Saturday, February 10, 2018

Gone on to Galilee

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.

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