Sunday: From Checkpoint to Church

01-09-2011

Esther and I set our alarm for 3 a.m. to be at the Taybe Checkpoint by 4 a.m.  Everything is dark at that time of day and we quietly left the flat so our two teammates could continue sleeping.  We woke up our taxi driver in the office about a block from our flat.  He was awake in a flash and we journeyed towards the checkpoint.  Sunday is the start of the work week so it usually many people pass through this checkpoint on their way to work in Israel.  In spite of the early hour we heard many “sabab ilkher” which means “good morning” in Arabic.  The women were gathered in a separate area as it is culturally inappropriate for them to share the same space as men.  One lady handed us each an orange.  It was a very generous gift  and her way of saying “thank you for being here.” 

We are expected to count the people going through the checkpoint.  It’s a near impossible task but we use a clicker and do the best we can.  The numbers we submit are sent to various places….one of them being the UN.

Upon returning to our flat we crawled back and bed for a snooze before getting up to go to church.  The EA’s in this area attend St. Phillips Anglican Church in Nablus.  Wanting to catch the 9 a.m. bus we walked over to the bus depot but the driver waited about a half an hour until the bus was nearly full before leaving the station.  It took an hour for us to get to Nablus and we arrived at the beginning of the service.  I heard the familiar melody from “The Church is One Foundation” and sang the words I remembered even though the entire service was in Arabic. 

We were given a bulletin written in English which helped in determining the scripture passages for the Epistle and Gospel.  (Romans 12:5 and Luke 2: 41-52)  The Christmas tree and nativity were still in place.  After communion the final hymn was Beethoven’s tune:  “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee.”

 The congregation graciously serves Turkish coffee after church.  We met several members of the church and the pastor also came over to chat with us.  Father Ibrahim Nainouz has served this parish for a number of years.  He asked me where I was from and I said “the U.S.” and then added “South Dakota.”

He perked up and said:  “I’ve been to S.D. before myself.”  As the conversation evolved, he told us that when he was 16 he had attended  a Lutheran youth gathering in Denver, CO.  He remembered the name of Pastor Marc Brown who arranged his trip.  He said:  “after the gathering we drove north for 3 days on a sight seeing trip and then I stayed with a family in Watertown, SD for a couple of weeks.”  He has not corresponded with the family since his trip but would like to reconnect with them.  I told him I would do what I could to find information helpful to his search.

When our team goes to another location we also connect with organizations in that area.  Today we visited Project Hope and the Civil Organization in Nablus.  

Both of these organizations work with children to provide positive experiences for them as they live in an area that is unpredictable and sometimes dangerous.  Project Hope sponsors summer and winter camps and other supportive services.   

As you can see by the picture, Nablus is a city which is mostly built on a hill.  More later.  It's been a long day.  Thanks again for your prayers.  Oh, one more thing.  I mentioned yesterday about the level of tension.  Obed alerted me to the awful news from Tucson and went to the web to read about it. 

Here is another article for you to read.  It is from the Sojourners magazine.  It gives you another perspective of how constant the violence has become here.....so different from what we experience back at home.

http://blog.sojo.net/2011/01/04/palestinians-protest-death-of-bilin-activist/

Thanks again for your prayers.  I can feel them.

Susanne