Let the Children Play for Peace

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Let the Children Play for Peace

I have something really awesome to share with you all for this post. I know it’s something all my readers will very much appreciate and be touched by. It’s called Let the Children Play for Peace.

We live in a world that is very divided, a world in conflict. We have divides of religion, ethnicity, nationality … but no matter what our religious, ethnic, or nationality divides, we are all human beings sharing a planet, we are all neighbors.

This morning in our church, there were two guests; Samuel Nachum (a Jew born in Israel) and Ahmed El Sherif (a Muslim born in Egypt). They were born on opposite sides of an ongoing conflict that as children, they could not control. They now both reside in Kansas City and have come together, despite their differences to form an organization called Let the Children Play for Peace.

“Let the Children Play for Peace is a global interfaith project founded in March 2009, by two men hailing from opposite sides of the Gaza-Israel conflict. These men felt compelled to help their respective homelands, and came together to realize their vision: a non-profit group whose mission was to help restore childhood to a generation deprived of it.

Let the Children Play for Peace delivers shipments of donated toys, sports equipment, and other children’s products to a site on each side of the conflict. We want to change the environmental cues around the children there to ones of optimism, hope, and joy.”

This morning in church, we got to hear about how they met, how they formed a friendship despite the fact that they’re from two opposing sides of the Gaza/Israeli conflict, and how their nonprofit organization, Let the Children Play for Peace, was formed.

Its aim is “to provide the children in this region [Gaza/Israeli] with some semblance of a childhood through toys and sports equipment.” 

Quoting their website: “As collateral damage in the conflicts of adults, the children in this region of the world are robbed of the sense of fun and discovery inherent in childhood. The foreign aid delivered to this region rarely includes toys or sports equipment, and the mission of Let the Children Play for Peace is to help replace the images of violence these children see with ones of creativity and imagination by providing those play items.”

I’m so thankful we got to hear about this awesome organization that’s doing a wonderful thing. It was extremely evident that Samuel and Ahmed were both such kind-hearted and sweet men and it’s great to be apart of it.  Here’s a picture of Ahmed, our pastor Brian Zahnd, and Samuel.

Muslim, Christian, and Jew

It was a very touching and emotional dialogue between our pastor, Ahmed, and Samuel. I left feeling like a wonderful thing had happened … something very pleasing to God … people with such different viewpoints coming together under common ground in peace and love.

Our pastor, Brian Zahnd, mentioned his three motives to Ahmed and Samuel for our church participating with this organization, and it was such a wonderful moment, I can’t help but share them. (To hear this dialogue for yourself, click here).

1. This organization is simply a good thing and we want to help with such a good thing. “To help give children a childhood in a place where war threatens to tear it away from them is a good thing and it needs no other justification.”
2. It represents ethnicities and religions who historically have not always been shown the best face of Christianity. We need to redeem the face of Christ from the ugly face of the Crusader. Christian is a word that means “Christ like”. As Christians, we have had very ugly moments in our past. During the Crusades, under the banner of the cross, and calling themselves Christians, the church murdered other human beings. There were church sponsored holy wars against Muslims and Jews. That was not the true face of the cross, and we want to show Muslims and Jews a difference face of Christianity. The face of Christ is a face of love, forgiveness, and mercy and we must show Jews and Muslims a different face. 
3. To show Christians a different face of a Jews and especially of Muslims. There’s far too many Christians that to them, the face of a Muslim is Osama bin Laden. We need to change that. All Muslims are not “thus and so”. Muslims are often presented in a dehumanizing, demonizing way and we need to change that.

Today’s service wrapped up with a Matisyahu video that everyone agreed, could be the theme song for Let the Children Play for Peace.

For more information, or how to donate and be apart of Let the Children Play for Peace, please visit their website, or Facebook page.

Have a great week!! : )

“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.”
-Stacia Tauscher