People at places

Greetings from Palestine! Above, you'll find a picture of Laurie and I standing in front of the Sea of Galilee on our 2 year wedding anniversary! God is so good that he has brought both of us here together! Things have been stretching here in Palestine, but one of the things that has really helped has been the incredible people who have been on this trip! I thought I would take today to share some pictures of people from the trip. I know some family and friends have been following, so if you want to see any pictures of anyone is Israel Palestine, just leave a comment and i'll make it happen ;)

This is Laurie and our friend Sarah. Sarah has become quite fond of our pet pig toasty.

These are our friends Ryan and Debbie on the Sea of Galilee.

God has given us time to pray and meditate in these wonderful places:

But we've also had time to just have fun:

Speaking of which:

Broken

Hey everyone, Jason here. Just sending you an update on how things are going. No pics today, but I'll have more tomorrow!

We Saturday in Ramalah, Palestine and spent the night in Bierzeit. Ramalah default capital of Palestine. There were so many people in the streets! We went to a Latin Church and heard the pastor speak about the Israeli/Palestinian war. He spoke a little bit about the suicide bombers, and said that no one really likes them, especially the majority of Palestinians. What he said that ultimately all his people really hope for is peace. We were taken in by a wonderful Arabian Christian family. They made us home cooked Palestinian food, which was delicious! I’ve gained a new appreciation for Pita and hummous.

The language barrier was difficult, yet there were so many commonalities between us. They had a large loving, fun family. The grandparents reminded me of Laurie’s Nonni and Poppi. The family was very friendly and hospitable.

When we arrived, however, the family was a little upset. When we asked why, they told us that there had been an “accident” involving a military vehicle and a family of 8. The whole family died. Because of this Roadblocks had been set up and we to take backroads to get to our families home. While we were there, the army set off teargas in front of our house.

The next morning, our family told us that some of the soldiers were occupying the house next door to us. Some kids, angry at what had happened, were throwing stones and the soldiers. Throughout breakfast they kept firing off shots to keep people away.

There are other problems that the family expressed as well. The English speaking daughter in the home mentioned that she has not been to Jerusalem, which is only 15 minutes away, for 7 years, due to the separation wall I mentioned a couple days ago. The father of the house has not seen his parents in 14 years.

There are checkpoints all around Israel which will stop people from getting past. She is a devout Christian, and she used to visit the Holy Sites on Easter and Christmas. None of her children have ever been to Jerusalem. What’s worse, many Palestinians have trouble getting jobs because they cannot freely these have been problems that we have been hearing expressed from one Palestinian after another throughout the week. There has been a mass exodus of Christians from Palestine in recent years, because Palestians feel like they have no hope in their country. The Christian population has decreased significantly.

On a positive note, we visited a Catholic Church today, and the priest opened the table to everyone. It was an awesome display of ecumenicalism despite the hardships.

I would ask that everyone please keep us in your prayers. God is stretching us through this, more than we realized that he would. Ask that the Lord be with us at this time, that our hearts would continue to be formed into His image.

Also, tomorrow is Laurie and my wedding anniversary. Happy two years!

The Jerusalem Cross and the Church of the Nativity

Today our journey brought us to Qumram, Jericho, and The Church of the Nativity. Qumran was a the area where the dead sea scrolls were discovered, near the Dead Sea. While the sites that we visited on the first day had been built up to show Praise to God, the site of Qumran was quiet and contemplative. It was nice to have the change.

After that, we went to visit the Church of the Nativity, where the Birthplace and manger of Jesus are located. We slipped down the tunnel leading to the enclosed birthplace, and while down there as a group sang, "silent night." It was special.

While there, we also learned more about the Jerusalem Cross, pictured above. The cross in the middle symbolizes Jerusalem, while the four outter crosses symbolize the ends of the earth. There is an incredible beauty to it, because we as pilgrams are included as "the ends of the earth." The cross asks us to share the message to every tribe, tounge and nation.

While here, looking at all of these "dead stones," I can honestly say that the thing that God is teaching me is that he's real everywhere. So many people make comments about the Holiness of the Holy Land. Yet the amazing thing is that all these things hold a shared meaning for each of us on the trip because Jesus is active in OUR LIVES! The relationships that we have been building among one another by talking and praying about our shared experiences have been amazing.

Tonight, we are going to spend the night with local Palestinian Christian families. The Next night we will spend in Jerusalem. I'm so excited to spend time with the face of these people first hand. The Palestinians have been so great to us so far, and I know that this night will be humbling. The next night, we will be in Nazareth, so it might be a little while before I can post again. Please keep us in your prayers, and God Bless!

Walking the Via Delarosa

Today, we walked the Via Dellarosa, The Way of the Cross. It's quite interesting to contemplate the ways in which everyone is taking things in. Some people are profoundly affected by Church buildings and structures, while others love the contemplative moments such as the Qumram site. The way of the cross is meant to represent the walk that Jesus took to get to the hill on which he was killed. I was struck here as well, but in a different sense.

All along the way there were people hoping to sell things. It was worse than a beach boardwalk. Finally, we got to the church which stands over the place in which Jesus was crucified and buried. Everything was covered with Gold, and I felt unmoved. It was crowded, and people pushed. I was shocked at how people were cutting in line to see the tome of Jesus! After going in and coming out, I remained unphased. Then, my wife came out and gave me a hug, telling me: can you believe that he died for me? Instantly, I was in awe. I had complained about the markets along the way, yet Jesus died for those people. In fact, Jesus probably experience much worse on the way to the cross! Jesus endured scoffing, insults, and hatred. Jesus died for the people who cut in line. I think of those who would rush ahead in a crowd to see Jesus, not caring about anyone or anything. And Jesus died for me. Jesus died for a man who could stand unmoved by the most beautiful act in history, instead taking the time to complain about the problem of the world that he came to fix! God has had mercy on me, Jesus Christ is Lord!

The Two Walls

Dr. Tuell made a comment at the end of the day that I think does the most adequate job summing up what we felt and experienced in the Holy Lands today: we started and ended our day with two walls.

The first wall was the Wailing Wall. I wailing wall is the wall that was used to retain the dirt when building the second temple. Herod probably used pieces of the destroyed first temple to build this wall, which means some of the stone may date back to the time of David. There was so much history there. When we were given a chance to pray at the wall, I was struck by its history.. I was struck by the fact that I was taking part in something so ancient.

The second wall that we visited was much different than the first. This was not an old wall, but a new one. This was not a wall of unity and prayer, but a wall of separation and division. The wall is the separation wall, built by the Israeli Government to stop the Palestinian people from leaving Bethlehem. A wall over 400 miles long is being built around all of the Palestinian territories to protect Israel from terrorism.

As you can see from the photos, it is covered with graffiti expressing peoples feelings about it. Palestinian people (many of whom are Christian) have to get visas to visit people in Israeli territory. Often, they visas are hard to obtain. Image if you were not able to visit your family which only lives a town over? The wall has only occurred in the last ten years, but the political situation has been causing a mass exodus of Palestinians and the Christian population in Israel has increased from well over 30% of the country to less than 2% in the past 50 years.

I have not expressed enough for anyone to make a fair judgment about the situation. But my point is, does it really fix problems to wall them in? Don’t we do this in our own lives: we try to cage our sin away without addressing it and giving it over to Jesus. I’m not try to make anyone pick a side but am trying to address a point: all are sinners: Israeli, Palestinian, and American. Yet the same grace I experienced earlier in the day is available to us: Jesus died on our behalf. In light of that, we need to not build walls, but build bridges in love toward one another. Caging our conflicts within ourselves solves nothing, we have to give them over to Jesus, laying them at the foot of the cross.

We've arrived!

Hey Everyone!

Laurie and I have arried at Paradise! Paradise Hotel, that is.

We just finished up our 12 hour flight and we've arrived for our 10 day stay in Bethlehem, the Birthplace of Jesus. We've 7 hours ahead of schedule, so while it's 3 PM for you, it's 10 PM for us.

While we're here, I'm going to take the opportunity let everyone know about what we're experiencing. This is not your typical Holy Lands trip. We're here with the Holy Land Christian Ecumenical Foundation in order to minister to Palestinian Christians. We'll be spending part of the days check out sites, but we'll be spending a lot of time talking with Christians in Palestine in order to build bridges with their culture and help understand their needs.

There are many great things that we'll be doing that are a little unusual. One is meeting with Fr. Elias Chacour. Elias was 7 when the state of Palestine was created, and due to war his family lost their home. Consequently, many Palestinian Christians are living in refugee camps due to the fighting and conflicts. Laurie and I read Elias' book, Blood Brothers, and we're excited to hear what he has to say.

Throughout the next 10 days, I'm going to join Laurie and I on our Journey. It's going to be encouraging, it's going to be rough, but most of all it's going to be transforming. We'll be posting pictures and recaps of each of the days events here. Please check back and visit!

Who are you?

Yesterday, Pastor Allan preached on various people who Jesus encounters in his ministry. He talked about the blind man, the women at the well, the tax collectors, and many others. Ultimately, what we find in each of these people is ourselves. When Jesus heals the blind man, he's not just healing a blind man, he's showing how he can heal us because we are blind. We are the woman at the well, we are the sick woman, and we are even the tax collector.

My question is, what Bible character do you best relate to? Think it over and leave some comments!