Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This is a quick note to thank all of you who have played a role in my life this year, especially in my trip to Israel/Palestine this last summer. God has done much in my life, much thanks to you!
This last semester was a time of healing and redemption. My time in Israel/Palestine was one of the hardest experiences of my life, but God has brought great good and growth from it. Thanks to mentors and friends at Church of the Resurrection and at Wheaton I have been able to look back and process my experience. I am a different person because of it.

On a different and sadder note, I was chatting online with one of my Palestinian friends from the refugee camp where I stayed this summer and found out that two of my closest friends during my time there were arrested by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) this last month. They were cousins, both 19, who had just graduated from high school and had begun college. I spent many hours with them playing soccer, joking and messing around. One of them I interviewed (if you have heard one of my presentations he is the one I have recorded on tape). This hit me hard and brought it all close to home again. One of them had just had his brother come out of prison (after 2 1/2 years) while I was there. Now him. Why were they arrested? Who knows really. These kinds of arrests are daily occurrences in Gaza and the West Bank (click, for example, on the Palestinian News link on the right sidebard). Sometimes they are because someone threw a rock at a soldier, sometimes because someone went to a non-violent protests, often for no reason at all. Please pray for mercy for Moatez, Fadi and there families during this hard time and for a quick release. (click here for the press release of this: http://www.imemc.org/article/51786 )

Thank you again for your prayers, notes, and encouragements this last year. Blessings to you in this new year!

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