On Sept. 1, 2004, terrorists linked to the Chechen independence struggle took more than 1,200 people hostage in a school in the town of Beslan. Shootings and bombings on the final day of the standoff left 186 children among the casualties.

Fairweather, the administrative assistant for the masters in counseling program at EMU, created a homemade basket from dyed reeds, complete with a grapevine handle, as she prayed for the many people directly affected by the horrific event.

Russian Counselors Come to EMU

Three years later, she was able to give this symbol of her care to a delegation of Russians during a week long visit in Harrisonburg to learn about ways to address psychological trauma on a community-wide level.

Fairweather gave her basket to the group at the close of an interchange with faculty members of the master of arts in counseling program Wednesday, Dec. 19. It will be given to a mother in Beslan whose daughter was killed at the school.

Brenda Fairweather presents her homemade “prayer basket” to the Russian delegation (l. to r.): Naida Vagabova, Vladimir Rud, Fatima Berezova, Liudmila Domashenko and Grigory Yarygin (at right) of St. Petersburg, representing the Open World Leadership Center. Photo by Jim Bishop

“It was an incredible experience to meet these wonderful people and to sit in their meeting with my EMU colleagues,” Fairweather said. “They were visibly moved by this gesture.”

All four delegation members – Liudmila Nikolayevna Domashenko, Fatima Aleksandrovna Berezova, Naida Muratovna Vagabova, and Vladimir Nikolayevich Rud – are mental health professionals, some of whom worked with survivors of the three-day Beslan school hostage crisis, one of the most horrific terrorist incidents in recent history. All work with children or young people in Russia.

Asked what has impressed him most in his brief time in the community, Vladimir Rud said through an interpreter. “The people we’ve met. They are open and caring. It has been interesting to hear about practical techniques and methods used in mental health treatment here.”

“I appreciated the opportunity to stay with local families,” said Liudmila Domashenko. “I realized how quickly language barriers can be overcome in these kind of settings.”

Visiting Counselors Attend STAR

During the week, the delegation attended sessions in EMU’s STAR (Seminars on Trauma Awareness and Resilience) program, met with faculty in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding and conferred with mental health specialists at Rockingham Memorial Hospital.

“We were asked by the National Peace Foundation, organizers of the Open World Program, to give this Russian delegation broad exposure to the work being done by the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding on community mental health issues,” said Amy Potter, a CJP administrator and organizer of the local visit.

From EMU, the group headed to in Akron, Pa., to learn more about how the Amish community responded to the school shooting on Oct. 6, 2006, in which five Amish girls were killed.

The sponsor of this visit, the Open World Leadership Center, is housed at the Library of Congress. Founded in 1999 by the U.S. Congress, the Open World Program has brought more than 10,500 people from Russia, Lithuania, the Ukraine and Uzbekistan to sites in all 50 states.

Delegates range from mayors to journalists, from nonprofit directors to small-business owners, from political activists to high-court judges.

“We thank God that U.S. and British military forces were able to find the hostages and move them to freedom without injuries to either Iraqis or to the Coalition soldiers,” said EMU President Loren Swartzendruber.

Referring to the CPT hostage killed earlier this month who had studied at EMU, Swartzendruber said: “We continue to grieve for Tom Fox and will work to keep his vision of peacemaking alive.” EMU held a memorial service for Fox Mar. 15 that was attended by hundreds of mourners from the university and the surrounding community.

Fox’s Professor Thankful

EMU professor Lisa Schirch, who taught Fox in her “nonviolent strategies” class, also expressed gratitude for the CPT workers release.

“We thank God that their captors left them alone and unguarded,” Schirch said. “We are grateful that U.S. and British forces were able to find them without using their weapons,” Schirch said.

The freed CPT hostages were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32, and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men were kidnapped Nov. 26 along with their colleague from Virginia, Tom Fox.

The CPT workers went to Iraq to build relationships across the lines of conflict and across religious lines and to demonstrate Christ-inspired alternatives to violence.

‘Pray for others held hostage’

Swartzentruber noted that EMU supported the call of CPT not to use violence to free the hostages, adding: “We wish to applaud the bravery and concern that motivated the soldiers who rescued the hostages.

“We also pray for others being held hostage and in prisons in Iraq, for the people of Iraq who continue to suffer so greatly, and for the Coalition soldiers, some of whom are from families in our own Shenandoah Valley,” said Swartzendruber.

Swartzendruber noted that EMU

Christian Peacemaker Team worker Tom Fox was eulogized in an on-campus memorial service Wednesday evening, Mar. 15, as an example of active love and nonviolence in a place of protracted conflict.

At the same time, the one-hour service celebrated the thousands of others who are working on behalf of peace around the world and remembering those who continue to suffer as a result of violence everywhere.

More than 300 students, faculty, staff and community persons gathered in Lehman Auditorium to remember Fox and others who have put their lives on the line for the cause of peace in Iraq and other countries.

Human Rights Worker

Fox, 54, was a (CPT) member investigating human rights violations, helping ordinary Iraqi people rebuild their shattered lives and telling the truth to U.S. citizens about the horrors of war. He was taken hostage on Nov. 26, 2005, along with three fellow CPT colleagues, by a group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade.

Fox’s body was found by Iraqi police in western Baghdad on Mar. 9, 2006, with evidence of having been tortured before being shot. The status of the other CPT hostages remains uncertain.

The service opened with a candlelight processional by current students in EMU’s (CJP) program and a welcome from EMU President Loren Swartzendruber.

Kenneth J. Nafziger, professor of music at EMU, led the audience and the EMU Chamber Singers in music, including “O Healing River,” “If the War Goes On,” “God of Grace and God of Glory” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.”

Peace Mission in Iraq

Fox, from Clearbrook, Va., took one semester of graduate work in EMU’s graduate-level Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, studying “strategic nonviolence” with Lisa Schirch, associate professor of conflict studies, to prepare himself for returning to his peace mission in Iraq. Schirch visited Fox in Iraq last summer and stayed in close touch with him through e-mails.

Dr. Schirch offered sample readings from Fox’s communications while a series of photos were projected on a screen of the CPT worker’s activities in the Middle East.

“Tom was my student,” Schirch said. “He was dedicated to praying for and working for peace. He wanted to tell the world what was happening in Iraq. He would want us to plead to God today to send down healing waters and wash the blood off of the sand.

“Tom would want us to continue our fervent prayers for the remaining CPT hostages James Loney, Harmet Sooden and Norman Kember, for journalist Jill Carroll, for the Iraqi people who have suffered so much and for the U.S. soldiers who are our neighbors from here in the U.S.,” she said.

Memorial Fund

Guest books were made available for audience members to sign and offer personal reflections and condolences. These will be forwarded to Fox’s CTP colleagues, who will in turn convey them to Fox’s two college-aged children.

A Tom Fox Memorial Fund for CJP has been established to support the continuation of Fox’s work through the training of additional persons in peacebuilding, nonviolent action and advocacy for social justice.

More information is available by contacting Bonnie Price Lofton, CJP director of development, at 540-432-4234; e-mail: Bonnie.Lofton@emu.edu.