Spirituality

Where the Power Lines End

    The farm where we stayed. . .   “Avaseet” says Catherine, with a big smile and a graze of a hand against her smudged purple apron. Her aura is heavy with sweat and dust but she smiles with teeth that have been brushed. Catherine is the wife of Frances, who is the brother of [...]

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When Courage Begins to Crumble

What do you do when you’re the only white people on a hill full of hundreds of Kenyans and everyone starts getting up to clap and sing and raise their hands when identically dressed dancers emerge from a semi with the words “Jesus Big Miracle Crusade” written on it? You join in. We were nervous [...]

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The first days of Egypt. . .

Every day in Dahab seemed a lot like the one before. Every morning brought flies, breezes, heat and cats. Michael went running. I read or did yoga. Every day, Shepl would deliver our meals. Every day, Mustafa and Waleed would wash another section of rugs, positioning the pillows like crayons in a box before late-rising [...]

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Lost in the Crash

I found the Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit at a hostel in Jordan. Sometimes books are placed on our own mosaic-potted patio by the universe herself. I’ll never forget when I read The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck, an parable-like tale of poverty, gender discrimination and cultural strife in 17th century [...]

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The Garden Tomb

Due to some botch in planning, and despite enough churches to lift entire town at least a few kilometers closer to heaven, there was no Catholic mass in English on Easter Sunday in Jerusalem. So we went to sunrise service at the Garden Tomb, the spot where Protestants believe Jesus is buried. I’d slept just [...]

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Oh Little Town of Bethlehem in the West Bank

It all started with the Danes–Anders and Frederick. And Eric, too. It was definitely his fault. Somehow, in this land of criss-crossed (get it??) confusion, they’d both bumped into Tony, a gay, eccentric, Christian Palestinian hairdresser who loved to host foreigners. So the day after late-night Guinness glasses to celebrate St. Pats (see here) . [...]

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Demystifying and Not Exactly Christian

To remain in awe in Jerusalem, you must not only BELIEVE COMPLETELY but truly abandon all reason and logic so as to accept that some council at the ministry of tourism and religion in Israel knows the exact spot of baby Jesus’ birth. While Rome shines with a self-aggrandizing decadence that refuses to be bothered [...]

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The Stations of Life

At the fourth station of the cross, the point along Via Delarosa (Sorrowful Way) Street, as Jesus carried the cross to his crucifixion, he saw his mother Mary crying for him. I’ve seen the Stations of the Cross my whole life—etched in wood, glowing in stained glass or shaped in wrought iron along the east [...]

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Would You Wash My Feet?

Current Location: Jerusalem In February, one of my best friends Erin passed on a message from her pastor at Montview Presbyterian. The message was: It’s not our job to love who we love. It’s our job to love who Jesus loves. A few years ago, I might have rolled my eyes at this comment. But [...]

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J.C. & Hezbollah

Note: This is a flashback to Beirut. Because I thought it best to wait until we had exited both Lebanon and the Big I before publishing it, it is appearing now. . . Inma Foundation (for whom we built a website) was founded by a Muslim who follows the teachings of Jesus. Not exactly your [...]

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