Why I Invest in Peace + Matching Grant Announcement
We are thrilled to share an opportunity to double the impact of your contribution this Giving Season. The Euphrates Board of Directors has announced a matching grant which means that from now until December 31st, every dollar you donate will be matched up to $35,000 through the generosity of our Board members.
We hope this generous match offers an antidote to the busyness of the holiday season and our shared concerns about the challenges our world is facing. That it’s an opportunity to live our values and make the courageous choice to invest in peace.
Our Board Chair Becky Hoskyn recently shared this reflection about how she came to know and serve Euphrates. Becky inspires us every day, and we hope her words touch you as they’ve touched us.
Merry Ann (L) and Becky (R) in Amman, Jordan concluding the Euphrates 2014 trip.
In 2014, my trip with Euphrates to visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories changed my life forever. We toured holy sites, met peacebuilders from both Israeli and Palestinian sides of the struggle, listened to personal narratives of emotional transformations, walked along the concrete wall separating the two cultures, laughed with children in the universal language of trust, observed Israeli settlers walking the streets wielding machine guns, wandered through fields in Bethlehem where David might have tended his sheep, smelled tear gas while touring a refugee camp in Hebron, visited a Christian school in Bethlehem, celebrated Shabbat in Jerusalem with a woman who works tirelessly to help children from both sides, and so much more! I was inspired to see how peace was possible!
Becky (L) hosting an event with Sami Awad with at a synagogue in Seattle in 2017 with current Board member Joy Schwentker (blue scarf) in attendance.
After returning home, I formed a local Chapter of Euphrates to help educate and support my community. I wanted to fulfill the mission of Euphrates, which at that time was to “to inform, inspire, and transform” views about peace in the Middle East. We met with synagogues and mosques, hosted Iraqi students in a multifaith activity, sponsored a booth at the Arab Festival, held a dinner for 10 Middle Eastern Fulbright Scholars, hosted a live Q&A with a Syrian doctor/author, rented a theatre to show a film about Israelis and Palestinians who put down their weapons to create an organization devoted to peace, and SO much more. I was on fire to deepen connections in my community and to help others find this path towards supporting peace, which did not dim when Euphrates expanded its focus from peace in the Middle East, to peace around the world.
Today, Euphrates is represented by hundreds of peacebuilders around the globe. I am in awe of the growth of this organization and what it has done for individuals and communities in over 60 countries. Euphrates has come a long way in 20 years! And we envision a better world every day. We need everyone’s moral courage, compassion, and willingness to help themselves and their communities. Some of these inspiring accounts can be viewed on our site at this link.
In the following poem, my friend, Jennifer Youngman, captures the essence of what it takes to achieve a worthy goal.
Peace isn’t release from carrying burdens.
It’s carrying what needs to be carried
With vision, grace, and joy.
Peace is an individual and collective goal! It begins with each of us. Me. You. All of us. Together. Thank you for investing in peace today by supporting Euphrates and inspiring humanity to choose PEACE!