Another fun video from camp

At camp a few weeks ago the kids could choose what to learn during one of the time slots each day. While I was doing "circus skills" others were making this movie. I thought you might enjoy it.

Face Painting Tutorial

I'm flying home to the DC area today, by way of London. As I travel, please enjoy the following video from camp:-)...

Musalaha Palestinian/Israeli Summer Camp Report

"I love this camp," a pre-teen girl told me as we played in the pool, "I love everything it stands for and everything it's about, and it's so fun!"

This attitude was echoed throughout Musalaha's Israeli-Palestinian summer camp by the seventy Palestinian and Israeli believing children and both local and foreign leaders.

For me, after six months in the Land, this camp gave me real hope like nothing else I have experienced. There was hope in the Bible studies, in the competitions, in the craziness and laughter, and in the worship. There was hope as the children were creative with their crafts and reckless in their play. There was hope as they were just being girls and boys – having fun, making friends, getting a break from the pressures of their everyday environment.

The fifty leaders arrived on Saturday afternoon to begin a run-through of the camp activities. We were quite a mix – the Musalaha leadership team, Israeli and Palestinian young teens who were junior counselors, Palestinian and Israeli college-aged counselors, and an American team visiting the country to serve us and the children. Over the course of the two days of preparation we got to know each other, and when the children arrived on Monday, we were ready!

When they arrived, many of the children found friends they had met at last year's camp. A group of two Palestinian and three Israeli girls negotiated to be in the same room. Upon receiving permission, they pulled five bunks together to make one huge bed where they could sleep together.

During my time here, I've gotten pretty good at identifying who is on which side – quickly profiling everyone I meet. It's usually unconscious, automatic, and often seems necessary. When I get on a bus, I need to remember what kind of bus it is so I know if I should greet and thank the driver in Hebrew or Arabic. When I see a group, I notice which side they are from. When I talk to people, I want to know where their sympathies lie so I don’t say something terribly offensive.

At the camp I realized that I wasn't noticing who is Israeli and who is Palestinian. I saw my brothers and sisters from both sides of the conflict demonstrate a love of Christ and each other above their love of sticking with their side. Leaders cared for kids, loving and instructing them regardless of where they are from. We were all there as believers in Jesus, and as should more often be the case, during camp no other identity really mattered.

One day after craft time, a Palestinian boy from the West Bank proudly pulled me aside to show me his pencil case. On it, he had painted an Israeli flag. I am not sure how his parents will feel about it, but it showed me how much more simple this situation is for the children. He loved his new friends and leaders and therefore had fond feelings about the place they are from.

As my coworker Tamara and I reflected on the camp, she said, "Innocence breaks down all this hatred that we have around us. You love the good things that you see in the other side. Like Jesus said, we should be little children."

The reality is that the conflict will probably get harder for these dear young ones as they get older. They will be pulled and they will likely have experiences that will confirm what their communities teach about the other. The conflict is real and they will likely come face to face with it before long.

But that thought is followed by remembering what I saw in the young adults who helped to lead the camp, many of whom have been raised as a part of Musalaha. They are pulled, but they do not forget their friends. For them, the "enemy" will never be faceless, inhuman, or distant. For them, the situation will never be easy or black and white. That is good. With open eyes they can help bring change. They are the hope.

He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." -Matthew 18:1-3

See previous post and my Picasa album for pictures from the camp. See videos from camp on Musalaha's YouTube channel I'll also put a few here over the next few posts.

Musalaha's Palestinian-Israeli Summer Camp

Here is a picture update from last week's summer camp. Tomorrow I'll post my reflections on the camp. It was really wonderful, as you can see from the pictures below.

During leader orientation we did the activities we asked the kids to do later in the week. I think the guys did a pretty good job (even though we women won)!

Hillary, one of the other leaders, with one of the girls in her cabin during the Bible study time.

Doing something like a Bible drill.

The kids did even better than the leaders with the newspaper clothes. I had a soft spot in my heart for this kid... just look at that face!

I saw this girl walking through the camp on the last morning and chased her down for a picture. I think her shirt  is great -- and perfect for the camp.

So much fun!

This little guy was so sweet. He wanted his face painted as a football (soccer ball). He is originally from South Sudan.

We had moon bounces galore and lots of water one afternoon. Everyone had a wonderful, fun time!

No caption necessary:-)

More fun.

Enjoying the water.

Picture in Ronit's hand: what she said she was going to do to my face. My face: what she actually did to it. I'll post the video she made in the next few days.

Diligently working on the crafts.

Palestinian-Israeli Camp

Today I'm going with about 40 other leaders for a two-day training prior to our Israeli-Palestinian summer camp. Through this camp, we intend to encourage relationships between young believers and expect the relationships to change the trajectory of their perspectives on the "other" in this conflict.

On Monday, we'll be joined by 73 8-12 year-olds for the five day camp. Since I won't likely be able to blog during the camp I'll be keeping pictures and stories to share with you after the camp.

This camp marks the beginning of my last two weeks here. I'll have a final week in the office and then be off toward home. Check in next week to see some posts about what I'm looking forward to about being home. I'll only be home for a month, so will need to pack a lot in. Maybe having a record of what I want to do ahead of time will help me remember when I actually have the opportunity at home! I hope they'll be fun to read, too:-).

Chivalry in the Middle East

I've been meaning to write this for a long time. One thing I appreciate about Arab culture is that, when I get on a bus, a man often gives his seat up for me (or any other woman who gets on-board). This is especially nice because the buses are small and standing is very uncomfortable.

So here's a shout-out to Arab gentlemen. I know you guys often get a bad rap, and I want you to know that I appreciate your kindnesses!

I was with my photojournalist friend when he took this picture of our bus driver right by the checkpoint.
Photo credit: Barry Rodriguez, www.worldnextdoor.org.

Divine Appointments

Kagi will be here in The Land for the next three weeks. He is working in Pharmacy at a hospital in the West Bank while I continue my work with Musalaha. This is very exciting for me, as you might imagine!

In order to make his stay possible, we prayed that God would open the doors for a visa, a pharmacy placement, an inexpensive place for him to live, and affordable plane tickets. Last week He provided all of these things! Kagi arrived on Saturday early morning and a friend even let me borrow a car to pick him up in Tel Aviv.

Sunday, we had a really nice day. We went to church in Beit Jala and then took a bus to Jerusalem, and had a wonderful time walking around, doing some shopping in a very western part of the city, and etc. First, though, we went for lunch in the old city.

Through a variety of circumstances, we ended up meeting a lovely guy who has a jewelry shop right near the Jaffa gate. He helped us find a place for lunch and then we visited him in his shop for a little while.

Today I am thinking about the privilege it is to meet strangers who quickly become friends. This Muslim gentleman's daughter will soon get married, but the joy of that occasion is mixed with sorrow due to a recent family tragedy. He openly shared what they are going through and graciously accepted our offer to pray for him.

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.

Checkpoint

This is where you walk into the checkpoint. Image from here.

I live in Bethlehem, which is part of Palestine, and work in Jerusalem, in Israel. Sometimes, I go to work (which is only a few miles from home) by taking a group taxi to the checkpoint, walking through the checkpoint, and then taking a bus to the office. My experiences going through the "checkpoint" between Palestine and Israel have been some of the most eye-opening and frustrating parts of my move to Bethlehem.

Last week, I got on to my group taxi, confident about crossing over because the day before had been no problem. The process should be simple: go to the checkpoint, pass through, get on bus, get to work. I thought it would take ten or fifteen minutes, and I would probably arrive about five minutes late to work (still working on the timing).

This is very a very orderly version of the line. Image from here.

When I got to the checkpoint, I heard a lot of noise from the area of the security checks. This is never a good sign. It means that things are going slowly, there is backup, and men are upset to be late to their jobs in Jerusalem. I got in line, knowing it would take a while, and proceeded to wait patiently for a half an hour for about 50 people ahead of me to get through. There was only one open line, and any time someone had trouble everyone had to wait.

I was about ten people from the front of the line and talked to a coworker to tell her I’d be late, but expected to be in shortly. About then, with a lot of yelling, pushing, and frenzy around me, I learned that the line we had all been waiting in would be shut down and everyone would have to go through the one which had been closed. It was a shame for those of us at the front of the line, because whoever was closest to the other line would, of course, get there first. Feeling frustrated, I got in line again, at the back (because I’m an American and that is what we are taught is fair from a very very young age). By this time the pre-9am rush had started and the line was growing quickly. Anxiety grew.

See the guard overhead? Image from here.

I joined an English speaker who I’d met the previous week while trying to get through the checkpoint. A guard (a young Israeli woman) with a big gun walked over our heads, casually taking in the scene. After another half-hour or so, the guy I stood with yelled to her, “Open the other line!”

After a few words in her walkie talkie, she motioned that the first line would once again be opened. People madly rushed to get in the front. My friend and I joined them, but my my pushing skills are decidedly sub-par. We made it into the line, me behind him, and he negotiated with our line mates to get me where he was, closer to the front. People are often gracious to foreigners.

We waited for another ten or twenty minutes, hoping that our line would move. We heard beeping from the other line indicating that it was, excruciatingly slowly, letting people through. Finally, the guard looked down to us and indicated that the line we were in was not going to open. After an hour and a half, too bad, get back in the other line.

My friend told me it would be another hour before we got through, based on where we ended up in line. By this time I was bruised, tired, frustrated beyond words, and very tempted to call it a day and just go home. I looked around and reminded myself that many of these men go through the checkpoint every day to get to work to support their families. I shouldn’t be so selfish.

Image from here.

People cut shamelessly in line, every man for himself. Tensions grew. Fights nearly broke out. I was upset with the behavior of the people in line, but even more was upset as I began to think that the whole thing was intentional. There are so many ways the process could be efficient. But why make it efficient? The goal is to keep people out, not make it easy for them to come in. True or not, it felt increasingly intentional as the guards lazily meandered around watching people get more and more upset.

There was a lot of pushing to finally get into the final part of the line which has metal barriers to funnel people. Once I was in, multiple people ducked under the barrier, jumping the line. One man’s anger boiled over, and he began a passionate speech. “You should be ashamed of yourselves!” was the clear message. “I can do it too, see?” as he climbed up on the barrier and crossed to the gate, right over my head. Although no one got out of line, I think they did look ashamed by the end of it.

Finally, I got through. After security, you show your papers (passport in my case). I was in line behind a woman with two children who looked to be under two. She cried and pleaded with the guard who told her she couldn’t get through, she didn’t have the right papers. The guy next to me said that she was claiming that her husband is dead, and she needed to go to the hospital or something. She was waved aside and I’m not sure if she ever made it through. I hear that most of the time people are given leniency even without proper papers in such cases.

Finally I got on my bus in Jerusalem and made it to work -- about 2 and a half hours late.

Although thankful for these experiences which, although not the everyday occurrence do give some insight into the feelings of oppression of the Palestinian people, I am very thankful that I am able to go to work with a coworker most days. We drive to Jerusalem through a much easier checkpoint which caters to Jewish settlers in the West Bank so they are not prone to hassle us much because they assume we also are settlers.

Before I sign off I want to mention that this is one experience I had, and how I felt as it happened. There are multiple sides to every story and I don’t intend to make a statement against anyone in this post. Since I live in Palestine, many of my initial experiences have been seen from a Palestinian perspective. I look forward to sharing as I learn more about Israel as well.

As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one...”

…
But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.

- Romans 3:10, 21-22

Note: The pictures in this post were taken from the web to give you an idea of what it looks like, but are not from the day I was there and were not taken from me. For proper credit, see the links.

Pictures of the Wall

Here are some pictures of the wall between Bethlehem and Jerusalem, mentioned in my last post. Stay tuned for a story about when I spent over two hours going through the checkpoint in my next post (hopefully tomorrow).

 This picture is a little more fun... me on the roof outside of my room:-).