August 26, 2001

Flowers in front of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church of Zababdeh.

We have begun in earnest our program of "church rotation" - that is, a more intentional ministry of presence in each of the churches on Sunday. Last Sunday, Marthame shared at the table with Abuna Aktham in the Latin Church. This Sunday, he shared at the table with Qassis (that is, Pastor) Hossam at the Anglican Church. Father Hossam came from Nablus yesterday, having traveled the way everyone leaving Nablus to the north do these days - by taking a taxi to the edge of the city, walking across a dusty, bulldozed road, and taking another taxi on the other side. Meanwhile, his car sits useless back in the city. After church, he set out for the return journey to Nablus to his church there.

We made our way to Jenin, the city to our north and the main hub for this agricultural region, to have lunch with a friend who works at the school with us. Her family is one of the Christian families of the city, a population of about 600 in a city of 70,000. Unlike some other cities, though, they are not concentrated in any one neighborhood - rather they live all over the town. We're not sure of the history of Christians here, but it seems that many of them came recently (within the last 40-50 years) from other towns and villages to take advantage of the employment and service opportunities available in the city.

One of the Christian families of Jenin, Palestine.

Our taxi driver dropped us off at the wrong house - the woman who answered the door seemed a little startled by the presence of two foreigners and gave us directions to our friend's house in Hebrew...

We had a wonderful visit, as we played with their children and listened to our friend's father-in-law regale us with his stories of living as the only Christian in various Muslim towns around the area. It was encouraging for many reasons, one of them being that our Arabic has clearly improved. But it was sobering to hear their stories of what it was like to huddle together on the floor as Israeli tanks rolled into Jenin a few weeks ago just a few blocks from their home.