Lausanne World Pulse – Themed Articles – Like Dew in a Dry Land: Reconciliation in the Middle East
In the framework of Musalaha, the participants often find themselves facing new challenges that require them to move from their comfort zones. Doing this helps them to grow in faith, understanding that “we cannot reconcile if we do not grow together in our faith and let it unite us. The more one interacts with different communities in our country, the more one realizes just how necessary this faith is to our reconciliation.”1
Conferences, seminars, outings, trips, prayer meetings and camps are available for many different population subgroups. There are specialized activities for children, women, leaders, families and youth. Working with core groups who are involved long term, new people are brought into each of the activities. Over time, as people become more comfortable with each other, there is an engagement with some of the hard issues that are a part of the context of relationships. While it is fundamental that spiritual unity is the basis of relationship, there is recognition that this unity does not either erase or render individual and corporate identities unimportant.
Although often difficult and sometimes painful, seeing our own situation from the perspective of another helps us get beneath the surface of relationships, understand ourselves and others and then begin to relate to one another more profoundly. Our historical narratives, both as Palestinians and Israelis, have been used to justify our positions in the conflict and to deny one another’s truth.2 By listening to one another and hearing history from another point of view, it becomes possible to legitimize the differing perspectives, to accept and embrace one another’s views.
In a region of extreme conflict and difference, God’s people—both Jews and Arabs—are more and more embodying the answer to Jesus’ prayer in John 17. This unity of brothers and sisters dwelling together, like dew in a dry land, is bringing refreshment and blessing to both peoples.
Endnotes
1. Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation newsletter, May 2007.
2. Musalaha Ministry of Reconciliation newsletter, March 2007.