Israel and Palestine April 2025

We arrived in Israel’s after a long fright from Seattle to Paris, Paris to Israel.  We met our group of about 16 other hikers who were from all over the world.  One of the beautiful parts of this trip is we hiked along side Palestinians, Israeli’s and North Americans.  It was a trip designed by Young Life North Africa to raise campership funds for students from Israel and the West Bank to be able to go to camps.  Not only were we raising funds, we were also building friendships with people and hearing stories.  

The first day we were introduced to middle eastern dining, which did not disappoint.  Typically Arab meals start off with a plethora of small salads from beets, cabbage, corn and radishes, which you traditionally eat with bread and your hands.  After comes the meat, and there is a ton of it.  They call it Schwarme- which is shaved meat that has been roasting on a spit all day.  It was both delicious and filling.

During our 10 days in the Land (as the Israeli’s call it) we stayed in two different guest houses.  Traditionally churches or in this case a hospital, will have lodging for pilgrims.  The first 3 nights we stayed in a guest house in Nazareth that was connected to a hospital.  Apparently this hospital hosts people from all over the world who want to come and serve the people of Nazareth through providing medical services.  It was really pleasant lodging and I got used to having a twin bed all to myself. 

The first day in Nazareth, we visited a Baptist school where Hunter Lambert and his family started Young Life in Israel.  They are Young Life staff from the Atlanta area and felt the call to move where Jesus went to high school and start ministering to students there.  We got a tour of the school, an introduction to what life in like in Israel as a Palestinian Christian and hung out with the students.  It was super fun to talk with the students as they were all learning English and wanted to practice.  The gentleman in the above picture, is the headmaster in the school and painted a pretty grim picture for the Christians in Israel.  Did you know it is actually illegal to talk to kids under 18 about Jesus in Israel?  Crazy.  It has become increasingly difficult for Christians in Israel due to various political powers, religious persecution and just plain economics.  Many Christians, according to our friends, are leaving Israel and Palestine and moving to Europe or North America as they are educated and can find good jobs in professional fields.  It’s part of the complexity of the Middle East.

In Nazareth we went to visit a church…it was the beginning of visiting ALOT of churches.  I have to be honest, they all started to run together.  Every spot Jesus did something interesting, there’s a church.  I do remember that you had to wear long pants or skirt and cover your shoulders, so that made for some interesting outfits with my tennis shoes on.  

One place that was really memorable was the village that was a replica of what was typical at the time of Jesus’ life time.  The simplicity of life, the difficulty of attaining food, meeting people representing typical people of that time, it was really beautiful.  We shared a simple meal of ground chick peas, bread, grains, dates and chicken.  There were also potters, herdsmen, wood workers - it was a very enjoyable stop.

abundant!

Sam.  It was so great to have him with us.  Sometimes we get in grooves of how we interact with people, especially our children.  To step out of the familiar rhythms of life with people you know so well offers the opportunity to see them in a different light.  This trip definitely gave us the gift of being with Sam as fellow sojourners, not necessarily his parents.  I read years ago in my favorite parenting book, Gist, that the most memorable events for children often aren’t the family vacations or large gatherings.  It’s the one child at a time events.  We’ve had plenty of trips with Perrin in the last two years, yet this was our first one with Sam since we took him mountain biking when he was 13.  It was a huge blessing to go on this journey with him.

The food continued throughout the trip continued to be delicious and

“Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “ ‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭13‬:‭24‬-‭30‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.13.24-30.NIV

As we were walking along, our guide Amer, stopped at a field of wheat.  He quoted the words of Jesus above and said look at the tares (pictured on the left) and the wheat (on the right).  What do you notice?  They were in the field along side one another and from a distance looked very similar.  But upon closer examination, the wheat bore fruit and the tare bore none.  It was really cool to take something I’ve read many times over the last 30 years and put context to it. Next level was thinking that these fields along are way could have been the same that inspired Jesus to share the above words.  Pretty cool.

One of the fellow pilgrims was Majd.  He is from Bethlehem and is a Palestinian Christian - or Arab Christian.  He’s 25, went to University in Jordan and does marketing for his profession.  He was the brother of the Young Life staff person from Nazareth and such a great guy.  As we walked and talked we learned about his family, who actually are from Gaza.  The last night of the trip while we were in Bethlehem, we invited him and his family to our hotel for dinner where we got to meet his mother.  What an incredible woman she was.  All of 4 of her children were raised in Gaza, though when she was about to give birth she, having an Israeli passport, would travel to Israel to birth her children so that they would have an Israeli passport.  She said without it her children would be doomed to live out their lives in Gaza.  With the continued worsening of the conditions in Gaza, she moved her family to the Christian town of Bethlehem where they could be educated and live in relative safety and prosperity.  We were amazed as we met her other children who were all fluent in English and doing their part to be peacemakers in the region.  Majd’s older sister has a masters in nursing and works in Jerusalem with Jewish people of all backgrounds.  She says it is a privilege to live and work among a race many would consider the enemy, yet she considers them friends.  Majd’s older brother, whom we met, is gettin his doctorate in Psychology and works in youth trauma and mental health.  His ministry though is getting different factions of the Christian body to come together for healing and reconciliation.  Think Arab Christians, Messianic Jews and Muslim background Christians (Muslims who have converted) sitting at a table and finding ways to move through the pain and hatred they’ve experienced.  It was a fascinating conversation.

This family was representative in their opinion, of the Christian sector in the Middle East.  It is not uncommon for Muslims to send their children to Christian schools as the education is good and most go on to university level of study, as well as being fluent in Hebrew, Arabic and English. 

 

One of my favorite places on our walk was the area of the Sea of Galilee, where the majority of Jesus’ ministry took place.  The Sea of Galilee is surprisingly large for being a fresh water lake in the middle of a pretty dry landscape.  There is something about fresh water in the middle of a desert that creates a sense of calm and hope in my soul.  The biggest city within the area was Tibereas, and that wasn’t particularly large as far as cities go.  It was very rural and quiet with a lot of sites to sit in.  The above pictures are from the Mt of Beatitudes, which was a small hillside up a bit from the lake.  We stayed there for 3 nights at a beautiful little guest house run by a bunch of nuns.  

“A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home.”

‭‭Mark‬ ‭2‬:‭1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/111/mrk.2.1.NIV

There were so many miracles that happened in Capernum.  It was a town located directly on the shores of the Sea of Galilee and on the main trading route between Egypt and Syria.  The amount of archeological sites was astounding.  You get to walk through the synagogue where Jesus taught. (Below). 

There was Peter’s house:

Picture from Mikemasonbooks.com

And all of it was without crowds due to “the current situation”.  When we told our friends and family that we were going to Israel, 90% of them said some version of: “Are you crazy?  Why would you go there when there’s a war going on?”.  I will admit the closer we got to our day of departure, the more I prayed.  I don’t think we were concerned for our safety, we just didn’t know what we would encounter in a country in conflict.  When we arrived in country, one of the people we met, Marianna who is a Messianic Jew who grew up in St Petersburg Russia, had some comments that were particularly poignant about Americans.  As she and I got to know one another, she made a statement about Americans: “You Americans are so fearful and afraid.  Everything has to be safe for you.  The world isn’t safe.”  Well said.  I have been wrestling with that statement for weeks now and letting it do its work in me. The other statement she made which has really made me hyper aware is “You Americans always talk about Fun.  Why does everything have to be fun?  Life isn’t fun.  There are moments of fun, but it’s not meant to be fun.” I appreciated the frankness that only a Jewish 50 year old woman who grew up in Communist Russia can give.  It was refreshing to hear her view point on the “conflict” and the state of affairs in the Middle East.

A painting of the hemorrhagic woman touching the robe of Jesus and being healed.  This was in the church of Magdalene - a recent archeological find.  We took the opportunity to pray for our friend who is suffering with illness.  

A replica of a 1st century fishing boat.  Magadalene, Israel.

The fields in Israel are lush and well cultivated.  They grew tons of citrus, mangoes, crops under greenhouse conditions.  It truly is the land of milk and honey.

Our group near Jericho, where it’s supposed to be where Jesus went into the desert for 40 days/nights.  

This camel so wanted a little snuggle.  His breath was hot and stinky and he kept going in for the kiss.

Sam on a camel.  This was not an easy task.  It reminded me of the saying “easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle…” than for Sam to get on a camel…”but with God all things are possible”.

One of the highlights of our time was going to meet local Young life leaders.  This group in Bethlehem were so delightful to be with.  We heard stories of how they came to know Jesus through Young Life and in turn wanted to share with others the life changing message. It was encouraging and inspiring to hear their stories.  One of the observations I had about the message of Jesus during my time in the Middle East was that his message is offensive or difficult to all cultures for various reasons.  To the Arab culture, Jesus message of humility and being a servant is offensive in a very prideful culture.  To the Jew, the idea of Jesus coming and fulfilling the Law and ruling through grace and mercy is offensive.  To the American, the message of Jesus to go and sell all your possessions and give to the poor is offensive.  So much more to think about and digest there…

One of the days when we were in Bethlehem, we went out to be with the Bedouins in the desert.  Boy, that desert made the Sonoran desert look like a tropical jungle.  There was next to nothing there.  Except for some herds of camels, which was cool to see on the horizon.  We had a naturalist with us, who pointed out the plants and animals along the way…he didn’t stop much.  I guess there are only 50 endemic species of plants in this region.  Balin thought it was great though to not have any contamination!  

We spent the day hiking to the lookout of the Dead Sea, which was pretty cool.  The Jordan river, below, flows into the Sea of Galilea then continue on to the Dead Sea.  What makes it dead though is there is no place where the water flows out - it just stays there and is dead.  We did get the opportunity to float in the Dead Sea which was pretty cool.  I actually sat criss cross and stayed up right while fully submerged.  Plus my skin felt like magic when I got out of the sea.  I invested heavily in some skin care products from a vendor…and giving Sam a facial is one of our activities we get to do together. :)

On our final day of the trip we went to Jerusalem.  What a beautiful and LARGE city!  It’s all made out of stone and is a light cream color.  There’s the old city, which is where we spent most of our time, and then there’s the suburbs.  Being an ancient city, everything we were looking at was pretty close in proximity.  The Garden of Gethsemane, the High priests house where Jesus was imprisoned, Pilates court where he was convicted and then the via Delarosa - the road of suffering - were all in a very small location.  That said, the amount of churches was astounding.  And overwhelming.  So here are the pictures…of churches. 

Where Jesus fell while carrying the cross.

A main road in Jerusalem, there are no people here due to the “situation”. 

I thought this guy was a mannequin, but no, he was alive.  He’s a priest of some sect of Christianity.  I don’t think there church is drawing the youth of today.

Burning of candles to pray for people.  

Wall of the old city with some ruins…clearly I was on information overload.

The garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed before he was arrested.

While we were in the garden, Balin mentioned that it was Sam’s 4th birthday since he was baptized in Costa Rica.  Several men in the group spoke blessings over Sam and we prayed for him.  It was a pretty special event that I don’t think we will quickly forget.

We’ve been home a week and it seems like a year.  I’ve been reading a book called, The Art of Pilgrimage by Phil Cousineau and it calls out some of the tenants of Pilgrimage that I believe would put this trip into the category of a pilgrimage.  Interestingly, I didn’t foresee this in the weeks preceding the trip.  I looked at it as slow travel, but in reality it was more than that.  It was walking at the pace of Jesus.  Taking the time to know your fellow sojourners, learn their stories, to hear stories of the land, to rest.  It was so much more than a trip and yet I don’t think I will be able to fully understand the impact it had on my person, my faith and my world paradigm for some time to come.  In fact, I’m thinking that I would like to go again.  I’ve been thinking how I would go differently: I would invite others to join me (and maybe even pay for others to come) and I would go even slower.  I would take the initiative to ask more questions (though I do ask quite a few) and I would be silent a little more.  

Until we see each other in the Land.