The Multifaith Education Project 

P.O. Box 301003   ·      Fern Park FL 32730-1003  ·        (407) 644-5504 

      LFSheehy@multifaitheducationproject.org

Dear Friends,

This is a letter about HOPE in a world grown increasingly more confusing and hopeless.

You will be interested to know the Olive Trees for Peace MULTIFAITH EDUCATION PROJECT, started in 2003, has grown exponentially in the past year.  We took our five top students from Jewish, Christian and Muslim schools to the Face-to-Face Camp in New York in July.  This showed us just how remarkable our project and kids are!  We saw the fruits of our first four years come forth in blazing glory when the kids took on one challenge after another, rising each time to new levels of understanding, awareness and compassion for one another.

 In all my years of interfaith work (most of it with adults), I have never seen such authenticity and sensitivity as those kids demonstrated toward one another. In one exercise, a 14 year old boy was asked to demonstrate his beliefs about Jesus Christ.  Eddie is Jewish and so the challenge for him was how to state what he believes without hurting the two Christian girls he knows and has come to love and respect. 

That moment said it all.  We have taught the kids the importance of knowing who he/she is (as a Jew, Christian, Muslim), but also to know there must be utmost respect for the other, and nothing should be said or done which will bring hurt to the other.  That’s the kind of relationship-building that we are doing!  This is the kind of world we envision for future generations!

Now we are moving forward into school year 2007-08.  In November, the kids will view a performance by the Orangewood students of "The Diary of Anne Frank" and learn more about the consequences of unstopped prejudice and hatred. 

On December 2, we will launch our cookbook Breaking Bread: A Celebration of Three Faiths This has been a joint project of the three schools with recipes and stories from each one's culture and religion.  We all know how the breaking of bread together engenders friendship and hope.

We are planning a weekend retreat for the kids at the end of the school year, and hope to start school year 2008-09 with a similar retreat.  At camp in New York, we learned the value of longer periods of time together. This allows us time to delve more deeply into the issues that join us and those that cause misunderstanding and distance.

None of this can happen without adequate funding.  That figure for the coming year is $168,100.  Sounds like alot of money, but when you compare it to the billions being spent to fund the war in Iraq, its not much money at all. 

We are in the business of educating Peacebuilders -- Ambassadors of Peace, not war mongers.  And we need the resources to do it.  With your help, we can do it. 

Please be as generous as you can. And tell us of other funds, organizations, foundations, and individuals who will be interested in the work we are doing. We have a grant proposal prepared that shows our budget for the coming year. Ask for a copy if you want to study it more carefully.  We'll go anywhere, talk to anyone who wants to know more.  Help us connect to those sources of support. 

To paraphrase another fine Peacebuilder, Dag Hammarskjold:  Thank you for all you've done in the past and Yes! to what you will do to help us in the future.  

In peace, shalom, salaam, 

Louise F. Sheehy
Director of the Education Project and 
Carrier of the Dream