Thank you for bringing healing and hope to Gaza |
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More than $80,000 raised in May to mark the one-year anniversary of the war in Gaza will support Ahli Hospital’s ability to offer compassionate care to the most vulnerable |
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Ahli Arab Hospital staff, including Dr. Maher Ayyad, medical director (second from left) and Suhaila Tarazi, director, third from right, with Pamela Lent (center) on a recent visit. |
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Suhaila Tarazi, Ahli Hospital’s director, said this when she heard that hundreds of American Friends responded to AFEDJ’s call to support the hospital’s ongoing ministry:
“Every morning when I get up and open my window, I look to the sky and I see the sunshine, I say, ‘It's another day, the shine of Jesus is still with us on this earth.’ When I find an old woman at the hospital thanking the doctors and the team, I say, ‘There is hope.” When I see the children at schools, laughing, I say, ‘Jesus is there and there is hope.’
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“I am really very grateful to all our American friends, who help us to plant the seeds of peace and the seeds of love through Ahli’s mission of healing. We should not lose the hope our Christianity is built on. One day Gaza, like Jesus, will rise from all the pain and the atrocities that we are living through. If there is love, there will be hope. And this is what keeps me always working at this hospital. And we are waiting for a new era, a new day, full of peace and love and tolerance and reconciliation.”
Thank you for your ongoing support. As always, 100% of your donation designated to Ahli Arab Hospital goes directly to the hospital.
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AFEDJ Executive Director John Lent returns to the Diocese of Jerusalem after a two-year hiatus |
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Forging strong relationships with leaders in the Diocese of Jerusalem is vital to carrying out the mission of American Friends. While Zoom is a useful tool that has helped maintain close ties during the pandemic, AFEDJ’s Executive Director was glad to return to Jordan in June to attend the Diocese of Jerusalem Annual Majma gathering and visit diocesan institutions across the region.
In his report to the gathered clergy and lay leaders, he said, “I can say, and I believe Archbishop Hosam will concur, that our partnership has never been stronger. We are operating with a new level of trust and shared purpose. I am grateful that we can be together in person, deepen our relationship, and plan together for the future.”
John visited Jerusalem Princess Basma Center and St. George’s School in East Jerusalem, Christ Church in Nazareth, the Arab Evangelical Episcopal School and the Vocational Training Center in Ramallah, and Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza. He documented progress on major AFEDJ grant-funded projects at several schools and hospitals.
At Ahli Arab Hospital he met with Director Suhaila Tarazi and her team. He said, “They persevere in the midst of the tragedy that is Gaza. Suhaila is very clear that without American Friends financial support, Ahli would not be able to keep its gates open to Gaza’s poorest families. Gaza is struggling to recover from last May’s devastating war. Most of the rubble is cleared away, but rebuilding has not begun. Living conditions in Gaza are appalling and shameful. Ahli’s Christian witness in Gaza has never been more needed.”
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Good news from Jerusalem Princess Basma Center |
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With its new van to serve as a mobile clinic, JPBC’s partnership with eight clinics in West Bank communities will offer more families with children with disabilities access to diagnostic services and treatment |
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At a time when programs for children with disabilities are being cut or reduced across the West Bank, the Campbell Family Foundation’s grant to purchase and equip a new van will allow the outreach team at Princess Basma to expand services to the most vulnerable families.
The van, which arrived in June, is currently being customized and equipped so children with disabilities and their families in the West Bank are given the best chance of thriving by receiving timely and quality intervention. It will allow the medical team to reach isolated communities safely and conduct medical assessments on board. The Princess Basma team celebrates every family who is offered hope, healing and transformation.
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Pilgrims from the Diocese of Colorado find hope in the midst of conflict |
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In May when the pilgrim group led by the Rev. Weezie Blanchard, rector of Church of the Ascension in Denver, met with Father Fadi Diab of St. Andrew’s Church in Ramallah, they encountered the human impact of conflict in the region. Here’s an excerpt of Rev. Blanchard’s report from their journey.
“The conflict came alive in real time when a Palestinian reporter was shot and killed while reporting on unrest in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin. Shireen Abu Akleh, a Christian and an American citizen, was a widely-respected 25-year veteran of Al Jazeera. The day after her death, we met with Father Fadi Diab, the rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ramallah, Abu Akleh’s hometown. He had known Abu Akleh well and was one of three clergy who received her body when it was brought to Ramallah. The next day, we were in Jerusalem at the time of Abu Akleh’s funeral.
“Some of us saw the thousands of people who gathered for the funeral and the procession of her casket from the Catholic church to the Christian cemetery. Others of us watched the funeral and the horrific assault on the pallbearers in real time on TV, including Father Fadi’s commentary, while simultaneously witnessing the demonstration, with the shouts of the crowds, the wailing of sirens and the ringing of church bells throughout the Old City. The reverberations of her death were unavoidable, and the obstacles to justice and peace are daunting.
“But there is hope. In Ramallah, in addition to the church led by Fr. Fadi, there is a medical clinic, a vocational school, and an academic school with more than 850 students – half Christian and half Muslim. Our worship at St. George’s Cathedral in Jerusalem and Christ Church in Nazareth was a joyful combination of English and Arabic. Dedicated Israelis and Palestinians are working hard to bring justice and peace and overcome the differences that make this a divided and occupied land.”
Read her entire dispatch here.
Do you have a story to tell from a recent visit to the Holy Land? Please consider sharing it with us to post in the Pilgrim Stories section of AFEDJ’s website. Please send your stories and photos to Communications Director Heidi Shott at hshott@afedj.org.
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AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF JERUSALEM
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AFEDJ offers a safe, secure channel to make gifts to support the work of the humanitarian institutions of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem. |
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