Today, three years after I wrote of my service with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), it is time to say farewell. I want to thank Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Manhattan, NYC, its pastor and all my many friends who are in various ways connected to the congregation (and especially Marite Jones, computer site manager of all things technical) for allowing me to speak out to you all about the program and the people whom it serves and for whom it speaks.

EAPPI, an international Christian volunteer association sponsored by the World Council of Churches continues its service in Palestine and Israel. We volunteers have all experienced the challenge of living and working in unpredictable circumstances and the challenge to find ways to serve those in need.

How was I able to meet that challenge? It was the Spirit-filled commitment to peace and justice of those whom I was accompanying that instructed and inspired me. Day by day I learned to look at the realities of Palestinian and Israeli lives illuminated by the grace of God’s loving presence, and infused with the certainty of His care and guidance.

It was more a matter of spiritual awakening than motivation, of sharing the grace, mercy and enduring hope of those who suffered than any offering of my own abilities. I offer two examples of deeply moving experiences while serving:

• Huda, a young woman enrolled in the Vocational Training Course at the YWCA in Ramallah, was eager to improve her spoken English. Several weeks after we became acquainted she invited me to her home on the first Friday evening of Ramadan. The entire family, her grandmother, mother and father, older sister and brother-in-law (present on a visit from their home in Arkansas), and her younger sister, are devote Muslims who cherish their faith as an integral part of their love for each other. Sharing Iftar with them was a spiritual experience, a sense of family and faith, both traditional and immediate, that I continue to cherish.
  
• I think of Jean Zaru as a Quaker Saint. Of course, that is pretty much a contradiction in terms, but being with her was definitely a spiritual experience, and how I felt about her during my time in Ramallah. Jean is Presiding Clerk of the Ramallah Friends Meeting, but she is known and respected around the world for her leadership and inspiration. When I was in Ramallah, as a member of Group 9, 9/04-12/04, Jean was not well physically, and she was about to say good-bye to her son and his family as they emigrated to the U.S. Never the less, she always had time to speak with and share with visitors of many sorts her staunch yet patient Christian faith. This, even as she was experiencing and observing life that she characterized as ‘never as difficult as it is today’.* Those who serve with EAPPI, whether in Ramallah or elsewhere, are blessed to benefit from her friendship and counsel.

*Tor Rafoss, A Call for Justice and Peace…(See ChainReaction, Summer 2005 Vol. 1, # 1., Pg. 28).
Lessons/insights for my life’s journey: Our lives have meaning because of what we do, as well as what we believe—not only when or because our ‘works’ are good and important—but because much is revealed in the ‘doing’ that will never become apparent in any other way.

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Biblical Ref. (Especially chosen):
Micah 6: 1-8 (Revised Standard Version Bible with Apocrypha, c.1992)
Vs. 1-2: Hear what the Lord says: Rise and plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice.
Hear, you mountains, the controversy of the Lord, and your enduring foundations of the earth; For the Lord has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel….
Vs. 6: With what shall I come before the Lord…
Vs. 8: He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

The ‘Beatitudes’: Matthew 5:1-12

Should you wish to contribute to this direct action as a part of 'doing what we can', send a check to:

Church World Service
c/o PEPM,
Attn: Anna Rhee,
LOGA, 122 C St. NW,
Ste 125, Washington, DC 20001.

Please mention my name should you do so (Anne C. Stephens).