That time we went to Israel!

Two weeks ago I got back from a trip to Israel. I went with my sister, Isabelle, and a youth worker from Nottingham called Ade and we were away for 18 days all told. We spent most of our time away in Nazareth helping at Christian Youth camps which was a lot of fun! One week we worked with 60 11-14 year olds, some of whom had good English but others felt too shy to talk unless we kept on trying! The teenagers on the second camp were 15-18 year olds and being that bit older had a really good understanding of the English language so for this reason I found the second camp a bit easier than the first. That being said, every child I spoke to had much better English than I do Arabic! 

We were there to support the Priests and families from the local area as well as to add our own flavour to the camps. We did this by teaching them some English songs, playing sport and going swimming with them, praying in groups and providing craft activities such as 1000s of loom bands to make into bracelets! All of which seemed to go down well with the adults and young people alike.

One of the first things you need to know about me is that I'm used to getting 7 and a half to 8 hours sleep a night, and I definitely function best when I have slept well. Needless to say 8 hours sleep a night was not my experience whilst staying in a hostel full of teenagers! I'd say that it probably took me over a week to get back to normal on the sleep front.

But despite the lack of sleep I, we, had an absolutely fantastic time. We also worked with three others from our diocese; Azaria, Michael and Bob who were just brilliant and made us feel so welcome when we arrived. The kids are cheeky, energetic, loud and really lovely. I have no doubt that all the young people we met will grow up to make a huge impact on their world, definitely for the better! The 'grown ups' that we worked with are also such inspirational people. Being Palestinian Christians living in the state of Israel means that their lives are not always easy or even pleasant. Yet their enthusiasm and generosity is absolutely infectious and I hope that I will never forget their passion for the Gospel in one of the most troubled parts of the planet.

We were in Israel for 2 weeks and 3 weekends. Quite unexpectedly we spent each weekend in a different area of the country site seeing! When we arrived we stayed in Jerusalem so took ourselves off to the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemene, the Garden Tomb, Via Dolorosa, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and got a taxi to Bethlehem! On the second weekend we visited Tiberius and sites on the sea of Galilee such as St Peter's Primacy, Mount of the Beatitudes and the Church of the Multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. We had paddle in the sea itself but unfortunately none of us managed to walk across to the other side! Finally just before leaving we saw more of Nazareth such as the Basilica above Mary's house and the festival for the assumption of Mary!

We were also able to spend a weekend in Shef'Amre which is a town with which our Parish at home is linked. We walked into the Church there, St Paul's, and I felt truly at home which was definitely helped by recognising some on the congregation who were in Ordsall to visit us just a few weeks earlier! All the congregation, those we already knew and those we didn't, made us feel so welcome. It is wonderful to see how much a Parish to Parish link can mean to people on other sides of the world. 

Over the past few years I have been very blessed by the support from All Hallows, Ordsall and the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham to go on a range of trips across the world. I'd just like to say how grateful I am for all of these experiences because I never get tired of seeing new places and how other people live, and it really does change the way that I see the world. 

If you get to chance to go and experience something new then I just have one word to say to you... GO! Even if it's scary and unknown, go.