Introducing the next week

Today I’m going on an Olive Harvesting trip to Bethlehem, along with 6 others, and will be doing a mixture of bits alongside the olive harvesting.

The goals of the programme are:

- To deepen our understanding of the situation in Israel-Palestine and the issues that affect people’s lives there

- To build friendships with people of another culture and faith, and by doing so to challenge our own stereotypes and prejudices

- To give practical support to farmers as they harvest their olives

- To be an international presence during the Olive Harvest

- To deepen our understanding, appreciation and respect for the culture, language, history and religious beliefs of others

And the itinerary is

- Tues 31st: fly to Tel Aviv, overnight in Jerusalem

- Wed 1st: tour of Jerusalem, travel to Bethlehem. Accomodation in Bethlehem for rest of trip

- Thurs 2nd: orientation and tour of Bethlehem

- Fri 3rd: olive harvesting

- Sat 4th: olive harvesting and visit to Tent of Nations

- Sun 5th: Olive harvesting and visit Hebron

- Mon 6th: Olive harvesting

- Tues 7th: visit Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem, fly home

Prayers please if you have time, for safety and security, for wisdom and sensitivity, for ability to build friendships across the language barriers, for all those we meet – both Palestinian and Jews, and for the rest of the team.

I'm hoping to blog as we go but have no idea about Internet. So if you don't hear from me assume it's due to lack of Internet access, or too busy picking olives, rather than anything else and I'll do some reflective updates when back

TTFN!!

H