Over the past year, I have been working on producing a film that tells the stories of three young people living in Israel and Palestine. My film team and I interviewed a Palestinian Muslim, Palestinian Christian, and Israeli Jew. In January, we completed the seven-minute version of the film, and I flew to Washington D.C. to present the film at the National Prayer Breakfast. Our intent was to raise awareness about the hope that exists in the region, and to tell the story of three peacemakers.

The National Prayer Breakfast takes place the first week of February each year. I had the opportunity to present our film at the Middle East Breakfast in front of 500 people.  I talked for a few minutes and briefly shared about my passion to see restoration take place in Israel and Palestine. Despite my disdain for public speaking, I felt like I was on top of the world being able to share my heart for restoration amidst the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. 

After the event, several people came up to me to thank me for sharing a story about three people striving to be peacemakers. The whole event seemed surreal. All the work had paid off. However, God always has a way of humbling people when pride begins to build up:

Along with the praises came criticism. A few people at the Prayer Breakfast expressed their frustration toward the film for being too one-sided or misrepresentative of the Israeli side. Ronit, the Israeli in the film, began to hint at the fact that she may not be the best person to represent the other side in the film. Issues of political stances, religious traditions, and faith began to build up. Although I denied the truth of the matter to begin with, I slowly realized I needed to listen to the criticisms of the film.

Two weeks after the National Prayer Breakfast and several screenings at universities had taken place, Ronit emailed us and respectfully asked to be disassociated with the film. Out of her own integrity, she felt like she was untrue to herself in the film with her current position in her faith and political views.

I went from being on top of the world with the completion and distribution of the 7-minute film to a place where I was brought to my knees. I felt like the film had failed, that we had failed. But my friends, family, classmates, and people who had viewed the film encouraged me by reminding me that God has greater things in store, and to not give up.

We decided to take a break from the film to give ourselves time to reflect and refocus. Over the past month, I have learned a lot.

-·      Relationships and restoration are the primary purpose for the film

-·      Our idea of success is much different than God’s ideas

-·      “Dreams don’t happen in the clouds, they happen when we’re on our knees.” My friend shared the quote with me.

-·      Humility keeps us grounded

-·      Finish what you have started, and do it with excellence

The process of putting together the story and film was long and challenging, but has proven to be rewarding. And it is not over yet. We are planning on returning to Israel and Palestine this summer in order to finish what our team started a just a little over a year ago. We are excited to see what will happen and how the story will change and we are especially excited to share this feature-length documentary with you.

-Anna

On Thursday, November 29, celebrations erupted in the West Bank and Gaza when the UN General Assembly granted Palestinians recognition of statehood. Palestine is now a non-member observer state. For the first time since 1947, people can refer to the state of Palestine and wave their flags proudly. 

Our friend, Tania Kuttab, posted on Facebook, “November 29th will be recorded on my calendar as the day of good news - Cheers to the beautiful name of Palestine.”

Now is the time to celebrate and be excited with our Palestinian neighbors. November 29th granted Palestinians dignity and gave them hope. People gathered in the streets to celebrate a day that will go down in history, and watched the president of the Palestinian Authority give a speech. 

We often get caught up in the politics behind the conflict, but forget the hearts of the people. Even though this vote may not change much right now for the Palestinians, they are excited to be able to legitimately refer to the state of Palestine.

Palestinians were overwhelmingly supported by the world in the vote to grant them statehood, while the United States and Israel strongly opposed. My hope for Americans would be for them to counter the government’s negativity, and join in the excitement surrounding this major event. 

Continue to pray for the peace and healing for the people of Israel and Palestine.

Photos by Elias Halabi.

Our last full day…

I don’t know how it happened, but we have reached the end of our time in Israel/Palestine. Many events and experiences have transpired since being here. We have talked to many individuals and have heard incredible stories.

Israel/Palestine is a land of distinct contradiction. In one camera angle of Bethlehem, one can see Aida refugee camp, a five star hotel, playground, and the separation wall. Children face soldiers defiantly in protests. The Western Wall structurally supports the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its plaza. We have seen Palestinians and Israelis alike in demonstrations.

Much of what one sees here evokes a deep sense of hopelessness. When faced with getting through a checkpoint in Bethlehem late at night, we literally had to step over tens of Palestinians who were waiting until morning when they would be allowed to enter Jerusalem. Both sides possess a litany of grievances against the other. How could conflict be resolved when there is a refusal (by and large) to give up a ‘victim mentality’? This is a land of tear gas and walls.

However, it is also a land of incredible hospitality. I find this to be important because there lies a sign of hope. We have been welcomed in by complete strangers for tea and to play with kids. In our weariness, we were given places to rest. Outside of the gratitude felt for their kindness, why do I find this important?

In the west, eloquent solutions are offered to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Here, politicians and citizens alike have shared their terms for a lasting peace. During the past sixty years, accords, treaties, and resolutions have been offered to make amends in an incredible complex situation. Finding a solution on a broad level seems doubtful.

In response, I believe that the every day acts of kindness so evident to our team provide a way forward towards establishing a lasting peace. Whether it is a restauranteur or a shopkeeper, we have been told every day that we are ‘welcome’ in the land.

We are welcome.

Could the reconciliation efforts be refocused to think about peace in terms of “small” instead of “big”? What would it look like if protests were complemented with an invitation to the other side for tea or a home-cooked meal? Is this even possible?

The characters in our documentary represent a hope for the future. This is not say that they have it “all figured out.” Whether through the arts, boycotts, or intentional dialogue, they have found modest ways to express a powerful conviction: when faced with a broken peace process, the only thing to do is move forward. The act of hoping seems like a fool’s errand. However, one is still given a choice to either submit to hopelessness or to commit oneself to live and act faithfully.

Soon, we will be headed home. We will travel on the day in which our country commemorates its independence. My experience in Israel/Palestine has compelled me to be deeply grateful for what I have always assumed to be rightfully mine—freedom.

There are people here who work towards freedom every day. Yet, the Israelis and Palestinians we have talked with work for something more than freedom. They seek an understanding of human dignity even when faced with religious, ethnic, and political differences. Should their societies begin to value these, they will achieve something much greater than an end to political conflict. They will achieve a call to bear all things, hope all things, believe all things, and endure all things. This is Christ’s call to love.

May the peace of the Lord be with you,

ZTE

During this trip, I’ve been reading “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas à Kempis. While the book itself is full of wisdom, the cover of the edition I am reading shows an ancient depiction of a sullen Jesus, with eyes staring vacantly into the distance. His countenance overall appears disconnected and even bored, and the halo above his head seems to offer a holy excuse for Jesus’ implied passivity with humanity. This morning, my attention was drawn to the cover and I couldn’t help but wonder—is this really the Christ that we are to be imitating?

Today our group met up with the Holy Land Trust group and went to another protest. This time around was quite a bit more intense than the last protest we took part in. The Israeli soldiers lined the top of the wall high above us, and as soon as our group started marching towards the wall, even before we began yelling/chanting or anything, tear gas was immediately shot towards us. Some in the group got closer to the wall than others and were immediately immersed in the tear gas to the point that they couldn’t see and fell to the ground. Several olive trees caught on fire from the tear gas explosives. It was a scary and mind-boggling thing to experience/witness, and only became moreso when I saw a handicapped Palestinian in a wheelchair wheeling his way through the rocky terrain and the ashes of other olive trees that I’m sure he had witnessed the burning of. When I saw him, my heart went out to him and the people he represented with his extreme courage and perseverance. He did not go to throw stones, as some mistakenly believe is synonymous with being Palestinian. He, along with the other Palestinians who do this week after week, went with the full knowledge that they would once again experience the burning and choking sensation of tear gas, witness their land being burned and soldiers s with indifference, risk being put in prison or even their lives, and leave after all of this with the Wall still intact. However, the spot where we protested today has had the separation barrier pushed back quite a bit (I’m not good with distance, but it was a decent amount) simply due to the persistence of the Palestinians in making their voices heard. Little by little, it is doing something, and this brings cause for hope.

As I was taking all of this in, and pondering it afterwards, I thought of the typical Christian response and realized it just doesn’t cut it: “If Jesus were here…”—let’s re-phrase that, because he is here. He lives in each of us, and we are his ambassadors. Does Christ really look upon this conflict and the many other injustices in the world with that detached, “just leave it at the altar and pray the Rapture comes soon” look on his face, like on the cover of my book? I think not. There is a time and place to practice quiet reverance, to be sure, but sometimes the sacred is not found in church buildings, holy sites, or Scripture. If he walked into the Church of the Nativity or Holy Sepulchre, would we recognize him? Or would we back away, scared because he doesn’t fit in the pretty little box we’ve made for him and he doesn’t match all the portraits that the artists surely got right. The reverse of this should be true. We should be scared out of our minds if we ever dare to believe we fully understand God.

Sometimes the sacred is found in dirt. God created us with it, Jesus healed people with it and washed people of it. Sometimes it’s found in feasting and celebration…Jesus went to weddings and parties, often with some of the most disliked people in Israel. And, sometimes, the sacred is found in turning over tables and calling people out in their wrongdoing.

My personal depiction of Jesus on the cover of “The Imitation of Christ” would be of a really sweaty guy with kind of tangled hair and maybe a smudge of dirt on his shirt, with a smile on his face and ferocious love in his eyes, holding out his hand to you and saying “Follow me. Only don’t just follow, watching from a distance. Walk hand in hand with me, for I am with you. You don’t have to watch me from afar to figure me out. In the quiet, I am with you. In the refugee camp, I am with you. In a protest, I am with you. If you only remember this and talk to me, I will give you the love and grace for each moment.”

We don’t have to have it all figured out. We are imperfect, and God knows that we know not what we do. If I were God, I would think, “What fools these mere mortals be!” (shoutout to Shakespeare). But that is the amazing thing about God’s extravagence, is that he sees past the separation wall, past the uniform and kufia, past the guns and stones, sees only us standing stark naked with all our mistakes laid bare before him, and he points to you and says, “You. Yeah, you. I love you. Walk with me?”

I wish I could say that I’m gaining this kind of love, this love that leaves me speechless in its wake, but I’m not sure what I am feeling at the moment besides some sort of righteous anger at such injustice. But I can say that I am continually stepping back in awe of Christ’s redemptive love, and what that truly means. I have a whole new respect for people because I have been witnessing those who actually are imitating Christ, giving courage, love and peace a whole new meaning. Those words are easily defined in a dictionary, but not so easily discovered in this broken world.

In short, there is hope. A weird thing to say after seeing some pretty tough stuff over the last few weeks. But I think that we are capable of so much when faced with such situations. I have been challenged and inspired by people who, whether they meant to or not, whether they are even technically Christ-followers or not, have indeed been “imitators of Christ”, ambassadors of hope and love in a world that often seems devoid of such things.  And I believe that, in the end, love really does conquer all.

Sarina

The past weekend was full of new experiences for our group—some planned, some unexpected, and most of them somewhat peculiar. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve seen over the last few days: 

1. Hasidic Jewish protest. It’s around 5:00PM, and each of us have just given in to the temptation of slumber, provoked by the sauna typical of Israeli summers. A few minutes after drifting off, however, I awaken to the incessant chorus of what, in my dreamful state of mind, sounds like a very large and angry herd of sheep. My roommates and I stumble out to the courtyard of our guest-house to investigate, and find hundreds of Hasidic Jewish men and boys lining the streets in front of our house, yelling “Shabbat” (the Hebrew word for sabbath) over and over again and at varying levels. Some of them pace the sidewalk, muttering the word under their breath, while others march up to the Israeli policemen and scream it in their faces. When cars drive by, the Hasidic Jews swarm around the car, trying to open doors and pull the driver out. The young boys throw barriers in the street. Apparently this happens every Saturday evening, and last Saturday several people actually got arrested. We are planning on getting footage of it next weekend.

2. Feeding an Ibex. This was easily the highlight of my weekend. I know, it is an odd thing to be excited about. We happened upon a herd of about fifteen ibex on the cliffs of Ein Gedi. In case you aren’t aware what exactly an ibex is…it’s basically a little goat with big horns. Living up to my reputation in the group as a former goat owner, I crept up to the biggest ibex and held out a branch of leaves. He came up to me and I fed it. This caused Zach, Andrew, Taylor and me to chase ibex around the cliffs with branches for the next twenty minutes, trying to lure them over to us. Aside from being ibex-whisperers, we had a great time hiking around Ein Gedi (which is the place where David hid when he ran from Saul) and swimming in the small pools and waterfalls there. Ein Gedi is definitely one of my favorite places in Israel. 

3. Walking on Water. After Ein Gedi, we went across the road to the Dead Sea. Anna and I had been there before, but none of the rest of our group had been. The sensation of walking out into the water and just being lifted up is crazy and so against the ordinary.  Zach got some exercise in by running in place, Taylor learned that no matter how thirsty you are, a mouthful of salt water will not cut it, and Anna and I came up with the idea for a horror film about discovering something alive in the Dead Sea…think Jaws, Israeli version.  After floating around for awhile, we went to Jericho, rode a camel named Pistachio, and then back to Jerusalem.

4. Cockroaches…need I say more? We’ve had plenty of encounters with cockroaches at our residence over the past few weeks, complete with one scampering across the kitchen floor during dinner and another emerging from the bathroom right after I had taken a shower. But none of these former cockroaches had faced the terror that this cockroach today was privy to—Zach and his faithful weapon, a lighter. 

    Zach succeeded in burning part of the cockroach’s leg, but this only caused it to whirl under the couch and then into a crack in the wall, as Anna and I waited in the furthest corner possible for it to come out. Later, it came out onto the floor and I was hovering over it with a hardcover Left Behind book (disclaimer: this book belongs to the library at the guest house…I don’t believe any in our group likes or endorses these books), ready to finally bring this chase to an end. But apparently all of this non-violence stuff is getting to Zach, because at my opportune moment, he said, “Wait…it just wants to live!” And in my pause for thought, it flitted into another crack in the wall, never to be seen again…at least not that day.

5. Saying goodbye. Probably the least fun part of this weekend was saying goodbye to Jake and Annie, both of whom have added so much to our team throughout the past two weeks. They had to go back to the States early for a wedding, but we were so fortunate to have them with us for the time that they were. This project has been blessed with so much of their artistic expression and direction already. I look forward to the work that they will continue to do with us during the editing process of the film.

Peace and Love,

Sarina

We’ve been hard at work filming, meeting with people, and having a great time. It’s exciting how things are coming together a bit more each day and I can’t wait to get to the editing process in a few weeks and begin pulling the film together.

Here are a few behind the scenes photos from the past week! Check back for more photos soon and potentially a video update.

-Mandie

Elias, one of the characters in the film.

Sometimes Taylor and Jacob get really excited about their footage.

Making bread at the market. Or at least attempting to.

Zach has become a pro at making Arabic coffee. We drink lots of coffee.

Sarina has the best laugh.

Hard at work.

Filming in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Mohammed, another one of our characters.

Sometimes we just like the laugh and have fun.