Nablus and Saint Photina

"This was the Samaritan woman who had the rare fortune to converse with the Lord Christ Himself at the Well of Jacob, near Sychar (John 4:4-31). Believing in the Lord, Photina afterward went to preach His Gospel with her two sons Victor and Josiah, and with her five sisters, Anatolia, Phota, Photida, Parasceva and Cyriaca. They went to Carthage in Africa. There they were arrested and taken to Rome and thrown into prison during the reign of Emperor Nero. By God's providence, Domnina, the daughter of Nero, came into contact with St. Photina, who converted her to the Christian Faith. After imprisonment they all suffered for the sake of Christ. Photina, who was first enlightened with the light of the truth at the well of Sychar, was now thrown into a well where she died and entered the Eternal Kingdom of Christ." (March 20, The Prologue of Ohrid: Lives of Saints, Hymns, Reflections, and Homilies for Every Day of the Year. Volume One. January to June.)

Today, Photina's encounter is commemorated by the presence of a glorious Greek Orthodox church in the city of Nablus, in the West Bank. Christians still live here, but continually face persecution (not just in Nablus, but all over the West Bank) because of their religion and also the fact that they are Palestinian.

Nablus sits between the mountains Gerazim and Ebal - beautifully nestled in the valley below. The Old city reminds me of the Old city in Jerusalem.

looking from Mt. Gerazim

in the churchthere are still Samaritans that live on Mt. Gerazim!This is the "cage" we walk through after the checkpoint into the Nablus area

Jesus is the Answer.

Trying Picassa

I just downloaded Picassa, since I thought that might be a better way to display pictures :) Here is a random sample of some photos.

This is the herd of sheep that I saw go past my apartment building everyday in Birzeit. I loved it. It was like a reminder of the Lord as my shepherd - and me as a silly sheep.

Above is a short video of Ramallah early one Sunday morning, the weekend that at least 115 Palestinians were killed. These kids came out of school protesting.

This is door of dad's friend Bill Broughton, who's a cannon at St. George's Anglican Cathedral in Jerusalem.

Some memories from South Africa :)

I recently recieved an email from a friend of mine in South Africa that has some sayings of definite truth to it. Reading this definitely brought back some memories from my two years there with Campus Outreach!

YOU ARE PROUDLY SOUTH AFRICAN WHEN:

You call a bathing suit a 'swimming costume'.

You call a traffic light a 'robot'.

You call an elevator a 'lift'

You call a hood a 'bonnet'

You call a trunk a 'boot'

You call a pickup truck a 'bakkie'

You call a Barbeque a 'Braai'

The employees dance in front of the building to show how unhappy they are. (Tooi-Tooi!)

The SABC advertises and shows highlights of the programme you just finished watching.

You get cold easily. Anything below 16 degrees Celsius is Arctic weather.

You know what Rooibos Tea is, even if you've never had any.

You can sing your national anthem in four languages, and you have no idea what it means in any of them.

You know someone who knows someone who has met Nelson Mandela.
- I have! He was in a mall when I was with some friends

You go to braais regularly (every weekend with students), where you eat boerewors and swim(or they throw you in the pool), sometimes simultaneously.

You produce a R100 note instead of your driver's licence when stopped by a traffic officer. (or you get away with it because "i'm American.. i didn't know..")

You can do your monthly shopping on the pavement.

You have to hire a security guard whenever you park your car.

When you are a victim of crime and say: 'At least I'm still alive'. (We had several break-ins during my years there... praise God no one was hurt)

You know a taxi can move twice it's certified number of people in one trip.

You travel 100's of kilometres to see snow.

You know the rules of Rugby better than any referee

To get free electricity you have to pay a connection fee of R750.

More people vote in a local reality TV show than in a local election.

People have the most wonderful names: Christmas, Goodwill, Pretty, Wednesday, Blessing, Brilliant, Gift, Precious, Innocence and Given, Patience, Portion, Coronation. (Some of the students I knew were called Goodenough, Confidence, Joy, and Charity)

'Now now' or 'just now' can mean anything from a minute to a month.

You continue to wait after a traffic light has turned to green to make way for taxis travelling in the opposite direction. (we've seen what happens when you don't)

Travelling at 120 km/h you're the slowest vehicle on the highway/freeway.

You're genuinely and pleasantly surprised whenever you find your car parked where you left it. (Unlike Kris after her 10k in Soweto)

A bullet train is being introduced, but we can't fix potholes.

The last time you visited the coast you paid more in speeding fines and toll fees than you did for the entire holiday. (I have never gotten a speeding ticket in the States, however recieved at least 7 while in SA)

You paint your car's registration on the roof.

You have to take your own linen with you if you are admitted to a government hospital.

You have to prove that you don't need a loan to get one.

Prisoners go on strike.

You don't stop at a red traffic light, in case somebody hijacks your car. (sometimes this is still my instinct at night!)

You consider it a good month if you only get mugged once.

Rwandan refugees start leaving the country because the crime rate is too high.

You consider a high crime rate as normal. (esp. if you've grown up in Philly!)

60 Years of Al Nakba (the Catastrophe)

Today marks the 60th anniversary in which Israel declared itself a state. Unfortunately, as the American president eludes to the terrors of the Holocaust, the victims are inflicting their own upon others. While, yes, Palestinians are wrongfully inflicting terror upon Israeli citizens, what IS wrong is that the world turns a blind eye when one side is ALSO inflicting terror upon others.

I watched a documentary tonight with a friend (that I've now seen for the third time) outlining the progression of the Wall in the West Bank. What most of the world does not realize is that this wall does not actually seperate Israel from Palestine. It seperates Jewish settlements from Jewish settlements deep within Palestinian territory. So no, it is not between Israel and Palestine, but actually between Palestinian towns, essentially cutting off Palestinian freedom of movement. I experienced this first-hand, as many of the students I know are either scared or unable to travel to other towns.

Also, I know that blasting rocks from Gaza into Ashkelon is terror - but throwing rocks at Palestinian cars and shooting young Palestinians is also terror. Where is the line between self-defense and aggression? Unfortunately, it is too close to call, especially when you are surrounded by statements like this, "Peace through strength is the way we achieve peace in the world." Is anyone else confused by this statement? (p.s. that statement was made today by Senator John McCain). Honestly, I don't want to live in a world like that.

However, we are in that world. And Palestinians and Israelis live in that world. It is way too much for one person to grapple with alone. I really don't think that peace can come through increased aggression. It doesn't come by sweeping things under the rug. It takes the higher road. And it takes patience. And perhaps it also believes that total peace will never be achieved in this lifetime. There is a dual role at play. There is the individual - with whom there are many untouched layers of "un-peace" and discord. There is also the world at large - with all it's inticricies. You cannot reach the individual without addressing the outside. Likewise, you cannot address the outer status of injustice without addressing the inner layers of discord, disquietude, and rancor within each individual.

I grappled with this hard core in South Africa. In fact, it went even further back than Ecuador, where I was junior year of college. It's an ongoing process. One I'm seeking to work at with the Lord. I love working with the individual, but I find myself too engrossed within this world to neglect what goes on there also. They must work together.

Luckily, "in Him, all things hold together," (Col 1:17) and that's what I'm holding out for.

(Note: this is probably the most unedited entry I have written thus far - not that I'm apologizing, but wanting to make it clear that this is all part of the "re-entry process," or whatever it's called when you've come back from a place that has moved you deeply)

"The Powers That Be"

I just finished a very insightful book entitled, "The Powers That Be," by Walter Wink. I first caught the name of this author during my Advocacy class last summer in grad school. To typify the institutions, corporations, governments, and organizations of this world as having spiritual entities further opened myself up to possibilities in the spiritual realm. While Wink takes some of his Biblical interpretations a bit too far, and without much to back him up, however I believe he brings up important points.

His insight into the spiritual nature of conflict meant especially much to me as I seek to examine what occurred over the past couple months in the West Bank, and the impact this will have on my life forward. To say nothing of the wealth of relationships I gained, I also experienced a first hand blow of the horrors of the Occupation within the Palestinian Territories. While everything I experienced was real, there was little to counterbalance my emotions and the facts on the ground. What I lacked as I delved further into life among Palestinians who have been severely persecuted by the Israeli Occupation, was a perspective, not only to make sense of the bigger picture around me, but also how to be an agent of positivity.

One of the points Walter Wink makes early in the book has to do with the perspective of the "peace worker" or "agent of nonviolence" him or herself.

"Evil is contagious. No one grapples with it without contamination."

"For the struggle against evil can make us evil, and no amount of good intentions automatically prevents its happening. The whole armor of God that Ephesians 6:10-20 counsels us to put on is crafted specifically to protect us against that contagion of evil within our own souls, and its metals are all forged in prayer."

Peacemakers must realize that dealing with the battle on the outside necessitates a continuing battle on the inside - a constant awareness and alertness to the evil outside, and a constant admittance and cleansing of the evil within.

That being said, upon reflecting on the conflict in Israel and Palestine - I can see no other place where the principles of nonviolence, where Jesus' "Third Way" as Wink coins it, is more needed. While there, I had the privilege of writing the beginning stages of a proposal for the third phase of the student center in Birzeit focusing on the needs of children and university students. One of our main objections was reducing the "language of violence" among Palestinian youth. From an early age, Palestinians grow up seeing that violence gets them what they want - it exudes power - it expresses rage - and it is embodied in the "heros" they see plastered on walls of their villages, eulogiezed as martyrs.

Though it is a mammoth task to unravel the mindset of generations, it is something we felt, and still feel, very strongly about - whether this is through educating students about better forms of communication - opening school administrators, teachers, and parents up to the psychological needs of their children.

Ultimately however, it is Christ appealing to the humanity of the oppressor and the humanity of the victim through the power of the Love He demonostrated on the Cross to destroy the ultimate power of evil, that can give us hope in transformation. All of this hinges on Christ's redemption of the powers which set His aspects of creation off course - we can now, through Him "confront(ing) the spirituality of an institution and its physcial manifestations."

Much more remains to be said on how redemption plays a part in confronting powers of evil - but I'll end with this prayer that Orthodox Christians around the world repeat at this time of year:

"Christ is risen from the Dead!
Trampling death by death,

And upon those in the tombs

Bestowing life!"