Month: July 2012

Zababdeh’s St. George Melkite Church Serves Children & Families

Fr. Firas Khoury Diab and his Melkite congregation in the upper West Bank village of Zababdeh have had a very busy couple of years!  Abuna’s passionate concern for “the Living Stones” of Zababdeh led him to expand his church’s activities beyond just meeting spiritual needs to create a Kindergarten and a new Community Park.

Pilgrims of Ibillin has been a partner of St. George’s Church since 2008, providing annual peace-making grants to help create jobs, build a new kindergarten building, and most recently, prepare for a new park for youth and families.

The new kindergarten (in its brand new building next to the church) serves Muslim and Christian children, age 1 month to 5 years. Two college graduates are employed as teachers. Enrollment numbers have been low in the first year, but Abuna expects more children to enroll when another school year opens. Very low tuition makes the kindergarten affordable but only covers part of the cost. Donations from international friends help, but kindergarten expenses are also supported by the sale of olive oil soap and olive wood products made by St. George’s church members. Note: if your church or group is interested in selling soap or olive-wood carvings to help with kindergarten expenses, contact Joan Deming for information: jdeming7@gmail.com

Abuna’s newest venture, Mar Elias Community Park, fulfills another dream of a safe place for parents to send their children when school’s out. Since Zababdeh has no public parks or recreation centers, the playground next to the church fills a community-wide need, especially for teens. Separate basketball and volleyball courts located in front of the church offer recreation options for teens, both boys and girls.  And indoors, a ping pong table and weight-lifting equipment are in almost constant use by neighboring youth.

Mar Elias Community Park will also be the location of a summer camp for about 100 youth in August 2012.  Abuna Firas and community leaders are working overtime this summer to plan activities and supervision so that the first ever summer camp for children and youth at St. George’s Melkite Church will be a rousing success.

For more information visit http://stgeorgeinzababdeh.com.

Top Projects for 2012

Wondering what your gifts can accomplish this year?

The “Wish List” from Mar Elias and our other partners is always greater than our resources, but these are projects where your giving in 2013 can truly make a difference:

  • Fitness Center Exercise Equipment. Pilgrims of Ibillin raised funds to renovate several rooms in the gymnasium so they could be opened as a community-oriented Fitness Center. The exercise rooms and new locker rooms are finished, thanks to $35,000 sent by Pilgrims of Ibillin donors in the past. However, until we can send an additional $30,000 for exercise equipment, the fitness center can’t open for public use. The leaders at MEEI place a very high priority on finishing this, both to enhance the Phy.Ed. program at MEEI and to build better relationships and give positive opportunities to community members.
  • Scholarships are always deeply needed. Already 65% of MEEI students need financial aid, even though tuition is very low for private schooling. Then in the last few months, Israel cut the subsidy they give private Christian schools by another 20%, meaning tuition will have to be raised again in 2012. We also give scholarship funds to The Open House in Ramle, The Friends Schools in Ramallah, and the Lutheran Schools in the West Bank.
  • The high school needs 60 new computers and monitors to upgrade the computer labs. The library also needs a new server and just two up-to-date computers. We had hoped to send money for these projects in 2011, but fell short of our goals, even though we had more individual donors and donations than ever before. The old computers can’t run updated software for science and tech classes, so we hope to meet this need soon.
  • SMARTboards for high school classrooms and the middle school science lab are on 2012’s priority list, along with training for teachers in using these critical new classroom tools.  So far Mar Elias only has 2 SMARTboards.  One is in the physics lab, and a physics teacher says he can now teach in one week a lesson that used to take a month to convey with older methods.

“We Belong to the Land” – A One Man Play

Shakespearean actor and writer Bruce G. Bradley has created a captivating adaptation of the book We Belong to the Land—the inspirational autobiography of Abuna Elias Chacour. Bradley has presented his 45-minute performance in Wisconsin, California, and Illinois, and is eager for more opportunities to share Abuna Chacour’s important story and vision. Bradley lives near Madison, WI.

With stunning accuracy, the actor “becomes” Archbishop Chacour as he tells about working for peace in Israel/Palestine over the past 45 years. Audiences hear how Abuna (“Father” in Arabic) Elias Chacour, against all odds, established the multi-cultural Mar Elias Educational Institutions in Ibillin, where Christians, Jews, Muslims and Druze are educated without regard to religion or ethnic background.

Proceeds from these dramatic performances will support the Mar Elias Schools, part of Archbishop Chacour‟s ongoing effort to “Build Peace on Desktops.” A time for questions will follow each performance. Interestingly, a few questions after every performance so far reveal that some in the audiencee forget that Bruce is an actor portraying Abuna Chacour. The questions are addressed as if to Abuna himself.

For further information, or to discuss sponsoring Bruce Bradley’s dramatic reading in your area, please call Joan Deming at 608-235-1046.

Ted & Jane Settle, Volunteers at Mar Elias

Ted and Jane Settle, volunteers from New Jersey, spent from November through January living at Mar Elias, and they blogged about their excellent adventures.

“One day in December we taught two senior English classes, helping students prepare for their important national English exams. Part of the exam requires students to engage in conversation, answering questions based on an essay they wrote earlier in the exam. To simulate this experience we used cards from “The Ungame” to elicit stories. Then we asked follow-up questions. Three students’ responses stood out:

  • One girl was asked to tell about something beautiful she had seen this week, and she said she could not. We asked about her bus ride to school every day, but this she said was just a bus ride.
  • Another student was asked about a special gift he had received, and he lit up as he described a shirt his father had given him with the name of his favorite soccer team on it. Of course we asked which soccer team this was—Spain’s team—and we talked back and forth about soccer.
  • A third student talked about his special gift; spending Christmas in Bethlehem with his family. (Understand that this is a Palestinian Israeli family going into the West Bank where Bethlehem is located, having to endure humiliation at the check point to get in and back out.)
  • The girl who had not been able to think of anything beautiful asked if she could tell about a meaningful gift instead. She described how, when she was 10, her mother gave her a special book of stories written in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. The book also gave her places on the pages on which she could draw.

Of all the students we have met, this last student’s English is the best. She speaks without an accent. In talking with her after class, we learned that she is also teaching herself Korean. Her choice of Korean is based on her listening to popular music from Korea. She helps us see again the range of interests and scholastic excellence typical of Mar Elias students.

During the morning break after class, the students invited us to share in a celebration for St. Barbara’s day. We were happy to join them and enjoyed a bowl of this holy day’s special food: boiled wheat mixed with fruits, nuts, and candies. A student’s mother had prepared a very large pot of the dish and it was the best we had tasted yet.”

~ Ted and Jane Settle, Volunteers from November 2011 through January 2012, Mar Elias Educational Institutions

Resources by & about Archbishop Elias Chacour

Hear Archbishop Chacour’s contribution to a panel at the Vatican in October 2010 on Preventing Conflict.
Click here to watch or download a podcast of Abuna’s lecture, “Unity within Diversity: Myth or Reality?” – part of Calvin College’s excellent January Series in Grand Rapids, MI, January 26, 2010.
“Making the Holy Land Holy,” a PBS episode of “Inner Compass,” features an interview from January 2010 with Archbishop Elias Chacour in Grand Rapids, MI. View it here, or download the podcast through the iTunes Store.
Watch YouTube video greetings from Four Mar Elias Seniors and one MEEI Graduate: hear their thoughts about school & the future.

View a 23-minute video about Abuna Chacour and the Schools he founded in Ibillin: “A Man of Galilee” on Vimeo.

Finally: have you read these books by or about Abuna Chacour?

  • Blood Brothers, by Elias Chacour with David Hazard, foreword by James A. Baker III
  • We Belong to the Land, by Elias Chacour with Mary E. Jensen
  • Blessed Are the Peacemakers, by Patricia Griggs with Elias Chacour (for middle school readers and above)

Download an order form here.