Last week, in a reflection on John 4 in the daily devotional Rejoice!, Melanie Zuercher of Kansas said, “I’ve known at least one prophet: Gene Stoltzfus, the founding director of Christian Peacemaker Teams… From my experiences with him and from examples from the Bible, I’ve learned that prophets aren’t always easy to be around. However, my strongest memories of Gene are of integrity, passionate commitment to Christ’s justice and peace, a deep love for his work and for his coworkers, and a joyful spirit.”

This prophet she knew, Gene Stoltzfus, died suddenly in March 2010. Now, near the anniversary of his death, a book of his writings — Create Space for Peace: 40 Years of Peacemaking — is about to be launched. Gene’s widow Dorothy Friesen, who is a friend of mine from a former writing group, as well as CPT colleagues and others have been working on the collection. Here’s a short introductory video clip to his life, and a blog post with further information about the book.