Here in the Holy Land

Hey friends. Last week I published my first newsletter, but I am eager to share some of the ups and downs of my first official week of service here in the West Bank. And there have certainly been both ups and downs. First off, I want to say that no amount of orientation time, no matter how thorough, could have truly prepared me for this experience. And honestly, I wasn't really expecting it to... I knew this year would be hard in ways I wouldn't be able to anticipate. But I am beginning to see the reality that knowing  that something will be hard is very different from  experiencing  how hard it actually is. Before coming here, I knew that I would stand out, that it would be obvious that I was a foreigner in this land. But now I know the feeling of many strangers' eyes on me as I walk the streets I am hoping to soon call home. Before coming, I knew that I didn't speak (much) Arabic... but now I know the feeling of constantly struggling to both understand and be understo...

  MarHaba! Hello! And welcome to my first full newsletter. I am writing this from a cafe in Beit Jala at the end of my second week here in the Holy Land. Orientation has come to an end, and tomorrow I and the rest of my cohort will finally move in with our host families for the year.  For those reading who are not familiar with the Young Adults in Global Mission program, here is a brief overview: YAGM is a program within the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that sends out young adults aged 21-29 into different global communities to experience a year of accompaniment with their host communities. We are missionaries, but we are not evangelizing; rather, our focus is on accompanying and building relationships with the communities in which we have been placed. I have been placed with the cohort living in Jerusalem and the West Bank, a place of deep religious, cultural, and geopolitical significance.  The last two weeks of orientation have been so very full: full of new ...