depending on the angle of a possible story, I think this could be an interesting article for Stillpoint. I would be happy to connect with Josh Korn if this seems like a viable possibility.

Possibly there could be a story about alumni living on different sides of the wall...us in Bethlehem and Josh and Julie in Jerusalem.