Pre-Departure Reflection from Jon

Hello, this is the blog that Mike and Paul and I will be using to chronicle our trip and keep all of you updated on what is going on with us in the West Bank. I can't promise how often we will be updating it, but we will as we get the chance. It is hard to believe that it is only 2 and a half weeks until Mike and I will be leaving.

All three of us will be contributing to this blog, with our own varied perspectives, opinions, backgrounds, and interests. Hopefully our differences will complement each other in our writing as well as work this summer. I find it interesting that the three of us have studied three different areas in college: history, Bible, and political science--and the land of Palestine has had great influence on all three of those, for sure.

Before we leave, I would like to briefly lay out some of my reasons and hopes for this trip. For most of my life I have been very interested in the history and especially the biblical history of the Middle East. For the past few years I have also been particularly interested in the recent history of Palestine and Israel and in the Arab-Israeli conflict and even more specifically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Both the Jews and the Palestinians have too often been victims of suffering and of hatred. They have a very rich history, but often a troubled history as well. At this point the Palestinians are especially suffering, from poverty, restricted movements, water shortages, racism, etc. I hope to learn from, work with, and live with a beautiful, broken people and hopefully to be a part in some way of the healing and reconciliation that has already begun. Truly, God is with the vulnerable and the poor.

Peace, shalom, salaam,
Jon

P.S. I would also like to say to anyone who is at all interested in Israel or Palestine or the Middle East or history or politics or religion, I would recommend Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour as a great introduction to the recent history of Palestine. It very interesting, easy-to-read, informative, and balanced.