Retreat to Bethlehem

A few weeks ago, Chris and I went with a group of 25 students associated with the Living Stones Center from Birzeit University to Bethlehem for an overnight retreat. The purpose was to bring these students together to hear lectures on self-awareness (with regards to personalities) and communication skills.

I am currently writing a paper in which I have researched some of the major issues facing Palestinian university students. As products of the First and Second Intifadas (uprisings) in 1987 and 2000, these students grew up under tremendous amounts of violence, trauma, and pressure. As part of the ministry of the Living Stones Center, it seeks through retreats such as this to provide seminars for personal development, to bring students together over common issues, and to create a semblance of an escape from the issues they face everyday as students under occupation.

This retreat also was an incredible way to get to know these students. I sat with them for hours discussing religion, listening to them play music, and also got to walk around Old Bethlehem with them. Overall, it was a very successful retreat and I feel very blessed to have had this opportunity to get to know these students better.

Selma, Laila, and me in front of the entrance to the Church of the Nativity

The inside of the church

Walking to the retreat center (also functions as a school for kids), called "Talitha Kumi" - what Jesus said in Aramaic to the little girl when He raised her from the dead - Mark 5:41.

Seminar

Having fun at night - at a restaurant in Bethlehem - Baha'a, Maj'd, Renad, Aboud, Tariq