Jeremy Courtney 
When it feels like the world is on fire, when bombs fall on Syria and bullets fly across Iraq, when the drums of war are beating over North Korea and Iran, when our own communities are crippled by anger, fear, and violence…
I want you to know what I’ve learned over the last 10 years living on the frontlines in Iraq:
You are not helpless. You have the power to unmake violence.
You have the option to press into pain. Instead of turning away from the pain of our world, instead of giving in to helplessness and despair, you can choose to love anyway.
For almost a decade, we’ve gone where no one else will go, to love the people no one else will love. We’ve proven that preemptive love can unmake violence. We’ve seen glimpses of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.
But we want to see more than just a glimpse of it.
We want to see it spread across Syria, Iraq, and beyond. We want to see it take root in our own hearts. We want to see it flourish in the United States, because the power of preemptive love is not confined to one region or country. The call to love across enemy lines is not just for Arabs and Kurds, or Sunni and Shia. It’s not just for those people over there. It’s for all of us.
So we’re taking the next step—and introducing The Frontline, our new monthly giving community that gives more than money.
We GIVE financially what we can every month to help those affected by conflict and disaster around the world. We live and love on the bleeding edges—providing food, water, and medical care when when families need it most. And we stay, because the wounds of war are not mended in a moment. We provide jobs, income, and hope so refugees can do more than survive. So they can flourish, right where they live.
But then we GATHER around kitchen tables and lattes at the coffee shop to imagine how we can unmake violence in our own hearts, homes, and communities—so we can learn from each other in a safe environment and encourage one another forward in our pursuit of peace. We become the arms that carry each other when all the fear and violence feels like it’s too much to bear. We stand with one another because the pursuit of a better world is easier with friends by our side.
Finally, we GO. Giving ourselves, showing up in the conflicts that divide our own communities and pursuing peace together—because the frontlines are where we live. We’ve been saying this for a while now, and it’s time for us all to live like it’s true.
We give, gather, and we go.
We do all three because our hearts are yearning for a more integrated life. So as part of this new monthly giving community, we are starting local chapters across the U.S. and anywhere people are hungry to start building The More Beautiful World.
Because at our core, we’ve always been more than just aid workers. We are peacemakers.
The red hot center of everything we do—every aid delivery, every refugee-owned business you’ve help start, every talk we give from stage, every disaster response—is a determination to pursue peace between communities at odds. This how we demonstrate a different kind of love—a love big enough to unmake violence. A love that strikes first.
To be honest, we don’t have it all figured out in advance. For years now, many of you have been asking us to help make Preemptive Love local to where you are. But if we wait until we have a perfect, fully formed picture of what it could be, it will be too late. Just as we venture into war zones and new relationships without knowing exactly how it will all play out, we cannot deny the invitation any longer to help make this love local, right where you are.
So it’s time to start. We’re not launching another chat group. This isn’t another book club. We will go and do the hard things together—Christians, Muslims, Jews, atheists, Hindus, all of us.
When you join The Frontline—when you raise your hands to give, gather, and go—we will walk with you every step of the way. When you become part of our monthly giving community, we’ll provide the resources, tools, and encouragement you need to show up in your community. We’ve done this already in some of the world’s most polarizing conflicts. We’ve made lots of mistakes. We’ve already fallen on our faces. We’ve learned how to do it scared and do it imperfectly. But we’ve learned to get out and do it!
The same conflict and sectarianism that feels like it’s tearing the Middle East apart—it’s tearing us apart too. And the same preemptive love that’s pushed back against violence in Syria and Iraq, that’s brought at-odds communities together in pursuit of something better—it can happen where you live, too.
So I’m asking you to join The Frontline by giving whatever you can each month to unmake violence around the world. Then I’m asking you to consider doing more. What if you gave yourself? What if you could go deeper into your own community, stepping across enemy lines in your own neighborhoods? What if we could go with you?
If you’re already giving of yourself locally, we are cheering you on! We’d love to have you join us as a monthly financial partner, and we’d love to dream with you about hosting a Frontline community where you are.
And if you’re just taking your first step, we are with you. Join us on The Frontline today by making your first monthly gift, and start building The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible.
