Day Two

Sunday morning, after a lovely breakfast at the hotel, we went and worshiped with a group of Palestinian believers at their church in the Old City. It was so much fun to watch the kids running in and out just like they do back home. Then it was off for a stroll through the Jewish Quarter and a visit to the Wailing Wall. There was really something special about being there and offering up a prayer with my hands and forehead pressed up against the stone. It was the most powerful and moving experience I had at any of the holy sites. In the photo above, you can see the discoloration in the stone from all the years of people touching it.

Later, on a tour of an archeological site just around the corner, we came upon a group of about 120 Charismatic Germans of Russian origin singing praise and worship songs with gusto in Russian. What?! I want to know the back story on that one. They were really getting into it, even the men which is somewhat atypical.

The purpose of this trip is to introduce us to peacemakers on both sides of the conflict. Here is a brief summary of the people we met with in the first two days:

Saturday night we met with Rami Fellamon, a Palestinian believer who lives in Jerusalem (there are about 117,000 Arab Christians in Israel) and he talked to us about his life. Rami is a professor at Bethlehem Bible College and works for Jerusalem Evangelistic Outreach, a group that does relief work and evangelism in Israel and Palestine. The spirit of this man was incredible, it was apparent that he had a heart full of grace and love.

Sunday afternoon, we met with a group of Palestinian and Jewish women called Joint Ventures for Peace who are collaborating in teams of two to create products they can sell. For example, one of the Palestinian women makes olive oil soap and one of the Israeli women fires clay, so they designed a soap dish together and sell the Palestinian's soap in the Israeli's soap dish. The women were all a lot of fun and clearly had genuine affection for each other.

Sunday night we met with two men from The Parent's Circle which is a group of bereaved family members from both sides who have lost loved ones in the conflict. We met Ben, an Israeli who lost his daughter in a suicide bombing at a bus stop and Mazzan, a Palestinian whose unarmed father was shot by an Israeli soldier while driving home from a friend's house during the second intifada. They sat side by side, patting each other on the back, complimenting one another, and laughing at the other's jokes. It was an emotional and blunt conversation at times light and hopeful and at other times very matter of fact tinged with a weary sadness.

My roommate Nick and I wrapped up day two on the hotel roof overlooking the city. I love taking it all in from a high point, you get a little tiny sample of God's view and for a moment, the sounds of humanity carried up to you on the wind, a glimpse of his heart.