Crazy

Tuesday, March 6 2012

            Today was one crazy and amazing day.  I did the kind of travel that a lot of travel bugs dream of: We (our little group of four pastors) took a rental car into the Judean Wilderness which was absolutely crazy looking.  This is the area where Jesus experienced his temptation before the start of his formal ministry.  Hills.  Desert.  Endless rocks.  Almost endless.  Don’t know how you walk into the middle of that and come back alive.  We drove to an ancient town called Taybeh – the last Christian town in the West Bank.  It’s 5000 years old and 2000 years ago Jesus and his disciples fled to Taybeh (John 11) after the Pharisees determined to kill Jesus upon the resurrection of Lazarus.  Once we made through the winding roads to the city, we met up with Maria whose husband runs the only brewery in Palestine.  He’s also the mayor of the town.  She gave us a tour of the brewery and we tasted lots of really good beer!  Then she took us on a tour of the town which ended up at a restaurant (Peter’s Restaurant) which they opened up just for us and put on a huge spread.  Crazy good food.  The restaurant is a renovated old stone house very much like the kind that people lived in during Jesus’ time.  It was an amazing site with spectacular views.  The sun was shining and we just sat on an open patio and enjoyed the meal and relaxed.  Absolutely out of this world!!

            Maria talked at length about the struggle to remain viable as village with the realities of Israeli occupation and new settlements popping up all the time.  There is a Jewish settlement visible from Taybeh.  There is 50% unemployment in Taybeh which is one of the reasons the brewery is located there.  They are doing whatever they can to stimulate economic activity.  It can be difficult to be successful with the realities of Israeli checkpoints.  For instance, Maria shared that her company’s delivery trucks have to make deliveries into Jerusalem using only certain military checkpoints.  This can add hours to delivery time depending on the destination.  To make matters worse, they are required to have a truck on the other side of the check point to complete the delivery.  This only adds to the cost of selling the beer and makes it much more difficult to compete.  As I listened to Maria, I was amazed at her focus on economic recovery and determination to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds.  Truly something.

            After our lunch in Taybeh, we made our back to Bethlehem for the start of the conference I’m attending called “Christ at the Check Point” (www.christatthecheckpoint.com).  Tonight was the opening ceremonies and the guests of honor where there to briefly speak.  The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, was chief among the dignitaries there and he spoke for at least a half an hour on the work of his administration to attain Palestinian statehood.  He was a very good speaker and obviously super intelligent.  At the end of his speech there was a three minute break and I really had to use the bathroom so I ran out.  As I was making my way back, I got stopped by the entourage of the Prime Minister.  I waited for them to pass but the Prime Minister stopped to shake my hand.  I was sort of surprised so didn’t know what to say except to say, “God bless you.”  Crazy.  Oh yeah and just for those who just thought of this – yes, I had washed my hands!!