May 20, 2019, Bethlehem, Palestine
~ By Ellen Rasmussen

So says the Lord: A voice is heard on high, lamentation, bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, she refuses to be comforted for her children for they are not. ~ Jeremiah 31.14, JPS TANAKH

The word for today: IMPACT

Our journey began with a visit to the Wi’am Conflict Resolution Center located next to the wall in Bethlehem, followed by a walk up the street to the United Nations Aida Refugee Camp, with a return to Wi’am for lunch, movie, and shopping in the gift shop.

“Rachel is Weeping” overlooks a ready-for-children playground, empty during the school hours of our visit.

As we entered Aida Camp we saw the wall with the names of over 500 children who were killed in Gaza in 2014.

Rachel weeps.

As we journey into the camp, we discover the Key of Return Shop: Handmade Jewelry & Art from Tear Gas Bombs and Bethlehem Olive Wood. The sign has a note: “You are passing through Aida Refugee Camp, the Most Teas Gassed Place in The World!”

Rachel weeps.

We stop. We talk. We Shop. We meet the artist on our way to the Al Rowwad Cultural & Arts Center in Aida Camp. We listen to Abdelfattah Abusrour, Founder and Director of Al Rowwad, and hear not only the cries of Rachel in the stories but the hope of the psalmist “as mourning is turned into dancing.” Dancing, singing, photography, and theatre are some of the ways the children reconnect to who they are—beloved cherished children of God connecting deeply to their Palestinian roots. As our time together at the Cultural & Arts Center ended, I was able to present the director with cards of Peace created by children in the Kids on a Mission program at Brown Deer UMC, Brown Deer, Wisconsin. Wristbands used with our Breakthrough Prayer stating “Agents of Justice, Healing and Hope” were also shared, along with smiles and hope.

We return to Wi’am for lunch and more stories–taking a walk along the wall on our way back and discover that Rachel’s tomb is separated from us by the wall. Rachel weeps.

After lunch, we are deeply moved by Zelda Edmunds film, “Imprisoning a Generation.” One of the stories involves a children’s area at Camp Aida—children tear-gassed and threatened.

Rachel weeps.

Though her sacred tears be bitter, there is hope born anew every day as relationships are made and the stories shared as love prevails. Love in action is justice. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (inspired by Unitarian pastor Theodore Parker) says, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”