Homage

They were my first really good friends here. The kinds of friends you tell your secrets to.

It's been a week now since they returned to Germany. They'd been here several years and it was time for them to return to their home in Germany to begin a new journey in their lives and ministries. It's not the same without them. In some ways, the ministry is not the same. I look at the darkened windows of their flat and hear the echoes and miss them.

Since they probably don't want their names splattered all over the internet I will call them by their initials "J" and "J". They're two of the most talented people I ever knew. Musician, artist, reporter, writer and poet, iconographer, executive skills, linguists. But that's the work they do. I know them mostly as friends and companions on this strange journey.

Since being here, I've come to imagine Jesus' disciples in such different ways from before. I always thought of them in reference to Jesus, their relationship to him. But J and J have helped me to imagine and understand how the disciples might have related to each other, as well. It's tough to try and follow a path that is almost impossibly difficult, and in J and J I found fellow disciples who made the hard times so much more bearable. We talked alot and shared experiences and reactions to experiences. We prayed together - some of the times I remember best are the Evening Prayers at the Cathedral. The quiet and solitude. Sometimes the tears as we remembered some of the things that happen here and stories of people we love here.

They were my first role models as missioners and one of their great gifts to me was the importance of learning the native language. They are both unusually gifted in languages and watching them speak Arabic so beautifully but more, watching the way people here appreciate that, made me know my intention to learn is well-founded.

We went to Gaza alot together. I think it was this that made us closest. Being there in that place listening to the sad, hard stories of friends there brought us common ground that we could build on. We traveled other places, too. Times on the road and waiting at checkpoints to be able to really talk. There isn't alot of time or room here for superficialities or shallow blah blah. We got to know each other in those times.

We plan to get together in Germany in a few months. And I know they will be back here. And I know we will stay in touch and nurture our friendship. But it will always be these first days in Jerusalem, Zababdeh, Haifa, and Gaza, and almost Kufr Yasif (a private joke!) when we came to know each other that I will cherish most.

When they settle in Germany and get the computer unpacked and hooked up, they will read this. So, J and J....

Shukran ktiir. Allah ma'kum.