Tag: Pilgrims of Ibillin

2019 Living Stones Pilgrimage Registration is open!

Join Pilgrims of Ibillin to meet today’s Peacemakers in 2019
in Palestine and Israel! View a sample itinerary.

Mar Elias High School English class, teacher, and pilgrimage guests
  • If you’re more interested in meeting people than exploring ancient ruins (though you’ll do both);
  • if you want to walk where Jesus walked but also meet descendants of his neighbors and relatives;
  • if you want behind-the-scenes exposure to the Israeli/Palestinian situation, beyond what you see in mainstream media coverage; PLEASE JOIN US!

Click here for full itinerary and registration information for May 13-26 trip,

and click here for October 15-28 info and registration. Register now for  Living Stones Pilgrimages.

This tour is active and strenuous, and the schedule keeps us busy. Participants should be comfortable walking on uneven walkways with lots of hills, sometimes for an hour or more. (Use of walking poles or canes is fine, but be prepared for a few times when rest stops might be an hour apart.)

Questions? Please email or call or text Joan Deming, the tour leader: jdeming7@gmail.com or 608-235-1046.

Ted & Jane Settle’s Christmas Greetings from Ibillin

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas from Ted and Jane Settle
Merry Christmas from Ted and Jane Settle

From the Land Where The Three Abrahamic Faiths Meet

At full moon, in late October – it’s colder now –we went to the roof of the Mariam Bawardi Elementary School and took this picture with the Church of the Sermon of the Mount in the background.   The church is part of the campus of the Mar Elias Educational Institutions where we are volunteering, through Pilgrims of Ibillin, for the school year.  When you have time, please check out our blog for updates on our activities, complete with pictures.

http://photographicodysseyii.wordpress.com

It is easy just to give Christmas greetings and act as if all is ok.  In fact we know that it is not.   Recent events in the US and Gaza and ongoing events in other places, especially in Palestine/Israel, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan (add your own), remind us that peace and justice are not present in our experiences, and that the “fear not” extended to the shepherds in the fields in Beit Sahour is a most needed experience for us in our age.  Philosophers have categorized different ages in different ways; it seems our age is the “age of fear,” with its attendant building of walls and barriers, not bridges.  We echo the prayer of Walter Brueggemann (Prayers for a Privileged People):

You, you beyond the smell and the din and the smoke.
You, beyond our hopes and our hates.
You, our beginning before time, our end beyond time
Be present in ways we cannot imagine.
Be present –   save us from our power
save us from our violence,
save us from our fear and hatred,
save us as only you can do.
Save us as you have before saved us —
in love and power
in compassion and justice
in miracle and in waiting
Save us because we are your people
and because this is your world.

Viral Fundraising: Cutting the Dreds, Running the Race – for Peace

David Fainsilber's dredsFollowing his 2011-12 Hebrew College year in Israel, rabbinical student David Fainsilber committed himself to supporting grassroots organizations working for a non-violent resolution to the conflict in Israel and Palestine.  To fulfill this promise, on August 14th David launched a fundraising campaign: “Cutting the Dreds, Running the Race – for Peace.”  He’s working toward a goal of $3600 to benefit Mar Elias Educational Institutions this fall.  Thanks, David!

Why?  David was inspired to visit Mar Elias after his Boston-based group of students spent an electrifying hour with Archbishop Elias Chacour during their year of studies in Haifa.  Abuna’s story of Building Peace on Desktops made David eager to see the school and meet the people. Once in Ibillin, a conversation with Elias Abu Ghanima, Mar Elias’ spokesperson, sealed David’s commitment to work after he returned home to support this school where the dream of overcoming differences and finding a neighbor in “the Other” is lived out every day.

As a result:  On September 1, 2012, David will run his first ever competitive race in the Lake George Triathlon (upstate NY) to raise funds and awareness for Pilgrims of Ibillin in the USA and Peace it Together in Canada.  Both organizations support programs in Israel that bring young people together across religious lines to cultivate peace and mutual understanding. Later in September, he plans to cut his dreds, which have been 13 years in the making.

Want to know more about what David’s doing and why he’s doing it?  Check out his blog at http://www.twominutesiren.blogspot.ca.  Or read his story (and then make a donation) on his MEEI fundraising page.

Watch David’s video — and please respond generously!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdj4Plg0l98.

Hailing from Montreal, David Fainsilber currently lives with his wife, Alison, and toddler, Adar, in Jamaica Plain, MA, where he is entering his fourth year at Hebrew College’s rabbinical school. David has been involved in social justice and interfaith work for many years as a Kol Tzedek Voices of Justice Speaking Fellow for American Jewish World Service, and as a Spiritual Mentor at the Interfaith Youth Initiative. David has also served as a Hebrew College-Andover Newton CIRCLE Fellow, developing and implementing an Interfaith Hospitality initiative for seminarians of various faiths. Working in the Jewish community for more than a dozen years, David has led High Holiday services at Kolot Chayeinu in Brooklyn and MIT Hillel, and will bring in this coming year with Tufts Hillel. He is currently the rabbinic intern at Nehar Shalom, with a focus on community organizing and creating musical, soulful prayer experiences for the community.

Check out his fundraising site: https://bos.etapestry.com/fundraiser/PilgrimsofIbillin/cuttingthedreds_runningtherace-forpeace/.  Better yet, make a contribution! It will directly benefit the students of Mar Elias. Then invite your friends and family, through emails or your own social networks, to join you in supporting this worthy cause!

We’ll keep updating David’s results through comments on this page. So come back often!

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