Follow-up to the Student Desert Encounter

An important aspect of the desert trip is when participants meet again for fellowship and various activities. Follow-up events include service projects, picnics, trips to places of hardship or trauma, and workshops.

Email Dialogue

The internet has become an unexpected medium of keeping up the interaction and relationships that began in the desert. The group was excited to get together because since the trip they had been in constant contact through email. The emails shared by most of the group have been encouraging, humorous, and touching. In recent weeks, some of the emails have dealt with more difficult issues regarding our current political situation. While the correspondence has not been easy, the following quote from one of the emails illustrates the spirit in which people have been communicating:

“I just wanted to say that I REALLY appreciated your honesty. I’m neither threatened nor offended. I probably disagree with a bunch of stuff you said, but other things made me want to learn more. And beyond a shadow of a doubt, your feelings of pain and suffering are all too real and undeniable. Yeshua come soon.”

Service Project

We also discussed options and possibilities for participating in a service project together. This project is an opportunity for our group to demonstrate to our communities the unity that is possible between Jewish and Arab believers through Jesus Christ. While we do not always agree, and many of us still experience frustrations because of our differences, we are still one family. Together we share a higher calling: to reach out to the people around us and offer them the love and peace of Jesus.

The group finally decided that our follow-up project would include a visit to a Messianic home for the elderly in Haifa, followed by a visit to an Arab hospital in Nazareth. Our goal in visiting these places is to offer support and encouragement through songs and testimonies to the sick and elderly in both the Arab and Jewish communities. In addition to these visits, each person in the group will ask his or her congregation to give a donation for needy families in the West Bank and Israel. The donations will be collected during our next meeting, and handed over to Musalaha for distribution to non-profit organizations that help those in need on both sides of the border.