BASSEM MELKI is Dean of Students at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a consultant to the Peacemaking Initiative Team of ABTS’s Institute for Middle East Studies. Bassem’s deep concern is to have Christ’s message of reconciliation lived out in practice in contexts of conflict. To deepen his understanding of possible pathways to culturally relevant and biblically faithful approaches to peacemaking, Bassem is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Peacemaking through the International Graduate School of Leadership, Philippines. He would never have entered this program if it were not for the non-traditional approach to advanced studies promoted, including the option to use action research as the methodology for his final project. Bassem is married to Roula and they have two children, Samantha and Brandon.