A pre-dawn blast rousted us from our beds and away from the windows. Even though our friends in Nablus have gone through much worse this spring and summer, they and their kids were still shaken by this explosion. Through slats in the shutters, we watched tanks prowling the deserted streets, their gun turrets moving ominously and firing regularly, their loudspeakers broadcasting the morning order: "Stay in your homes or you will be shot."
Read MoreThis morning, after much prayer and heartache, we made the difficult decision to leave. We left because we feared for our lives and well-being in the face of the Israeli military offensive perched on our doorstep.
Read MoreThis past Thursday, Christians gathered all over Jerusalem to remember Christ's Last Supper. We joined in worship at Redeemer Lutheran Church. As we commemorated the Passover feast Jesus shared with his disciples, we were again reminded of the Wednesday suicide blast that killed more than twenty Israelis as they celebrated Passover. "This is my body broken for you," we heard in English, Arabic, and German. "This is my blood."
Read MoreHere in Israel and the Occupied Territories, the divine seems extravagantly absent. In the past seventeen months, 300 Israelis have been killed by Palestinians. For a population of five million, that’s the equivalent of a World Trade Center attack five times over. 1100 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis - 37 WTCs. A lot of eulogies, but we hear very little truth or grace.
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Running away to Egypt is a time-honored tradition in our neck of the woods - Abraham did it, as did Joseph's brothers when they fled the famine of Canaan. People have been doing it after Christmas ever since the first one, when Mary and Joseph fled with their newborn to escape Herod's slaughter of the innocents.
Read MoreAs kids in Zababdeh prepare their Mary and Joseph costumes, they are also part of another pageant, similarly predictable but far from comforting. For more than a year, they - and we - have seen their land sucked deeper and deeper into a vicious cycle of violence. Like the treasured Christmas pageant, the script changes little, and the players seem to know their lines fairly well. A bus is blown up; a school is shelled.
Read MoreIn Arabic, "cactus" comes from the same root as "patience": sabra (a feature also shared by the ill-fated refugee camp in Lebanon). You see them everywhere here, lining roads and separating property boundaries, even outlasting the destroyed or abandoned villages they once demarcated.
Read MoreIn arabo, la parola "cactus" viene dalla stessa radice di "pazienza": sabra (che e' anche il nome dello sventurato campo profughi in Libano). Si possono vedere dappertutto qui, lungo le strade e ai confini delle proprieta', a volte sopravvissuti ai villaggi distrutti o abbandonati che una volta demarcavano.
Read MoreOn Saturday, October 20, nineteen year-old Johnny Yusuf Thaljiah was shot and killed by Israeli military gunfire....An altar boy in the Orthodox Church, Johnny was hit in the chest by a bullet as he played with his four year-old nephew in Bethlehem's Manger Square. He died moments later, in the shadow of the Church of the Nativity.
Read MoreSuicide bombings obviously deny one's humanity as well as that of one's victims, but suffocating collective punishment is no less dehumanizing, for it sees the other as nothing but an enemy - to be feared and removed. If there is any word of hope, any crumb from here that can feed a world hungry for answers, it is this: do not fall prey to the gods of war.
Read MoreCandlelight vigils. Prayer services of remembrance and mourning. Rallies of solidarity. Blood drives. Institutions closed out of respect for the untold numbers of victims and their families. Official and individual statements of support and outrage. All of these are happening in Palestinian communities of the West Bank and Gaza in response to the horror unleashed upon the United States three days ago.
Read MoreWe are in Zababdeh, safe and sound. We have been watching the television with disbelief and horror for the past several hours. During that time, many of our friends and neighbors here have expressed their concern and grief for the enormous tragedies today in the United States....Please know that the thoughts and prayers of many Palestinians are with those touched by the horror of today. As are ours.
Read MoreThis summer we spent much of our time in the Ramallah area studying Arabic at Birzeit University. From our summer residence, we were able to travel regularly to Jerusalem and Ramallah, which gave us the chance to taste parts of the Palestinian culture not available to us in the nothernmost reaches of the West Bank. Much of our time was spent in Areas C and B, the categories of the West Bank still under Israeli military control.
Read MoreAnd so, we find that even Zababdeh isn’t quite like home either. We share with so many of our neighbors a sense of homelessness, whether literal or emotional. There is a vision of healing for such a place, offered by the Apostle Paul. Speaking to the uprooted in Ephesus, he says that belonging to the church means that we are no longer strangers or aliens, but members and citizens of the household of God.
Read MoreIt was hot. Really hot. Instead of cooling us, the wind brought more searing heat and stinging sand as we marveled at the ancient city of Ur, nestled in the Iraqi desert. But the heat and wind could not stop us from exploring the immense stone ruins, for we were on a pilgrimage to the roots of our faith.
Read MoreOver the forty days of Lent, and particularly over Holy Week this year, we had drawn our own parallels between the humiliating treatment of the modern Body of Christ in this land and the via dolorosa walked by the historical Christ. We hungered to hear what parallel the message of resurrection would mean in this context.
Read MoreNo doubt you heard about the tragic shooting that happened March 26. Ten month-old Shalhevet Pass, infant daughter of Israeli settlers, was murdered by a sniper from the Palestinian Abu Sneineh neighborhood of Hebron. The news broke our hearts, reminding us of the 100+ children who have been killed in the last seven months.
Read More“Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to share their resources with the saints in Jerusalem. They owe it to them – they have come to share in their spiritual blessings, so they ought to be of service to them.” (Romans 15:25-26)
Read MoreAll of the traffic was turning off of the main road. Our taxi followed suit, and we headed with the rest of Ramallah's rush hour travelers through a residential neighborhood and its narrow dirt lanes....One hour later, feeling angry and claustrophobic, we could see our destination. We re-entered the main road again, one hundred yards south of where we had left it.
Read MoreOn Thursday, January 11, fourth grader Annas al-Ahmad died on the playground of the Latin Patriarchate College of Zababdeh. Annas, who was born with a hole in his heart, was playing soccer with friends before school. When the ball hit him squarely in the chest, he immediately collapsed and began gasping for breath.
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