Home...

Dear Family,

I am home, at last, and i feel, well i feel different. As i expected i would. I realize that many of you may or may not have had the chance to follow me on my journey, and those that did, probably expected the blogs to end when i returned, but i will continue to blog and post as long as i am here. I sense this is more than an experience through Palestine. I believe these blogs could become a means by which we grow, together, in our faith and relationships. So i must blog.

It feels funny, sitting in my chair, in my office, staring out the window, knowing that half way around this beautiful planet, we call home, is a place where people live in fear. It is Friday in Hebron, and the people will be protesting, more than likely, and that could mean so many things. It could mean a peaceful end to a day of giving voice to the injustice of the occupation, or it could end, like it did last Friday, in one young man losing his life, by the gun of an Israeli soldier. I am comfortable. Safe. Warm. And yet, i know that some of my friends do not live in that same reality. That's why i feel funny.

It raises a question, doesn't it? What now? What does one do with all the information, feelings, thoughts, and pain that one would feel after experiencing so much. Can i return to normalcy? Going to work. Writing sermons. Attending meetings. Leading youth group. Can i return to all those duties? Yes. And no.

Yes i will return to those duties. I will do my best to honor God's call and your trust and faith in me, but as Shakespeare said, "To thine ownself be true." I have to also be true to what God has brought me through, and that means, though i return to the duties of your pastor, i return with a new sense of humanity and justice. I am different. I have an appreciation for so many things, as an American, and yet, on the other hand, my heart also breaks for my friends and new family in Palestine. I am down from the mountain, and now i must tell their stories.

So i will. I will not only tell their stories; i will do my best to make sure they are never silenced, again. More than that, i recognize that i am culpable, as a member of God's created, to do what i can to ensure the people of Palestine can one day be free of the occupation. I must speak, because God showed me their pain, and i live in a country that affords me the freedom to speak. For me to remain silent, for me to return to my life, unchanged, or for me to forget and act like the journey never happened would dishonor God, dishonor those people, and dishonor life itself. I have done enough, in my life, to dishonor God and life and others, so maybe this is my chance at redemption.

So i must speak. I hope you will listen. Their stories are painful and they are true. I hope that we, each of us, can get beyond our preconceived ideas and ideologies, so that the truth, spoken and offered in love, will inform us and empower us to continue the work of Jesus: Simply, peacefully, and together. I know that you are all very busy, as most of us are, but we can still join together and do all we can to end the Israeli occupation. We desire peace, but as my professor of African and African View on Peace and Justice told us, "Without justice there will be no peace."

Peace is an aftereffect when everyone has what they need: water, shelter, food, and basic necessities. We can be there voice, so that no Palestinian children, ever again, have to know the pain of hunger, thirst, violence, hatred, or oppression. But it will take us, united, to make this possible. Will you join me? I am coming down from the mountain, and it is not my face that is aglow. No. It is my passion for justice, and may that light radiate to the darkest regions of our world. Amen.