I arrived at the Mosque that afternoon with an outline for the day’s event, a Muslim friend to co-facilitate with me, and a trust in God to do good things. It was going to be a discussion on caring for sisters of other faiths. But I left the Mosque with a heavy conscience, shaky hands, and no small amount of confusion. So much for my first “real” peacebuilding events. They did not go as planned. They went worse.

Last month I had the great privilege of traveling to to the Indonesian city of Padang, West Sumatra for two weeks of speaking, learning, and relationship-building. In my first week in Padang I only encountered one other foreigner, a German man that I met in passing, and was not, to my knowledge, in the presence of a single other Christian.

“We must curb and limit Islamic migration and stop the refugee dumps.” Three weeks ago a former Muslim who is now a pastor spoke these words to Idaho lawmakers and warned of a Muslim conspiracy to establish Sharia law. 

One of the best ways to acquire wisdom is through reading. So I have put together the top ten books on peacemaking for 2015. It was painful whittling the list down to only ten books, but hopefully this will give you some guidance as you seek to acquire wisdom.

Our work is constantly increasing, and we need the resources to keep up with the opportunities coming our way. Do you want to be part of the peacemaking movement?

This week, more than 50 Christian leaders came together to voice support for the recent move toward a diplomatic agreement with Iran concerning Iran’s nuclear program. Sojourners published the statement as a full-page ad in Roll Call, a Washington, D.C. political newspaper widely read by members of Congress and their staff.

In our world filled with negative images and stories from around the world, it's as important as ever (or maybe even more important than ever) to tell the positive stories. Which is why we're so excited about this upcoming project by Peace Catalyst's own Andy Larsen.

Abdullah Saeed is the Sultan of Oman Professor of Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Melbourne. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Arabic and Islamic Studies from the Islamic University of Medina and holds a PhD in Islamic Studies as well as a Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics from the University of Melbourne. He has written on religious freedom, Quran interpretation, and Islamic banking, among other topics in the field of Islamic studies.

How amazing. Peace Catalyst gets Christians and Muslims together in Louisville, Kentucky and friendships are formed. Then God uses these connections to care for orphaned Christian children in Pakistan.