A Word on Service

Alright, so I have people asking me, "Why did you go to Bethlehem/Israel for 3 weeks?" Good question. When I get all the answers from Dean Culpepper, I'll let ya'll know! I mean, one minute I'm minding my own business, the next minute I'm on a plane to Tel Aviv. And he didn't even need a motivational speaker to get me on that plane either! Ok ok, I kid, I kid. But really, what are we doing over here in the first place?

The trip is arranged through my school, Mercer University, as a "mission trip" slash class. We do get credit hours for coming on this trip, but it is designed as a mission trip. So, we come here and we work on fixing local people's houses. Since Bethlehem is located in the Palestinian territory, which is completely surrounded by a wall, supplies are in short demand. Having a group of people come from America and help is a tremendous act of servitude. The people we have met are so very gracious and loving. We don't speak the same language (although I'm trying to learn Arabic), but there's no language like a good hug from someone who is so grateful that you are helping them paint, clean, and fix things.

I worked today in a little old lady's home fixing the walls. Her name is something I cannot pronounce, but she told us to call her Mary (not to be confused with this little old lady...). One side of the house's walls are completely covered in mildew/mold, and it appears to have been there for a long time, so it's quite obvious she needs the help. We managed to clean the walls and repair the walls where the walls were cracking because of the house settling. She was so grateful to us that she really didn't know what to do, other than saying "Thank you Jesus!" and "shookrun," which is Arabic for thank you. She was so sweet to us! She didn't really know what to do in order to properly thank us, so she kept bringing us drinks all day long! And of course, culturally, you don't refuse a gift, so we drank and drank and drank! I am chock full of powdered lemonade drink! I might even turn into a lemon.

The one thing that struck me about today is that I never thought twice about actually serving people who are desperate for help. Yes, of course I realized that I'm here for a reason, but I never thought about what it might actually mean to the people I am helping. To me, I'm just helping people. That's what I do. But to them, I am sent from God and they thank Jesus for me. They cry out of gratitude for our help, and since they simply have no other way of showing their gratitude they give us Arabic coffee and really really really sour lemonade. And their reaction is something that I need to take seriously. When Mary brings me lemonade, it tastes just awful! But, I drink it anyway and I smile and say shookrun like it's the best thing in the world. Mary is grateful for me, and in a way, I'm grateful for her - for teaching me something about life I didn't know before.

So yes, I am here to serve. We are here to serve for 10 days and then we will go tour and have some fun of our own. But in these 10 days in Bethlehem, I will probably learn more than I could ever learn in any classroom - about life, love, thankfulness, gratefulness, joy, happiness, and yes, even peace.

This is Mary's house. Yep, that's mildew/mold. We're fixing this!