Christmas in Bethlehem

No one posted anything about Christmas in Bethlehem. Well, I guess I'll have to take you back and reminisce a little about the best experience I've had here in Palestine so far.
On Christmas Eve, our team went to manger square where it was full of people- Christians and Muslims. There were Christmas lights and Santa hats everywhere you looked, and signs that said "Prepare the Way!" and "Merry Christmas, Happy Eid ul-Fitr (a Muslim is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting,) and Happy New Year to EVERYONE". I was in constant awe that the place where I was standing was the very spot where God became man 2,007 years ago.
In the middle of the square, there was a stage where choirs came from all over to sing. Hannah had the opportunity to go into the church of the nativity and have midnight mass and even saw the president of Palestine.
Our team made friends with some Palestinian solders, who let us take pictures of them. They take tourists very seriously. We were summoned to the front of the crowd and solders yelled at the locals that were behind us to move back and give us room. When they didn't obey, the solder got out his taser gun and walked behind us flickering it at them. That got their attention, and they quickly moved back.
Around 12 am, the choirs ended but the Christmas celebrations were just beginning. A local church down the street attracted a crowd outside with their loud worship music and dancing. It was awesome! Cars went racing down the streets with dressed up Santa clauses hanging out of the windows, ringing bells and yelling "Merry Christmas!" to the tourists. There was an atmosphere of Christmas everywhere, except for our street. Palestinian solders were lined up every 20 feet on the sidewalks. I believe it was for the president's arrival, but was still really scary.
After we left manger square, our team went to a Christmas party with some fellow Americans who lived in Beit Sahor, not far from Bethlehem. In the morning, we had a wonderful American breakfast with BACON (which we hadn't had in a month), apple crisp, pancakes, and orange juice.
Although I missed my family back home, I wouldn't have traded this opportunity with anything. I'm beginning to really love it here, and am feeling more confident that God has wonderful plans for our team here in Bethlehem. I'm sure they aren't anything that I had in mind, but maybe something even better.

Clay Factory

Hmm....it seems like every post we put up is about Hebron. Oh well, here goes another. Yesterday, Andrew and I drove the college van there. It was a business trip of sorts. We needed to pick up some materials for the gift shop as well as a load of clay for a large mural that will be part of the new student center being built at the college.
Our guide took us to the clay factory, which was unlike anything I had seen before. Maybe a dozen men worked there. Some of them worked as potters and others manned the kiln and mixed the clay to the right consistency. But every one of them was covered head to toe in clay. I only got a few pictures because I felt a bit out of place with my camera but here's one of the kiln (the smoke is so black because tires are burnt inside) and one of Hamud. Hamud worked at the factory. He speaks zero English so I struggled to find out much about him except that he's eleven (i think). I guess that's all.

Ghiid sa ghiid: Happy Feast

On Wednesday, I got the opportunity to tour around Hebron with my coworkers from the Bible College. It was a great day to get away from the busy work day and bond with my new friends. Our tour guide took us all over Hebron to see the church where Abraham heard from the angel that he would have a son to the home of the Christian Peacemakers. Wednesday was a Muslim holiday so the streets were clear and it was easy to travel around. It was the day of slaughtering, which they did in the streets. I got to see my first camel butchered for dinner. All the parts of the camel are used so they quickly got to cutting him apart. The boys wanted me to show the picture of the camel.

After we had traveled all around, we stopped for a bit to eat at a small stand. On our way home, the festivities began. It all started when, someone needed to go to the bathroom. Because of the Muslim holiday, the majority of the stores were closed, so our tour guide called up one of his friends. When we arrived at the beautiful, two story home, we were quickly greeted with "ahlan wa sahlan", meaning welcome and make yourself at home. Our new hosts lead us into a warm room with day beds and a solar stove in the center. The mother brought out a huge tray of different fruits and another tray of chocolates. Jane, a volunteer who is here for 2 years, and I ate a majority of the chocolates. The chocolates were just calling our names so we had to eat them. In this culture, it is offensive to decline the food so we continued to eat.

About an hour later, we decided it was probably getting time to leave. As soon as we started getting ready, our host family begged us to stay and eat their feast with them. I felt like I was introding on their celebration, but they would have it no other way, but to have us stay for dinner. Their hospitality was over the top. I was overwhelmed at how generous they were to strangers. It was a great contrast to what they show on television about the muslim people.

At this point, I was not very hungery because I had just eaten lunch and now chocolates. I was blessed by their hospitality and interest to get to know us. The father was very laid back and cracked jokes every few minutes. He was the one to bring out a tray of roasted chicken with vegetables cooked within the juices. He gave each of us a piece of pita and humas. It was zawkii, meaning delicious. It surely was one of the best meals I had since I arrived. We continued to chat and joke around with the family. I felt like I was apart of their family. After the main feast, the food was still coming. We were offered more fruit, chocolates, nuts, and coffee. I was stuffed beyond the point of ever eating again.

I was truly blessed by this family and their hospitality to me and my friends. I felt welcomed and honored to be at their house. I pray that my team will have the same opportunity to be welcomed and loved by a family like this one. And, I hope you can experience the same hospitality someday.

no easy place

Look familiar? This gas station made the top photo in National Geographic's recent article on Bethlehem. It's 200 yards from the Bible college.

Bethlehem is no easy place to be a Christian. I don’t mean for me as an American, of course, but for those who call this place home. Everyone has a story to tell about friends or family affected by tension between Christians and Muslims. They don't like each other and they don't trust each other. Further, your birth determines your faith. There is a lot of stigma and shame associated with leaving your faith.

Some of our most fun moments have come hanging out in the guys dorm. It’s just like any college dorm and it makes me feel right at home. The guys stay up late, make lots of noise, try not to study more than they have to, and play pranks on one another. The most popular prank is to burn one another in the shower by opening the faucet in the sink. Yoosef and Elias live here with us and are two guys we know best. Most of the time, we laugh together and have fun. You wouldn't know it at first but both of these guys have had scary moments and tough times because their families and communities are torn between two faiths. For Elias, Yoosef,and young Christians like them, leaving the West Bank for America or anywhere else is a very appealing opportunity but their exodus leaves a vacuum in the church. Who will fill it? My prayer is that God will call out young leaders here who are able to lead these people through the many challenges they face.

Digging in

For most of us this week has started to become more ordinary. Days are filled with jobs and duties, friends made, and activites are now looked forward to. Although this is happening, there are still some little quirks that stimulate our imaginations about this land. Every morning Jared, Andrew, Hannah, and myself take part in devotions with the college staff. When the Christmas story is read, many of us still can't believe we are seeing the places that are being talked about, and are living on the land that many of our biblical heros walked and lived on.

In addition to the normality of the land, I find myself accepting and participating in the cultural life style. Palestinians are very relaxed, last minute, and above all very hospitable. To be fair, I was never very time oriented, and tried to be hospitable, but this culture is a huge step up from where I was. One experience we had with the cultural norm was with a shop keeper named Majdi. Majdi approached us one afternoon and insisted we come in his store. Our first thought was he was just a persistent shop keeper, but he won us over once he said, "I won't sell you anything, just come have some tea." Well since then we have stopped in and had tea, and we also have talked to him on the streets. Now he is becoming a close friend.

With all of these experiances it is hard for us to imagine that we have only scratched the surface of out time here in Bethlehem. Most of us feel like we have been here a lot longer than two weeks, but we are all very thankful and grateful to have this experiance.

An Eye Opener in Hebron

As I gazed out the muddy van window, I observed the devastation and brokenness in an atmosphere of frustration by the local people. I found myself looking over my shoulder at the watch towers and police barricades. My heart crumbled at the brokenness among the people in this region. I was overcome by the broken homes and estranged people as we passed by. It was almost like I was watching a sad movie in high speed. Once again, I felt hopeless in my inability to help the situation. I just found myself praying to God for direction in where he wanted me.

God has opened up doors for my team to see the country and visit the local people. Adam, Andy, and I tagged along to Hebron to visit the ceramics shop that supplies the BBC gift shop and quickly visit the only Christian school in Hebron. We are hoping to help out at the school a few times a week. This would be a great opportunity, if it is in God's will for us.

The boys and one girl were ecstatic when they saw us. There were especially impressed with Andy because he had gum for all. The children almost knock Andy off his feet. We were not able to stay long, but it was an eye opening experience to see the lifestyle of the children and the people in Hebron. We listened to the struggled people dealt with on a daily basis.

This trip allowed me to experience and learn about the longing need for love and hope. My eyes are aware of the confinement and frustration in this area. This experience made me realize how much we need to be praying for all parties of the conflict here. We need to be a steady light within darkness. In Matthew 5:16, Jesus says, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven". This our chance to shine.

--Hannah

House of Hope children

One night, Melody and I went to the kitchen at House of Hope to sit down and have a cup of tea with Darious, a guy from England who is volunteering here. He had picked some oranges off the tree in the backyard and hand squeezed them into the tea. We were having a nice little chat when Muhammad, one of the boys here, came into the kitchen. The children don’t speak any English but Darious is patient and works well with them. After several minutes of taking him back to his room and then Muhammad coming back out one minute later, Darious soon became frustrated. So I got up and took Muhammad by the hand and walked him back to his bed. I gave him a hug and tucked him into his bed. I couldn’t imagine being only 8 years old and not having a mother to tuck me in every night. I knew he was lonely and I wanted to be able to say “I love you” to him in Arabic, but I didn’t know how. He looked at me with nothing to say except a sweet smile, I understood immediately that all the Arabic words I could’ve spoken to him would not have meant the same as that simple act of kindness.
I’m excited to become a house mother to these children. I know it will take a lot of patience and stepping out of my comfort zone, but God will give me the strength I need. I can see myself down the road desiring to have more time off to go and do some more exciting and fun things, but I need to remind myself that I’m not here for a vacation. I’m here to serve.

Safe and in Bethlehem

Here is a picture of the beautiful airport in which we landed yesterday.
The boys are staying at the Bible college and the girls are at House of Hope. Hannah and the boys are going to be working with the Bible college and Audrey and Myself (Melody) are working with five young girls at House of Hope.
The city of Bethlehem is gorgeous, I woke up this morning and Audrey greeted me with her smile and led me outside to a wonderful view. We'll be posting pictures soon.
Today was our first full day to see Bethlehem. We visited the church of Nativity, that is the place where Jesus is supposedly born. We also went to a local place to eat and had a delicious meal. With every meal we've been served pita bread. And we learned that if you don't eat your pita bread they reuse it.

Falafel will have to wait

3 of the teams in training spent last Monday and Tuesday at Camp Hebron for a team-building and wilderness experience. Monday was jammed full of stuff on the low-ropes challenge course. The spider web picture is one example of those challenges. If you've never done one of those things before, the point is to get you to work together to solve a puzzle or a physical challenge as a group. The point is rarely the actual task but the communication and the process that goes on in accomplishing the task--thus, they're called team-building activities. The other pictures come from a scavenger hunt we did around camp. I'm not sure what the point of the scavenger hunt was since there was no prize and no winner. It just encouraged us to run around camp making fools of ourselves and having fun together. And I just realized that I can't tell you much more about our camp. You see, there might be some future YESser reading this and we've been warned not to give up too much info about what went down. I will say that we got to see some spectacular early morning views--the leaves were every color from green to yellow to fire red when we were ther. Overall, I was totally blessed by the experience and especially by my teammates' good attitudes throughout the experience.

Ever since leaving Israel this summer, I've been craving some good falafel. Falafel is a middle eastern sandwich--hunks of fried chickpeas in pita with veggies and sauce. You can get one for a buck in Bethlehem but it's hard to come by in central PA. I thought I was in luck though for today when as a team, we planned to go to the 2nd St. Kabob in Harrisburg for lunch. Unfortunately, we arrived this afternoon to find the place closed even after I made reservations on Friday...ugh. We got monster burritos at Neato Burrito instead. Still good but definitely not what I was hoping for. I suppose my tongue can wait 2 more weeks for pita goodness.--Jared

Nearing the end

The end of training is coming soon. We have two weeks until all of us here at HDC go home, relax, and prepare to go out into the world. Yesterday our team returned from a 30 hour stay at Camp Hebron. For the 30 hours we were awake and active for 26 hours. You can imagine how tierd we were and probably still are. At camp we participated in a number of team building exercies ranging from making an expressive poster without markers, pens, or pencils to rock climbing. Our team felt some bonding, but I think we all just had a lot of fun. With all this said it is time for me to start my day and finish training!

We're going to Israel!

Welcome to the Israel YES 2007 team blog!