Quickie Picture Meme

Cynthia at Reverend Mom tagged me on this one.

1. Grab the nearest book - no matter what it is. Textbook, novel, popup book, building code study guide, whatever.

2. Turn to page 25.

3. Read the 10th word on that page, or the following page if that one is blank.

4. Type the word into Google Image Search.

5. Post the third image.

6. Tag 4 people and tell them.

7. Link back to this post - which I do right here.

The book was The Little Critter Guides: Cats. The editor is Paul McGreevy. My word was Rex as in the cat breed Cornish Res.

Now I'm tagging Dina, Nan,. Ok, so I don't really know so many bloggers!

Culture Acuteness

I just entered the Twilight Zone. Or, maybe I left the Twilight Zone. Today is Sunday, or maybe Monday, I’m not sure. I look around an unfamiliar room and see my belongings and yet now my belongings seem out of place and unfamiliar to me. So it goes. I’ve arrived back in the United States and in particular in Connecticut, my home.

“Culture shock” is a phrase meaning that you’ve arrived in a new place so different from your reality that your entire body and mind are zapped, frozen, frightened, distressed because you are in a new culture. Well, I’m neither shocked or frozen or any of that. I prefer to think that I’m in “Culture Acuteness”. There are stark differences between Connecticut and Jerusalem. Lush and green not dry and brown. Thunder and lightning and not turquoise, sunny blue skies. Red brick and clapboard homes not Jerusalem stone apartments. Squirrels, not cats. And glorious lightening bugs. I’ve arrived home.

Totto, I knew that I wasn’t in Israel and the West Bank any longer when I was being driven by Connecticut Limo from JFK airport to Connecticut. There were three passengers including me. Tired and weary, all strangers we sat patiently as the driver readied himself to deliver us to our destinations. This was his maiden voyage. How do I know? First off he had directions hand written on notebook paper. Secondly, he smiled and asked if everyone was ok and ready to go. For a New Yorker that’s a little unusual. I wanted to yell, just get this blasted van moving I’ve been in transit almost 24 hours with the time change. But I didn’t. I wanted to make his first trip memorable.

I had glanced at his name tag as he turned around and smiled and his name was Nabil Akbar. To me he didn’t quite look Arab perhaps Indian. Shame. Who me? Racial profiling? Anyway, I knew that he was a Muslim because of the miniature Quran hanging from his rear view mirror like fuzzy dice. Our trip began. I was enjoying the beautiful green trees so full and abundant. I was thrilled to see the New York sky line from the Whitestone Bridge. I even enjoyed sitting in traffic because I could read the signs, they were in English! Then we approached the toll booth in Westchester.

We waited our turn in a lane and as we neared the booth, my stomach began to tighten. I thought, OMG, this guy is obviously going to delay my homecoming. We’re going to have to get out of the van, they’ll have to search the trunk, maybe even open our suitcases. He’ll have to show his ID card and we’ll have to pull out our passport. Really. I didn’t want to go through the humiliation for any of us in the van.

Nabil rolled the window down. He passed money to the toll taker. She took it without looking at him and we were on our way. WHAT????? She didn’t even look him directly in the eye. A soldier didn’t lean over with his rifle on his back and glare in at us. As we pulled away there were no soldiers standing there seeing us off. You see, we had simply passed through a toll booth and not a checkpoint. I was not suspect nor was the driver. I relaxed as did the muscles in my stomach, there’s no place like home.

I have moved back to the States now and will be searching for a Pastorate in the United Church of Christ. My sabbatical is nearly over but my thoughts and reflections are not. In fact, they will inform my life and ministry as long as my memory serves me. I still have stories to tell and photographs to post so I hope that you will continue to check in with me “From a Thin Place”. The next post in a day or two will be Nablus – Part 2, the Balata Refugee Camp.

God be with you till we meet again!

& Things!

Darajat Information

Tomer Cahana, a tour guide in the Negev, had a vision for the village of Darajat. They have done extraordinary things in the life of he village and he would like for Darajat and it's people to become a place where people, tourists, will visit. Several of the villagers have gone on to become tour guides themselves and bring tourists to the village. Tomer's hope is that through this program and others in Darajat that it will become a economically thriving village.



The 'summer school' which I attended was only the second time that such a program was held. Our experience was written about in Haaretz both in the English and Hebrew edition.

Sunrise over Darajat

Mah salaameh, Mah salaameh

Yusaf Islam aka Cat Stevens

Remember good old Cat Stevens? Morning Has Broken...Cat Stevens. Oh Very Young...Cat Stevens. Peace Train...Cat Stevens. Moonshadow...Cat Stevens? I could go on and on about Cat, if only I could remember more of the 70's and what I actually did!

I do remember the sinking feeling that I felt when I heard the news that Cat Stevens had converted to Islam. Of course then I didn't know anything about Islam, at all. It seemed foreign to me, somewhat exotic but it definately it was NOT Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. A few years passed. 35 give or take a few.

Yusaf Islam reenters my consiousness through a course that I'm taking at Hebrew University. The course is "Spreading Islamic Norms through Muhammad's Life Story". It's a great class taught by Dr. Ruth Roded who is a scholar from the Islamic Studies Department. On the first day she asked the seven of us in the class...who knows who Yusaf Islam is? I did, I did! I'm the oldest one in the class, my classmates weren't even walking the face of this earth back in the Cat Stevens days. Dr. Roded, feeling affirmed and I'm sure validated with my answer (she's my age) went on to play a You Tube clip of a popular song within Islam. This one was recorded by Yusaf himself.

Tala Al Badru Alayna have a listen to it, it's just over five minutes long. Some of the lyrics are below. The White Moon is Muhammad.

The White Moon has risen over us!

From the valleys of Wada

Oh we must be grateful, for the invitation of the preacher to [the way of] God

Oh You who have been sent to us,

You came with orders that [we have] obeyed [in advance]

You came and honoured this town

Welcome, oh greatest of preachers

Here are some other translated verses that Yusaf doesn't sing in English:

The clear light has come out

The light of the best of Messengers

The light of Security** and Peace

The light of Truth and Awareness of God has been truthful

[Muhammad PBUH is] a mercy to the worlds

So on Land there is a radiance and on the Sea there is a radiance..

A messenger which has come with the Truth

He speaks the guidance of the sky (God)

His talk is [so] proper,

It challenges the experts

It contains healing for the body

It contains medecine for the soul

He has come to us; the guide, and bringer of tidings,

The one who sets free the suffering captive

The guide of the wanderer if..He slows down [and listens]

His religion is truth, towering

His religion is a great posession

It is luxury in [this] world

And in the [next] life it is enjoyment.

Below are pictures of a man pausing from his work to offer midday prayers.

Allah Akbar

God is Great