Today has been a long day. We had our first experience
leaving the West Bank and entering back in to Israel when we went to
Jerusalem for the day. The soldiers boarded our bus and asked to see
all of our passports. We did not have much trouble getting through at
all, because we are Americans, but I was distracted by the fact that a
soldier, who looked about 3 yours younger then me was on my bus, with a
giant machine gun, nonchalantly demanding random people to surrender
their passports so he could examine their picture and compare it to the
person.
The thought came to me, if we think
this a mere annoyance, what must it be like for the Palestinians when
they go through this ordeal.
This was a day of
visiting churches. We went to the Church of the Holy Sepluchre, St.
Luke's Syrrian Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox-Catholic Churches, Greek
Orthodox and Greek Orthodox-Catholic Churches. All were
beautiful and all gave me an even greater grasp of all the religious
diversity that claim this troubled region. We have heard the Lord's
Prayer in many languages today. English, Arabic, Aramaic, Greek,
Spanish, and Hebrew, but the really cool thing was the feeling of
community that you get when you hear it. Just by the way that the
prayer is said, even if you do not know the language, you are able to
commune with other believers. Also that sense of community with the
millions of other pilgrims that have made this journey is a very
powerful feeling.
In addition to our tour of
many many MANY churches today, we also had a meeting with a gentleman
who is head of the Ministry of Reconciliation here in Jerusalem. He is
a Palestinian-Israeli who is devoted to 'bridging the gap' and working
with small group reconciliation programs between Israelis and
Palestinians. He says that these programs that hundred have now gone
through have facilited countless new friendships across borders and
created a forum for understanding. I think his work is nothing short of
astounding given the circumstances, he did write a book that I bought
about his ministry and I am looking forward to reading it to gain an
even better understanding of the processes of reconciliation that he
was discussing.
Side Note: Today it was 39
degrees Celsius. Thats well over 100 degrees and we were outside
walking about virtually all day, I seriously feel like I am melting. I
have a new respect for those that have to walk far distances to their
jobs in this kind of heat everyday.
