a little update

well, we are back in the US for a while. we'll be here until feb. 13. it's been good to be here - we have gotten a ton of rest, had the opportunity to see some of our best friends, spend a lot of time with our families, eaten lots of good food. i (sarah) am not so ready to go back to palestine, but i guess i still have a little over a month to get there.

we did not do a good job about letting people know ahead of time when we would be here, so it's been more about visiting family. it's been so fun to see hiba play with her grandparents, aunts and uncles. i really hope that we will live close to them some day so she can do that more often.

we're traveling a lot while we're here. in 8 weeks, we will hit siloam, little rock, dallas, austin, indianapolis, and grand rapids. hiba is such a trooper, being drug around everywherre and meeting tons of new people. we hope that will continue. it's good to see people and catch up with friends. it's tireing, but completely worth it.

the situation in gaza has been on our mind a lot. we don't know anyone who lives there, but we have friends who have family there. it has been hard to be here with everything going on there. there isn't much else we could do if we were in bethlehem anyway. please pray that the killing will stop. pray for peace.

back in the motherland

we have arrived in the motherland. it's great to be here. my parents and rachel are loving hiba. i think they are also loving us, but mostly hiba. which is fine, because jason and i are getting a break.

let me tell you what i never want to do again - fly across the ocean with a child. unfortunately for me, we have to do it again in two months. i'm not counting down the days on that one. hiba was good - pleasant, happy, smiley, waving to everyone...just not sleeping. she slept for 1 hour out of 19. good times.

so, since we've been back in the motherland, i've enjoyed lots of dr. pepper, some cheddar cheese, a wonderful breakfast at cathy's corner, a yummy breakfast made by my dad, walmart, running (actually i didn't enjoy that, but i did go), and central heating. mexican food is on the menu tonight. bw3's will come soon.

Breaking News: Settlers Riot in Hebron

Yesterday, the Israeli military evicted a group of Jewish settlers from a home in Hebron. Both Palestinians and Israelis claim to own the house, and the supreme court in Israel had instructed that the settlers be evicted until the ownership claims could be settled. In response, groups of settlers have rampaged through Palestinian areas of Hebron. They have set homes and cars on fire, destroyed gravestones and defaced mosques, and fired guns indiscriminately into crowds of Palestinians.

Here is an account from the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Here is another one from Haaretz. (Nadia Matar is quoted in this article. She is one of the leaders of the movement to take over Oush Ghrab, where our climbing tower is located)

Here is an account from TIME. (Update: I just realized that the man in the middle of the picture accompanying this article was one of the settlers who attacked us during a prayer service a few months ago)

I don't know what else to say. Please pay attention.

Here is an editorial from Haaretz.

Please pray for everyone here - enemies and all. Pray the Palestinian families will be safe today. Pray that the settlers' hearts will turn towards love. Pray for the soldiers as they are attacked by people of their own country. Pray that God's love and peace will somehow reign in Hebron today.

An Open Letter to My Detaining Officer

If you are interested, please read an article I wrote for Burnside Writer's Blog. Check it out here. 

I am going to start writing for Burnside once a month, and I'll link to those articles from here. I'd love to hear your input and feedback on the stuff that I write. 

jason

Human Life-When does it matter?

 I found myself checking cnn.com during my lunch break today, in order to read about the results of the election last night, to see what people were saying in other parts of the world, and to feel connect to what is happening in the US right now. I imagine cnn had (and will continue to have) a huge amount of traffic today due to the election. While I was looking around, I noticed this headline. 

"Gaza Rocket Hits Israel Coastal City"

As I read the story that this headline led me to I learned a few things.

-At least 20 rockets had been fired into Israel from Gaza last night and today

-The Israel Air Force carried out a number of attacks in Gaza

-Six Palestinians were killed

Now, let's say that you were required to write a headline for an article that included these three pieces of information. What would matter the most to you? What would you include in the headline in order to get people's attention? Imagine the average reader of an American newspaper: what would get him or her to click on that story. Don't worry about what you think the write answer should be, think about what would catch the average person's attention.

Have you thought about it?

Now, pretend instead that 6 Israeli's were killed in the rocket attacks. What would you put in your headline now?