Dialogue is so sorely needed in all sectors of society where there is mistrust, lack of awareness and old notions. Imagine the excitement of a Gilbert church to be invited to the “Peace Dialogs” in Africa. Jeanne Zahn of Real Life Christian Church, which holds Sunday worship at Williamfield High School, 2076 S. Higley Road, said her pastor, Dan Shields, she and other members have been invited to take part in dialogue with Muslim leaders “to build bridges of understanding” between Muslims and Christians in an unspecified North African nation in November.
Last November, an imam invited the Pastor Shields “to speak alongside their imams from the capital city,” she said. “Walls fell, along with centuries of misunderstanding, prejudice and suspicion, as our two sides simply looked into each other’s eyes and talked.” Participants exchange looks at pictures of each others’ children ” as we spoke of our common desire for following the ways of Jesus and Messiah, better known to them as Isa al Masih. We often felt a common bond.” Afterwards, the president of the Saharawi people invited both sides for a joint dinner at a special diplomatic visitors center, she said.
Conversations have continued over the year. Now a team of seven will go next month for the dialogues on the topic, “Women and Suffering/Injustice.” Zahn’s group will spend a week living with the Saharawi refugees in the Sahara Desert “learning from them and of the injustice done to group of 160,000 people driven out and stranded in a country next to their own.”
Zahn said she hopes to tell the story of their work on their return. She had hoped to share her story in the East Valley Tribune, in its Spiritual Life Section, but that part of the newspaper was eliminated in January. Perhaps there are other avenues for the story being told. “I can encourage Americans to reach out in understanding to thousands of Muslim refugees who are resettling in the Phoenix area,” she said. Zahn estimates there have been 53,000 who have moved to the Valley since 1975, some 900 last year from Iraq alone. “Real Life also works with over 100 of these Iraqi refugees, helping to resettle them in our community,” she said. “It can break down stereotypes and fears that are typical of our two religions,” she said.
Her goal of conveying her story, she said, is to be able to “enlighten Americans and Arizonans to move beyond the comfort and security of their life of freedom and opportunity to reach out in compassion and justice.”
While Zahn, who heads the church’s Life With Purpose program, and her team are in Africa, members back at Real Life Christian Church will be participating in their own ”Global Challenge.” For five days, they will eat only the rations that refugees like the Saharawi eat through the United Nations’ food provisions. That’s typically a cup of rice, a cup of oatmeal and some sugar and oil to last a day. “They will pray for the Sararawi and the Peace Dialogs whenever they are hungry,” Zahn said. “And at the end, we will ask them to give what they would have spent on food to Gardens in the Desert Project,” an effort that allowsthe Saharawi to have a family garden outside their camp tents. For more information, call Zahn at the church (480) 861-5630 or jeanne@reallife.cc. The church’s Web site is www.reallife.cc.
