Palestinian Generosity

I have not been very good about updating my blog recently. Probably for about 4 or 5 months. Once the newness of this place wore off, it was hard for me to write about things, because they were not as new and exciting. I am going to try, however, to start up my blog again. From now on, I will write once a week about an experience or event. This way, all of my friends will be able to here from me more often, since we are such a long distance away.

Anytime you come into the company of Palestinians, you will be told about the extreme generosity of Palestinians. This generosity is something with which I have recently been blessed.

Living in Bethlehem, I have been able to become friends with quite a few local people. I would like to tell you about a few in particular now.

Rania worked as a secretary for Bethlehem Bible College a couple months this fall. During that time, I had the privilege to be invited to her house to spend time with her family. Since that time, I have been invited several times to their home. It is unusual for a Palestinian family, to have a 23 year old girl living on her own (without family) in a foreign country, as most young Palestinian people do not leave home until they are married. Therefore, they think that this young person must not know how to take care of themselves or feed themselves. Whenever I go then, they always feed me so much that I am bursting at the seams.I like to spend time with this family, as they do not speak much English, so I am forced to improve my Arabic skills.

This week, I was invited by Rania and her family to attend part of the wedding celebrations of a relative. The first part was for women only. The women in the family of the groom welcomed the new bride by painting her with henna and offering her gifts of gold jewelry as is traditional. This was followed by a large meal and plenty of dancing, in which the new couple were presented. Dancing is extremely fun in the culture, as everybody joins in to dance to traditional and pop Arabic music.

The grooms mother joins the bride and groom in the dancing.

Majdi has also become a friend of mine. Majdi is the owner of a souvenir shop in Bethlehem. At anytime he will welcome people to come sit in his shop, hear his stories, and drink traditional bedouin tea (black tea, with mint, and sugar). He always offers a good price for his gifts to any foreigners living in Bethlehem and is always willing to offer and extra hand. Many times he has driven me to the checkpoint as I am on my way to Jerusalem.

Khalil and his family are other friends of mine. Khalil and his family live in Al-Azza refugee camp, one of the three refugee camps in Bethlehem. All the families in this camp were driven here during the war in 1948 from a village near the Gaza strip. I met Khalil one morning when I was walking to work at Bethlehem Bible College in the rain. I ducked under the awning of his car repair shop to wait out the rain. He proceeded to offer me coffee and invited me to spend time with his family whenever I was available. The following Saturday, my roommate Sara and I ventured to their house for a traditional meal of Mensaf (rice and chicken). We were fed until we couldn't eat any more, then offered fruit and multiple cups of strong Arabic coffee. Ihave since been treated to Kenafe (a traditional Arabic sweet) and many cups of coffee in the morning as I pass by his shop.

Although it may not be true of every Palestinian across the board, but I have been treated to some incredible Palestinian generosity living in Bethlehem.

Settling down in Bethlehem

Wow! Time certainly goes by incredibly fast! The longer I am in Bethlehem, the faster the days and weeks seemed to pass. In my last update, I wrote about how I was adjusting to life lived in Bethlehem, rather than Jerusalem. Now that we are in November and I have lived in Bethlehem for three months, I would say that I am officially into the routine of life here.


A picture of the Treasury in Petra. I traveled here the end of September in order to extend my visa once again.

I continue to work at Bethlehem Bible College. In my three months there, I have gotten used to the constant ebb and flow of visitors and volunteer groups coming and going to the campus. One of my main jobs is coordinating our guesthouse, volunteer groups that come to the Bible College, and visitors who may come for a day. In order to do this job, I must constantly be in conversation with various people in the Bible College, administrators, teachers, cooks, and guesthouse managers, as well as local tour guides, in order to ensure that everybody’s visit goes smoothly. This task can prove difficult at times, and has not been without its mistakes. With each mishap, I learn more about how I can better make certain that visitors are given a warm welcome to Bethlehem Bible College.


Joining with Sabeel, I helped some Palestinian farmers with the annual Olive Harvest.

The school year at the Bible College is well on its way. In fact, the fall semester is winding down as Christmas is less than two months away. As Christmas draws near, the Bible College begins to prepare for numerous events. The choir plans to sing at many events during and around the Christmas Holiday and the Shepherd’s Society is preparing for their annual Christmas Dinner. On average, 1000 people attend this annual Christmas Dinner. It is a chance to bring people from many different walks of life within the Bethlehem Community together for a bountiful and joyful Christmas meal. In addition, Christmas baskets, food coupons and other humanitarian aids are given to families in need.

As I settle into life in Bethlehem, I seek to engage in different parts of the community in addition to the Bible College. Thus, I have begun to volunteer once a week at Al-Rowwad. Al-Rowwad is a cultural center situated in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. Recently, I have begun to help out with the music class for these kids. Life in refugee camps is often difficult in Palestine. Because of the lack of school space and teachers, most children only have school for half the day. One group of children will go in the morning; the other children will go in the afternoon. Half days of school only allows these children to learn the essentials of math, reading, writing, and science. It leaves them with no chance to for sports, music, or art. While I often took for granted the fact that my parents forced me to take piano lessons, for these kids, the two hours of play they get to have with music is an incredible opportunity. So far, I have really enjoyed getting to know these kids and seeing their enthusiasm for music and the arts. To learn more about Al-Rowwad, check out their website at:

The longer I am here, the more I realize the importance of joy. I have had a fortunate childhood filled with much joy. This joy has helped me face even tough situations, such as I have encountered here, with undying optimism. I believe that it is incredibly important for the children of Aida camp to have a chance to play and to experience the joy and beauty found in the arts. I hope that Al-Rowwad, and my participation with them, will instill a little bit of joy into these children and help them face the conflict in which they live daily with a little more optimism and hope.

Simply Human

My first year of college, I attended Covenant Bible College in Strathmore, Alberta. This place formed the base on which my further college years would follow and now into the time after. There are a few things that stick out from that year. One of these things was the importance that the verse from Genesis 1:27 became to my view of others and the world. This verse says: “So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In God’s Image. All human beings are created in God’s Image. This means that all humans have equal value and are equally loved by God. Nothing speaks to the ultimate unity and equality of humanity more than this verse.

Now that I am finished with University I have begun the next stage of life, which involves living in Bethlehem, Palestine, experiencing all this place has to offer, and learning more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. I have come a long way from the rural land of Alberta, Canada, to Israel-Palestine, but still this basic truth still rings in my ears. The one thing I am constantly struck by is that everyone here is equally human and equally created by God. This will hit me at different times. When I am walking through the checkpoint between Bethlehem and Jerusalem and see a women slowly walking home after a long day. This checkpoint has just become another part of her day. For the men standing in line in front of me at the checkpoint; their ID’s are examined, their permits surveyed, their handprints taken, sometimes they are yelled at by the soldiers half or one-third their age. They are just as human as me, yet I merely show my United States passport and I get a slight wave of the hand through, and I am on my way.

It is not just the humanity of the oppressed that I acknowledge, it is for the oppressors. I look at the soldiers sitting at the checkpoints. They have just finished high school. They are supposed to be living the best years of their lives, and yet they sit in a glass booth at the checkpoint waving people through. They have been fed by fear for the other their entire lives. They have become part of the system that sees those walking through the checkpoints as those of whom they are afraid and must now try to show some of their power over them to compensate for this fear or as a mere inconvenience to their eight hour shift sitting in a glass booth. I think that they should also not have to be in this position in life. They too are part of a conflict that was started by others and is looming before them. I am nearly the same age, and I wish they too had the opportunity to travel and see new places, as I have been so fortunate to have.

I was talking to a friend the other day and he said that the Germans have a saying that goes like this: “mauer im kopf”. It means a “wall in the head”. Before the Berlin wall was built, people in Germany were united. They were the same country, the same people. Once the Berlin wall was built, they began to build up stereotypes of the other. Even now that the wall is gone, these stereotypes still exist in the heads of many of the people. It is as if the wall still exists in the heads of its people.

I now live in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is located in Palestine, on the other side of the separation wall from Jerusalem. The separation wall is a five-minute walk from my house. Many times the wall here is compared to that in Berlin. Stereotyping rings true here as well. Although, in this place, the stereotypes existed long before the wall was built. It is as if the reverse happened here. There was a wall in the heads of the people and they built a physical wall to represent the already existing stereotypes.

Unfortunately this wall only makes these stereotypes stronger. It has made interaction between both sides more difficult and more limited. It has made it easier to dehumanize the other side and harder to realize that we are all created in the Image of the same God.

I believe that the stereotypes existing in this land will be harder to overcome than in Berlin once the wall falls. It can only be done by realizing the common humanity of everyone. With this realization comes respect for the other and also an awareness that we must listen to each other, because we all have equal amounts to offer and to learn. I pray that this kind of reconciliation will one day be allowed to happen and will bear fruit for all.

Life these days

Hey everybody. I'm sorry I have been slacking on the blog. Here is a video update of my life. I hope you all enjoy!

Life at Bethlehem Bible College