CHRISTMAS

Hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas.

 Singing Christmas carols at Shepherd's Field.

Overlooking Bethlehem. :)

Separation wall and the Aida Refugee Camp

As they did last year, the holidays feel quite a bit different to me again this year. There is something so magical about singing Christmas hymns in church while overlooking views like this of the city of Jerusalem. Those kinds of memories will stay with me forever.

But there are also other memories about this place that will most likely haunt me - and I hope they do, because I never want to forget. On a recent trip to Bethlehem, I was able to learn more about the recent history of the sacred city. Most of the world imagines a small town 2,000 years ago that was the birthplace of Christ. I can only wish that its history would remain so simple and angelic. The separation wall that runs through Israel/Palestine has greatly divided the city of Bethlehem. It is now only 20% the size it used to be. As you can imagine, this unthinkable decrease in size has led to many homes lost and many jobs disappearing.

The wall as you enter Bethlehem from Jerusalem.

One of the many long, confusing walkways of the checkpoint.

Part of the wall from inside the West Bank. There is a lot of graffiti/art all over the wall. Often it is a chance for people imprisoned by this wall to have a voice. Some of the images can just break your heart.

Others make you laugh. :)

This is a home surrounded by the wall on THREE SIDES!

Can you imagine your neighborhood being whittled down to nothing and your house becoming surrounded by cement and barbed wire? When I try to imagine my childhood home this way, I literally feel like my heart will burst at the heartache these people have been through. The woman who owns this place fought the courts all the way to the highest court in order to keep her house. It was supposed to be one of the MANY lost to the Israeli side, but she won. Can you imagine this scene being evidence of your hard fought victory?

Near Bethlehem there is one of the many refugee camps in the West Bank. We visited Aida Refugee Camp, and it was an eye opening experience. Just miles away from where I currently live, this camp was developed after the war in 1948. Originally the homes would have been mere tents, but have since been replaced by homes made of mud and concrete. There are so many people that they have to keep building higher, becoming suffocatingly crowded.

Now pay attention. There are roughly 6,000 people living on about 6 acres, the majority being children. Again, I think of my childhood home. We were a family of 9 living on an acre. Compare that to 1,000 refugees living on each acre, and well, you can begin to imagine how these people live.

The entry to the camp.

The key symbolizes all the keys that these families had (and many still have) that belong to all the homes they lost. The arrow on top points to the words "Not for sale" as shown in the picture below. The lower arrow points to the area where the Palestinian people built a stage where the Pope was supposed to speak from on his recent visit to the area. The Palestinians had planned an elaborate program that included the children giving him gifts. It was an opportunity for the world to see the reality of the refugee camps, with the wall and watch tower leering in the background. But at the last minute, the Israeli government pulled the cord on those plans. They can't have everybody seeing what's actually going on, right?

A quote from Pope Benedict says it better than I ever could: "We cannot be silent when faced with images of immigration camps in numerous places in the world, of people forced into terrible situations in order to avoid even more terrible circumstances, leaving them in need of everything. Aren't those our brothers and sisters? Haven't their children come into the world like others, with a legitimate claim to happiness?"

Children swarmed the car, anxious for the opportunity to get their picture taken. They had been running around, playing on the trash filled streets with the wall in the background. :(

The following are pictures I took of the camp as we drove around. Keep in mind these are not back ally-ways. These are their streets - the only thing they can call a yard. The one school in the camp is run by UNICEF, and they keep their schoolyard open after hours because it is the only place where the kids can run and play without being in the streets.....

This picture makes me think of my sweet Jackson every time I look at it. It breaks my heart that he has no shoes on. :(

In 1948, the United Nations Resolution stated the refugees' right to return. But I can't imagine that ever happening. Meanwhile, the already high unemployment rate has only plummeted even further since the building of the separation wall. Many people have had to completely close down their shops, while others have lost employment that they used to have in Jerusalem, but they can no longer get there.

I understand some of the mentality of Israel building the wall. The Palestinians were acting out in violence, and the wall is supposedly deterring it. But there are a few holes in that approach. For one, they started building a separation fence around Gaza long before any of the terrorist attacks on Israel. Also, there are a lot of Palestinians on the Israeli side, and there are a lot of Israelis on the Palestinian side. So if someone wanted to act out in violence against Israelis, there's really nothing stopping them. I just can't help but think that the wall goes way beyond "protecting" people. I think it's PART of it, but it's not the whole of it.

Anyway, Middle East politics aside, we all obviously have so much to be grateful for. I know times are tough in the states right now. I know many people have lost their jobs and even their homes, but there is STILL so much to be grateful for. Our Father in Heaven and our Savior Jesus Christ have given us so much more than we deserve. I know that Christ lived and died for us, and he rose on the third day. The tomb is empty! I know that He lives and loves us. He gives us all that we have. Let us all show Him our gratitude this Christmas for His willingness to come to earth, be born in the most humble of circumstances, and suffer for our weaknesses. He is the Comforter, the Prince of Peace, the very reason for the season we are celebrating.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Bethlehem Videos

I had the opportunity to go to Bethlehem again this past Sunday. I know these are not the greatest quality videos (they seem to be even worse once I upload them to blogger), but I figure it gives you a better idea of something than just a still photo.

This first one is inside the Church of the Nativity which is a church built up on top of the stable/cave where Christ is thought to have been born...

This second one is of a Mosque across the plaza from Manger Square (the bldg straight ahead with the tower). They were playing the call to prayer, so I quickly turned on my video so you could hear what it's like...

More to come from my visit there.

(my apologies to Brooke who was an innocent bystander in the making of these videos)

The sweetest little girl

Tonight after Tom put Joni to bed, I went in there to check on her and I walked in on her saying a prayer.  She was kneeling down on her little Muslim prayer rug that a good friend gave her from the Old City.  When I realized what she was doing, I tucked back behind the door so she wouldn't hear or see me.  Soon Tom came also, and we listened to the sweetest little girl give the sweetest little prayer.  Here are several of the things she said, although I'm afraid I can't remember it all.....

Please, Father, bless my dad to work hard and earn lots of money at school (she's a little confused on that).


Please bless that I will be able to stop screaming at mom.  Please, please help me.  I don't want to scream anymore.  You have to trust me, and I will trust you if you help me.

And Father, please bless that I will be able to learn a lot at school and that my brain will learn Hebrew faster so I can be friends with all the kids, not just Batja.

Help me and Batja to practice Hebrew.  I will tell her the words I remember, and she will tell me the words she remembers.

Please bless that I will feel you, Father, while I'm at school, and also Jesus and all the angels.

Thank you for the good Spirit I feel everyday all the time.

Please, please, please help me have a good day tomorrow.  Help me walk right into school without fussing.  Please help me to not fuss all day tomorrow.  I want to make good choices soooooo bad.

Then as she crawled into bed and I came in to sit with her while she fell asleep, she turned to me and said, "I just felt Heavenly Father tell me thank you."

Before and After

The housing office surprised us recently by redoing our kitchen.  The following pictures don't do the nastiness justice...

This old kitchen wreaked of mold.  It was so old and rotten inside that there was a constant cockroach problem because there were so many places for them to come and go.  Several of the doors wouldn't shut, and the hinges were falling to pieces.  The worst was when we would have a plate of food on the counter, and an above cupboard door would be open or closed.  Rotten wood chips would fall into the food below.  The stove top was also so small that we couldn't quite put two pans next to each other because the burners were so close together.  We also had to light it every time we used it.

But all of that is just a memory....

5 YEARS?!?

JONI,

 You have been a special girl from the moment you were born.  Even though you came early, and the first several months were hard, you were a fighter.

Now you're a healthy, happy 5 year old who continues to amaze me every day.  I am proud of you for all the good decisions you make, for being brave enough to move to a foreign country, and even go to school surrounded by foreign language.

I love your infectious laugh and your tender heart.

No one in the world is quite like you.

Happy Birthday, girl.  I love you.

 

What we have been up to -- Jerusalem Center

 
Elder Holland and Elder Porter came.

There is nothing cooler than listening to an apostle speak in the Holy Land, overlooking the city where the first apostles once were.

 

The BYU-J students played Duck, Duck, Goose with my kids and made their day. (sorry about the horrible picture)

We also had a fantastic Halloween with good friends at the Center.  We decorated cookies, ate pizza, did a little parade through the cafeteria so the students could cheer and make the kids feel special, and of course some trick or treating to the senior couples and students' doors.  Joni and Jackson were the cutest Cinderella and biker dude you've ever seen.  Best Halloween ever.