By: Nahal Mishel-Ghashghai

My name is Nahal. Nahal in Farsi (the language of Iran) means a seedling, a little tree. In many ways I still feel like a little tree, young, alive, ready to poke around and grow into my full potential.

I was born and raised in Iran. I came to the US when I was 19 to finish my college education and for various reasons decided to live here. I’ve now lived longer in the US than I have in Iran and consider the US “my home” and Iran my “birth country”. I love both countries.

In all my years of living in the US and throughout all the political ups and downs between the US and Iran, I’ve never once experienced hostility or prejudice towards myself or my family. Perhaps it is because I really like all people and do my best not to have prejudice towards any one in particular. I believe that deep down inside, we are all very similar and want similar things, health, happiness, peace of mind, safety and comfort for ourselves and our loved ones.

I believe people of different cultures, backgrounds and upbringing can live side by side in harmony when we respect and appreciate both our similarities and differences.

I believe increasing compassion in the world, even one person at a time, is the key to creating peace.

An act of kindness, a smile, a wave, a helping hand, no matter how small, cracks open the door to compassion and the reward is the wonderful “feeling good inside”.

I invite you to try this. Do a good deed for someone today without any expectations, and know that you are adding to the collective compassion and moving one step closer to a peaceful world. Imagine if every person on the planet did this!

Nahal is a former Microsoft Engineer and currently an Avatar Master who lives in Seattle and teaches the Avatar Course all over the world. Look for her on MySpace or Facebook for contact

Check out this tasty nugget from Google Video created by former FOR peace delegate and civilian diplomat and filmmaker Margot Smith, Videomaker www.offcentervideo.com. OffCenterVideo@aol.com

An excellent idea of what the trip is like and what the mission is all about.

it is called Listen to Iran’s People: A Call for Peace

Hi New York friends!
I’m sending you all an email to a few of my New York friends because many of you were sponsors of my peace delegation trip to Iran last month and/or were awesome email/phone supporters. So I wanted to let you know the details of the official presentation I will be giving about it here in NYC.

The last two months have indeed been insane with almost more work post-trip than the trip itself. A lot of interviews and articles and yes even the obligatory appearance on Muslim TV — (which was quite “candid cameraish I must say).

My official presentation about the trip in New York City will be this coming Sunday. I pasted the details below for you in case you have the time to come - and are interested in this subject. It was quite the experience and we learned a lot. More than anything, we were brought there specifically by the Iranian government to bring back a message to the American people…

So that is why we do these interviews and presentations. It isn’t necessarily a “perfect message.” But it is a real message – as opposed to what we hear on the news here in the States… which is just ‘the White House said…” So, that will be the aim of the presentation. To show some pictures, tell some stories, and answer as many questions as possible about the subject.

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April 16, 2008
What do Iranians really think about Americans?
Steven Kull, director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, offers an answer based on focus groups in 30 different Iranian provinces.

See the Complete Poll Results

www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89683583

Stanley & David in Qom, Iran

Stanley Campbell will show slides and speak about his trip to Iran at the

Mr. Campbell has served 20 years as executive director of Rockford Urban Ministries, and has been on numerous peace missions including Nicaragua in 1985; Guatemala in 1986; a return trip with Vietnam veterans in 1987; and the occupied territories of Israel in 1988 during the first intifada. Mr. Campbell has also joined a Volunteers In Mission/UMCOR work camp to Sarajevo, Bosnia, in 1996, and a delegation of the National Council of Churches to Cuba in 2004

“We want to get the message out that if we could talk to the Iranians, so should our government,” says Mr. Campbell after his latest trip to Iran.

Contact: Douglas Thompson 309-264-8914; Razia 309-868-4218