"We are midwives of each others' hopes"

Journal of Day 8 by Bill Allen

Our day began at the guest house, where we have been staying since our arrival in Jerusalem, with the typical Middle Eastern breakfast that we have been sharing since our stay in Beirut. This includes such things as sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, cold cuts and cheeses, fava beans and pita bread, and always hard boiled eggs (they have added scrambled eggs here), coffee and fruit and lately sweet rolls.

Following breakfast we went over to the cathedral church and gathered around the baptistery, a marble edifice located at the entrance of the church and designed for immersion with a barrier between the officiating minister and the person being baptized, so the officiant need not get wet. Gathered there our chaplain of the day, Ken Moore led us in morning prayers.

Then we departed for our visit to Jalazone refugee camp in Ramallah. On the way we visited the impressive tomb of Yasser Arafat. At Jalazone we were greeted by our mission partners at the YWCA and they introduced us to their impressive work with children and women. They have a lively group of kindergarteners who entertained and amused us and won our hearts. They also have programs for women including a craft program. They were preparing beautiful items for sale at an upcoming Christmas fair.

We then went to visit a refugee woman whose 16 year old son was killed earlier this year in the hostilities of this region. Needless to say that was a touching and memorable moment.

We then went to visit mission partners at the Friends International Center in Ramallah (FICR) where we were treated to a delicious lunch and engaged in a stimulating and informative conversation with the leaders there who are truly remarkable individuals engaged in significant work centering on cultural and educational activities. (Quakers will always be engaged in education.)

The Friends Meeting House leader most recently participated in the writing of the “Charter for Compassion.” She provided us with numerous memorable thoughts and quotations including proposing that all of us need one another because we are “the midwives of each others’ hopes.”

Driving out of Ramallah we saw the headquarters of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the home of the prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority.

We drove on back to Jerusalem where we met with the impressive, vital and well-informed representatives of B’Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. This is an organization with which Global Ministries partners in some of its programs and we had a lively and far-ranging conversation.

Following this meeting we returned to the guest house for our regular debriefing followed by dinner and our last evening before our return home. It’s been another rich and full day and we are most grateful to Global Ministries and our program leaders for making this pilgrimage possible.