A friend of mine recently went on a mission trip to encourage Christians in Israel/Palestine. The letter below is his follow-up letter that he has allowed me to post. I ask that you consider his words, and his call towards unity in the Body.
I'd like to thank you once again for your time, participation and support for our mission trip to Israel and Palestine. The trip came and went without any life threatening or seriously harmful situations and each of the 10 members of our team has both grown and learned a great deal thanks to our experiences in this area. As I promised, I would like to take this opportunity to follow up with you and share the experiences and insights learned during the trip.
After I got back from Israel, people would obviously pose the question, "How was your trip?" I can't help but think that that question is laughably simple. I say that because of the sheer volume of incredible people and experiences that we were exposed to. It's difficult to figure out where to start. But to answer the original question, the trip was great!
I'll start with a quick summary of our group's mission statement. We did not go to evangelize, or build a school, or to administer medical supplies as some might expect. 1 Corinthians 12:25b-26 says regarding the church, "...there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." As a group, we wanted to go into the Palestinian territories and stand with the Palestinian Christians there, to try to experience the sufferings that they are going through, and to do what we can to encourage them in the face of hardship or persecution.
The first day and a half that we were in the country was spent seeing the tourist spots in Jerusalem. Some of our members, including myself, were upset about this. We came to get down to business! We are not here to see the sights! However, in retrospect, those moments were invaluable in teaching us an overview of the culture and people in the land.
Specifically in these moments while we were traveling from church to church, we saw how the "body of Christ" interacted with one another. Most noticeably, we saw the distrust between denominations. Each denomination insists on having a presence at each of the holy spots. Sometimes a church was partitioned into different areas operated by the different denominations. Each time a ritual was performed by one group, it was repeated by the others. This seems to me to bear the assumption that they believe that God doesn't recognize rituals from other denominations. If He did recognize them, then there wouldn't be any need to repeat them. Once we had opportunities to speak with them, we were repeatedly told by them that people from other denominations were wrong, that they were not Christians or that they were condemned to hell.. If they couldn't share the same building-which was often-they would build another church and claim that this church was the true holy spot.
This wholesale judgment bothered me to the point where I began to think about this more. And upon thinking about it more, I realized that this is not as foreign a concept as had originally struck me. These kinds of statements are all over the Western church, not just limited to the Middle East. They can be heard from the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant churches, the Church Of Christ, and others. It took a trip to the Israel for me to be able to look back and recognize this situation in my own culture. Since much of the New Testament, and because of that our trip, was focused on unity among Christians, theses divisions seemed much more visible. It was humbling for me to come to these realizations since I was so quick to see the shortcomings in others what I was ignoring at home.
After we finished our tour and meetings in Jerusalem, we began to move in and out of the West Bank nearly every day. As the trip was approaching, I was personally concerned about these transitions and the time we would spend in the territories. The impression is that the territories are very violent and personal safety is at a premium! We found this to be completely untrue. At no point during the entire trip did I feel threatened. In spite of the Palestinian people officially being in a state of uprising, at no point did I see any people acting in such a way.
Quite the opposite, we were constantly in the company of very friendly, very hospitable people. During our stay in the Bethlehem Bible College, we were asked to break into groups of two and accompany a student home for dinner with his or her family. We had a few very intimate and personal interactions like this and I found them to be the highlights of the entire trip. Another team member and I went with a student named Nader. I am typically known to be a picky eater but I can say honestly that his mother makes really tasty food! They would not let us tell them no! They repeatedly piled on food to our plates, served us two deserts along with coffee and tea. When it came time to leave they tried to make us promise to come back and have dinner with them again over the next few days, which unfortunately we couldn't since our days and nights were already booked. When Nader returned us to the College, I told him how great his family was and how much we enjoyed ourselves. He was so pleased that we had a good time that his face was beaming with a joy! It was an enthusiasm that I don't really see very often.
Another such instance was also when we were in Bethlehem and we met with Pastor Nehad and Jamal from the Immanuel Church. These two men spoke for several hours with only an occasional pause or interruption by our group. Their stories are truly amazing and awe-inspiring! After they were done talking, they took us to the church's book store where we had a chance to buy some gifts. I approached Pastor Nehad, thanked him for taking time out of his schedule to come and talk to us and gave him my thirty second summary of our trip's purpose and I saw his face fill with happiness and relief. He told me how genuinely thankful he was that we came and listened to him speak. But in his eyes there was fatigue and I felt that he wanted rest.
He told us how he and other Palestinian Christians feel alone. As I have already said, the denominations do not find solace in one another. The Israeli government is openly unconcerned or even hostile. The Palestinian government is ineffective. The response from other non-Christians is uncertain. Relations with some are great while others resent them for being nonviolent.
Then when they turn to the Western church for solace, they often get shunned in the name Zionism. Some people tell the Palestinian Christians that they have no right to live there and that their presence in the Holy Land is delaying the second coming of Christ. We heard stories of Western churches holding fund raisers to buy tanks and helicopters for the Israeli military for use against the Palestinian people!
I don't want to make a politically loaded statement and I'm not picking a side about whether Israel should be there or not. However, our group got to see firsthand the effects that our churches are having on the Palestinians by asserting these views. Palestinian Christians have very few people to turn to for support. Numerous times throughout the trip we were told that they feel alone with no one to turn to. Some, like Pastor Nehad, are weary from the daily struggle and yet still working. Others told us that they have given up hope in a better life. I like to think that the Western church has everything all right. Yet as part of a group of people that are supposed to be known by their love and support of each other, I am absolutely humbled by the fact that these things come so unnaturally to us.
I believe that is why people like Pastor Nehad were so encouraged by our presence. To me, it seemed like we were doing nothing. Many times before and during the trip I was concerned with our effectiveness since we didn't have concrete goals. We weren't there to convert X number of people or heal Y number of diseases. Success could not be measured in traditional ways. We were just going to go, humble ourselves and learn from these people. And it really was an encouragement to them! Just the fact that we cared about them and listened to their stories visibly raised their hopes and spirits before our very eyes. It was an encouragement to them and it was a blessing for us to be able to do this service for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Each of the groups that we talked to expressed hope that God was working in the land and that was gaining traction. People are experiencing miracles. Non-Christians are coming to Christ. Muslims are seeing dreams and visions of Jesus and are coming to Christians to learn more about him. Opportunities are arising that put the bible and Jesus in the spotlight.
I hope I do not sound like I think that everyone needs to drop everything and run to support the Palestinian people. Neither do I think that people need to abandon their support of Israel. Yet just like every other situation in life, there are two sides to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that many people don't acknowledge. The great majority of the people we met in the West Bank were just regular people. They don't want war. They don't want Islamic extremism to take over the world. They just want justice, peace and to give their children a better life. As one of our hosts told us, "When people think of us, we don't want people to think of terrorism. When people think of Palestinians, we want them to think of Jesus!"
See the photos of this trip.
Labels: Bible, church, community, devotion, family, Israel, mission, Palestine
posted by Antoine @ 4/09/2008 01:33:00 PM
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