Q&A with Peacemaking MA student Donna Jamila Crews Finney
UOS: What first drew you to attending UOS (in its earlier incarnation)?
Jamila: I was a social worker. In Austin, we were sending 7 or 8 people to school a year and they were coming back with years off their faces. They were healing deep childhood issues that would take years to heal with social work.
UOS: What benefits did you see when you attended?
Jamila: I’ve had miracle after miracle for years. After my first year of healing school, I found the daughter I’d given up 33 years before. I’d been looking for her for years, but through school, I cleared the veils, my guilt about having given up a child for adoption. I cleared up the guilt and God brought her to me.
I am living a life that would not have been possible without this work. I am living possibilities that I never would have been aware of. I have my own business, boomerwomanbucketlist.com. I have healed family lineage issues around entrepreneurship.
UOS: What are you learning currently in the Masters program?
Jamila: I’m in the peacemaking MA. We’re learning mediation from the heart. I don’t like conflict–I will do whatever it takes to avoid conflict. So, just the fact that I’m in a peacemaking MA is a miracle in itself.
For me, it means helping hearts that are in conflict connect so that they can begin to know their deeper needs behind their conflict. Once they connect with those, they can open and receive guidance and solutions that they never even thought of. They end up coming up with–not compromises, but ways to meet their deeper needs.
I’m still unfolding it. I’m not sure what Allah is making for me, but I hope to surrender to it.
UOS: Why was this the right time for you to return for the MA program?
Jamila: Sidi brings us deeper every year. I’ve been involved with the school since I started in 1999–through TIP, assisting for 8 years, and the different advanced programs that have been offered. I even worked some for the school.
The peacemaking teachings now bring NVC and move it from the heart to the soul. I am in awe of how much the school and the program has deepened since I first started.
UOS: What’s your advice to anyone who’s thinking about enrolling in the Year 4 Master’s program this fall?
Jamila: You can’t find this anywhere else. The school is evolving so fast. It’s a great way to receive the transmission and the depth of the walking and healing and opening.
It’s just been a life changer for me. I don’t have words for it. I don’t want to be done in March. I just want to keep going. You’d be crazy not to go.
Click here for more information or to apply to the Master’s program.
