T - 24 hours

It's time.  Tonight I fly out from my home in Fort Worth, Texas and begin my summer journey in Chicago.  After spending tonight in the home of my uncle and aunt, my comrade Jon and I will depart from O'Hare tomorrow at 1700 hours. Our journey takes us overnight to Warsaw, Poland where we have a 13 hour layover, and then onto Tel Aviv, Israel, arriving on Thursday at 3am. The journey will be tiring, to say the least.

I have been hoping for this trip for a good while, ever since my brother worked as a journalist with two friends in Ramallah during the summer of 2008.  The specific plans for this summer began over Christmas. I had been planning to travel to Germany to continue my study of the German language.  Over the Christmas break, however, I decided I wanted to spend my summer serving in a place of great need. Due to my family's history in the Middle East, Israel/Palestine was the clear choice.  I did not want to go alone, so I contact my college buddy Jon who had studied the Israeli-Palestinian conflict thoroughly during his college years. I wrote him via facebook chat and asked if he would be interested in going to Palestine this summer.  Immediately, he responded with "YES!!!!!" And so, after a semester of planning and talking, and the recruiting of another good college friend Paul, we find ourselves here, on the eve of our departure.

I am a inundated with an assortment of feelings right now.  Excitement. Anticipation. Nervousness. Intrigue. Responsibility. Dread. Disquietude. Peace.  I have traveled much before, seeing close to 30 countries, but this is the first time I have traveled without my family or outside of a program.  It's just me, Jon, and Paul...and I am the only one who has been to the area.  So, naturally, I feel the stakes are a bit higher for this journey.  But deep down, I know all will go well.  I love the land.  I love the guys with whom I'm traveling.  I love the people who inhabit these oppressed lands.  And I love to travel.  Overall, I think I can say that excitement is strongest.

Paul is in the UK with his brother and grandparents as we speak and will not be arriving to Israel until June 15.  Jon and I, though, will begin work at the Al-Basma Center and Paidia one week from today.  These two places will be our areas of concentration this summer.  Both these organizations are located in Beit Sahour, a small town connected with Bethlehem in which the three of us will be living.  Al-Basma is a center that takes in developmentally disabled individuals who have been outcast by their families and teaches them special skills so that these human beings can regain the humanity that was denied them.  They are able to contribute to society by making beautiful notebooks out of recycled paper, making recycled sawdust fuel, beautiful embroideries on the loom, and other crafts.  These individuals are assisted by women of the three main religions of the land: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.  All come from different faith perspectives, but have united under a common vocation: loving the loveless.  They give homes to the homeless and hope to the hopeless.  We will be learning from these beautiful people and, with the amazing women who work there despite paltry pay due to extremely difficult times, try to bring joy and hope to the lives of these outcasts, these marginalized of the marginalized.  My brother, who worked here extensively during the seven months he lived in the area from August 2009 on, said he has not seen a place that so encapsulates the kingdom of God like the Al-Basma Center.

Paidia is an organization that teaches conflict resolution and leadership skills to the area's youth through recreational activities, such as high ropes courses.  The staff at Paidia have graciously given us a very wonderful price for an apartment for the summer due to our willingness to volunteer with them part-time.  We will be staying in a building that houses a number of the Paidia staff, and I am anticipating building close relationships with those people during our two months on the ground.  Frankly, I am still somewhat unfamiliar with all that Paidia is, but I expect to gain more insight as the summer progresses.

So, in short, this is a summer to learn.  I do not want to speak of the other two guys, though I feel that they would agree with the following reflections, but my expectations for these coming months are simple.  My intent is not to teach, evangelize, or civilize.  I want to serve, in whatever way I can.  I am going to Palestine to be humbled and changed by the immense love that comes from a broken, hurting people.  I believe that at the core of the Gospel are invitations from Jesus to our task as followers of Christ, embracers of God's global Community, and participators in the in-breaking of the Kingdom: We are called to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the imprisoned, the comfort the sick, to revive the despaired.  I believe we follow Jesus on his path to the cross through self-sacrificial love and then participate with Christ in bringing Resurrection to the world.  In a land that is dying, both literally and metaphorically, I hope to help breathe new life into those few with whom I commune.  I believe this is my task, now and for the rest of my life.

Thank you now to those who will be following Jon's, Paul's, and my journey via this blog.  This is a communal blog, so all three of us will be posting our thoughts on here.  At the bottom of each post will be the name of whoever wrote it, so that you know whose thoughts you are reading.  Your support is greatly appreciated.

Grace and Peace,
Michael