Musalaha Women's Conference!

Today at Musalaha, Adrianna and I wrote this short write up about the women's conference we attended for Musalaha's newsletter. 

This past weekend, fifty women from all over Israel and Palestine gathered together in Nahariya (a city on the coast of Northern Israel near Lebanon) for a conference which focused on "remembering rightly". Some of them drove hours to meet and be in fellowship with other believers desiring reconciliation. We had a warm welcome from all the women on the bus to the conference, and saw the joy they had when they saw each other as well. The first night was focused on getting to know each other and breaking the ice, and on Saturday morning we got right down to business. We experienced a lively worship session in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Some of the ladies got up and danced together, not caring if they were thirty or eighty years old! It was a blessing to see how excited they were to worship God and how open they were to hear what God was saying through the devotions and the speakers. The speakers, Maala and Shadia, both shared about how important it is to remember the past but to remember it fairly and to look for God’s redemption even in the most difficult experiences. We learned that the point where you are hurt is the point where God can enter in. The women then separated into small discussion groups to talk openly about what they were feeling or painful memories they wanted to share. These discussions gave both the Israelis and Palestinians a chance to see each other’s point of view, enter into each other’s pain, and invite God into their memories and experiences. Please continue to pray that God will be working in these women’s hearts as they become vulnerable to each other and work towards reconciliation.

Adrianna & Mia