Friday, Oct 9, 2009

We had breakfast at the apartment of fruit, hard boiled eggs, pita and humus. We are beginning to realize we will not have the variety in our food and meals that we are used to at home. We ate humus, pita, olives & tomatoes at all meals; breakfast, lunch & dinner. Meat is not on the menu.

Laurens, who is Quaker, and I had devotions that morning. I shared a devotional from 1/11/08 on scattered fruit. The story is about a Christian service man who was rushing to catch a train home for furlough. In his haste he knocks over a fruit stand operated by a young boy. The apples were scattered over the station platform. With difficulty the young boy attempted to pick up the fruit. The soldier out down his luggage and started collecting the apples, polishing each one as he returned them to the counter. The little boy turned to the soldier and said “ Soldier, are you Jesus?” With a smile the soldier replied, “ No but I’m trying to be like him.” This story speaks volumes to me about why I am here. This soldier did not preach a sermon about Jesus, he acted like Jesus. I am here not to preach a sermon to those I meet but to share the peace & love of Christ with my actions. The Palestinian people have for far too long felt the hate & abuse from the Christian community who feel they should leave & give the land to the Israelis thus “helping God bring about the end times.” My Bible says we are not to be worried about these times but to concentrate on being “who” Christ asks us to be in this world. We are to love all people no matter whom they are or where they live. Each day I must ask the Lord for strength to walk with Him not Him to walk with me. The first way is walking in His will, the second is walking in my will. May each one of us choose to be His servant to those around us?

In the morning we listened to a representative from the Hebron Land Defense Committee talk about land confiscation for settlements, bypass roads, Israeli only roads and the separation wall. The only way Israeli is able to finance these Israeli projects is the 3 billion we give to Israeli every year with no accountability. This is $7,000,000 every day. Why? All other foreign aid has strings attached with accountability. We in the United States are part of the problem not the solution.

In the afternoon we visited the home of the head master at the Qurtoba School, Reem Al Shareef. She is quite an amazing woman. This school is in the Tel Rumedia section of Hebron which is the most dangerous area of Hebron.