A night and day for reflection...

In many ways, it's hard to put a day (or 11) like this to words.

But, as we gathered on a patio overlooking the Jaffa Gate of Old City Jerusalem to reflect on this experience and day, the words, images, stories and gifts of this time are rich, real and present.

This morning was a beautiful, messy, haunting, and hopeful experience of life and death. Starting at the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum, and concluding with communion at the garden tomb. Once again we were greeted with a world of striking contrasts, tensions and paradox: the tragic- "I wish it weren't real" reality of holocaust, the haunting spectacle of a six million person slaughter, the dismantling sight of children's faces and names heard, the hopefilled- "I wish it were real" sight of an empty chamber of rock, the smell and taste of bread and cup, the promise that "He is not here", the very real encounter of a guest who's own journey reflects the movement from death, destruction and despair to promise, grace and hope. What a gift!

This day and these days on this trip have been rich and I (and we) richer for it. As we begin bringing order to our bags in preparation to return home, we pack with us memories, faces, stories, and experiences that we will try to connect to words over the coming hours, days, weeks and lifetimes.

May 19

So it turns out the minions were not very tall…and not very wide. One activity for the day consisted of treading through shin deep water through dark and narrow tunnels that King Hezekiah dug underneath the Old City of Jerusalem. It was quite the ridiculous experience…in a positive way of course. :)

We arrived back in Jerusalem yesterday evening. It is nice to spend the last few days of our tour relaxing in a place that is familiar. And Jerusalem really is a special city.

Our first day back in the Old City started with a breathtaking view from the top of Mount Olives. It is easy to imagine Jesus coming over that very hill and weeping over the city because of their ignorance of their Messiah (Luke 19).

We spent some time reflecting and gradually made our way down the Mount. After a quick stop at the Chapel of Tears (because if you haven’t noticed by now, they build a church to commemorate everything), we made it down to the Garden of Gethsemane. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed into the garden so we spent some time on the outside looking at the fenced in garden. A powerful image to picture Jesus sweating drops of blood and bearing the burden of sin for all humanity before being dragged off to his trial.

Of course our time in Israel would not be complete without camel rides! Eight of us rode a camel on the Mount of Olives – his name was Kojak.

In the afternoon, we had a bit of free time and stopped by at a shop called Shiro Shim. Erik had known about this artistic shop and invited the owner to say a few words to us. It was a great opportunity to hear from yet another living stone – and this time the viewpoint was that of an Orthodox Jew. He talked about his beliefs and gave us a glimpse into how the Jews view the law and their relationship with Yahweh. It is definitely different from our modern, evangelical, Christian worldviews! He also spoke about how his idea of peace in the land is finding a solution that promotes progress because he doesn’t think that any government will come up with a solution that will make everyone happy. A voice from the other side of the equation ultimately wants peace: the ability to live with each other despite their differences. While we remember the oppression of the Palestinians in the land, let’s remember to pray for miraculous reconciliation. Even if it will only come in baby steps.

After one more underground tunnel tour – this time along the west wall of the old temple – we had a late supper and retired to the deck of our American friends, Dave and Sandy. I’m sure we are all exhausted (and poor Papa Jeff has a nasty cold) and our feet and legs are wondering why they had to work so hard today. But, it is our second to last night in Jerusalem…so we’re living it up.

May 18, 2011

It was a wake up at the crack of dawn, although, I think the sun rises earlier here, because there was already some light in the sky over Jericho when we arrived in the dining room for breakfast. The dining room is yellow and called the Lemon Grove, completely irrelevant information, but perhaps it will give you a glimpse into our lives over here in the Holy Land.

We arrived at World Vision Headquarters and received a presentation about their programs in the area. Then, our superhero of a bus driver Saleem wove our BIG bus around the tiny streets of this Palestinian city…we’re talking about a big bus on skinny roads filled with oncoming traffic, pedestrians, and a herd of goats and cows. He earned the applause we gave him.

After HQ fed and watered us and informed us on their many amazing programs in community development and sustainability we met with church leaders and municipal leaders in a Christian village. Throughout our journey we have been hearing about how Western Christians come to Israel and ask Palestinian Christians “When did you become a Christian?”. For evangelicals this is an important part of our stories and how we discuss our faith stories, but when we ask a Palestinian Christian “when did you become a Christian?” it comes off that we are assuming they were Muslim and then converted to Christian. For these Christian Palestinian’s, because of their LONG LONG history of Christianity in their families (some for centuries), it is offensive to have people come and assume they do not have this history. It is a simple misunderstanding due to language, and context, but it makes the Palestinian Christians feel forgotten.

After our discussion with the leaders we went around and visited some of their projects. The enthusiasm of the men, women and children involved was actually so contagious that Darlene got down on her hands and knees and tried to learn the skills the women were practicing…there are videos, if you contact her I’m sure she’ll send you a copy (tell her Katie said so). If not, Dwayne has a copy too.

We then went for lunch at one of the parks that World Vision helped the community builds and we partied with the locals. Translation: we enjoyed their hospitality, welcome, and enthusiasm. We were treated like celebrities, greeted by everyone, given seats of honour (I sat on the ground once, and like 10 women jumped up and screamed no and gave me a chair). There was singing and dancing and great food. In our orientation beforehand we asked “What can we do?” and we were told: “Come back, give us this smile, this hope”. I thought this was just a pithy saying, but actually there, visiting this community I saw that our presence actually brought smiles and hope. We were blessed by their generosity, and all we had to give them in return was our promise to them to not forget.

Read more about the Park we saw at this link:

http://meero.worldvision.org/news_article.php?newsID=2254&countryID=15

We have heard repeatedly “Please don’t forget us, tell others about us” as we have met with the Living Stones here in Israel. They do not want us to feel sorry for them, because that would be denying Jesus’ presence here with them. They do not want to perpetuate or support anti-Semitic beliefs, attitudes or behaviour because that denies the will of Jesus to love one another, and will never lead to reconciliation. They want to be remembered. They want Western Christians to pray for them, to acknowledge them. It is a simple request: Do not forget them.

In the evening (yeah it was a long one but a good one) we heard from Pastor Jack Sara of the Jerusalem Alliance Church. He is a significant leader in the Arab Israeli and Palestinian Christian movement among the Evangelicals. You can read about their ministry at the following site: http://www.each-cma.org/ministries/JAC.htm

It’s my turn! Katie here, with a few (ok a lot) of words from Israel…

Getting on the air conditioned bus is like taking a sleeping pill. I honestly struggle to stay awake once I’m in my seat and we are off to our next location. Today, we were on the bus for what seemed like quite a while. We woke up at En Gev, hopped on the bus and headed to Gamala, this ruin on a hill, the kicker is that you climb DOWN and DOWN and then UP AND UP to get there. This is what I’ve discovered: the Romans were determined to wipe everyone out because they did that single file, with a battering ram. I did it single file, and I was carrying a water bottle and a camera, and would not have had any energy left to batter down a wall. Life would be so much easier with minions.

Then, we got on our air conditioned bus, and headed to the Jordan River to reaffirm our baptismal vows. It was not what I expected. I did not expect otters and fish to be all over the place, I did not expect it to be so commercialized, and I did not expect the whole Jordan River to be dammed up. The site was still nice, and although, not historically anywhere near where Jesus actually was baptized, it was beautiful to reflect on this in light of our own baptisms (mine was in Pigeon Lake…in early June…yeah, cold).

Back to the bus, and off to Jericho. I was excited to finally get to see a Tel (man-made mountain because each community is demolished and then a new one is built on top of it). Tel-Jericho is not the site of the current Jericho, but it is nearby. Yeah, it may be a bunch of rocks in a pile, and yeah, I may have close to 500 pictures of rocks in a pile already, but Jericho made me think. It made me reflect again on the conflict in this country. I thought this trip was about some sort of spiritual high, but that hasn’t been the case for me. People speak of the power they feel here, and I think on the hearbreak. I sat by a woman on the plane who cried when we could see Tel Aviv out of the window, because she was finally back in Israel. On Sunday, 4 people were killed on the Israeli/Syrian border because people are trying to get into Israel. After we heard about that, we went to the Mount of Beatitudes and read the Sermon on the Mount and I read “You have heard it said, “Love your neighbours and hate your enemies”, but I tell you, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven”. I am maybe not supposed to say this, but I burst into tears on the Mount of Beatitudes. Tears, snot, red face, the whole bit. To read about love in light of what happened, and to know that Jesus’ message was one of love, and to see the Holy Land in such conflict is heartbreaking.

Tomorrow we wake up early to go to Jenin, a Palestinian village which has been undergoing the hardships of occupation. We just came from our orientation where we were asked to not forget Palestine when we go, and to pray for peace, justice and freedom. Please join us in this prayer, for healing and love to spread like fire throughout the world. Pray for us as we go on this adventure and meet the people of Jenin, give us courage and strength to bring them hope and smiles, and let’s spread some more love.

Shalom/Salaam (Peace in Hebrew and Arabic)

Above is a picture from Caesarea Philipi – a place visited on Sunday. Envision each of the niches filled with “gods” and then in this context imagine Peter’s declaration that Jesus is “God’s Messiah!”

Three stops only today:

The Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth where you enter to the phrase “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. A fascinating structure of a building that includes a wall from the Crusader era and mosaic floor pieces from the Byzantine era along with remains of an original home said to be that of Mary.

Nazareth Village, a kind of working demonstration site of first century life complete with olive trees, sheep and shepherd, synagogue and a carpenter’s workshop. By the way, if you are in the region, drop by for their outstanding meal!

The Bible Society in Nazareth was our final stop. We heard about four different ministries, two local congregations plus Galilee Bible College and the Arab Israeli Bible Society. Dina Katanacho told of many creative ways they are seeking to show the love of God through the Bible to women and children.

Our day finished with a time of reflection by the Sea of Galilee. Since we leave early tomorrow it will be our last time to sit and let the sound of the waters wash over our ears as we continue to wrestle with what we have seen and heard.

Tomorrow we head back south to Jericho, but not before heading back north to Gamla.

Our day started with a service overlooking the Sea of Galilee. Our guest for the morning was Dr. Yohanna Katanacho from Bethlehem & Galilee Bible College. He spoke about the way of peace in the midst of difficult times using the Triumphal Entry of Jesus. He pointed us to a Prince of Peace who came differently than those who instill fear.

We moved to Caesarea Philipi (See Mt. 16) to see the site of Peter's great confession of Christ. As we were there we heard sirens and on leaving saw numerous military and police vehicles. There was a shooting of four men who entered from Syria - it was in the area we visited (we could see the Lebanese and Syrian Borders today) but we frankly didn't see anything that made us have any sense of unease - for families we are all doing great!

We ended our day at the Mount of Beatitudes (MT 5 - 7) and at Capernaum where Peter lived.

Heading to supper just as some are coming up from a swim in the Galilee.

More tomorrow!

Today we woke up in a hotel in the city where Jesus was born and tonight we are settling down into our hotel in the area where Jesus did ministry – Galilee!

We started off the morning by touring the Bethlehem Bible College. The president gave us a tour of their new academic building and spoke about his story and the blessing of the Bible College. It’s a really neat place, and an awesome opportunity for the Christians in the dominantly Palestinian area.

From there we made a quick stop at a high-end gift shop to spend more shekels on our loved ones back home, and then bussed to the Church of the Nativity. This is the church that was built around the caves and area that Jesus was believed to be born in. It was a neat experience to be in Bethlehem in that place, but the lines were VERY long. We waited at least an hour to get into the place with Jesus’ “manger” and to touch the bedrock of the original ground. There were other rooms and displays set up as well and it looked like a catholic or orthodox church. Beautiful…but not very Bibletime-esque.

Our next stop was the shepherd’s field. This was a park in Bethlehem that is one of the three places believed to be the field where the angels appeared to the shepherds. There was nothing over-the-top about it…but this is what made it nice. It was simple and natural – easy to picture a group of shepherds hearing news about the coming of their King.

We stopped at Herodian: a small mountain where King Herod built a palace on top of (and inside of!) the hill. We climbed up in about 5 minutes, explored the top, and came out through cisterns and caves from inside. It was a very cool place.

And not we are in Galilee at a beautiful hotel overlooking the Sea. We haven’t seen anything in Galilee yet (that will be tomorrow!), but already there is a neat presence of our Lord here. This is where Jesus was. We’re swimming where he walked on water and calmed the storm and called his 12 disciples! This is just one more of those unforgettable experiences of discovering the Holy Land together.

- Amy Soubolsky (Saskatoon, SK)

The theme of the day seemed to be “stories of trying times” or the “struggle for faithfulness”...

For Tom and Jen, members of the group who were left behind in Jerusalem while they ran for a quick coffee (oops/sorry/we learned to count heads and not assume)…

For the people who made a choice for death on Masada…

For David who hid from Saul in the days when he was hunting him but did not take advantage of him while near En Gedi – Read Psalm 18…

For two Palestinian Christians that told stories of families losing long held property during the coming to nationhood by Israel in 1948, were treated unfairly by the laws of the land but want badly to see a peace in the land that is grounded in the Prince of Peace…

We also did the Dead Sea Bob but that wasn’t really much of a struggle to be honest and had little to do with faithfulness – it was however quite fun!

Tomorrow we leave Bethlehem and head toward Galilee.

Most everyone has now arrived. Our first afternoon was spent with a Shwarma lunch (shaved meat in a pita with lots of veggies) and a walk through the Old City with Bethany Fullerton who is studying at Hebrew University and was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

The scale is what most folks are commenting on - so much smaller that what is expected. People are hoping for a good night sleep this evening as the airplanes didn't really afford that for most people.

We're hanging out at the Gloria Hotel, just inside the Jaffa Gate in the Old City:

This photo of Gloria Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor