“sAbBaTh sHaLoM” – a rEsTiNg dAy

I went with Emma to visit an Orthodox Jewish family and spend the Sabbath with them…It was an interesting experience…
The father of the family is a Rabi from Iraque, the mom is a Jew from Iran (interesting combination by itself) and they both met in Jerusalem… She’s quite a funny woman and we enjoyed a lot listening to her stories…
I don’t have many pictures because they are not allowed to use cameras and we wanted to respect the “rules” as much as possible ( we took this ones when the Sabbath was over)…
I have to confess that I did break the rules… I ripped my own toilet paper :-) … they are also not allowed to do that, so they have a bag of toilet paper already ripped in small pieces for the whole day… I thought that was too much for me :-)…
they "cannot" turn on and off the light, so they leave the toilet light on all the time as well… the kitchen light was always on too, because that ‘s what they do on a Sabbath, they eat and sleep… at some time some of them also read some scriptures, and that’s it… It’s a family day which is nice… they prepare all the food before hand… they also have big containers with hot water for tea because they "cannot" boil it…

So everything started when the sun set… me and Emma had to get a taxi coz the buses stop running after 5.30… actually most of the city literally stops… the streets become desert and most of the shops and businesses close…
The family knew we were not religious so they were explaining what to do and introducing us to their tradition…
The mom lit the little candles floating in a pot with oil and say some prayer, in Hebrew of course… then we go to wash our hands in a particular way… we start with the right hand, we fill a little pot and drop water in our hands for 3 times… then we go to dry our hands and say another prayer…
We all went to the table and at this time everyone was already anxious to start eating…
But before that, the father came and walked 2 times around the table giving the blessing for the Sabbath…after that they picked the bread and blessed it with another prayer…we all ate from that bread… Then he picked the wine and did the same … For me that was like "taking communion" with Christians, but yeh, Yeshua was a jew right? I would actually like to have those prayers in English because I guess I will understand better what Jesus meant by saying He is the bread and the wine… He was speaking to the jews...
Well, after that was just eating, speaking, eating, laughing, eating… and what else?! Oh yeh, eating :-) …and finally sleeping…
The next day we woke up and we kept the rhythm…eating, sleeping, eating, speaking, eating, playing, sleeping, eating… It’s not much more than that :-)…
Emma was actually really sick with a cold, so she took her Sabbath really seriously, she hardly left the room and I took her some food when she was awake…
Actually I broke another rule because I made some carrot syrup for her sore throat… In Sabbath we’re not allowed to create anything… Of course they didn’t even told me anything because they knew I was not religious, but they couldn’t do it… Emma even wondered what would that family do if she really needed a doctor or something :-)… without wanting to offend, but that´s how ridiculous traditions and religions become... when rules and dogma´s supercede love and care...

But I had great fun…I really enjoyed the family and the fellowship and I believe a resting day in the week is really necessary… I would just skip the extremes… but I believe it’s an healthy discipline we could all benefit from…

As the sun set on Saturday, they made the ending prayer and everything was allowed again… computer was on… one of the sons pulled out a cigarette… lights were switched on and off… we could take pictures…toilet paper was ripped… etc…
Well I was blessed …

Sabbath Shalom !!!

“sHaNa tOvA” – jEwIsH nEw yEaR…

After we finished the Sabbath with the Jewish family we went to meet our friends from the Convoy at the Zion Square in the centre of Jerusalem…Al and Tina were there as well (our rainbow mom and pop)…
That’s a hang out place for most Freaks and punks of the city…
The convoy would also leave the day after :-( …with Mathias, Till, Maren and Lyna, so it was also a time to hang out together and be with some of those we met during the time here… friends from the “tent of nations” project came, a guy who was at Ibrahim’s, as well as some of the rainbow people we met at the “Sulha” gathering…

The Jewish family told us also that on that day at the Zion square was the preparation for the Jewish New Year… they would meet there to pray and ask for forgiveness for their sins, as well as asking for blessings for the Year to come…
We were on the steps with all the freaks and punks when suddenly everything started to happen around us…
The police closed the square with security bars,
a car with disco lights also showed up and parked in the square… a table was brought up the steps we were on and some Rabis came along with some kind of prayer books on their hands and “kepas”(I’m not sure that’s the name of it or if it’s well written) to hand out to the people (men) who wanted to pray…”kepas” are the little kind of hats they put on their heads to remind them that God is above them (people have different explanations for that as well)…

So suddenly the Rabis started to pray out of that little book and everyone was joining and answering the prayers… we couldn’t understand a thing, but it was interesting…
and the most funny thing was that all the people in the square were actually facing us because we were seating on the steps, right behind the Rabis :-)…
And more interesting was to see the punks joinning the Rabis in prayer… some were a bit too drunk, but they seam to mean it… one of them (the one in the picture with ripped green jeans) was just telling us before that he didn’t believe in God and he was not happy… “all my friends have died” he said “some with Over dose, others in the war…”…
This went on for hours while we were there…
I still don’t know what was that all about and why we were right in the middle of it …

But well, we had a better and “lighter” experience on the day before New years Eve with some of our Rainbow friends…
We went through the Market and the streets singing, handing out flowers to people and say “Shana Tova” (Happy New Year) to everyone…
It was so great to see the serious people’s faces turning into smiles :-) …
And even this army guard put her flower in her uniform…

It was fun just to spread the Love and Joy in the city !!!
Be a blessing and being blessed !!!

Shana Tova !!!!


I also feel personally this is a time for new beginning for me, as I’m going to Portugal to start a community in the country side with new friends…
I’m really looking forward for that… I will write about it further on… I’m writing a lot already, and sorry for the long posts, but I don’t have much time on internet here…specially when I want to upload pictures… it takes ages !!! I wish I could do better writing too… Oh well , I hope you are enjoying to go on this trips with me :-)

PEACE

DeAd sEa …

I will not write much about it …just enjoy the pictures…I went with Judith and Emma to a place in the Dead Sea called Mezoqe Deragot… we met few people there…
we found some camps of people who spend some nights there…we enjoyed a natural “Jacuzi” in the sulphuric water springs , really fun, and also nice and cold :-)…

We didn’t found the real nice black mud, but we found some nice and fun clay :-)

And it was just super fun to laid in the dead sea… it’s really amazing how our body goes all up…it’s like being on a surf board, but without it :-)…

sEa oF gAliLeE…

We arrived at night with some people from the “Sulha” gathering… I didn’t really know where we were, only that we’ve passed Capernaum and Betsaida, and we were at the Sea of Galilee…
Even though we couldn’t see much in the night I kinda suspected that the beach was dirty… the smell was not one of the bests…As I woke up, these were my first pictures of the place…


I got really annoyed and sad… How could people just leave all this trash behind?!! How could people even enjoy the place with so much trash around?!! I was going for a walk to have my time alone with God, and all I could see was trash… I felt that was the kind of worship God wanted me to offer that morning… to clean the trash…
Of course I couldn’t clean the whole beach, but I wanted to do as much as I could…later on the day some of the others were collecting trash as well, and the father of one of the Israeli girls who live nearby, came with his car and took some of the trash out of there…


The girl who lives there said that unfortunately it’s everywhere like that, except the private beaches where you have to pay to get in (ridiculous)…
Inside me I was thinking what was that reflecting… maybe a lack of care from people for their own land… maybe a lack of self esteem…maybe a lack of a sense that that is theirs… I don’t know, God was speaking to me different things as I was picking up trash…
We spent the day there with our new friends from the “Sulha”, mostly “rainbow” people… The sea was amazing…well, it’s really a lake ☺…the water was excellent and we had lots of fun in the water…
it was the best place to be with such strong sun… we all tried to walk on the water, but it didn’t really work as well as Peter☺ah, ah, ah...

around 5pm a strong wind started to blow and the lake actually started to look like a sea…there were constant waves coming and going… big fun !!!
We had nice conversations with people there and the most impacting for me was with Asher, when he said that he was really impacted by our group…he said that, as we all came in the first time he felt something different in us…he got impressed by our unity and love… he also said we carried a “light” Spirit, because he usually feel a lot of “heaviness” in all the spiritual stuff here in Israel… he’s not religious himself, but the whole atmosphere here is …
he also said he was reading the New Testament and that we seamed like the first disciples of Christ… Wow, that was the best compliment we could hear !!!
I told him that was the whole idea of us travelling together… to be more like the early Christians, not religious, keeping the simplicity of being a family ☺, carrying God’s Love to others and serving those we can serve on the way…
In the evening we went to Jerusalem to our friend Ibrahim ☺, we were on the other side of Tiberias and we drove through the river Jordan Valley and entered through Jericho… Maren, Judith and Hanne took a bus because we couldn’t fit 9 of us in the “miracle” van…

tHe wAy tO “SuLhA” – pEaCe gAtHeRiNg

“Sulha” means “Reconciliation through forgiveness”, and that ‘s what this gatherings are all about … Ibrahim and Emma told us about it and we also heard a bit from 2 other women we met in another initiative for peace – a prayer walk in Jerusalem (here in the picture with Ibrahim in front of the “walling wall” – where he’s not allowed to come in because he’s an Arab Muslim, and he was dressed like one ☺)

These are all attempts to show others that peace is possible among Arabs and Israelis, Muslims, Christians and Jews, fellowship is possible, forgiveness is possible, reconciliation is possible, coexistence is possible… people want that, governments and other powers don´t...
So we head north for this gathering to have fellowship and see peace happening where recently war took place… Me, Emma, Judith, Maren and Lyna went first to meet with our Family in Afula who were just coming from Jordan…of course we spent some time with each other, specially hearing the stories of the convoy, and after having a meal together we went trying to find the place where the “Sulha” was taking place…they were somewhere around Haifa in a little Palestinian village called I’billin inhabited by Christians and Muslims …
After many calls and directions we finally arrived to the place…
We were amazed as we get in…we crossed a big open gate and we faced a real cool atmosphere…a circle of people talking, seated on the grass, some tents put up, other smaller circles of more intimate conversations, some around a “Nargila” (water pipe to smoke aromatic tobacco, typical from many Arabic countries), some people washing dishes, others making some tea, some one picking up some trash left on the floor, a lot of young people and some older…someone came to welcome us and make us comfortable, offering food, showing the toilet and showers and giving a bit of an introduction of what was going on…
Immediately all of us got into different conversations with different people…

Soon it was announced a “Dabka” dance workshop…this is the traditional Palestinian dance…some musicians got together with a darabuka (Arabic drum) and a flute, and there was one singer… they made us all give hands in a big circle and a guy in the middle started to instruct us into some steps… it was big fun… a bit difficult I would say…I only manage the easy ones… the dance gets really pretty and there was a big group of young Dabka dancers who were really good…
After that the Dabka group presented us how is the real dance… It’s quiet amazing, very beautiful and freeing … there’s one leader who holds a little rope and stays in the end of the circle (it’s an open circle) and all the others, boys and girls follow what he instructs…well, it’s pretty hard to try to describe it…
After that we just hanged out in small circles, chatting and singing some more songs…there was a guy from Argentina who played beautifully, with his heart and soul… beautiful people…
Next day they were going to a different village to do different things in the community… but before leaving we cooked together, made some more music and ate together…

Some of us went to a small river first and then we headed to the place the others were (north of Galilee Sea)…We went with the convoy van, so we had to go reeeealy slowly… when the road was straight we could go 60 Km/h, but up hill we would go maximum 20Km/h ☺… and we had to stop for half an hour to let the engine cool down, so it took us quiet a while to get there ☺ …they came from Germany with that... ah..

We arrived in the little village called Tuba I guess, and they were in a school just hanging out with kids or entertaining them with different games… we joined the fun ☺… I met some sweet little girls who taught me few games for me to play with them…

we tried to speak basic things like what’s your name and where are you from, but I’m totally new in Arabic, so it makes conversation hard… but kids go over language barriers quite easy ☺… they all want to check my piercings and tattoo, and often they try to ask why do I have all these things… I usually don’t have a great answer besides saying I like it… But they seam to like as well ☺ …
In the end, the kids from the Dabka dance also made their presentation and people just stayed around enjoying, dancing and clapping…
We spent more time with other kids around the van, which is quiet an attraction everywhere we go, and they all wanted to take pictures with my camera and Emma’s…
They were amazing… so sweet and loving…Emma could actually speak with them because she knows more Arabic, so that was good… and one of the girls was pretty good in English as well…They didn’t want us to leave ☹ and it was actually pretty hard in the end as more and more kids started to come and surround the van…

IN THE END WE COULD SAY ONE MORE TIME :

PEACE IS POSSIBLE !!!!

FiNalLy tHe fAmiLy gEtS tOgEtHeR…

Yes!!! Finally we all got together…One of the vans from the “Peace Convoy” arrived in Israel… After 6 weeks driving from Lunenburg, they arrived their proposed destiny…they also split from the other van as they had different destinies in mind…so 2 girls headed to Egypt and they came to Israel…
it really felt like a big explosion of Love when we all met… Emma couldn’t contain herself with so much Love ☺(typical)…she drove with the convoy from Lunenburg till Istanbul and left them only for a couple of weeks to meet us (me, Maren and Judith) in Jerusalem…
Now we also had one more member in the family, Lyna, the French girl that I mentioned in a previous post …she’s the one who wanted to be baptized the day the war with Lebanon ceased (another post)…
she’s an amazing person, we all love her so much !!! It seams like we know each other already for long time ☺… We’ve all been touched by her fresh and passionate love for Jesus☺…(here in the picture she is playing “Poi” while Israeli soldiers have a snack in the background…there was a lot of them in this bus station…we were only 60 Km from the Lebanon border where the main conflict took place)…


So now the “Miracle van” finally entered Israel…they thought they wouldn’t make it…they spent a whole day at the border being checked and asked for many papers and in the end their entry was denied…they couldn’t believe it…they needed another paper, so they went back to Jordan to solve the problem…they were facing Jericho from the mountains of Jordan, and they were not allowed to come in…after all this journey to reach Israel/Palestine they thought, for the first time, they might not make it…of course the goal was not the destiny itself, but still… after 3 days, after many calls and faxes, they got the paper they needed and they went to try again to get in…
Thank God they were allowed this time ☺

I really have to say that I admire them all a lot…Mathias, Jonathan and Hanne had all the work before the trip to get things going, getting a van, sharing with people and raising support … another guy also came with them, Till, also from Lunenburg…
These guys really stepped out in faith…they saw real miracles happening along the way, specially with the van which no one believes it came all the way from Germany ☺… they were blessed by many people along the way, and God provided financially for all the expenses they had along the way…
By the way, we’d appreciate your prayer on that, and maybe your contribution…They are praying to decide if they are taking the van back to Germany or if they will leave it here with someone who might need it…
If they decide to take to van back, they would go through Haifa, get a ferry to Greece, and from there to Lunenburg… And for that they will need around 2000 Euros, which they don’t have yet…so, any little donation will be welcomed ☺
So, if you’d like to help get in contact with Jonathan
Here are the details for donations as well:

IBAN and the Swift-Code for international transfers!
Account-owner : Clemens Rabe
German Account-No.: 145 099 901
International bank account no. (IBAN): DE94240900410145099901
German Institute-Code / BLZ: 240 900 41
International Institute-Code = SWIFT-Code: GENODEF1LUE
Institute: Volksbank Lüneburg

PEACE

P.S.- Ok, I couldn't post this on time because I'm not having much connection with internet...but just to let you know that there is 1400 Euros in the community bank account and that there are possibilities for the van to stay here...All good news !!!
Thanks to all who make this possible...and of course God who helps those who live for Peace and Justice...even little acts like this one :-) !!!
CHECK THE BLOG ON THIS TITLE !!!

vIsItiNg tHe bEdOuIns...

It’s pronounced “BEHD u ihnz”, they are Arab people who traditionally have been nomadic herders in the deserts of the Middle East. There are still approximately 1 million Bedouins, most of them are Muslims and speak some form of the Arabic language.
Ibrahim asked us if we’d like to go with him to visit the Bedouins, and of course we didn’t miss the opportunity…
First we went shopping…well, Ibrahim did, he just told us to wait in the car…suddenly we just see these guys coming with boxes of different food to put in the van…water melons, carrots, tomatoes, onions, bread, water, etc… the van was getting packet and packet, only place for us to seat ☺…in the back there was maybe 20 boxes of clothes that Ibrahim collected from some organization…
He does this once a week…and every week he goes to a different camp…we went on Friday, the Muslim “sabath”, or rest day, but Ibrahim doesn’t seam to care about that so much… “those are just human rules” he said…he sounded like Jesus to me ☺… He said he saves money as if he would buy a pack of cigarettes a day…and with that he buys food for a family of Bedouins every week☺
Everywhere Ibrahim goes he has to feed people, he loves that… even when he was in hospital doing exams, he manage to leave the hospital and set up a table with all sorts of food for the doctors who were examining him ☺ … believe me, I could share so many stories from Ibrahim ☺ He’s just amazing !!! it's hard not to have a good laugh with him :-)

We drove out of Jerusalem, crossed Bethany, and on the way to Jericho, on both sides of the road, we could see different camps where people seam to live…for me it looked pretty much like the gipsy camps we have in Portugal, but here they were in total dry and barren land…
It’s their lifestyle and the way they like to live, but laws and Governments tend to make this lifestyle more and more difficult, so now, their conditions are not so good…
Ibrahim asked the driver to stop in one of these camps and we unloaded the van…the Bedouin family were just watching and Ibrahim started to speak with them…
They were really thankful and hospitable and soon we were around their campfire having a nice cup of strong coffee and after some tea…Ibrahim would make questions to the guy who seamed to be the head of that family, and he would translate everything to us…

It’s really sad that soon they have to leave that place… even though it's “no man’s land” and doesn't seam to have much interest to anyone else…these Bedouins would be happy if they could only stay there, living in tents, having some water, electricity and being able to take their kids to a school...
the land they are on, they had it for one hundred years, but now they don't have any proof they own the land...Government laws...Israelis try to help them giving them new houses, but that's not really the way they want to live...they are helped in some ways by the Government, but they want them to live the way they want... (like gypsies in Portugal)

Ibrahim is sharing their needs with as many people as possible, and he would like to provide electricity, water and school to these people who just want to live life the way they are used to...Ibrahim's heart crys out for these people...
check Ibrahim's web site on this title to know more about it and how you could get involved...


We couldn't stay much as well, but I wish we could have stayed at least for one night :-) maybe other opportunity !!!

We went then to Jericho, just to get to know, and of course, to get more and more food…
for us and for the house ☺


We had to go through a "check point" because Jericho is not Israel but Palestine...
But I 'll share more about that later...

"PEACE CONVOY" REPORT

I BELIEVE THESE GROUP OF YOUNG PEOPLE ARE SAYING MORE TO THE WORLD THEN MANY WORDS CAN EXPRESS…
THEY ALL HAPPEN TO FOLLOW JESUS´s TEACHINGS, BUT THIS IS NOT ABOUT TELLING PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS, IS ABOUT BEING JESUS TO ALL PEOPLES AND SEING JESUS IN ALL PEOPLES ☺
AND THEY ARE DOING THAT BEAUTIFULLY !!!
THE E.MAIL IS LONG BUT TOTALLY WORTH TO READ IT...IT'S A GREAT INSIGHT ABOUT THE WHOLE SITUATION ON THE MIDDLE EAST...

PEACE

Baba
HERE GOES THEIR E.MAIL :
"
Hi Everybody :-)

Two days ago we finally reached Syria. The Convoy is crossing slowly the last distance to Israel/Pelestine because the heat is too much for our old cars and their engines and cooling systems...
Most of the time we drive in the night...
We are right now in Hama, a town between Aleppo and Damaskus.
We had little problems at the border, but God solved it very elegantly :-))
it took us only about 4 hours to cross the border, our cars inclusive. We saw quite a lot of people who must have stayed at the border since some days... The whole border looked like a huge camping place.
a turkish guy helped us to overcome the turkish border bureaucracy and showed us ways how to surround the difficult border points - he wanted 40 Euro for this job, but finally he was happy about the 10 Dollar (= 8-9 Euro) he received from us.
At the Syrian border we had little difficulties because we had not enough dollars, but some very nice guys helped us to get it done.

Syria is an amazing country. I think I never met people like the Syrian - they are very, very friendly - You know, not because of the money we (don't) have, but because of true love.
They helped us already quite a lot of times - for free...
Always inviting us for tea, quite a lot of contacts...
They have true love, without any prejudices, they 're giving everything they have.
During our trip across turkey, I thought this country must be the country with the most friendly people in the world - but now it seems to me that Syria has even more love.
The Arabic world is quite fantastic, friendly, coloured, miraculous...
...imagine, only one of thousand examples, yesterday our Ford Transit was not able to "climb" a hill, so we started to get off the car - and I couldn't believe what I saw... there were already at least 10 Syrian guys pushing the Ford - they recognized in seconds what happened with the Ford, and the whole community came to help us - faster than the German rescue service...
But...
there is another side, a side I find hard to understand, a dark side...
...deep hatred, deep fear...
Everywhere You see the picture of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbh-Allah (or Hisbollah, or however you pronounce it... - that means: God's Party). He is the most popular guy in Syria. A lot of people who helped us had the picture of him in their cars and houses and adored him because of his resistance against the "zionist-jewish world conspiracy".
He is more popular in Syria than all pop-stars together in the western countries. He is THE Heroe... Two french women told Anne, Stuffi and Ivonna that the international Jews are the biggest danger in the world and that is why they went with Hisbollah to Lebanon.

I think You know that I condemn all forms of Imperialism - especially western Imperialism - because I was born in the western hemisphere and want to see first of all our cultural sin, not the sins of the other cultures. I studied quite a lot of economics, geopolitics, geo-strategy and the long-term plans that are made in Washington, Berlin, London and Paris to strengthen western influence in the whole world. And the true reasons for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraque. The CIA-made destruction of the democracy in Iran in the early 1950’s and all this stuff.

The reason for Imperialism is fear - fear, that the opponent in the worldwide economic competition gets stronger and destroys my own economic existence - so everyone longs for total control...
So all big leaders in the world, George Bush, Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel... are led and driven by this fear - they are not free.
For sure I understand that the Arab people are full of hatred against western governments. We delivered colonialism and dictatorships instead of democracy - that's the truth. That's why the Islamists can increase their influence so very fast.

Western Christianity never brought love to the Muslim world - that is our fault to ask forgiveness for.
I also understand that the fact that 1000 Arab people (most of them civilians) were killed by the Israel Defense Forces increases the hatred.

I want to say "Sorry" to my Arab brothers.

But the anti-semitic propaganda in Syria is incredible.

I know all this types of antisemitic propaganda - for example that the holocaust is a lie, invented by the jewish world conspiracy, that the Jews are the most dangerous imperialists, that they are the puppet-masters of the U.S. and the world policy, of every war in the world...

I know this propaganda because 11 years ago I was strongly influenced by antisemitic Christians.
But I can't hear it anymore!!!!
All these are lies!!!!!!
And the jewish people are NOT guilty for western imperialism!!!! They were also victims!!!! And they didn't invade Palestine more than 100 years ago in order to drive away all Arabs!!! They wanted to live in peace TOGETHER WITH the Arabs!!!
But the prejudices between Jewish and Arabs grew and grew, especially Haj Amin al Husseini supported Hitler and killed all the Arabs who wanted to live in peace with the Jewish and started to spread prejudices against the Jewish in the 1930’s in order to increase his personal influence.
And now EVERYONE hates the other.
The Christian Western World and the Jewish are in fear against the Arabic world. They have strong prejudices against the Arabs. This is why they throw bombs and kill innocent people.
And the Arabs are in fear against the western world, thinking the puppet-masters of the western world are the Jews. For them the war against Israel will never stop, they told us. They will continue. Every Israeli attempt for peace is in their point of view a sign of Israel’s weakness.

BUT ALL OF THEM, ARABS, JEWS AND CHRISTIANS ARE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, created by God's amazing love...
I SWARE, THE ARABS ARE THE MOST FRIENDLY PEOPLE I EVER MET IN MY LIVE!!!!!!!!
SO LET'S OVERCOME OUR WESTERN PREJUDICES AGAINST THE ARABS, AND, OF COURSE, LET'S ALSO "FIGHT" AGAINST ANTISEMITISM!!!!
But how to "fight"???

Let's "fight" with God's amazing love, let's build bridges, let's bring peace,
Let's overcome prejudices and xenophobia!!!
LET US ASK FOR FORGIVENESS. Let's go to our Arab and Jewish sisters and brothers and ask for forgiveness for our western faults!

The last two days we stayed in Palmyra in the Syrian desert, 130 km away from Iraque. We were invited to a very nice Beduin family, sat together with them and had a good time. Another family joined us and we saw an old grandmother playing the drums very fast, very speedy....very funny :-)))
They asked us to sing some songs.
We sang our worship songs. I think they didn't understand the content of our songs, but it didnt matter.

Today we had a very good worship time, prayed for each other and felt spiritually refreshed. I think we all were totally down the last weeks. We always felt powerless and thought: God, does the convoy have a spiritual sense? We don't know, God... 
But this morning we got refreshed...
Thank You God!!!
And thank You for all support!
God bless You!!!

Jonathan
"

“Father Teresa of the Middle East” ☺

“Blessed are those who work for peace, for they will be called children of God” (Yeshua Messiah)
That’s what came to my mind as I met Ibrahim… a child of God…an amazing man…an inspiration, challenging and encouraging…
I could seat for hours hearing the countless stories of Ibrahim…stories of people who pass by… stories of his family…stories of his travellings …stories of wisdom…
He’s a small man, but with a huge huge heart ☺ …he’s hard on accepting compliments, but that’s what I see in him…a man after God’s heart… he recognizes that all the time, that it’s by God that he does all he does…
he also makes sure to say that if it wasn’t his wife’s support, he could never do everything he’s doing… he’s a gentleman as well…

It was not hard to find him…I just had the name of the place where he lives and his first name…a friend told me about him and told me he has an open house… so we went to that place to check it out…we were in a small park having a break and some lunch and I just went to a guy and asked if he knew Ibrahim… I didn’t know who was him at that time, so I had no idea if many people would know him or not … but they did, immediately they pointed out directions to his house…and so we went…we end up knowing after that 12000 people who live here are his relatives ☺


I felt welcomed as I came into the house… We met his wife first who told us to meet him on the 1st floor where he was…
He received us with a warm hug and soon we were seating, talking and having tea…
Ibrahim is a Palestinian Arab, a Muslim, whose family live for more then 1400 years in this land, now called “no man’s land” … because of that he has no citizenship, no passport, but still, he has been travelling all over the world speaking in many places about Peace being possible…for that he has to use some papers to replace a passport… in “no man’s land” people have no rights as any other human being on earth…
he has 2 sons in USA, and because they left for more than one year, they cannot come back anymore to live in their family’s land…they can only come to visit with a 3 month visa like any other tourist… “why?” I asked… he doesn’t know as well… Who can understand ?!!! Ibrahim stands for justice and peace, even when most of people have no hope on justice and peace…
Above all, he Loves people…he loves everyone and helps everyone who needs help, despite their nationality, their belief, their culture… everyone is a “neighbour” for him…
sometimes he even gets in trouble for that, but he doesn’t worry so much with troubles☺ He often uses this expression while sharing his stories : “ Life is beautiful”, “people are beautiful” … and he doesn’t seam to keep any anger or bitterness towards anyone… he just laughs of many situations… because many are really unbelievable…or just too ridiculous to be true…


In his OPEN HOUSE he hosts all sorts of people, young, old, all sorts of nationalities, all sorts of beliefs… because he believes we can all COEXIST without the need of hurting each other because of our differences… and he makes sure every one feels welcome and at home…
many times his opinion is asked by radios, Tv and newspapers…and his message remains the same : PEACE is possible by Loving one another…
When he was asked who wan in the late war in Lebanon, he simply answered: “No one wins in any war…besides the ones who makes business out of it… no one can give back to a mother her child who got killed…no one can give back to a wife her husband who got killed…”… and his speech goes on in a way that makes you wanna cry…he's also really worried and scared about the future in the Middle East, because of all these weapons that are being used.... they are terribly poisoned and soon people will have many sicknesses, like leuchemia and others... the air in the Middle East is being poisoned and no one talks about it !!!
He believes in Peace because Peace happens everyday in his house around his table…but unfortunately we don’t hear about this stories on our Tv’s, radios or newspapers…

he’s a wonderful cook as well…and an amazing host… he delights to see everyone around the table , eating and talking… and on this table are Jewish, Muslims and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians, and they all eat together, they get to know each other and many friendships are built around this table…and that’s the Message : PEACE IS POSSIBLE, when we all give a chance to know each other and realize we are all humans, we are all brothers and sisters in this world…
And on this table there’s LOVE… and that’s beautiful…yes, people are beautiful !!! Life is intended to be beautiful !!!
I could write so much more about this man … I feel so motivated, inspired and encouraged by him, but this is getting too long already so I’ll stop here…

Maybe you’ll meet him somewhere on this earth… maybe here, maybe in your country… he wants to go back in India to ride an Elephant ☺ because he missed that last time he was there…
And by the way, he liked to spend the night in the Metro station in Manhattan … someone invited him and offered him a room in a 5 start hotel to spend the night, but soon he got bored with the 4 walls around him…he just loves being with people, so he went to the Metro station nearby and spent the night speaking with homeless people, drug addicts and drunk people...
so you might be surprised if you meet him ☺

One thing I know, I will never forget this man…

PEACE
SALAAM
SHALOM
PAZ
(click on the tittle and check his web site and other peacemakers in Jerusalem)

I left this with him... I saw it in U2 last tour...Bono used this on a white cloth in his head...COEXIST !!!