Tuesday, 16 Oct ~ Bev Henkel

Hebron, walking tour, visit to Ibrahami  Mosque/Tomb of the Patriarchs.  Then time with Kody, Anna and Alice – please visit Christian Peacemaker Team Palestine, and especially the CPT Hebron page for more information.

CPT roof overlooking Hebron

The afternoon was at Tent of Nations, Nassar family farm near Bethlehem, for lunch and a tour.  Click here – www.tentofnations.org – for the Tent of Nations website, and learn about the farm’s history and the many opportunities for volunteers. The olive harvest starts next week!

A full day with much information, many ways that International presence is important, and relationships deepened and begun.  I invite you to Come and See.

Monday, 15 October ~ Carol Garwood

Angel graffiti, a Christmas gift from Banksy to Bethlehem

Persistence…..Hope…..Faith…..Peace…..
These were all words that came to my mind this evening after experiencing only a “glimpse” of the reality that is every day life for Palestinians living in the Occupied West Bank.

After viewing the graffiti art painted on the Apartheid Wall, learning about the services provided by the Wi’Am Center to the community to help them in dealing with a myriad of stressors in their daily lives, and walking the streets of the Aida Refugee Camp, I can definitely see the love that the Palestinian people have for each other, their traditions, and the land that they have lived on for centuries.

The people that I have met are committed to non-violent resistance as they struggle for both their freedom and their human dignity. I am committed to their cause and will ever raise my voice in support of their non-violent strategies. My prayer is that more people in our world will do the same.

Inshallah – Salaam (God willing – Peace)

Monday, October 15 ~ Wes Ebert

In 1979 I lived in Germany for a year. One of the hardest things for me to get my head around was “the wall.” It divided the country down the middle, having been built by an oppressive regime to exert control over its people. In the minds of my peers it had been there forever and everyone believed it would stand forever. But in reality it fell a mere decade later.

The Separation Wall by Wi’am’s play yard

Looking at the dividing wall through Bethlehem today I was having flashbacks.
● The graffiti was the same, complaining about the powers that had built it and belittling
those who enabled the oppression.
● The guard towers looked frighteningly familiar
● And the fact that it was intended to divide a community and keep people apart was eerily similar.

Wall surrounding Rachel’s tomb

I know the situation here is very different, but the fact that the seemingly permanent wall through Germany is merely a topic of history books today gives me hope, hope that a similar situation could occur here and the two opposing sides could come together in unity and peace.

The more I look back at what I’ve just written, the more naive it looks, especially in light of all we’ve learned throughout the day. But I believe God is powerful enough to bring about transformation in unexpected ways. Such changes never come easily, but the harder we all work for the justice Christ taught us, the closer we can get to achieving that goal.

*Blog title: ref. to Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”