Time Spent in the Land of the Holy One

Well it is Tuesday 9th April, 16.15 and I feel I am now zoning back into life in England. That might sound very strange considering I only left on Thursday 4th!

Some say I have a Dream job, and after the last few days, I certainly do agree. I set out at 6.30 on Thursday morning taking a train from Darlington to Manchester to take up the role of substitute for a member of the Executive Committee of the World Alliance of YMCA's. This meeting is taking place in Jericho in Palestine. Flight destined to depart at 12.20, which it did....... before returning to the stand due to a technical problem with one of the planes engines. Off loaded at 13.30. New schedule for departure 18.00. Best contact the folks in Jericho who were arranging transport from Tel Aviv to Jericho..phone missing. (I believe it was handed in and I should get it back tomorrow) so next five days without a phone or contact numbers. Anyway enough of this travel saga, eventually checked into The Intercontinential Hotel Jericho at 04.00 Friday. Meeting due to commence at 08.30.

I woke at 07.45ish and when I opened the curtains, I see desert to the foreground and to the right and the Dead Sea to the left.

At breakfast I was greted by friends from around the world, and I have said a bit about the first day in my previous post.

I sat at a table of experienced and inspiritional people from around the world, not just from my age profile but some of what I suspect is the richest talent in young leaders from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

The committment and wisdom is apparent and obvious. Once again I find myself sitting on the shoulders of giants.

Those that know me well will understand that I have mobility problems with walking up gradients, but as I walked the cobbled streets of Old Jerusalem I was motivated by the colour and smell and noise of what I was seeing in the Old Town and somehow that lifted me. If you do not know the situation of the Palestinian people first hand, hearing the sincerity in their voice, the warmth in their welcome and the generosity of their hospitality, knowing that just below the surface there is an ache, a pain, that derives from a lifetime of living without hope,this it truely humbling.

The other striking factor I noticed.... I visited the same areas some 25 years ago and the way I would describe the difference between then and now is, what I can only say is humbling dignity.

One of the unique atributes of the YMCA Movement is that we seek to serve the needs of the communities within which we operate. We visited the International YMCA in the heart of West Jerusalem, made up with leaders from the Jewish, Chrisitan and Muslim communities. I suspect this is one of the very very few organisation constituted in this way in Israel. In East Jerusalem and the West Bank, the YMCA provides vocational training to hundreds of young people, all those we met had a glint in their eye and appeared to be committed to gaining the most from their training with the YMCA.

There were a number of occasions where I was moved to tears when I heard stories about the experiences of all those involved in the YMCA in Jerusalem, East and West and those behind the wall on the West Bank.

When I visited last time it was during the first Intafada and I returned home traumatised, I entitled my report of that visit as 'The Land called Holy'. In this case I would refer to it in the same way as my dear friend, the former Bishop of Jerusalem would describe it. 'The Land of the Holy One.'

I hope you have got a little glimpse into what I have been up to during the past five days and If you do nothing else I would encourage you to explore and little more, the issues that effect the people in the Land of the Holy One?