Visiting the House of Peace

 

 The House of Peace provides physical and spiritual shelter to victims of war in a small healing community in companionship with adults with special needs, and provides education for peace and moral awakening.

 

On Sunday Mary Beth and I drove to Ipswich, Massachusetts for an overnight visit with friends John and Carrie who run the House of Peace.

John and Carrie Schuchardt co-founded The House of Peace in 1990. During these 33 years the House of Peace has welcomed more than 500 refugees from 30 countries, including Haiti, El Salvador, Vietnam, Cuba, Ethiopia, Eritrea, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, the Congo, and Syria. Also during these years war burned and maimed children have stayed at the House of Peace while they were able to receive treatment from Boston-area hospitals.

John Schuchardt was a US Marine Corps officer (1960-65), a member of Veterans for Peace, and participated in the ‘Plowshares 8’ and ‘Avco Plowshares’ actions. John was imprisoned for the attempted disarmament of Mark 12-A nuclear warheads. 

They were members of peace delegations to Israel-Palestine, Iraq, Nicaragua, Auschwitz, Vietnam, Iran, Hiroshima-Nagasaki, and Okinawa. John and Carrie visited Moscow, Crimea, and Saint Petersburg, Russia in 2019 as participants in the study tour organized by the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

 

 

While at the House of Peace MB and I met two women from Egypt who are now receiving medical treatment. In addition two former Afghanistan translators for the Pentagon (now refugees) told us their harrowing stories of escape from the madness of their home nation as the US made a chaotic pull-out from its misbegotten war.

One of the men, and his wife, were transported out in a jam-packed Air Force cargo plane that saw people clinging to the wings as it took off. The other, clearly suffering from trauma, shared his story of leaving Afghanistan and ending up in Brazil. From there he made a 12-nation trek through Latin America barely making it to the US where he safely landed at the House of Peace just days ago.

During the visit John and Carrie took us for a beautiful spring time walk on the local beach where we talked politics and heard many stories about their remarkable work at the House of Peace.

The House of Peace website states, "John and Carrie are surrounded by the gentle wisdom and boundless warmth of an often invisible community of volunteers, donors, and supporters. With deep trust in the future and boundless gratitude for the encouragement of friends near and far, in companionship with all 'wounded healers', their hearts break in atonement for a century of violence and in hope for a great awakening to the promise of peace."

Bruce