Before I get too far into things I want to let you all know that I have not been able to upload any pictures since I have been in Syria. I am not sure why this is the case but can assure you that as soon as I can add new pictures, I will!
Some quick hits regarding the lighter side of our travels, and then some deep thoughts:
- Evidently cars in Syria and Jordan can only be driven if you have a working horn!
- The Syrian people are very patient and courteous. Today during our travels we cut off 1,237 cars and none of them yelled at us...though someone [either our driver or a driver nearby] used the horn 12,453 times.
- This might be the first year I can remember where I am not sick of the Super Bowl hype! I feel a little like Steve Harrington...not quite sure when the game is and I've almost forgotten whose playing :-)
- Will be surfing the Syrian dial tomorrow at 1:00a.m. to see who is showing the big game. Oe of the guys I am traveling with had a dream [very detailed] that had New England winning 24-21 so I am going with that as the final score. (by the way...game ends with an incomplete pass thrown by Eli Manning in the end zone as the Giants go for the win...according to the dream!)
- Most people here have never heard of Stanford University.
- I used to like the hummus they sold at Trader Joe's..then I came here!
- I had dinner the other night in one of the newer buildings of the Old City...built in 1717.
- I thought they had put an extra bed spread in the bathroom but then realized it was actually the largest towel in the history of the world.
- I have yet to meet with someone who has not served me tea or coffee. Makes me think I should clear of the table in my office and be a bit more hospitable.
I am really looking forward to sharing with you all stories, thoughts, reflections and observations when I get home but questions are making there way to me while I have been here and I thought I would briefly write on them as I have the chance.
The first is: Why take care of refugees when we can't/aren't even taking care of everyone in our own country?
Great question. My first thought is that I am not sure I totally agree that we are not taking care of people in our own country. Are there people in need? Absolutely. But there are also a lot of organizations and people (many of whom are a part of our church) who devote a tremendous amount of time and resources to caring for people in our community. Besides, we are always going to be a community that addresses multiple needs...you don't stop funding schools because people are homeless. It isn't a question of either/or, but both/and.
My second thought is that I believe we have a moral and humanitarian responsibility to respond to refugees. I think this responsibility is even greater with these (Iraqi) refugees because they are refugees because of a war that we started. [I will say this over and over again: regardless of whether or not you agree with the war, the fact is that these Iraqi's have become refugees because of it.] And let's not forget that we, the United States of America, are a country that was formed be refugees fleeing Great Britain because of religious persecution. This is who we are.
The plaque at the Statue of Liberty has a poem written by Emma Lazarus, the last five lines of which read:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free!
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, your homeless, tempest tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
We are a country of refugees that has always opened its arms to refugees. I am not suggesting that every Iraqi refugee (all 2 million of them) show up tomorrow morning for breakfast. But I am suggesting that woven into the fabric of America is concern for the refugee. Not to mention the fact that central to our biblical narrative as Christians is God's deliverance of and concern for the refugee.
1 comment:
Guess who is going to read...your blog! ;-) Hee, hee.
Pam
Post a Comment