Dear friends,
Greetings from Nazareth! The city where our Lord grew up
from a vulnerable infant into an unrivaled man. I will be here for four months,
the length of the spring semester in Israeli schools. My role includes serving
at Christ Church alongside its Vicar, The Rev. Nael Abu Rahmoun, and teaching
leadership and peacebuilding courses in several middle and high schools. With
just under three weeks into my term of mission service, much has been
accomplished in the name of the Church and Christ’s peace.
My mentor, friend, and manager, likes to describe my work
thus far as “opening doors and moving mountains”. It makes me chuckle, but I don’t contest its
meaning and authenticity. In the Holy Land, sometimes things don’t work out
exactly as planned or only take real shape when you are in-country and meeting
with people face-to-face. 90% of life is simply showing up. Indeed, it has been
these in-person meetings, informative presentations, and key relationships that
have led to my ministry flourishing here in Nazareth. With four in-school leadership and
peacebuilding programs established and now launching, my hands, in service to
our Lord, are quite full.
Just last weekend, I traveled to Tel Aviv and Jaffa for an
overnight youth leadership retreat with 20 Jewish and Arab teens from across
Israel. For two days, we had dialogues on inequality and gender norms,
workshops on the religious significance of Jerusalem, field visits to the beach
and a historic Libyan synagogue, and project planning to overcome
misperceptions in our home communities.
While the two days were brimming with programming and hard work, the
result is always what I give thanks to God for allowing me to see. A microcosm
of the dream of God, to see our youth, growing up in divided communities where
they don’t have the easy opportunity to meet and interact, now coming together
to learn, communicate, listen, play, laugh, eat, pray, and love. It is these
experiences, and those of the summer programs in the USA each year, that fill
me with an indescribable joy, hope, and peace. For me, these experiences and
the feelings invoked provide an incontrovertible sign of God’s truth and
presence in this world. My prayer is
that I can share this part of God’s Good News with boldness and with as many people as I can.
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| Jack with young Israeli and Palestinian teens participating in a two-day youth leadership retreat in Tel Aviv/Jaffa, Israel |
The journey continues and I am ever grateful to all of you,
known and unknown, who take the time to read my blog and share in this exciting
adventure and encounter with the Divine Presence. With Lent fast approaching,
you will be sure to hear more of me, as I enter into a more penitent and
contemplative state of being. It is only with God’s help and mercy that I will
succeed and accomplish the task laid before me.
In Christ,
Jack Karn
