Bethlehem 2006

Fifty-three weeks ago, Jason, Sarah, and I drove to St. Louis and back in one night. (I'm embarrassed to say I did none of the 12 hours of driving) the day before our last exam in managerial accounting. U2 roadtrip. Jason had picked up three tickets on eBay at face value and I joined them for Sarah's birthday present. I was two days from graduating, Sarah one, but we couldn't pass it up.

Today we were baking apple and pecan pies together in Bethlehem, as we joked and dreamt might happen when I broke Soderquist fellowship from Jason and the gang last December. They - husband and wife of 2.5 years - have come to the West Bank (Palestine) to work at House of Hope "for the blind and children with special needs" as house parents for six girls and six boys. I have come to Palestine so we can all share our first Christmas away from home together.

House of Hope adult residents on the way to church tonight(the kids have gone home for two weeks)
My first adventure in the country was trying to get past the immigration police in the airport. Unfortunately, I said I was going to Bethlehem and proceeded to spend the next three hours between an antechamber of frosted glass and interviews describing why I'd come, what I was doing, what Sarah and Jason were doing, why would they do this after spending so much money on schooling, aren't there children with handicaps in the USA, who else do I know in West Bank, how much did my plane ticket cost, do I work for an NGO, do my parents know where I am, on and on.

Thankfully, as always, my cleverest comment came to me after-the-fact, that the interview was a waste of my taxpayer money, which Jason pointed out, probably wouldn't have gone over very well.

They finally stamped my visa and I learned the expensive way the difference between the private and service taxis commuting from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I haven't seen much of Jerusalem yet because we passed through the checkpoint in fairly short order after I arrived. But we have plans to visit.

I think the hardest thing about this experience will be sorting out the resentment I feel towards Israel re: the way they treat the Palestinians. The 20-foot high concrete wall ("fence") is going up within two miles of here, S & J's friends and colleagues get turned back at the checkpoints by 18-year-olds with semi-automatic weapons, settlers come here and take over people's farmland and there is nothing they can do about it, the economic disparity is about like looking across the interstate from El Paso to Juarez. Nothing about it is simple, but I think God was pretty clear about the way his people ought to treat foreigners in their midst, stemming back to the abuses Israel suffered as the slaves under the Egyptians, and this is not it.

I'll close with one of my favorite carol verses:
Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold him come
Offspring of a virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"