From the Midwest to the Middle East! In 2007, Mary Bigelow (a multimedia artist and an unlikely recruit for a traveling seminar across the Middle East) tagged along with her dad (a Presbyterian minister) and sixteen of his pals and peers through Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine and Israel.

The Middle East Traveling Seminar was offered by the Middle East Task Force of Chicago Presbytery (of the Presbyterian Church, USA). The purpose for the trip was to understand the greater setting that Palestine and Israel are in.

Five years later she was invited to go on another traveling seminar, called Israeli and Palestinian Nonviolent Resistance in the Holy Land. This trip was organized by Friends of Sabeel North America, which according to their website, “is an interdenominational Christian organization seeking justice and peace in the Holy Land through education, advocacy, and nonviolent action”.

For the past eight years she has served on the board of the Seraj Library Project, which has built thirteen libraries in towns, villages and refugee centers in Palestine since its founding.