Hebron

Markie's last letter from Hebron for this stint

I've agreed to share my blog with my traveling companion and teammate, Markie Re'em.  We're both flying home tomorrow morning. I was glad to get some time in with my friend Ya'alah before leaving.  I think I needed a little transition time--and evidently a lot of sleep.  I sort of feel like I'm doing my whole jet lag thing prior to my flight.

Church two weeks in a row! Wahoo!

Because school is not in session until February 2, three of us were able to go to church again this Sunday.  As usual, I got the fisheye from the border police when he read my passport.

Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne and emergent churchies at our apartment today

Fathiyeh and I lugged a propane canister down to our gas refill guy this morning, when we got a phone call from Paulette telling us that a delegation would shortly be at our apartment.  A weedy looking guy in the group looked very familiar, and then I realized it was Shane Claiborne, who had spoken at the Mennonite Convention in Columbus this summer.  Turned out that this group was largely composed of Christians from the Emergent Church movement.  We talked about the work in Hebron and I forget now the question that started me crying, but I essentially said that the happiest

A day at church and the Great Flood

On Sunday, since school is out until February 1, everyone on the team was able to get to church--something I really needed a lot.  As usual, there's something spiritually powerful about worshipping and sharing communion with people from all over the world, and getting connected as well with the small, stalwart core congregation--mostly composed of relief and development workers.  The church offers the wine in two ways, via a common cup and via little cups like the ones we used at the College First Church of God in Findlay when I was growing up.  It's interesting that the disi

So much has been destroyed


I'm just feeling kind of sad.  Drew Herbert has left the team; the agents who wanted to see my novel manuscript before I left the country have politely declined to represent it; I was out visiting friends in the Beqa'a yesterday who are barely making it financially; young kids in our neighborhood keep getting detained and blindfolded as "practice" for the soldiers;  and I can't see the situation here ending other any other way than sadly. 

Demolitions in Al-Bweireh on New Year's Eve

Before I forget,  my younger colleagues working in Hebron and At-Tuwani want to start a movement that will call the last decade, "The Singles."

 

Followup on Al-Bweireh

Here's the follow-up on what I posted yesterday.  I was out at Al-Bweireh today to hammer out details.  kk
AL-KHALIIL: Settlers attack schoolchildren in al-Bweireh neighborhood
21 December 2009

by Ryan Shiffer

School Days and a poem about Apartheid

I know it's been a long time since either Markie or I have written, but just when I see a block of time I can write, something comes up. Visitors drop in and today a squad of soldiers appeared on our roof. They had maps and it looked like they were a new squad trying to figure out where things were in the Old City. Markie will have pictures and video up, shortly, I hope. (Our internet is down, so I'm writing this in a word processing document).