Dear all

Not ‘waiting for Christmas’ kind of waiting though it will soon be advent but the desperate, frightened, overwhelmingly emotional  kind of waiting.

I  managed to wait till I was walking down the hotel corridor to my bedroom before bursting into tears after Mother Maria from Bethany Community of Resurrection  dropped me off at our hotel behind St George’s Cathedral and next door go the American Colony Hotel (the one where Tony Blair plus bodyguards and secretaries etc  occupied the top floor for £2,000 per night! Yes I do mean night not week!)

After an amazing day, we came from Bethany the fast way on the Jewish-only road through the checkpoint having queued for 45 minutes just to get to the end of the busy main street to leave the town, bursting with men coming out of Friday prayer, women stopping to buy colourful veg like cauliflowers, peppers, oranges etc all coming from the nearby fruit basket of Jericho.

 We went on the fast road across the hill from Ma’le  Adumin which is the largest settlement on the West Bank with over 40,000 people living there from all round the world, on land that was farmed for generations by local Palestinian families who still hold the documents to their farmland.  At the checkpoint, soldiers stopped our van clearly marked as Christian School with the nervous young soldier looking terrified when he bent down to see a nun driving and a woman priest  passenger! No one wants a nervous soldier with their white-knuckle grip on the trigger! But he took our passports and walked away. Ten minutes passed then fifteen. He returns with a slightly older boy, strapped up with flak jacket, body armour, huge gun, beanie hat who asked the same questions : where are you from? Where is your passport and visa? Why are you going to Jerusalem? Then he walked away…….ten minutes, twenty minutes passed……..

When the soldier returned he muttered we had to go back, go away, you cannot go into Jerusalem etc etc…….’why?’ asks Mother Maria politely. Mumbles something. ‘Pardon? I don’t understand,’ says Mother m in three languages to which he shouts, waving his arms and gun, ‘Go away. Just go away!’ Mother M whips out a plastic- sleeved certificate from car side pocket, ‘This is a church car! Jesus car!’ which made me smile…..but soldier grabs the little flag beside the driving wheel which clearly shows an icon of Jesus …….’This is Jeeeesous?’ Well, an  icon of him…..and soldiers  both disappear again….ten, fifteen minutes they hide in their little shed at the checkpoint looking at the computer before  returning  triumphantly….’No, no, you cannot go through this checkpoint….go to Qualandia Checkpoint’ it’s an hour away…….

Then stroppy small girl soldier from the next lane shouts at our two, sounding truly miffed, walks over to our boys, snatches both passports, ‘Here!’ Takes us over two lanes of frustrated traffic and drivers to a dusty car park in middle of the five lane queue…’Here!’ she commands, with me worried she will take Mother M away or worst still …..me, locking me in the little box beside the road where they detain prisoners before taking them to prison and they disappear for weeks and months. Mother M had spent hours explaining how badly her teachers were treated at the checkpoints every day, when they left home at 6am to get to school for 7am but often it could be 10am or 11am. They are made to get out of the car, patted down by men soldiers who fondle everywhere and when one teacher tutted and said, ‘Do you have to?’ was countered by the boy soldier young enough to be her grandson spitting at her  ‘You say one word and I will shoot you in the head.’ This was uppermost in my mind at this point!

‘What is wrong? What shall I do?’ Asks Mother M reasonably. ‘Just go….go…go away. ‘ we scorch tyres across the last two lanes and drive off burning rubber the only sign Mother M truly upset and both of us close to tears. Silence in car for a long time till I pat her arm ‘Are you ok? ‘ I ask tentatively …….to which she replies ‘I shall never be ok’

These glorious girls are in the top class, vocal and highly articulate, studying for university because, they tell me sincerely, they will then have options and opportunities.
So I smile and ask if they want husbands and babies? Maybe but ‘we want an education first to show the world we can think and can help Palestine.’ Am impressed. Even more so when they ask if I know ‘The Matrix?’ But of course say I. ‘Take the red pill and you will see the world is not as you know it, Leo, or take the blue pill and you will go back to ordinary life.’ They applaud my knowledge! Mother M has started a film club to help them think creatively and in pictures, as well as a debating day when parents attend and can debate with them, which provoked strong reactions from some men when their daughters quietly and calmly decimated their arguments…….

Looking at the girls with glorious hair, own clothes since it’s a non uniform day being a Friday, with their bright smiles and  hopeful hearts despite all the restrictions and horror around, I ask if Mother M and the girls are safe behind the iron gates at school. She laughs : ‘even the youngest girls can climb the gates so soldiers …..yes..they’ll come and raid us at 3am especially after a military office rang and said they wanted drawings, maps, photos of the grounds outside and the rooms inside for soldiers to familiarise themselves with for when they have to come in the dark…..’ (This sounds cowardly but I am so glad I didn’t accept the invite to stay overnight but booked back into the same hotel here in Jerusalem.)

Most worrying is the news from Mother M’s latest meeting of all school principals when the nuns from Gaza said how scared they are that Hamas made them take hostages into the homes of Christian families, feed, clothe, protect them, so they are better fed than any family members. But they had a gun to their heads so what could those Christian families do?

And talk turned to Christians becoming targets of Israel and not being  the ‘buffer’ any longer between Muslims and Israel, disliked for how  they were caring for families, educating their children, showing love  and compassion. ‘Israel wants us to leave: the land, the caring for people especially poor families which usually means Muslims and Bedouin families and most of all, for us not to witness the daily  horrors they are subjected to…. ‘

So please pray for the struggling Christian community in Gaza and the West Bank…..pray for those in physical danger especially as it’s all around with a young man shot dead in his car at the checkpoint we were stuck at two days ago in Nablus.
Referring to Christians praying and speaking out, Neimoller said:

  ‘First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out
     because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the gypsies but I did not speak out
       because I was not a gypsy.
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out
        because I am not a Jew.
Then they came for me
         And there was no one left to speak out for me’

Photo below ……here is Rosa because her dad desperately  wanted a son but her mum said 4 girls was enough but yielded to have one last child and it was not a son but Rosa who is such a blessing to the whole family. She is in the splendid  kindergarten here so keep her face in mind when you are thanked for your donations!

May you be blessed as you find ways to speak out for justice, to pray for these girls and all who are educators and pray for Mother Maria who cares for 406 little and big girls who love her and see in her a very good role model!

The other film series which has gone down very well with the older girls is Lord of the Rings…….i know….big sigh! But Mother Maria quoted to me her favourite speech. Sam says to Frodo whose only mission is to carry the wretched ring and throw it into the fires of Mordor to destroy it since the ring corrupts all who touch it, ‘Mr Frodo I do not want to carry the ring nor want it for myself. That is your mission. But although I cannot carry the ring, I can carry you..’

We smile at one another, Mother Maria and I …..sisters in faith….sisters in the strength of the Lord….sisters over the decades ……sisters determined to keep going, relying on Christ to carry us. And one day, I pray, we shall see one another again….Inshallah… (If God wills it) even though it may be a long wait.

With my love and prayers to you in your journey of faith.
Nichola