Month: January 2015

Meet the Living Stones of Israel/Palestine with Pilgrims of Ibillin!

Registration is open for two pilgrimages led by Pilgrims of Ibillin in 2015: 

If you’ve read Blood Brothers by Father Elias Chacour or followed the unique Mar Elias Schools he founded in Ibillin, Israel, don’t miss this opportunity!   For a study tour that’s more than a tourist experience of Israel/Palestine, please join us! Contact the tour leader at jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-241-9281. Click on either date for a full itinerary and registration information.

Pilgrimage Group after tree-planting at Mar Elias
Pilgrimage Group after tree-planting at Mar Elias

~Stay 4 nights in Ibillin on the campus of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions (located between Haifa, Akko, and Nazareth). Walk where Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, but get to know his brothers, sisters, and neighbors in today’s Galilee as well. Visit Abuna Chacour’s native village of Biram, and Jesus’ native “village” of Nazareth. Meet with Abuna if his schedule permits. Talk with students in Mar Elias classes and over meals together in the Guesthouse.

~ Share an overnight with a family in Zababdeh and visit upper West Bank programs (Canaan Fair Trade Olive Factory, St. George Melkite Church ministries in Zababdeh) and holy sites (Sebastia, Jacob’s Well, Church of the Ten Lepers).

~ Stay 6 nights in Bethlehem and visit sites in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, Hebron, and the Dead Sea. Meet leaders of Wi’am, the Diyar Consortium, B’Tselem, OCHA, ICAHD, and the Tent of Nations. Experience the Holy Land as “the Fifth Gospel.” Visit Ramle, meet Dalia Landau, co-founder, and leaders of The Open House in Ramle (story found in The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan).

~ Leave with new stories to share, realities to ponder, and Facebook friends to keep!

 Click here for a full brochure for May pilgrimage.  This pilgrimage will begin in Ibillin and end in Bethlehem.

Click here for a full brochure for October Pilgrimage.  The fall pilgrimage will begin in Bethlehem and end in Ibillin.

 

Oshkosh to Ibillin: Oh Freedom!

By John Hobbins, co-founder, International Book Club.

For a wonderful article about the January 7th Skype meeting of the Oshkosh and Ibillin Book Clubs, read this article from the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, written by Bethany Lerch, and Oshkosh native who has volunteered in Palestine.

Ten- and 11-year-olds in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and 15- to 18-year-olds in Ibillin, Israel read the same book in English, “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson, a piece of historical fiction that pivots on the difference between inner and outer freedom, and then skyped about it.

Isabel and Curzon, the main characters of the book, are slaves of African descent caught in the Revolutionary War in 1776 in New York City (a fifth of whose population was slave at the time),

IBC Ibillin - Mar Elias H.S. students 7 Jan 2015
IBC Ibillin – Mar Elias H.S. students 7 Jan 2015

Isabel and Curzon are strong-willed kids, brave as lions, the only truly free people in the narrative. Yet they are slaves, owned by other human beings, mistreated and abused.

“We identify with Isabel and Curzon,” many said, both in Oshkosh and Ibillin.

As Martin Luther affirmed, a truly free person is subject to none and yet is still able to be the most dutiful servant of all. A life of rigor and purpose hangs precisely in that balance.

From “Chains,” by Laurie Halse Anderson:

” You must find your road through the valley of darkness that will lead you to the river Jordan …. Everything that stands between you and freedom is the river Jordan.”

“Look at me,” he said. I bent down a little, bringing my face level with his. He tilted my chin to the side so he could examine the brand on my cheek. I tried to pull away, but he held fast.

“A scar is a sign of strength,” he said quietly. “The sign of a survivor.”

He leaned forward and lightly kissed my cheek, right on the branding mark. His lips felt like a tired butterfly that landed once, then fluttered away. I stepped back and touched the cheek. The men were returning to the barricades. Other servants had formed a line for the pump. Grandfather winked and handed me the buckets.

“Look hard for your river Jordan, my child. You’ll find it.”

“River Jordan is chilly and cold, Hallelujah / Chills the body but not the soul. Hallelujah.”
– Negro Spiritual

The reading program across continents is supported by Pilgrims of Ibillin, the Rotary clubs of Oshkosh, and the OASD (Oshkosh Area School District).