Journal entry by Wendell Beckman

Today we visited the Lutheran School of Hope and the Lutheran Church of Hope in Ramalla. Getting to Ramalla required that we cross the checkpoint on foot and getting a taxi on the other side to take us to the school and church. Doing so, we got to witness first hand what the Palestinian people must do each day.

We were not sure if we would be able to go into Ramalla because a curfew had been in place until this morning. The curfew had been in place for several days so the teachers and children were just returning to class. After receiving a short history of the school and church and a description of the damage that had been done to the school during the incursion, we got to meet some of the students. It is remarkable, that with all the hardships these students have had to face, they still have hope and are looking towards the future with plans for college. Unfortunately, many students, that live outside of Ramalla, have had to drop our of this school because they are no longer allowed to cross the checkpoint into Ramalla.

The school is the primary mission of the Church of Hope, but they have a secondary mission to serve the needs of 62 elderly people in the area. They have a meals on wheels program, with the food prepared at a local hospital. This was very meaningful to me since I deliver meals twice each week. They also have a nurse who visits them in their homes and they provide programs for them at he church.

Our second experience was to visit the Alamari Refugee Camp in Ramalla. This camp was established by the UN in 1948 and is still in place today. The people no longer live in tents but now live in cement block building, many without doors or windows. Although the UN still provides some financial support, running the camp has been left to the refugees.. One bright light, in the camp, was a Rehabilitation Center established by a group of women from the camp. This center is there to help rehabilitate people, in the camp, who have been injured and also provides some training for children. It is hard to believe how resilient these people are after 52 years of life in a refugee camp.

God's Peace
Wendell Beckman

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