"Inspiring, heartbreaking and eye opening." These are the three words Maddie used to describe our day to her mom while Skyping this evening (I overhead this through the thin wall-lining that shuts our bathroom off from our double twin-bed room; most people call this a door, but here it is not quite that). Inspiring, indeed. Heartbreaking, absolutely. Eye opening, no doubt. Today was heavy.
"Peacemaking was never intended to cease fire, rather to create a space where the kingdom can be fulfilled." - Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian
Today, January 27th, is National Holocaust Remembrance Day, and what better way to reflect on the Holocaust than to experience it through a visit to Yad VaSheem. We traveled to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem with warnings that this would be a lot to process. It was advised that we do so alone with our headsets, and notebooks, with the intention of seeking to understand rather than being understood. The 15 massive tour groups prevented just that. A rush of people from all over the world surrounded us as we tried to get started. For some this caused a bit of a rush in the early exhibits, for others a patience waiting for groups to pass. As we walked through the museum we read stories of the German leaders, heard the pain of the Jews who were oppressed and saw through writing the suffering of mothers separated from their children. For many, indescribable emotions surfaced at unpredictable times. A story in our history of brilliant evil.
We ate lunch in the basement of the Yad VaSheem and called into question the reason for memorializing pain. Is it simply to justify the actions we are taking? Do we do it to honor and remember the lives lost? Are we attempting to find ways to prevent history from repeating itself?
We then traveled into West Bank where we met with Sami Awad and Shaul Judelman, who planted seeds to reflect on these questions through a different lens.
It was a moment of unity amidst conflict. Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian, and Shaul Judelman, a Jewish Peacemaking Settler, shared with us essential strategies behind peacemaking; the kind of peacemaking Jesus invited us into. "Loving your enemy means understanding your enemy. Celebrate with them their joys, and process with them their sorrows."
To wrap up our day, we ate dinner at "the best restaurant in the world," according to our fearless leader, Jer Swigart, not to be confused with Matt Moberg, who is just a leader and by no means fearless as made evident by his irrational convolution to the stray cat who joined us. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings...and how Debbie handles the increasing stress of what it means to be a "guest blogger."
Love peacefully,
Kate Mathison
"Peacemaking was never intended to cease fire, rather to create a space where the kingdom can be fulfilled." - Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian
Today, January 27th, is National Holocaust Remembrance Day, and what better way to reflect on the Holocaust than to experience it through a visit to Yad VaSheem. We traveled to the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem with warnings that this would be a lot to process. It was advised that we do so alone with our headsets, and notebooks, with the intention of seeking to understand rather than being understood. The 15 massive tour groups prevented just that. A rush of people from all over the world surrounded us as we tried to get started. For some this caused a bit of a rush in the early exhibits, for others a patience waiting for groups to pass. As we walked through the museum we read stories of the German leaders, heard the pain of the Jews who were oppressed and saw through writing the suffering of mothers separated from their children. For many, indescribable emotions surfaced at unpredictable times. A story in our history of brilliant evil.
We ate lunch in the basement of the Yad VaSheem and called into question the reason for memorializing pain. Is it simply to justify the actions we are taking? Do we do it to honor and remember the lives lost? Are we attempting to find ways to prevent history from repeating itself?
We then traveled into West Bank where we met with Sami Awad and Shaul Judelman, who planted seeds to reflect on these questions through a different lens.
It was a moment of unity amidst conflict. Sami Awad, a Palestinian Christian, and Shaul Judelman, a Jewish Peacemaking Settler, shared with us essential strategies behind peacemaking; the kind of peacemaking Jesus invited us into. "Loving your enemy means understanding your enemy. Celebrate with them their joys, and process with them their sorrows."
To wrap up our day, we ate dinner at "the best restaurant in the world," according to our fearless leader, Jer Swigart, not to be confused with Matt Moberg, who is just a leader and by no means fearless as made evident by his irrational convolution to the stray cat who joined us. Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings...and how Debbie handles the increasing stress of what it means to be a "guest blogger."
Love peacefully,
Kate Mathison
I'm kicking myself today over the fact that I didn't jump at the experience to do this with you. Your captions on photos on social media and your writings in these posts are so incredible and beautiful and make us feel just a small sense that we are with you - from the profound things that you are hearing to the truths revealed about Matt (I hate cats too), this is so so good. Thank you, Kate!
ReplyDelete(Please greet Jer for me and tell him that I do hope to join him in Israel someday! I want to learn what you're learning!)
Debbie - you can do it!