Student Retreat in Haifa

How hard can it be to take a group of Palestinian students from Bethlehem to Haifa? Surely we only need to load up the bus, count people, weave our way through Jerusalem traffic, and set out on the Haifa highway.

This was the plan as the Musalaha staff sat down in our office sometime in July 1999, brainstorming and planning our upcoming programs. Rola Zaid had joined us from Haifa and her idea was to hold a meeting between a fellowship of university students in Haifa and students from the Bethlehem Bible College. It seemed easy enough, and really quite exciting, as she described her vision for the two groups to meet each other.

The first time Rola herself had visited Bethlehem was only a few weeks earlier, when she visited friends she had made on a Musalaha Desert Encounter. As an Arab living in Israel, even she had to overcome certain fears in order to cross the border between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. From these experiences the desire arose to bring together students from Bethlehem and Haifa.

We thought it best to begin the exchange by taking a group to Haifa; where a Christian hostel had graciously offered their facilities for the weekend. The occurrence of this retreat hinged on one major factor: the Palestinians receiving permission to leave the Palestinian Authority area and travel into Israel.

After several changes and holidays, we set a final date for October 29. October arrived, Rola and the office staff began concentrating on the details of the project. The food was arranged (delicious shwarma), the program created, leaders recruited, and people informed. Anticipation increased as we realized that this was finally going to happen.

Two weeks prior to the retreat, the list of Palestinians was sent to the Palestinian Authority so that they could give it to the Israeli authority in order to issue individual permits. A week passed and when we checked on the status of the application, there was no information. Monday and Tuesday before the trip on Friday, phone calls and visits were made again, and still we knew nothing. As we needed to inform the hostel that they could make other arrangements, on Wednesday the entire project was cancelled.

After months of planning, after some difficulties convincing people of the need for such a meeting, and after several dates had been set and moved, you can imagine the sense of disappointment felt by all who had played part in this process.

Early Thursday morning, a leader from Haifa called to see if he could help the situation. After making some additional inquiries, we only then learned that the requests were never passed on to the proper authorities. We began making rather frantic phone calls and faxes, essentially asking the authorities to cram a two-week process into one day. Five o’clock came and went, and still we were waiting. Finally, at 11:30 at night, Salim received phone call that the Palestinians had received the proper permission and were free to travel!

It is evident that God had many lessons to teach us from this process. It was good for us, who don’t normally experience the difficulties in our current political situation, to learn about some of the practical obstacles that many face.

Also it came clear that our human plans and agendas may fall to pieces, but His provision and plan is constant. When we finally made it to Haifa and all smilingly agreed that we had been part of a miracle, the retreat itself unfolded beautifully. The students, at first hesitant, were quickly swept into the evenings activities and enjoyed playing games, worshiping and praying together. Several shared their testimonies, and one Palestinian student, Rami,told us how he found God and was completely changed from a life of doing "very bad things." Rami continued to emphasize that God’s love extends to our brothers and sisters, of all nationalities and backgrounds.

One game we played perhaps offers a little bit of insight into our circumstances. It was a dramatic version of the old "Telephone" game, where a message is whispered from person to person. In this case, a short skit was acted and then reenacted by a second, third, and fourth pair. The game provided some side-splitting entertainment as what started as a man selling hotdogs and fainting, ended up as a bellydancer finding her true love and dying. As we have all come to understand, what we begin with, so carefully arranged, does not always turn out as planned. We are again reminded that God is faithful and full of grace, and our efforts can be transformed by his power.