Twice in Royal David's City
Salaam/Shalom,
Well, here I am in Bethlehem, for the second time in my life and hopefully not the last. I'm really enjoying it so far, the people at the Bible College are very interesting and open. The first night I got here I spent hanging out with the guys in the dorm outside cooking fish, talking and singing (probably 80% in Arabic, which definitely challenges me, especially with the differences between Palestinian and Lebanese), it was great. Yesterday I went to a funeral in Jerusalem, which of course was kind of sad (a Lutheran bishop had died), but also interesting from a cultural perspective. The church served a meal after the funeral, where they gave us Arabic coffee without sugar (symbolic of course). It tasted basically like spiffed-up dirt, which reminded me of "Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust." A good tangible lesson.
One of the more exciting things for me so far is seeing the connections that many of the students have to Israeli believers and congregations. One guy named Jeris is from Nazareth, and speaks Hebrew as good as Arabic. He's a musician (a very good singer), and gave me a tape he'd recorded of worship music, mostly in Arabic but with one song in Hebrew. His roommate, Ibrahim, was singing to me all these Hebrew worship songs, clamoring from the bottom of his heart. =) It was so beautiful for me to hear Palestinians worshiping God in Hebrew, being willing to bridge those gaps and accept Hebrew culture as legitimate and redeemable. I don't think most people on both sides of the conflict think or feel that way about the other side. I told Jeris I would love to help him with doing music as much as I possibly could. So I really feel like God has brought people into the school that I can have really fruitful and meaningful relationships with.
Things here seem to be pretty sensitive politically, not in terms of feeling like I'm facing danger, but mainly in terms of what kinds of words I use and lots of other little subtleties. So please keep that in mind when you write me, and who's in charge here--as far as I'm concerned, my e-mail is just as public as this website. As far as Jesus goes, proclaim it from the rooftops! Don't worry about shying away from spiritual topics in e-mail. I am volunteering at a Bible College, after all, so it's not like people don't know I'm a Christian.
My suitcase is still AWOL, this morning I'm going to call the airline people and hopefully track it down. They told me they would sent it to Jerusalem yesterday morning, but apparently that didn't happen. Meanwhile, I've been in this situation before (five days in Damascus with no change of clothes), so I'm a veteran by now. ;) And here I actually have friends who will loan me clothes and shampoo and stuff like that, so hamdillah. =)
I always appreciate news, even if I can't always respond personally very quickly. So let me know how y'all are doing.
God bless you all,
Seth
Well, here I am in Bethlehem, for the second time in my life and hopefully not the last. I'm really enjoying it so far, the people at the Bible College are very interesting and open. The first night I got here I spent hanging out with the guys in the dorm outside cooking fish, talking and singing (probably 80% in Arabic, which definitely challenges me, especially with the differences between Palestinian and Lebanese), it was great. Yesterday I went to a funeral in Jerusalem, which of course was kind of sad (a Lutheran bishop had died), but also interesting from a cultural perspective. The church served a meal after the funeral, where they gave us Arabic coffee without sugar (symbolic of course). It tasted basically like spiffed-up dirt, which reminded me of "Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust." A good tangible lesson.
One of the more exciting things for me so far is seeing the connections that many of the students have to Israeli believers and congregations. One guy named Jeris is from Nazareth, and speaks Hebrew as good as Arabic. He's a musician (a very good singer), and gave me a tape he'd recorded of worship music, mostly in Arabic but with one song in Hebrew. His roommate, Ibrahim, was singing to me all these Hebrew worship songs, clamoring from the bottom of his heart. =) It was so beautiful for me to hear Palestinians worshiping God in Hebrew, being willing to bridge those gaps and accept Hebrew culture as legitimate and redeemable. I don't think most people on both sides of the conflict think or feel that way about the other side. I told Jeris I would love to help him with doing music as much as I possibly could. So I really feel like God has brought people into the school that I can have really fruitful and meaningful relationships with.
Things here seem to be pretty sensitive politically, not in terms of feeling like I'm facing danger, but mainly in terms of what kinds of words I use and lots of other little subtleties. So please keep that in mind when you write me, and who's in charge here--as far as I'm concerned, my e-mail is just as public as this website. As far as Jesus goes, proclaim it from the rooftops! Don't worry about shying away from spiritual topics in e-mail. I am volunteering at a Bible College, after all, so it's not like people don't know I'm a Christian.
My suitcase is still AWOL, this morning I'm going to call the airline people and hopefully track it down. They told me they would sent it to Jerusalem yesterday morning, but apparently that didn't happen. Meanwhile, I've been in this situation before (five days in Damascus with no change of clothes), so I'm a veteran by now. ;) And here I actually have friends who will loan me clothes and shampoo and stuff like that, so hamdillah. =)
I always appreciate news, even if I can't always respond personally very quickly. So let me know how y'all are doing.
God bless you all,
Seth
posted by Seth | 2:03 AM
1 Comments:
Do you know Beit Hanina Baptist Church? If you get a chance go and visit them. You can tell them I told you of their existence. The pastor there is my brother.
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