Sabeel's Young Adult Conference

Just as a bit of context, and because I'm sure that the posts will get longer as the conference starts up, here is a bit of information about the conference itself.

Sabeel is an organization based in Jerusalem, but with "Friends of Sabeel" groups across the world. They say, about the conference:

Every year Sabeel holds an international young adult conference that brings together young Christians from around the world to be with us and engage with people of this land and learn about the realities of life under occupation. This conference continues to be a truly effective example of grass-roots education and a tool for developing Christian fellowship. It also provides participants a first-hand experience with the issues at the heart of the conflict and allows them the chance to reflect with one another in organized debriefing sessions and bible studies.

And that, in a nutshell, is a pretty good summary of what we did. Stay tuned for future posts that go into some of the details.

Day 3 (July 4) - A free day in Jerusalem

We owe a big thank you to The Presbyterian Church in Canada Youth in Mission participants who attended the Sabeel conference last year. They arrived the day that the conference started, functioned in a haze of jet lag for the first little bit and suggested that future attendees arrive the day before. This year, the PCC graciously sent us a day early so we had a bit of time to adjust (read: sleep). 

St. Andrew's Jerusalem

It also meant, though, that Janelle and I had a bit of free time in Jerusalem. Woot! First on our list: St. Andrew’s Jerusalem. Basically a little piece of Scotland set down near Jerusalem’s Old City. It also has a guest house and a lovely craft shop selling items made by Palestinian women. Quite cool.

frozen chocolate milk :)

Actually, to be completely honest, the first thing on our list was a bus tour of Jerusalem. But, despite directions from a helpful merchant in the Old City, we got a bit lost trying to find the bus stop and ended up missing the bus. So the walk to St. Andrew’s – and a stop for a cold drink at a nearby coffee shop – were good time fillers until the next bus was scheduled to come :).

the cool suspension bridge

And we did make it – the second time. It was neat to see the general lay out of the city and to get a glimpse of some of the landmarks – the Knesset (for the parliamentary nerds out there), the technological centre of the city, the walls and gates of the Old City, Yad Vashem (designed by Israeli-Canadian-American architect Moshe Safdie – who also designed Canada’s National Art Gallery), and a very cool suspension bridge for Jerusalem’s relatively new light rail system. (Take heart, Ottawans – some day!!) Unfortunately, we didn’t have a chance to go inside the Knesset or Yad Vashem or to ride the light rail… they are on the list for next time. But, during the bus tour’s lunch break, we visited bathrooms inside a grocery store that took the prize for worst bathrooms of the trip. So there was that.

The bus tour was also an interesting first glimpse at the competing histories of the city – the tour guide describing former villages as “abandoned,” and a lot of neighbourhoods being built up and/or populated in the late 1960s and early 1970s. We would hear other versions of these events later in our trip.

We met up with the Sabeel group for dinner that evening. Many countries represented, many reasons for making this trip to the Holy Land. The ice breaker was Pin the Tail on the Donkey (to go along with the conference’s theme: Challenging oppression on a donkey: Christ, resistance, and creative discipleship). We then broke into four separate groups that would serve as daily debriefing groups for the rest of the trip. I admit that games are not my favourite way to spend an evening (but I still participated!), so the ice cream we had during our debriefing group was much appreciated. Ice cream > games.

Days 1 and 2 (July 2-3): Leaving on a (few) jet plane(s)

I love airports. I really do. Which was a good thing for this trip - there was a lot of airport.

I left Ottawa early afternoon on Monday, July 2. I had a ride to the airport from my friend Susie, which was a lovely treat. Being carless, my options to get to the airport include a long-ish bus ride or an expensive cab ride... or an offer from a wonderful friend. And it is always nice to have someone take you to the airport. My luggage was checked through all the way to Israel - pretty amazing, thinking that you can go from Ottawa to Tel Aviv in a relatively short amount of time.

The most exciting thing about the short flight from Ottawa to Toronto was seeing the Peace Tower from the air, and a free glass of wine. Thank you, West Jet :).

I met up with my sister-in-law and travelling buddy Janelle at Toronto's Pearson Airport. We ate expensive, sub-par airport pizza and mocked an extremely expensive container of Skittles.

The flight to Heathrow Airport in London was also fairly uneventful, save for a few crying children. We didn't get much sleep, and thoughts of "What were we thinking?!?" were present as we rushed to find the gate for our flight to Tel Aviv. A six hour, overnight flight over the Atlantic and a time change of five hours will do that to you.

Somehow my ticket for our last flight was upgraded... this meant a little more leg room. That's it. Still screaming babies.

And finally we made it - late Tuesday afternoon, Tel Aviv time. At least that's what we were told - our bodies had no idea what time it was. But the tired apprehension of Heathrow had given way to excitement and a bit of nervousness (on my part, at least... Janelle is much more laid back than I am!).

We had been warned that Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv can be a bit of an experience in itself. We had all of our answers ready for their probing questions about why we wanted into the country, and when we finally got up to the desk... we were asked very few. What are you doing here, what holy sites are you visiting. Janelle got a few questions about her last name, and then we were through! No problem at all.

Our luggage made it too, and after a quick stop for water and chocolate, we found the shuttle bus to Jerusalem without any trouble. It deposited us at the New Gate of the Old City in Jerusalem, and from there was just a short walk to the Knight's Palace, where we would be staying for a few days. (Note: roller bags are not good on cobblestones.) After a quick email home to tell family that we had made it, and being quite proud of ourselves for making this far without any trouble, we ventured into the Old City for falafel and hummus. And then it was definitely time for bed.

Better late than never...

Most people who blog about trips do it while the trip is taking place. I did not do this (clearly). I wasn't planning on putting together a blog about my time in Palestine and Israel. I wasn't sure how good the internet connections would be throughout my trip, and, frankly, whether I would have enough energy at the end of the day to put my thoughts online. I also wasn't sure that I would have anything else to contribute to the myriad of conversations on trips to the Holy Land. People go on Christian pilgrimages all the time.

But now that I am home, I have had some time to reflect, and I think that a blog will be a good way to tell you of my travels, of what we saw and witnessed in the Holy Land. We did not travel as most people on Christian pilgrimages travel. We went to the holy places, yes, but we also got a taste of what daily life is like for Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians. We felt the presence of the spirit in many places over those two weeks.

So stay tuned... I will try to put an entry up every few days. I hope that I will be able to do justice to my experiences in Palestine and Israel - that you will be able to get a sense of what is happening in that land.

An explanation

The only other blog I have ever created was done when I lived in Malawi. So, to avoid creating a new blog every time I have an experience that is worth blogging about, this one is suitably generic to incorporate all sporadic blogging needs.

Posts over the next little bit will be about my recent trip to Palestine and Israel.