The First Presbyterian Church of Houston recently invited co-founder, Stuart Kensinger, to speak about JPB's current work in Jerusalem and the United States. This capped off a month of successful interfaith events led by Stuart in the greater-Houston area. First, Stuart guided 20 participants in Palmer Memorial Church's peace-building class to visit the Clear Lake Islamic Center. The group was struck by how closely the message of the imam's sermon reminded them of the Ash Wednesday lesson which calls Christians to live as if only God were watching. Stuart later took the same group to St. George Orthodox Church, a congregation comprised of mostly Palestinian and Syrian Orthodox Christians.
In an exciting development, JPB increased its reach to more Palestinian youth in Jerusalem by adding a third high school leadership program to its profile at the Dar Al-Maarefa School. The Dar Al-Maarefa School is situated in a unique part of Jerusalem located outside the Separation Barrier, but inside the Jerusalem Municipal boundary. Thus, its students represent a disadvantaged segment of the Jerusalem population that our programs aim to reach. Working with 9th grade students, JPB is spending the next five months preparing teens to participate in our Service-Learning Program this August in New Haven, CT. Using the same specialized curriculum as the JPB program at Sts. Tarkmanchatz School
Patrick Golden is a junior at the University of Texas at Austin pursuing a BA in History and Religious Studies. Patrick first worked with JPB in the summer of 2015 where he served as a counselor for the Houston Exploration Program. This past fall in Jerusalem, he studied at the Rothberg International School of Hebrew University. Soon after arriving in Jerusalem, Patrick assisted Jack Karn with JPB's pilot leadership program at St. George's Anglican School. This summer, Patrick will participate in the prestigious School for International Training's (SIT) CONTACT Peacebuilding program in addition to continuing his work as a Program Assistant at the Vermont Leadership and Houston Interfaith
