Ahlan wa Sahlan

One of my best friends, Liz, and I have the same feelings about friends: we love it when they can come together and meet one another. We are happiest when we can gather all of those we love in one place for a time of friendship, food, and laughter. There have been so many times during the past nine months (what?! where has the time gone?) that I have thought, "How I wish so-and-so were here to experience this with me!" or been with a friend here and considered how a friend or family member back home would enjoy this person as much as I do.

This past Sunday (Pentecost Sunday, in fact), a bunch of people I love gathered for a BBQ. That's right, Alma (the other YAGM who volunteers at the school with me) and I planned a traditional BBQ! Of course, it was only a success because everyone came together and participated: some of the men grilled the meat (OH MY GOSH IT WAS SO GOOD!); myself and some of the women prepared the meat, putting it on kabobs and molding it into patties; some looked after the little children; some helped set up the tables; and everyone brought a dish to share (representing a family specialty or regional favorite). It was a great mix of people, of food, and of activities.

I'm so blessed to have the community I have here. It's not simply that I have people who I'm friends with because I'm here, but that I have deep relationships that have formed despite my only being here for a short time. These are people God has taught me so much through, and that I would choose to be with no matter if I was in the States or in the Middle East. These people are my family.


One of the first phrases I learned when I arrived in Jerusalem and Bethlehem was ahlan wa sahlan, which basically means "You are welcome". People would say it all the time, especially in the first few months. When you arrive somewhere or meet someone new- ahlan wa sahlan. Over time it grew to be a normal phrase without any special significance. "Welcome"- we can say it without actually feeling a deep sense of welcomingness, can't we? I know I have.

And yet reflecting on that word again now, it means so much more. Ahlan wa sahlan means more than a mere "hello" or "welcome"; it means "you are desired here", "you are a vital part of this community". Now, in my last months, I finally realize this. I finally feel this.

I think what changed this perspective for me was the BBQ, at the point when people started to arrive. It was a bunch of people I care about very much, all together and the only words that could sum up my delight in seeing them was ahlan wa sahlan, "You are desired here. You are a vital part of my life and this community. This time together would not be complete without you."

May we experience the warmth of the spirit of ahlan wa sahlan and share that love of God to all whom we encounter for either five minutes, ten months, three years, or forever.

Alma and I making the meat into patties to be grilled (irony being that Alma is a vegetarian :)

Plenty of help in the kitchen preparing the meat for the grill. 

Julie having a laugh as the grills get ready for some delicious pork and chicken kabobs.

I was greeted with a hug and an exclamation of "Oh! There's my other daughter!"

I was the designated meat pusher (every BBQ has one). People were going to finish that chicken, dang it!

A medley of foods from around the world. Everyone brought either a family specialty or a regional favorite. We had jello, pasta salads, tabouleh,  and much more than I can remember!

I have become known as the "Bacon Girl" this year, as everyone knows how much I love bacon. This has resulted in Pastor Imad always seeming to show up with bacon (thick grilled) whenever I am at a BBQ :) I'm spoiled...but I won't argue!

What better than some card games after you've finished eating?  First a friendly game of Uno...

Then a more intense game of Halli Galli, which is kind of (but not really) like Slap Jack... but with a bell... and way more concentration involved. It really gets your adrenaline pumping!
[Apparently a couple of us have gotten so good we can play with our eyes closed ;) ]

[Photos all by Alma Gast]

ELS Graduation

This past Saturday, the senior class from the Evangelical Lutheran School crossed the stage to collect their  high school diplomas! It was a beautiful afternoon to sit outside the school and hear speeches, songs, and congratulatory remarks for this new generation of graduates. Alma (the other YAGM I work with at ELS) and I enjoyed sitting with the teachers and watching as some of the students we had spent time with this year in English Club made the walk into the first stage of adulthood. It was really exciting!

Now, graduation here is nothing like what I experienced back in the States. Graduation here was Prom. All the girls wore beautiful ball gowns and the guys wore various "levels" of suits. Everyone had their hair either elegantly placed in a formal up-do, or at least sporting a fresh haircut. It was a lot of fun to see everyone all dressed up and ready to celebrate their accomplishments, 12 years in the making.

Now, the senior class has their governmental exams, known as Tawjihi. These exams are comprable to the SATs we take in the States, except passing Tawjihi determines whether or not you can continue on to university. In mid to late July their will receive their results in a day full of parades and celebration.

Wadi3, Jonathan, and Bayan, new graduates and former English Club members!

Bishop Munib Younan speaking to the graduates.

The ELS Dabke Folklore Dance Group performed for everyone and it was FABULOUS, as usual :)

Me, Wadi3, Ms. Suhair, Jonathan, Alma, and Bayan. You can see some of the girls ball gowns peeking out from underneath their graduation gowns.

Alma and I posed for a picture with the always dapper Salameh and Wadi3 (r-l). All the Bishara boys wore bow ties to graduation, and Wadi3 wore a full suit with tails!

Alma and I get ready to dance the night away at the Graduation after party!

"You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world." -Tom Brokaw

"Letter to a Young Activist" by Thomas Merton

From Thomas Merton's "Letter to a Young Activist", it's been really motivating and helpful to me as of late...

Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps the results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the truth of the work itself. And there, too, a great deal has to be gone through, as gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people. The range tends to narrow down, but it gets much more real. In the end it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything. 

...the big results are not in your hands or mine, but they suddenly happen and we can share in them, but there is no point in building our lives on this personal satisfaction, which may be denied us and which, after all, is not that important.  

The next step in the process is for you to see that your own thinking about what you are doing is crucially important. You are probably striving to build yourself and identity in your work, out of your work and your witness. You are using it, so to speak, to protect yourself against nothingness, annihilation. That is not the right use of your work. All the good that you will do will come not from you, but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by God's love. Think on this more, and gradually you will be free from the need to prove yourself, and you can be more open to the power that will work through you without your knowing it. 

The great thing, after all, is to live, not to pour out your life in the service of a myth; and we can turn the best things into myths. If you can get free from the domination of causes and just serve Christ's truth, you will be able to do more and will be less crushed by the inevitable disappointments. Because I see nothing whatever in sight by much disappointment, frustration and confusion. 

The real hope, then, is not in something we think we can do, but in God who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. If we can do God's will, we will be helping in the process. But we will not necessarily know all about it beforehand...enough of this...at least is is a gesture...I will keep you in my prayers. All the best. In Christ, Tom.