Volunteers in Mission
Author: Phyllis Leonard Published: October 24th, 2011
We are all up for breakfast at 7:00. Some of us slept soundly all night while others awoke as early as 3:00 or 4:00am. I lay awake from midnight ‘til I finally got up at 6:00am. Jet lag! At 8:00 we walked through the parking area where groups of school children were gathering for their day’s classes. Our guide for the morning was Michael Chacour (Micha), executive director at Mar Elias. He is justifiably proud of the accomplishments of the school and its students. (Michael is the nephew of the visionary founder of this educational institution, Elias Chacour.)
The elementary school, which meets in the first three floors of the building where our group is staying, opened in 1982 with 18 students. Now there are over 1500 students. Likewise, the high school now has 1252 students, who come from 65 Arab, Jewish and Christian villages in Galilee. Students excel in English, computers and communication.
The campus also includes a middle school, a kindergarten and even a childcare center for the children of teachers here at these campus schools. About 70% of the students are Moslem, and 30% Christian, and a few Jewish. There is a staff of 250, including some Jewish teachers, Micha tells us that 75 to 80 of the staff have Ph.D. degrees, and that the Christians are the highest educated minority in Israel.
Micha next led us to the recently constructed church. He had planned on our helping with the final painting, but perhaps realized our mostly senior-citizen group couldn’t work on the ladders and scaffolding?…in any case, instead of putting us to work on a painting project, he chose to spend the next two hours touring us through the church, pointing out the numerous icons pointed on the walls, and discussing the focus of the church. It is called Church of the Sermon on Mount, follows Eastern Orthodox traditions, but is a Greek Catholic church…a Melkite church (a new term to some of us)! The liturgy is spoken in Arabic…a Greek Catholic church, under the umbrella of the Roman Catholic church with Arabic worship services! Quite ecumenical!
We were all relieved to hear Micha say that it is more important for us to learn about the church and the school than to do the ‘work’ projects. Most, if not all, of us appreciate the emphasis of the church on nonviolence.
But we did do some hard work for an hour this morning – a sweat-inducing cleanup project involving shoveling rock and gravel that slid down a rock cliff behind the elementary school, scooping it into buckets, pouring the contents of those buckets into large canvas bags, toting those bags to a grocery cart, pushing that cart up a steep sidewalk and dumping it into an area in need of fill…some spreading of the material after depositing also.
After lunch, we met our new guide, Rami, who is one of only 43 Palestinian guides authorized to operate in Israel. We went by bus into the Galilean countryside, past rolling hills, citrus orchards, olive groves, rocky fields, small villages and even a farm with cattle.
We spent about two hours at a national park, called Sephoris in Hebrew and Zippori in Arabic. The name means “birds-eye-view”. This is the area where Mary, mother of Jesus, grew up. It is also a Roman archaeological site. The sons of Herod the Great built Sephoris. We walked into a huge cistern which stored water brought from springs 4 – 5 km away by aqueduct. It is thought that perhaps Jesus and his father Joseph participated in this massive building project, as builders.
In the ruins of a Roman bath house are beautifully maintained mosaics from the first century A.D. One large mosaic depicts an ancient celebration of the Nile River rising above its usual high water mark…our guide called it the Nile-o-meter!! We walked higher on this hill to the partially restored ruins of a Roman mansion which featured a huge room size mosaic, including the face of a beautiful woman, referred to as the Mona Lisa of Galilee. This fancy Roman home of a wealthy family overlooks surrounding farms, orchards and village. In this vista, Rami pointed out a kibbutz built on the site of a Palestinian town destroyed in 1948 when Jewish settlers came. At the very top of the hill we explored a Crusader fortress, built from Roman ruins, including sarcophagi, used as cornerstones and as blocks here and there in this stone citadel.
As had Micha in the morning, Rami spoke of discrimination against the Palestinians who live in Israel. For example, 15% of the available water is allotted to Palestinians and 85% to the Israelis. There are many additional challenges for Arab-Israelis regarding building permits, school qualifying exams and other differences in treatment between the Jewish population living in Israel and these Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian.
Heavy traffic caused us to postpone our planned trip to Bir’in in Upper Galilee and we returned to Mar Elias as the sun was setting. We’ll get Bir’in tomorrow… we are anticipating a day on the Sea of Galilee!
Our food, again today, was tasty, homemade fare cooked and served by Esmahan, the caretaker of this building and us, while we are in her care! Beef kebabs, seasoned with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, mashed potatoes, cabbage and parsley slaw with the lemon juice/ olive oil dressing that is so common here, and barekas (cheese filled, savory bites of phyllo) filled us up at dinner. Lunch and breakfast included the local pita, yogurt and zat’ar flavors…authentic of the neighborhood. Most of us are already addicted to the Arabic coffee, served after every meal…some of us hope to find some to share with you when we get home!
Category Palestine & Israel 2011 |
Author: Phyllis Leonard Published: October 23rd, 2011
Greetings from Mar Elias Educational Institutions (which is a UM Board of Global Ministries Advance Project) in Ibillin in Lower Galilee! We are so grateful for our team of Janet Lahr Lewis and Elias Ghareeb who met us with a bus and great welcome as we wearily emerged from customs at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. (Happy to report a totally uneventful customs experience!)
We are writing at 9:15pm after a lovely dinner of homemade food and a rooftop tour of the town of Ibillin. In the darkness we can see the lights of Haifa to the southwest, the string of lights along the shore, Mt. Carmel to the south and then this campus of Mar Elias, perched on this rocky hillside. This is a combination of eight buildings that provide education for almost 4000 students, kindergarten through ‘college’ age Palestinian students, conceived from the vision and unvavering dedication of Elias Chacour, a champion of the Palestinian cause for justice and equality.
We are housed on the top floor of the campus guest house, and are ready for bed! Most have been up over 30 hours at this point…maybe a bit of sleep on the flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv…thank goodness for airplane movies!
We traveled north out of Tel Aviv on route 6 to the Arab-Israeli village of Kfar Manda, to enjoy lunch with the Palestinian women of Sindyanna. Tabbouli salad, hummus with Sindyanna’s organic olive oil, fresh pita bread and bulghar with eggplant, peppers and onions was our first real meal of this VIM journey, beautifully prepared and so satisfying to our palates after the airline food. The meal was followed by a tiny cup of delicious Arabic coffee, flavored with cardamom and a touch of sugar.
After lunch and shopping in the basket and olive oil shop at Sindyanna (which is a UMC Partner Project), we experienced a bus ride through alley-way streets just wide enough for our bus…and almost not wide enough! Exciting! A short bus ride to Ibillin, to unpack and explore before the delicious supper and our orientation. Many of us nodded off as we rode our bus and strained to stay alert for the important info Janet had to offer.
We are missing Dee!! We thank you for your wonderful work in getting this trip organized and are so grateful for all you did to prepare us! We are all wishing you well, and thinking of you with love.
Until tomorrow…your VIM team in Israel/Palestine.
Category Palestine & Israel 2011 |
Author: Dee Poujade Published: September 28th, 2011
Free-trade, organic Palestinian Olive Oil will be on sale in the Commons this Sunday, October 2. Profits from these sales go to support projects that the Volunteer in Mission team to the Holy Land will be visiting during their upcoming trip. “Shares” in the trip will also be available – all proceeds from these will support the projects and everyone who purchases a share will receive a postcard from a member of the team.
Category Palestine & Israel 2011 |
Author: Dee Poujade Published: September 19th, 2011
Thanks to all for your support of the “kickoff” to the Palestinian Olive Oil Sales. We ran out on Sunday – but will have more available at our next sale in October. Watch this space for details!!
Category News, Palestine & Israel 2011 |
Author: Dee Poujade Published: September 16th, 2011
This Sunday, September 18, the Global Mission Committee and UMVIM team to Palestine/Israel will be offering tastings – and selling fair-trade Palestinian olive oil in the Commons after church. “Shares” in the trip will also be available. Stop by and support mission projects in the Holy Land!!
Category Palestine & Israel 2011 |
Author: Dee Poujade Published: August 3rd, 2011
On October 22, 2011, 21 people will travel to Tel Aviv to begin the experience of a lifetime. This United Methodist Volunteer in Mission (UMVIM) team from Portland First UMC will include members of at least five Portland area churches, some of whom are veteran travelers and at least one of whom has just obtained her first passport ever!
Dee Poujade and Betty Cobb (now Cobb-Colgan) visited the Holy Land for a study trip with the General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM) in 2008. We came back wanting to share that experience with as many people as possible (and, indeed, did presentations in a number of area churches). But we believe that nothing beats first-hand observation and knowledge so, with the assistance and encouragement of Janet Lahr-Lewis, a Methodist missionary in the Holy Land (and one of First UMC’s “ three covenant” missionaries), we began planning this UMVIM trip.
We still don’t know exactly where we’re going – as one may imagine, conditions “on the ground” in the Middle East are in constant flux – but we go trusting that God will show us what he wants us to see. We expect to see the Biblical sites, of course – Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee – but we also will meet with the people who live in this troubled land – Christians, Jews and Muslims – especially those who are working to bring peace. We will have a “work project” of some sort (probably picking olives as our visit coincides with the olive harvest), but, as the team has been told, the trip is really not about the work we do; it is about the connections we make and the experiences we share – both with the other team members and with the local people we encounter along the way.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be selling “shares” in the trip and Palestinian olive oil to help financially support the work projects in the Holy Land. We’ll also be introducing the team members. In the meantime, please keep us all in your prayers!
Dee Poujade (UMVIM Team leader)
Category Palestine & Israel 2011 |
Author: Dee Poujade Published: January 16th, 2011
For some, the words “Holy Land” evoke an image of Biblical times – Jesus preaching in Galilee, shepherds tending flocks, fishermen fishing for food – and for men. For others, the words bring up a vivid image of modern times – complete with conflict and “separation walls.” The Global Mission committee would like to offer the opportunity for those interested to visit Palestine/Israel and to see for themselves the beauty and heartache of this troubled, yet magical place. A United Methodist Volunteer in Mission team is being formed to visit the Holy Land October 22 – November 5, 2011. The trip will be led by Dee Poujade, co-chair of the Global Mission committee and veteran of six UMVIM trips, and will be hosted by Janet Lahr Lewis, First UMC covenant missionary in the Holy Land.
The trip will include visits to such locales as the Old City of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, Capernaum and the Mt. of Beatitudes, as well as opportunities to meet with Palestinian Christians and members of Jewish and Muslim groups who are working together toward peace in the Middle East. There will also be a work project commensurate with the abilities and interests of group participants (possibly helping with the olive harvest.)
On January 16, 2011, following the church service, an informational meeting will be held in the Fireside Room. Attendance at this meeting does not obligate anyone to participate in the trip; however, those attending will have the first opportunity to sign up for what promises to be a life-changing experience. Estimated cost of the trip is $3,000, which will include round-trip airfare from Portland to Tel Aviv, as well as accommodations and meals while in Palestine/Israel. Anyone who would like additional information can contact Dee Poujade.
Category Palestine & Israel 2011 |
