Michael Franklin is in the Holy Land
I am in Ibillin, a small town near Nazareth in the NW part of Israel.  I am part of a ten person team of young adults from Alabama.  Once we arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday we met up with a group of knowledgeable, traveled missionaries from North Carolina.  It is a good combination of "up and comings" and experienced.  We have been here for three days and have been able to visit several Biblical sites such as Stella Maris, a church built over the cave where Elijah hid from Jezebel.  Every holy site has a church or cathedral built over it.  Today we went to Nazareth and saw two sites that both claim to be the well where Gabriel appeared to Mary telling her she was going to birth the son of God.  One, the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation is smaller but still decorated ornately.  The second, a much larger and more extravagant, is called the Basillica of the Annunciation.  I am enjoying seeing these historical places, but I am irritated to know that it is not safe - or people think it is not safe - to visit.  The most important holy sites to the three most densely represented religions are feared rather than revered.  True, we are in a much safer area of the country, but as of yet I have not seen any reason for people to be afraid of seeing the origins of their religions.

We are staying in an Arab part of Ibillin with Palestinian Arab Christians and Arab Israeli Christians.  Yes, believe it or not, there are Arab Christians, and they have been the greatest hosts with the best senses of humor.  The building where we are staying is the Mar Elias Educational Institute for students from the kindergarden to the college age level.  Our work project here is painting the cathedral that is being built here on campus; the cathedral is called the Melkite Greek Catholic Church.  The Archbishop of Galilee, Elias Chacour, came to speak to us last night about his life and the situation on the ground here in Israel-Palestine.  He reminded us that the congration of the Greek Catholic Church is neither Greek nor Catholic.  Most churches here are built in Byzantine style and named either Greek, Latin, or Roman Catholic.

We are hearing many stories of the discrimination employed by the Jewish Israelis against Palestinians and Israeli Arabs, and tomorrow we will here the perspective of a Jewish Israeli woman.  When our mission moves to Bethlehem and the West Bank on Tuesday, we will be hearing less stories or viewpoints and see more.  We will see the the Security Fense, go through checkpoints, and witness the lives of Palestinians and compare them to the conditions we have seen inside Israel.  Archbishop Chacour reminded us last night that we will return to the United States with the desire to tell everything we saw, but that we must not explain everything at once.  As we continue our mission here we will try to come up with a way to explain the situation as it does exist.  People do not think you are biased or a fanatic when you talk about the injustices in Honduras.  I hope that I will not be labeled such when I talk about the civil rights issues here in the Holy Land.