Wrapping it up -- my last post on this blog

This will be my last post on this trip blog.  So here you get the bits and pieces and pictures that I want to share, even if they don’t hold together in some cohesive flow!

Banner on an apartment balcony in West Jerusalem

Barrier wall in East Jerusalem

Here’s one point I’ve been wanting to set forth.  Under international law, it is illegal for nations to carry out collective punishment.  This means that if there is a thief that lives in my city, my whole city cannot be punished.  And it means if the radical fringe in Palestine sets off a bomb or launches a rocket, the whole Palestinian people cannot be punished.  We don’t punish all Americans when a few American security contractors open fire unprovoked, killing innocent people at an intersection in Iraq.  We don’t try to wipe out all the citizens of Saudi Arabia because Osama Bin Ladin was a Saudi.  To punish people simply because they are of the same race or ethnic group as others who have committed violence is unjust; it is horrible racism.  Palestinians are daily the subject of collective punishment that violates international law and standards of fairness.

Near the village of At-Tuwani - Palestinian children daily walk to and from school with an Israeli military escort to protect them from settler attacks.

I was surprised to find that there is a strong and growing commitment to non-violent action among the Palestinians.  For those with whom I spoke, it was a strategic choice – they are convinced that it is the most effective way to bring about the desired outcomes.  For me, non-violence is a theological commitment – I believe Jesus calls his followers to non-violence, whether or not it is an effective strategy in the short-term (and it is effective more often than many will acknowledge).  On a strategic level, it doesn’t matter to me that our motivations differ -- I’m happy to join with anyone who embraces non-violence as the way to resist and confront human rights abuses.

Two Palestinian Muslims, an Orthodox Jew, and an international visitor, all desiring the just treatment of Palestinians

I am encouraged by Israeli and American Jews who are speaking out against unjust and cruel policies of the Israeli government.  This helps immensely, since these people, being Jewish, cannot be shut down with the charge of anti-Semitism.  Anti-Semitism is an evil that must be challenged at every turn.  To critique the Israeli government and the many individuals who support the anti-Palestinian policies and actions of the Israeli government does not constitute anti-Semitism.  I’ve talked throughout these blogs about different Jews I had the privilege of meeting who no longer buy into the official narrative of the Israeli government.  Some have organized into groups such as Breaking the Silence, Rabbis for Human Rights, the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, Women in Black (Israel) , and Dukium.

In the U.S., blind support of Israel is not a partisan issue – both Democrats and Republicans are equally eager to support Israel to the tune of $3 billion per year.  When the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke to the U.S. Congress a couple weeks ago while I was in Israel, he received 29 standing ovations during his speech – all the members of congress present, both Democrats and Republicans, stood in approval of his policy statements.  Both Democrats and Republicans are turning a blind eye to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Jewish settlers may drive or walk on the left of the barrier on this street; Palestinians must walk on the right of it.  The West Bank is full of such segregated roads and highways.

            Many Palestinians are not fond of their own leadership.  In the conversations I had, Palestinians expressed little hope or trust in Mahmoud Abbas (the Palestinian president), Fatah (the main political party in the West Bank), or Hamas (the more militaristic political party that dominates Gaza, and  that has recently formed an uneasy coalition government with Fatah).  Where will strong, brave, trustworthy leadership come from for the Palestinians?

What is the solution to the situation in Israel and Palestine?  It has become clear to me on this trip that this is not a question for me to answer; the answer must come from the Palestinians and the Israelis.  But it is my place, and the place of the international community on every level, to push for some parameters to the answer: any solution must be fair to both sides; any solution must respect the dignity of people of all races; any solution must not be forced upon one side by the other side, and the answer must come soon -- the suffering inflicted by Israelis on Palestinians must stop.

Graffiti in a Palestinian refugee camp -- maybe one day the tables will turn!

One day a year a Palestinian farmer is allowed through this yellow gate in the Security Fence to harvest his olives on the other side.

I want to tell so many more of the stories we heard – of Palestinian children on their way to school having stones thrown at them by settlers, being called whores; of the 14-year-old Palestinian boy detained in an Israeli army jeep, slapped across the face every time his friends angrily threw stones at the jeep; of teen-aged Palestinian boys coerced into being informants for the Israeli army with the threat of photo-shopped pictures with them in sexually explicit situations being released to their community, something that would be incredibly shaming and humiliating; of the fig tree under which Palestinian children sought relief from the heat of the day on their walks to/from school – until one day settlers hid in the tree and jumped down on the children seeking shade; of children waking up in the night screaming with nightmares; of the security wall stealing land, cutting apart farms and families.  But I must bring this to a close for now, though I must not stop speaking.  To be silent would mean complicity – for me, and now, I’m afraid, for you.  I’m sorry – I did not warn you of the consequences for reading this blog.

            I’ll end with some ideas about what you can do to oppose injustice against Palestinians.

1.     Learn more about the situation and speak with others as you do so.  You do not have to become an expert before you begin talking about this.  If you learn just a bit here and there, the sadness and anger will sustain your resolve to speak out.  You might start by going to the websites of organizations listed above, or by  watching videos of settler violence against Palestinians on YouTube  

2.     For those of you from the U.S., write your members of congress and state strongly that you want the Israeli government to be held accountable for human rights abuses.  Tell your members of congress that you do not want them blindly supporting the Israeli government.

3.     Go on a trip with Christian Peacemaker Teams to get in the way of injustice, to see first-hand what is going on, and to support the longer-term CPTers  working there.

   

4.     Give money to groups that are doing good work on this issue.  You might consider the ones listed a couple paragraphs above.  Give money to friends who would be willing to go on a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation (like many of you did for me).

5.     Channel your anger and discomfort toward addressing injustice in your local community.

6.     Pray earnestly for peace, peace for both Palestinians and Israelis, a peace that is strong because it is built on justice.

I would be pessimistic, but I have two reasons not to be.  First, I met so many Palestinians who believe that a peace deal is reachable.  I met many Palestinians who refuse to be defined by bitterness, who choose not to hate, who choose hope.  If they can hold onto hope, I want to also.  Second, part of the Gospel message is that we are never without hope, that the God who raised Jesus from the dead can work again in  astounding and unexpected ways.

            Peace. Salaam.  Shalom.

Bedouins in the Negev

If a country decided to force all its Jews into towns constructed just for them, and demolished their original homes, and confiscated their land, I hope Israel would take a bold, determined stand against such gross injustice.  And I hope that I would be standing shoulder to shoulder with my Israeli brothers and sisters to fight (non-violently!) against the actions of that nation.

The Negev is the southern part of Israel

The Bedouins who live within Israel are experiencing this exact scenario.  Our group traveled to the Negev area in southern Israel where we had the opportunity to sit with Bedouins in their tents, drink tea, and hear their stories.  One of the biggest tragedies faced by Bedouins is that most of the world is blind to their existence and their plight.  One put it this way:

“The issue of Palestinians within Israel is less known than the issue of the Palestinians in the West Bank.  The issue of Bedouins in Israel is even less known than the issue of Palestinians in Israel.”

The Bedouins in Israel are Israeli citizens.  Haziz, our host at our first stop, pulls out his id card that attests to his citizenship.  About 150,000 Bedouins live in the Negev, a large section of southern Israel that has been part of Israel since the U.N. partition plan in 1947.

             But like Palestinians in Israel and in the West Bank, the Bedouins are being forced from their land by the Israeli government.  The government is trying to concentrate the Bedouins in several approved cities.  The dispersed villages where they have been living are “unrecognized villages” and are given no water or electricity and are all experiencing demolitions.

Haziz and part of his family in their tent/house.

Tea made the Bedouin way

            We sat with Haziz in a tent in the unrecognized village of Al Arakib.  As we drank tea, he told us that this village (once including stone/concrete structures, but now made up only of tents) has been demolished by the Israeli police 26 times in the last year.  Four days before we were there, 3 more houses had been destroyed by the government.  We saw the scraped ground where bulldozers pushed up rubble, much of which has been hauled away to remove evidence that a village was here.

Forest planted on Bedouin land by the JDF; bulldozer rubble in foreground

Haziz showed us where his family used to have 4500 35-year-old olive trees – all bulldozed.  On the land where productive olive trees used to grow, now non-fruit bearing trees have been planted by the JDF (Jewish Defense Fund) and the area has been declared a green zone – closed to agriculture.  An official sign identifies it as the "Ambassadors' Forest" named in honor of ambassadors from around the world who have contributed to this "greening" project, presumably with no knowledge of the back story.

Rubble of a demolished Bedouin home, built before the big tree was planted

Here is the rubble of a house in Wadi El Na’am, our next stop where we sat in the tent of a Bedouin named Abrahim.  The picture shows a tree standing, a tree that took years to grow.  The house was built before this tree was planted.  The house had been there a long time.  Now it is a pile of rubble, bulldozed by the Israeli police.  While in the West Bank it is the Israeli army that carries out house demolitions, here within Israel it is the Israeli police that do so.

            Abrahim describes how the Bedouins were moved to this land by the state in 1963, but in 1988 the state came to them and told them that they were invaders.  They have appealed their case in the court system.  In one high court, the judge asked them, “What was the name of the officer who transferred you to the land originally?”  The Bedouins answered, “We don’t know.  They just pointed guns to our heads so we came here.”  The Supreme Court eventually made a ruling that the 2 sides had three years to come up with an agreement, but for the next three years no one from the government talked to the Bedouins.  And the government continues to try to force the Bedouins off their land.

            Haziz asked us to do three things:

1)   Tell the JNF to stop taking over their land.

2)   Tell our people back home to come here to see Arabs, Jews, and Christians working together.

3)   Try to help with jobs.  If people can stay on the land, they can have olive trees and sheep.  But when they are forced off the land, some have to work in the Israeli factories in the area, dehumanizing work they do not want to do.  Many others are unemployed and can’t even get factory work.

Our guide for the day was a Jewish man named Amos who has been advocating for the Bedouins for a decade.  He and Haziz have become friends.  “How can I hate the Jews?” says Aziz.  “Amos is my friend.”

He takes us out and shows us the shoots of an olive tree, coming up through the bulldozed ground.  “If the trees refuse to die, I will not leave them.  I will not leave this land.”

Haziz and a shoot sprouting up from the roots of a bulldozed olive tree, with piles of rubble behind

Boring stuff on the Bible, history, war, politics, and the 2nd Coming

            There is much confusion or misinformation among U.S. Christians concerning what the Bible has to say about the Israel of that day and how this relates to the Israel of today (I’d be interested to hear how this plays out for my relatives and friends living in other parts of the world).  Here’s my best shot at a condensed response to this situation. 

            In the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, we read that God gave the land of Canaan to the people of Israel who had fled slavery in Egypt and had wandered in the desert for 40 years.  Does scripture see this as an exclusive claim?  Yes and no.  At some points in the OT, we get an exclusive view where the land is given to Israel and other nations will come and bow down to them or serve them (e.g., Nehemiah 2:19-20).  At other points we get an inclusive view where all nations will come together in Jerusalem to worship the one true God (e.g., Micah 4:2).

            In the New Testament, the thrust is inclusive.  Jesus extended his message beyond the people of Israel.  Non-Israelites were brought into the community of faith on equal footing.  In Ephesians we read that God tore down the dividing wall between Jews and Non-Jews. 

            There is also a shift in the understanding of who or what constitutes Israel.  The NT writers point to the church as the new Israel.  This subset of the old Israel was to carry on as the elect community that recognized Jesus as the Messiah.  This was a theological shift, not a political one – Rome didn’t recognize Christians as the new Israel.  A war broke out between Israel and Rome, and in 70 A.D. Jerusalem, the holy center of Israel, was conquered by the Romans and the temple was destroyed.

            Over the centuries, some Jews continued to live in the land, while many found homes in other parts of the world.

           In 1946, Jews in what is now Israel and Palestine made up 13% of the population and owned 5.6% of the land (see Stage 1 map below).  In 1947, following WWII, the U.N. came up with the idea of carving out a political entity from land that had been controlled for several decades by the British (who took it from the Ottoman Turk empire).  Jews from around the world were invited to sail to this new entity called Israel to live together (see Stage 2 map).  In 1948 the Jews in the land went to war and captured more land (see Stage 3 map).  Then in 1967, Israel launched another war against its neighbors and captured even more land – they basically took control of all the green area on the Stage 3 map.  This is the area today known as Palestine, the Occupied Territory, the West Bank (the land on the west bank of the Jordan; this doesn’t include the Gaza strip in the SW corner), or Israel, depending on who you talk to.  Since 1967, the land and Palestinian people in this area have not been independent, but they haven’t been made part of Israel, either.

both maps taken from from http://www.ccmep.org/delegations/maps/palestine.html

Another map of current conditions

            Now look at the Stage 4 map above and the map to the left..  Through building settlements and appropriating land through force,  Israel has gradually taken over more and more of the land within Palestine.  One of the many difficulties of Palestine formally becoming a nation is that the land it currently controls is so fragmented as currently constituted.

            So what does all this have to do with the biblical material I started with?  First, we have to be aware that the modern nation of Israel is not the same thing as ancient Israel.

            1)   The forms of government are very different.  Ancient Israel was administered by Jewish priests (and various outside powers, like the Romans).  Modern Israel has a parliamentary system and a prime minister.

           2)   The people of ancient Israel understood themselves as the people of God and sought to live according to God’s precepts.  Today, 50% of Israelis consider themselves non-religious.  The modern nation is not the same as the ancient people. Though there is a genetic, ethnic continuity between the Jews of ancient Israel and the Jews of today, for some Jews this includes a religious dimension, for others it does not.

          3)    It would be odd to identify a people (modern Israel) as the people of God when a good part of the people doesn't even believe that God exists.

Some Christians see the modern state of Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy that Israel will be re-constituted before the 2^nd Coming of Christ.  I don't see this in scripture.  For me as a Christian, if indeed this were to come about, this re-constitution would be focused on the church as the new Israel, not on a re-constitution of the ancient Israel (and even if this were to happen, for reasons set forth above, it would have to look different that the modern nation of Israel).  Also, if indeed God has in mind some re-constitution of Israel (as the church? as the ancient nation?), we cannot force God’s hand by trying to bring this about ourselves.  And if something like this is indeed to come about, the God of love, justice, and peace will not bring it about through the opposite of those characteristics: hatred, injustice, and violence.  We must reject the idea put forth by some Christians that we should all blindly support whatever Israel does because it is necessary for the 2nd Coming to occur.

Where does this leave the modern state of Israel?  I hope for the people of modern Israel that they will be able to live in a safe, peaceful land as good citizens in the circle of world nations.  The fact that the modern nation cannot be seen as the same thing as ancient Israel does not mean the modern state should not exist.  However, as a modern nation, Israel should be bound to international standards of human rights and humane treatment, not just for Jews, but for Palestinians, too.

Recommended books on the subject:  A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation by Naim Ateek; On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel’s Best Friend by Timothy Weber.

Home demolitions

Demolished Palestinian home in East Jerusalem

           A big issue for Palestinians living in Israel and the West Bank is that of home demolition.  I’m sure you’ve had friends who have had their houses demolished – it’s just like that here, too.  Ok, so maybe you don’t know anyone who has had their house demolished.  So here’s how it works.

            The most common situation we heard about: Palestinian families expand (they have more kids, their kids grow up, get married, and have kids) and people want to add a room or another house on the property.  But Israel almost never grants building permits to Palestinians.  So many people go ahead and build without permits in order to accommodate their living needs.  Then Israeli soldiers will come in and issue demolition orders, though they won’t necessarily act on them.  Sometimes they do, and sometimes they just sit on the orders and use them as threats.  When the Israeli government decides to carry out the demolition, the family might get 3 days warning that they have to move out.  Or it might be a ½ hour warning like it was for Zabaeda, a Palestinian farm woman who served us supper in her re-built farm house one night.  (In addition to demolishing their house, soldiers also beat her husband up on that occasion.)

All this fencing has been deemed illegal.  Demolition orders have been issued.

            We went to the farm of Dahair, a Palestinian who farms near Hebron.  A while back soldiers came to do an inspection and issued nine demolition orders on his place, for things ranging from buildings to tents to a fenced chicken run.  The reason he is being harassed is due to the location of his farm.  His family owns a big farm that is now right in the middle of four different Israeli settlements.  The settlements would love to take away his property bit by  bit, but because his ownership is so well documented, he has been able to fight it in courts up to this point.

            In East Jerusalem (the part of Jerusalem captured by Israel in the 1967 war), 22,000 houses (almost half of the total) have demolition orders issued on them.  There is no system to how the demolition orders are enforced.  An order might be acted on in a few months or years could go by with nothing happening.

            Our guide on our tour of East Jerusalem was a Jewish woman who is part of the Israeli Coalition Against Home Demolition, a group of Israelis who resist their government’s demolition of Palestinian houses in the Occupied Territories.  She told of one house where the owners were told that their house would be demolished in days so they had to move out, so they did.  But instead of demolishing the house, the Israeli government let settlers move in and take it over.

            If the government demolishes a house, the owner is billed for the demolition and for clearing the rubble.  Sometimes the owners are given the option of demolishing their homes themselves instead of paying the fees to the government.

In the U.S., our legal system certainly has its problems, but I think most of us would be outraged if our courts let this sort of thing happen.  The Israeli courts almost never intervene in these cases, and even when they do, the military may or may not obey the court ruling.  This happens all the time here, and only a small (but growing) number of Israelis finds this unjust.  I am not just telling you the occasional outrageous case – every Palestinian we have talked to had stories like these to tell.  Justice does not apply to Palestinians.

Bits and pieces

• An amazing thing I’ve learned on this trip is that there is a swelling movement for non-violent resistance among the Palestinians here in the Hebron/South Hebron Hills area.  I do not know what it is like in the rest of Palestine.   We have talked with many people who believe that non-violent resistance is their best hope.  Violence simply helps the Israelis to justify what they are doing here.

• We must remember that there are different types of Israeli settlers.  A settler is someone living on land occupied by Israel after the 1967 war, land that according to U.N. resolutions belongs to the Palestinians.  So all settlers are problematic by definition.  However, only a small minority of the settlers carry out violence and other daily/direct harassment against Palestinians. 

• By law, Israeli soldiers in the Occupied Territory are there to protect Jewish settlers.  By law they may try to intervene when settlers attack Palestinians, but by law the soldiers may not use force against the settlers.   The reality on the ground is that soldiers often stand by and watch as settlers harass Palestinians.  Sometimes they coordinate with settlers.  Settler activity we have heard about this week:
• Between Hami and his sister, they have had 7 cars completely burned by settlers.

• In the village of At-Tuwani , we drank tea with a man whose brother was riding a donkey right by the house we were sitting in when a settler attacked, stabbing the brother and the donkey multiple times.

• In the Old City of Hebron, settlers have taken over the 2^nd floor above several buildings, above Arab shops below.  Shop keepers have put up nets and pieces of sheet metal to try to protect against the garbage and water settlers occasionally throw down on them and customers.

Settlement housing above Palestinian shops, netting to protect from things thrown from above

• In Hebron there are about 450 settlers and about 1500 Israeli soldiers.

• Usually Palestinians do not bother to try to file charges against settlers because 95% of cases filed with the Israeli government by Palestinians are dismissed.

• The U.S. government gives Israel $3 billion annually.  As a U.S. citizen, I am therefore complicit in what goes on here

Soldiers, checkpoints, and oppression

Supper and conversation at Hami's house

            We ate supper tonight at Hami’s house, which is right next to a Jewish settlement.  To get there, we walked with him on a street past the settlement.  He was not sure we’d be able to go that way, but the soldiers let us pass.  There is a long way around we could have taken instead.

            When we went through one of the checkpoints, we saw a young Palestinian guy (19 yrs old?) crouching down and facing a stone wall across from the soldiers’ station.  He was being detained and was not allowed to face away.  We stopped to observe.  It was a bit testy.  The young man began to turn and the soldiers yelled at him to stay turned toward the wall.  He did, but turned again in a bit, and finally sat down half-turned.   

Soldiers/checkpoint to left, CPT members in middle, Palestinian detainee facing wall on right

This is how we find the Palestinian man,  just waiting to be told he can go.

The detainee turns a bit, and the soldiers yell at him to turn back to face the wall.

            Members in our group were asking the soldiers what he did wrong and how long they were going to hold him.  The soldiers were sarcastic – “we’ve held him 6 hours” said one, “no, seven hours” said another.  It is true that they do this sometimes, but the detainee said he’d been held about ½ hour.   The soldiers say that the man yelled insults at them, and that's why they are holding him.

            I had my camera out to take a picture of the soldiers -- something that's always iffy, but an important part of documenting human rights abuses.

            “No pictures!”

            “Why not?  Are you doing something wrong?,”  I say.

            “Yes, we’re doing something wrong,” the soldier replies sarcastically. 

            If he is, then the world needs to know about this. If he isn't, it shouldn't be a problem to have it documented.

            Here's a video another international group took of a man being detained at a check point.  You need to know that this is a daily occurrence for Palestinians -- this is not an isolated incident.  I've only been here a few days and I've have already seen this happen several times.

            Not all the Israeli soldiers are like this.  We’ve encountered a whole range.  Coming home tonight through a checkpoint the soldiers were friendly and laughing with each other.  Some are bored.  Some are happy to be here and see it as a high calling.  Some seem scared.  Some are indifferent.  Some will talk readily.  Some speak English, while others do not.  Some will speak with us, others won’t.  Some seem like they relish the power they have.  Others seem kind.

            These are not career soldiers.  These are young men doing their mandatory military service (3 years for men, 2 years for women – we don’t see many of the women soldiers here).  One states that he wants to be here.  One says he is just doing what he’s told to do.  One says he hopes he gets fired.  

Here’s a bit of that last conversation, which one of our team members had on the roof a couple nights ago with a soldier at a station on the next roof over (the soldier was bored out of his mind and talked with Marcus for a long time):

ARE YOU WITH CPT? the soldier asks

yes

DO YOU SMOKE?

yes

VIRGINIA TOBACCO?

Yep.  Do you want a cigarette?

I CAN’T. I WOULD BE FIRED… (long pause) …I’D DO ANYTHING TO GET FIRED.

 (Marcus cracks up!)

For more of that conversation, check out Marcus’s post on our team’s blog at http://cptdelegationmay11.wordpress.com/.  Marcus is hilarious and the conversation is quite entertaining!

A young man being detained at a checkpoint a few days ago.  When we first came upon him, the soldiers had ordered him to stand against a wall in the blazing sun.  A few minutes after we got there, they told him he could move to the shade.

            These checkpoints are a constant part of life for Palestinians here.  Palestinians can be pulled aside for no reason, and held for as long as the soldiers want to hold them.  This can be a few minutes, or it can be hours.  From what I've seen, 10-20 minutes is common.  I can understand the fury that burns in the stomachs of young Palestinian men.  Nothing justifies violence in my way of thinking, but I can understand why a person would respond violently to this type of constant harassment and humiliation.
             Back to tonight's encounter: one of the soldiers tells us that if we'll move on, he promises to let the guy go right away.  We move along.  When we pass back through the checkpoint later, the soldier tells us he kept his promise.  I hope so.

Justice, Peace, and the Gospel

            Scripture has a lot to say about God’s desire for justice and righteousness.  In the OT, the two words – justice and righteousness --  are often paired together and used somewhat interchangeably.  To be righteous requires that one lives justly, and to be just requires that one live righteously (in the best sense of that word, not in a warped, self-righteous sense). 

God’s concern for justice continues through the NT where we read of a God who cares about those who are poor.  In that context (and in our context too?), people were poor because those with more power and wealth took advantage of them, treated them unjustly.  Sort of like sharecroppers in the South years ago.  If a share cropper didn’t have a mule, the landlord would rent him a mule to plow with, but then the sharecropper would owe the landlord more of the crop.  Some sharecroppers maybe gradually got ahead.  But many went gradually deeper and deeper into debt so that they were essentially slaves again.  The “Haves” controlled the “Have Nots.”  That is not just.

            Christians are called to pursue God’s justice, to confront injustice both near and far, perpetrated by ourselves and perpetrated by others.  I see this as a crucial expression of the gospel.  Our words and actions should reveal the loving character of the God we serve.  Our words and deeds should proclaim the Good News.  This Good News is holistic and bridges time.  God cares about both our physical and non-physical well-being.  God cares about us here and now and in the age to come.  In fact, the age to come, the Kingdom of God, backs up into the present and begins now.  As Jesus said, “My kingdom is at hand.”

            Scripture also has some pretty specific things to say about making peace.  “Blessed are the peacemakers” for example. 

            These gospel themes of justice and peacemaking are why I’m here in the West Bank with a Christian Peacemaker Team delegation, seeking to work for God’s peace and God’s justice.  In other postings I’ve shared some stories about what we’re seeing, learning, and doing here; in this post I wanted to share some of the theological grounding that surrounds this endeavor.