A dozen days discovering living stones

When our group of 15 travelers on May 20 flies across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean to the vibrant lands of Israel and Palestine, we will begin an exploration of people and places that contain the origins of Christianity and the realities of a conflicted world. We will see ancient holy sites and meet people on the front lines of creating hope in the midst of daily struggles.

The exploration will begin in Bethlehem, the city honored as the birthplace of Jesus. A gathering place there will be Christmas Lutheran Church, our partner church for Memorial United Church of Christ and the Southwest Wisconsin Association of the UCC. Our group will join people there in worship on Sunday morning, May 22, will tour the ancient church of the Nativity as well as the stark wall that isolates Bethlehem from Israel. We will meet with Rev. Mitri Raheb, the pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church and learn about the amazing ministries he has inspired there as they visit schools, a health and wellness center. We will tour a refugee camp in Bethlehem where generations have lived since Israel was formed out of the lands of Palestine in 1948.

Then we will head to Hebron, one of the flash points in clashes between Palestinians and Israeli settlers. It is the place honored as the burial place of the prophet Abraham, the patriarch of the three great faith traditions that live in this land.

On Wednesday we will be in Jerusalem, visiting sites in the Old City including a guided visit to the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa Mosque, the Western Wall of the old Temple and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Some in our group will visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, then meet late in the afternoon with Dalia Landau, one of the central characters in the powerful book, The Lemon Tree, that tells the story of the hopes and conflicts in Israel and Palestine through the stories of Dalia and an Arab man named Bashir.

As Thursday dawns, we'll head up to the Galilee region, stopping at the Jordan River, the Mount of the Beatitudes, the village of Capernaum and the site of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, ending the day with a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee. Later we'll visit Nazareth.

The next day, we will go back to the story of the divisions that tore apart communities as Israel was formed in 1948. We'll visit Biram, the home town of Archbiship Elias Chacour, where Arab Christians were driven out of their homes.

On Saturday in Jerusalem, we'll have breakfast with Nina Mayorek, a Jewish woman who goes to Israeli checkpoints to be a witness to what happens there. We'll go up the Mount of Olives and have dinner in Jerusalem before some of our group goes to the airport for a trip back home.

The rest of our group will go on to southern Israel across three deserts, seeing the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Masada and the Dead Sea itself, ending at Eilat at the southernmost tip of Israel. Then it's on to St. Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai in Egypt.

Back in Jerusalem at the end of the trip, we'll meet with representatives of Israeli groups working for justice and peace in this troubled land.

Stay tuned. There will be lots of good stories to tell.