Wednesday March 30

Elias tells Richard, Mary Beth, and Gene about his church

 It’s been another great day in Ibillin, Israel.  We continued painting the six story stairwell in the Mar Elias High School. from 8-3 with a break for lunch. 

Our supervisor, Elias, invited us to his home for “coffee” which ended up being quite a lovely spread of delicious goodies.  It started with lemonade or coke and then dates followed by pound cake, cookies, and a yummy dessert soaked in honey.  Then came the Turkish coffee.  All was made by Ba’de’ah, Elias’ gracious wife. 

We met their four children who range in age from early twenties to age 10  and it was fun to hear what they are interested in. Graduate of last year, Sezar, loves break dancing, hip h0p, singing, and sports.  They were using their English while we were trying to pick up some Arabic.  Ronza, the youngest,  is a fan of Justin Bieber and  is in the 5th grade.   Students begin Arabic in grade 1, Hebrew in grade 2 and English in grade 3 and continuing through high school.. 

 After what Penny called high tea, Elias invited us to visit their Greek Orthodox church which he said had just been remodeled.   It was small and beautifully adorned with icons of the saints.   One of those icons was of Mariam Bawardi who lived in Ibillin 146- 1878.   Mariam was known for her compassionate ways and is credited with one or more healings.     In 1983, Pope John Paul II raised her to the level of a saint.  We visited an archaeological dig and reconstruction of her home and a crudely made altar in her memory.     The Elemenatary school at Mar Elias is named after Mariam Bawardi and a beautiful painting of her hangs in the entry to the school.

Tomorrow we will continue work on the stairway maybe even finish it!  We also hope to have conversations with students and teachers. Friday we will be off on an adventure of touring and on Saturday will return to painting or whatever task is assigned to us.

Penny painting graffiti infested walls

Blessings,

Gene and Lois

Mary Beth prepares wall for painting

Going through the airport

Going through the airport was quite an experience. We got there about 3 hours early and were first stopped by a checkpoint at the entrance to the airport. They checked and double checked Issa (our guide) and had us all bring out our passports. They then asked that I get out and identify our bags and let them know that we were the only ones that had touched them.

Then we went through a bag screening where all our bags were run through a scanner and marked with numbered stickers. We then were directed to an area where they had us open our bags and went through all the contents. Mine was the worst. I think, all in all, it took about an hour to go through my three bags. Then the girl took me to a back area and had me strip partway down and then patted me down and ran over me with a bunch of metal detectors. Then I went back to the area with the bags and had to go through a bag check-in process. One of the guys there said that he’d try to bump me up to first or business class for all the trouble, but later came back and told me he couldn’t but he got me a window seat. I later looked and he never even changed my seat from what I had before. Oh well.

No one was rude or mean, but they were really REALLY thorough. In fact, the girl who searched me even was telling me about how she wants to go to New York but none of her friends want to go with her because it is so expensive.

We got through just in time. As we got up to the gate, they were boarding. My advice to all the rest: They AREN’T kidding when they say arrive 3 hours ahead of time!!

-Marie

Covered in paint

Here I sit covered in paint and dust after a day of painting at Mar Elias School in Ibillim.  We were asked to paint the stairwell of the 6 story high school building and we started at the top.  We were down to the second floor when we quit for the day but there is much yet to do as it will take at least two coats, if not three, to finish the job.  Mary Beth took a picture of Richard and me because we were the two with the most paint and dust all over us.  We are working with another Elias who has invited us to his home after we paint again tomorrow.  We look forward to that!

It is our hope that beside the painting we can also work with the students.  They are incredibly friendly and as we walked back and f0rth from lunch we had fun interacting with them.  Today the seniors were dressed in black and white for their senior pictures and looked mighty fine. 

If you go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar_Elias_Educational_Institutions you can learn more about this school.  At lunch today Mical, the operations director here and nephew of Father Chacour, updated us on the university part of the school.  It was relocated to Nazareth due to better transportations systems there.  We were impressed to hear that there are 150 adjunct professors at the university; fifty are Jewish; fifty are Muslim; fifty are Christian.  The building that was originally built for the university here is being used now for the high school and that is where we are working.

Blessings to all,

Lois

Already missing our friends

Carol, Carol Jean, Marie, Marilyn, and Pat left our guest house here at Mar Elias at 6 this morning so they would get to the airport in good time.  It was hard to say goodbye.  Our group was truly put together by God!  What a rich experience this has been thanks to being with each person God provided.

We who remain are not quite sure what we will be doing in the way of work but should know more after our briefing and instructions from Micha this morning.  Now to have breakfast….  We pray you who read this are doing well.

In Christ,

Gene and Lois

the last day for me

Well, today was the last day here for 5 of us in the group. We have packed our suitcases and will be leaving for the airport in Tel Aviv at 6am.  The approximately 11 hours that we will spend in the air on the way to Newark will give us plenty of time to reflect on the past 2 weeks.  We have made new friends, gotten to see Holy sites in both Palestine and Israel, tried new foods, visited United Methodist sponsored centers, seen the smiles of the people as well as the hope that they hold toward a peace that seems to be an elusive one.  Part of what I am coming away from these past 2 weeks with is a memory of a people that are friendly, hospitable, full of hope and Christian love – a people who are not looking for money, or who are filled with hatred – certainly not terrorists – but people who feel that we are all children of a loving God and that we are all family who should find a way to exist together in a peaceful way.  It will take some time for me to process all that I have seen, heard and experienced here. I am richer for having been a part of this VIM team and look forward to continuing the friendships that have developed. 

Here are a few photos that were taken today as we spent time along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea.

Shalom,

Carol Garwood

The Silver Chalice

On Saturday we had a very full day in upper Galilee.  It included the Church of the Beatitudes, the church of the loaves and fishes, Peter’s Church, Capernaun, a lunch of St. Peter’s fish, and a ride on the Sea of Galilee.  In the late afternoon we had the most moving experience which was a visit to Bir’im, a village close to the Lebanon border that was the birthplace of Bishop Elias Chacour and many other Palestinian Christians from  a span of well over 600 years.  Unfortunately, it now lies in ruins.

This is the story.  In 1948 Zionist soldiers came to the village and they were welcomed by the people as Jewish friends.  The villagers  (1,050 people) had long relationships with their Jewish neighbors in neighboring towns and expected the same relationship with these soldiers.  It was not to be.  After two weeks, the soldiers who had been given wonderful Palestinian hospitality told the people that it was too dangerous for them to remain in their homes and that they should leave immediately.  They were told it would just be for 48 hours.  So they left quickly with little food and coverings.  It was winter and it snowed.  The 48 hours stretched into weeks and they were hungry and cold.  Seven of the children died. They begged to return but were told they could not.  The people of Bir’im became  internal refugees and eventually many of them located in a nearby village, Jish.  Others left the country for Jordan, Lebanon, or Syria. 

But, the people of Bir’im are proud people who love their village and they did not give up.  In 1951 they again asked the government if they could go back and were told “security” was a problem.  They took legal action and eventually their case got to the Supreme Court which ruled in 1952 that they could return to their village.  You can imagine the joy of these people!  In this country, however, remember the military has the upper hand.   To this day the ruling of the high court has not been  honored. In 1953 as the people prepared to go to their ancestral home, they heard bombs and yes, the entire village was bombed.  Their homes were destr0yed and they stood on an adjoining hillside and watched for two days as their village collapsed in rubble.  It became one of the 513 villages destroyed.  Our guide was 84 year old Tommie who was 21 in 1948.  Under Tommie’s guidance, we walked among the ruins of homes and businesses.  We saw the 9 meter deep  cistern that Tommie and his brother dug beside their house; he talks proudly of the living sweet water it has to this day. 

Three Prime Ministers have promised the people of Bir’im that something would be done but nothing has been.  Begin appointed a committee to study the problem.  At first the committee, agreed that the people should be able to return BUT they would need to pay for the land, they could not take all their children, and they must sign a document stating that they had no rights.  Obviously, the people of Bir’im did not agree to that.  The government ignores the UN Resolutions regarding Palestinians and their land rights.  Tommie said, “The United Nations obeys Israel; rather than Israel obeying the United Nations.”

While Bir’im was evacuated for “security” reasons, there are today 5,000 Israeli settlers living in it as a “gated community” . In addition, to assure that the original villagers would not return, the rest of the land has been made into a national park where families come to picnic among the ruins of the homes not realizing that the owners of the homes were forced to leave by gunpoint and long to return to their land.

The spirit of the people is strong and they do return to worship in their church which they rebuilt  in 1972 and to visit the cemetery which is very well kept and to sit in the ruins of their homes.  In the summer they hold a summer camp for the children on the grounds of the church.

Tommie  actually was the first one to see the soldiers who entered the village.  He was on his way to the restaurant he owned.   At the end of our tour as we sat in his beloved church, Tommie showed us a silver chalice and told us its story.  It had been taken by one of the Zionist soldiers when they sacked the village and eventually that soldier moved back to Germany.  A few years ago at age 95 he and his brother were going through his things and the brother asked, “What do you want to do with this?”  The soldier answered, “Send it back to where it belongs.”  It was sent back just last January 2011 and there was great rejoicing.  Indeed, some of the old soldier’s relatives were invited to a celebration the villagers planned.  The brother of the soldier came and it was a holy moment for all.  Each year the descendants of the village gather at the church which cannot hold all of them but they come together to remember and to continue to hope that one day their children and grandchildren can reclaim the land that is so sacred to them.

In Christ,

Gene and Lois

Tomme's bombed home in Br'am

 

Tommie holds the silver chalice

Israeli army lookout tower protecting the settlement that has been developing on land owned by Br'am

Nazareth

3-27-11 – Today was another bright, sunny day in the Holy Land. We travelled to Nazareth this morning and were able to visit several different sites including Mary’s Well, the Church of the Annunciation, The Church of St. Joseph, and others.  We stopped at another excellent restaurant for lunch where we again enjoyed pita bread, hummus, knafe and various other dips, olives and vegetables.  After lunch we proceeded to Cana of Galilee where several of the women in our group were able to purchase some beautiful scarves from some of the local merchants.  Carol Garwood

Kids arriving at Mar Elias School

We got up yesterday (3-26-11) and it wasn’t long before we heard the sound of children at the school where we are now staying in Ibillin, Israel.  We are staying at the Mar Elias School that Father Chacour founded for children in the area.  As we walked to our bus, we were greeted by smiles and “Shalom’s”.  You could tell that the children were happy and excited to be at school. Later in the evening, we were all blessed by being able to meet Archbishop Chacour in person at the school. 

View from the shore of the Sea of Galilee

One of the highlights of our day was visiting the Sea of Galilee and actually being able to ride in a boat that was similar to the one that Jesus and the disciples would have travelled in.  As we floated on the sea, we reflected on the story of Jesus walking on the water and telling Peter to do the same. 

Late in the day we travelled to the village of Ber Am which was destroyed in the 50’s by the Israeli government. We were fortunate to visit with a gentleman who lived in the village in 1948 and could tell us his story of how the villagers were forced out of their homes and what has happened to him since that time.

We have been fortunate on this trip to be able to communicate with several of the native Palestinians and the stories that we have been told are somewhat difficult for us to absorb. The lives that we are fortunate enough to be able to live in the United States are so far removed from what has happened over the years in this country.

Shalom – Carol Garwood

A Walk in the Garden and Communion at the Garden Tomb

Garden of Gethsemane

VIM Team at the Garden Tomb

A view of the Mediterranean Sea from Jaffa, Israel

Today was an incredible day. We were able to walk in the Garden of Gethsemane and we took communion at the Garden Tomb. Our days have been incredibly full and we’re finding that it is a little difficult to get the posts up on the blog, but we’re trying to do as much as we can. Here are a couple of photos from today that I’d like to share. They are taken at the Garden of Gethsemane, the group after taking communion at the Garden Tomb and a spectacular view of the Mediterranean Sea off of the coast of Jaffa.   Carol Garwood

Jerusalem on March 24

Yesterday’s trip to Jerusalem was  both uplifting and discouraging.  Visiting the holy sites was a sacred time.  We were at the Dome of the Rock, the Wailing Wall, walked the Via Del a Rosa, David’s Tomb, Upper Room, Church of the Holy Sepulchre.  And, we enjoyed a wonderful mideastern lunch in the heart of the Old City.  Our guide, Issa, is a font of bountiful information and we felt blessed by all we learned, saw, and experienced there.

Midafternoon we met with Maya, a worker at ICHAD (Israel Committee Against Housing Demolition), who did an excellent job of giving us more history of the various encroachments on Palestinian territories accompanied by good visuals.  Then we boarded the bus and she guided us from West Jerusalem, a Jewish neighborhood that looks like those of any American city with many stores, restaurants, parks, playgrounds, coffee shops, and services with which we are familiar, to East Jerusalem where illegal Israeli settlements have been built on Palestinian land.  What a contrast East Jerusalem is.  The settlements are gated communities with full city services.  The Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have residency status but not citizenship.  They are, however, entitled to city services but very, very few are received.  Garbage stays on the street.  Water cisterns are on their roofs because they cannot be guaranteed  adequate water while the settlements enjoy getting it whenever a faucet is turned on.  (Average Isareli water usage is 24 liters/day…Average Palestenian water usage is 6 liters).  1500 more classrooms are needed in East Jerusalem and were promised to be built by 2010 but only one school for girls has been built.  Five thousand youths do not go to school because the schools are not adequate to hold them and are not up to standard.   Double sessions are held at the present time.  Our hearts are full of sorrow for these people.  At our devotions last night Marilyn read the passage of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and we think He is still weeping.

In Christ,

Gene and Lois