I'm sitting on the sight of the roman encampment before their final assault on Jerusalem, smelling a bit more ripe then I ever like to smell (because every thing I own is packed for the 3rd time and I can't find my deodorant). Stephen and I are supposed to move AGAIN sometime soon but were having trouble extracting the key from the boyfriend of our friend whose house we are taking advantage of for the next month while she is in South Africa. At this point he is either willfully ignoring us or he has been sent at the last moment to Iraq by our friendly US government. He does something top secret for them.
I'm in a major transition now, not just as it relates to the place I lay my head every night but also as my life is saved and being saved. What I mean is that I am now embarking on a life of service in a community environment. I have been invited to join a small team of Christians who bring Arab children to Israel for open heart surgeries. The work is about reconciliation, promoting positive contacts between Arabs and Israelis. Christians are involved because of our task in this world to promote God's kingdom. "Your kingdom come, your will be done..." We take our inspiration from the Good Samaritan who did not pass by someone in life threatening need. And we direct our efforts toward the pursuit of peace here because of Jesus' blessing on the peacemakers. The work is inspiring and I am very excited about helping to grow this ministry over the next few years. In a certain sense we Christians are here to assist Israel to be a light to the nations.
The Non profit is called Shevet Achim. We find the children mostly through our network of doctors in the Middle East. We do all the logistical planning to help the children and their families come to Israel for the surgeries. We find the funding for the surgeries which Israeli doctors and hospitals have agreed to do at cost. (averaging $3500 each). And we host the families while the children our in the hospital. Check out the website if you have a chance.
Working with this group of people includes living with a number of them in community. Stephen and I will be moving into a house that is also the Shevet office. We'll post some pictures when we can. It is a building from the 1860's built originally for a Syrian Orthodox bishop. It has some wonderfully unique features including massive (20ft) domed ceilings. It than became the first children’s hospital in Jerusalem, a history that fits well with what Shevet does. We have our own space but it is linked to the living quarters of several other missionaries working on the Shevet team. I am looking forward to learning practical skills but most of all spiritual maturity from the other members of the Shevet ministry. They are all older than Stephen and I and many have aspects of spiritual maturity that I hope to learn from.
It will be a slowish transition into working there. Hopefully this week I will get a full job description and go on a few of the runs we make into the Palestinian territories to pick up children there. I'm going to try to be more faithful with updates since I should be sitting at a computer (with Internet Access!!!!) for several hours every day.
