A Happy Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday!

I woke up to the sound of what I thought was a child yelling, and looked out my front window to see all of these sheep!

In the morning, I went to my friend Tamara's church where a great storyteller recounted the story of Easter brilliantly. We went to her grandmother's for lunch, and got to see pictures from her youth. She is such a beautiful lady!

In the afternoon I came home and had a great Skype conversation with my parents (before church for them).

In the evening, my amazing friends took me out for a nice dinner and then to "Little Italy" for some fantastic ice cream. They gave me some really sweet gifts which I will enjoy for a long time. So fun, and what a blessing to have good friends!

Here are some pictures from our evening:

These are the amazing women I spend most of my time with. We have a great time, as you can see!

Everyone has their mouth full, but check out the amazing spread on the table! I LOVE the food here!

Tamara and me enjoying our ice cream.

A very good friend:-).

Too Much Adventuring, Too Little Blogging

This has been a busy month. Between things heating up at work, me starting to have things to do almost every night with friends (what a blessing they are!), a few special trips, and some illness, I have done a very poor job of blogging. But here is a "catch-up" post with lots of pictures. If you don't hear from me at least weekly from here on out please send me an email like wonderful father did yesterday: "Hey, I just noticed that you are not doing a good job with your blog. Time to get with it!!" Thank you Pops:-)!

Stars and Bucks in Bethlehem. Definitely enough of a "green circle of pleasure" to make me smile when I see it, and it serves one of my favorite things: fresh-squeezed pomegranate juice! There are many benefits to living in the Middle East and the fruit is at the top of my list of those things.

My boyfriend, Kagiso, was able to get a visa to come visit me here at the end of February. We traveled around the country during his four-day visit.

This is me floating in the Dead Sea. It is very cool, but I think the water is one of the grossest things I have ever tasted! (No, I didn't drink it intentionally. I think a little splashed on my lip. YUCK!)

Kagiso on the sea of Galilee. It was cool to be at a place we read so much about in the gospels.

Hanging out with friends and eating a wonderful traditional Palestinian barbecue lunch. These guys have made life here so much fun!

My roommate, Judith, walking in the hills near Jerusalem. This was at the beginning of March and I hope gives you a taste of the beauty and diversity of this country.

Setting out on a trek through the desert near Jericho with good friends.

After our hike we rode on a cable car up the Mountain of Temptation. It was amazing to spend the day in the place where Jesus had done his fast and been tempted by Satan. I have new respect for how difficult it would have been to not turn the loaf into bread... we were sooo hungry and tired after our one-day hike!

After the recent bombing in Jerusalem I was concerned that getting through the checkpoint would be much more difficult. Thankfully, the day of the bomb was the only time we noticed a difference at all. I'm thanking God that for us here it hasn't caused the problems I feared it would. Please continue to pray for real peace here, and that people would not turn to terrorism. I have many thoughts on this, but will post them another time.

Friends and I went to an event at the Intercontinental Hotel (which is amazing) in Bethlehem. It was my first stand-up comedy performance to see live, and had a great time.

Believe it or not, two days from now will mark three months in The Land. I needed to leave the country for a new visa, and spent a week in Bradford. God is providing some possibilities for my time after being here, and I'll need to write about them later as well. This picture was taken in a paddle-boat on the pond in Lister Park on a gorgeous spring day.

Shabat

I have had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate Shabat the last two Friday evenings with Israeli friends, which has been really fun. I mentioned in an earlier post that it is really neat to understand a little bit better what Jesus was doing at the Last Supper... just from observing a related tradition with bread and wine.

I really like this weekly tradition to have a special meal with family and friends and remember the provision of God, and to speak blessing to God and each other. Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth... My understanding is very dependent on what is explained due to my absolute lack of Hebrew. What I do understand has been really cool.

So thank you, Ronit, for the invitations, and for some good times with new friends.

Women's Meeting

Friday I had the opportunity to attend a Musalaha women's event which was excellent.

When I got there, I was met by a very nice Messianic Jewish lady with a New York City accent. After finding out who I am and why I was there, she told me the strategy of the women's program. "We're just friends," she told me definitively. "That's why we come."

The time was much more like a women's meeting at a church than I expected. We spent the first half hour mingling, and it was fun to see the women finding good friends who they hadn't seen since the last event and catching up. The conversation was "How is your new grand-daughter," and "Have you lost weight?" instead of "What do you think about the current political situation." By the time the twenty-five of us sat down around a big horseshoe table I was writing the following in my journal:


Women, because of such common life journeys/concerns may have more natural bridges to reconciliation.

The rest of the meeting worked to confirm that idea.

One woman welcomed the group. "Please give a brief update on how you are and how we can pray for you." Whew, it was cool. Women of many generations opened up about where they are now. Joyous over a new grandchild, weeping over breaking relationships with children or husbands, testimony of God's grace during times of difficulty -- pain, sickness, lost life, new life, joy... seasons of life for every women.

Then we got into smaller groups and went before the Lord and prayed for each other. Three languages lifting to heaven the lives and concerns of our sisters.

After our time of prayer, we gathered again in one group for teaching. Louise taught on the Good Samaritan, expounding on cultural issues at play in the story. The main point that stood out to me was that in Jesus' teaching the answer to the question "who is my neighbor," was essentially another question: "Whose neighbor are you?" It is what we do for them that makes us a neighbor.

We finished with a nice lunch. I felt embraced by the group -- I guess they are accustomed to meeting new women and accepting outsiders. I wrote in my notes:

Praise You, Lord, for Your faithfulness through all life situations. Thank You for other women to walk through life with. Thank You for Your work in all nations, and for bringing us together in purpose and unity because of Jesus! Amen...

This is what I've been learning...

"There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to mistrust, and this mistrust in turn brings forth war." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Musalaha

How cool is this?!! My nametag in English, Hebrew, and Arabic!

During our Youth Leadership Training we did some team-
building games. Here we are working out the "human knot"!

Our meeting was on a Friday evening, the time of the beginning 
of the Sabbath. It was so cool to join in this time of thankfulness
to God, and to get such better context for what Jesus was doing 
when he initiated the Lord's Supper we celebrate so often as 
believers. It was beautiful to break bread with Israeli and 
Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ!

Us meeting in an "Area C" location, one of the few places 
in Israel where both Israelis and Palestinians can go.

I have loved my work over the last few weeks. At the office, I've been developing a blog for prayer for the Palestinian church (if you'd like to check my progress, see Pray for the Palestinian Church). It's a really fun project for me on a few levels. I've also done several other smaller projects.

It has also been fantastic to get to attend a few Musalaha events. I have been invited to be part of the youth leadership training we are now doing, and it was wonderful to get to sit with young Israeli and Palestinian leaders who are looking to invest in the next generation. We talked about issues related to reconciliation and it was really interesting to see the process in action. One Palestinian brother shared about some of the hurt he experienced when, while helping with a Christian conference, the speaker spoke harshly about Palestinians as the "enemy."

There is a lot of hurt being done by those who have ideas about this conflict but no relationships here or understanding that they are talking about real people's lives. It was cool to hear the Israeli believers apologize and restate that it was not their opinion being shared in this instance, but the opinion of outsiders.

Friday, we had a meeting to go through curriculum Musalaha has created with some veterans of Musalaha to discuss Justice and Reconciliation, which I found absolutely fantastic. The main point that stuck out to me was that when seeking justice we must prioritize the future as well as the past in order to be effective. How will we live together? How will this affect the next generation? This is very important. We need to ask the questions when something is done in the name of justice about what the consequences of those actions will be.

There is so much to this and we talked through many many interesting issues, but for me that was the most eye-opening and critical part, although it does seem pretty obvious when I think about it now. This is why to build peace we need real justice -- acknowledging the roots of an issue -- but also to work toward reconciliation... so that difficulties will not be perpetuated to future generations.

I realized this week...

That in the last year I have spent over a month in four continents. News from Asia, Africa, North America and Europe: God is at work all over the world. And it is exciting!