More
specifically, I’m leaving on September 18th to spend 204 days in
Nazareth, Israel. Yep, Nazareth as
in Jesus’ hometown Nazareth. I am
volunteering with a Christian organization called the Nazareth Trust, which has
been involved in the life of this city for well over a century. Their goal in taking volunteers is for
us to serve the local community, both in the church and out of it, in a number
of different ways. I’m not yet
sure of exactly what I’ll be doing, but I’ll have at least two placements where
I’ll do different things and interact with different people. The purpose of my
blog is to tell stories of what I’m up to (without having to write 100
identical letters to different people) and to show you what God is up to in
this part of the world. I’m not
entirely sure what my time in Israel will look like, but I do know that’s where
God wants me to be.
This is a map of where Nazareth is
in relationship to the rest of Modern Israel (that’s why it’s a little
different from the one in the back of your Bible). Nazareth has a population of about 80,00 people*, and is predominately Arab. I speak Arabic to some extent, so I’m
excited to get to use the language on a regular basis. The population is about 70% Muslim and
30% Christian, and I’ll hopefully get to meet people from all of these groups,
as well as the surrounding Israeli majority.
maa salaama! (goodbye, but the literal meaning is ‘go in
peace’)
Laura
ps- There may also be random informative posts about
Nazareth, the Middle East, Christianity, and linguistics.
* Says
Wikipedia. This is also my general
disclaimer that most of my facts will be from Wikipedia, so if you’re curious/
don’t believe something, do your own research and let me know if I got anything
wrong. Yes, I do know how to
properly cite things, but this is a blog, not my thesis, so I probably won’t
cite most things.
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